Sometimes we all need to have a good think.

Yesterday I awoke to 22F, this morning it is 40F.  But summer  is over. That life’s force we call Mother Nature is more powerful that any goverment, any warlike clan.  Any law, any silly little wish. Any roof and any plan. When they say the Force of Nature they mean the ultimate force.  She is the unrelenting mother of us all.  When she calls Time, your plants die.  The summer garden and its abundance of  food is over.

Though the pigs will dance while digging into the frozen ground. That is how gorgeous it all is. The cool weather vegetables will be around for a while yet. 

But now we watch as Mother, that Nature, takes our playground from us and slowly freezes it into hibernation.   Time for a rest she says. Time for sleep. In life and in play. She will always win. 

Nature is our balance and our lesson. This is why we call her Mother. Listen to your mother. Nothing lasts.  Everything is eternal in our memories. Everything cycles back. All is good.  But it will always change.  Always.  Change is our constant. Our very smallness, our vulnerability to the elements, to life and death,  is our iron clad strength. This knowledge is the boat we sail in. The knowledge of our ability to work with Nature. Not against her. This is our safety. Our blessed union.

Reach up our parents tell us, reach for the sky, be the best, beat them all, we are the  cleverest.  We are better than anyone. You can be anything you want to be. Mother Nature laughs quietly. Be still she says, be the real power at work.  Be still.  Hush now. For there is your strength.  Your simple tasks are the most glorious. Your simple quiet unseen struggles are the ones she will applaud. The gentlest of strokes on another face, the sweet glory of a thank you,  that smile for your baby.  For your love. This is our Mother.  Our Nature. Stop the clammering and listen.  Hush now. Take stock.

So I am taking stock. We have been working all summer at squirreling as much food away as we can for the winter. As far as my dream of self sufficiency goes, I have succeeded with meat, honey, tomato sauces and pastes. I have enough of these for a year. But as far as vegetables and fruit in the cellar, potatoes and onions, cheeses, cabbages and pumpkins .. it is very meagre. Many of the crops did not yield nearly enough this year.  We did not achieve our goal of a years supply this season.

If I can keep Daisy milking for the winter, we will have milk, cream, butter, cheese and icecream.  So this has been a success. Though she did not give enough milk for me to make very many long term cheeses. And she is not bred. It is too late now, we cannot have her calving at the end of next summer. There is no fresh feed then. We are a field driven farm. So I am leaving her open until next April. Then we will breed her. So only after the following winter will we get a new calf and  fresh milk again. The bonus is  she will be into a cycle of calving in the  late winter, early spring which is perfect for the pasture.

But we need that milk. And we will be raising pigs again next spring. Our own piglets, hopefully from Charlotte. So it is possible -and here is some exciting news- that I will need to find another milking cow to provide the farm with milk this coming spring and summer.  I am thinking of a little Jersey. They have such pretty eyes. We will have an eclectic herd.  But I believe that the grass can take another small cow and her calf.  She calve in tandem with Daisy.

Though, once again, I can hear a whisper of a giggle through the dark window, from Mother Nature.  All your plans, she laughs kindly at me, as she whisks her chilly breeze by.

So, we have much to do before we become self sufficient and properly sustainable.

This was the temperature at 8am yesterday morning, then it climbed sixty.  I look forward to the arrival of our max and min thermometer. That will give you more of an idea of the extreme daily swings in temperature in this location.

Winterising has begun. The bee supers are wrapped and stored in the convertible where they will freeze in luxury for the winter.  I am working on the tractor shed today clearing out the accumulated clutter of the summer and stacking all the gardening bits and pieces away. Every corner will be dragged out of every shed and summer will be packed away and winter brought to the fore.  I need it all ready by late November.

The juice from the grapes has been tested and is at the lower end for acids and the mid range for sugars.  Good news so far. Now we are watching it begin to  ferment.

You all have a lovely day.  I will have a lovely day. I am a very lucky girl.

celi