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
The Kitchen's Garden 
84 responses to “Sometimes we all need to have a good think.”
So poetic. To take time to savor the simplest of life’s joys is wise advice.
There is a gap in my life, between Mother Nature and I. Your posts encourage me, gently and supportively, to close that gap up, a little at a time. Thank you Miss C. Thank you for that.
Just a wee walk will close that gap nicely.. I hope you get time out in the air soon.. c
did you hear about the french apiary that produced green and blue honey? the bees fed all summer on remnants of M&M’s from a local plant and produced colored honey. i can’t wait for new little piggies!
I read about that just this morning.. am so glad there is no candy factory close by to here!!
There is so much work involved in sustainability, yet you never lose sight of the love or the beauty of it! Thanks for this gorgeous post. A big, big hug to you.
Thank you darling.. have a lovely day.. c
We love our Jersey but I’ve been hearing some good things about Dexter cattle. You might want to check them out. When we moved from the other place the girls and I dug up two jalapeno pepper plants and a bell pepper. They are blooming and getting baby peppers! 🙂 We’ll see how they winter. We just moved them into the house but they’re almost three feet tall in their containers so they take up a lot of room. They sure are purdy though! Have a great day.
I heard they grow quite well inside, we keep meaning to do it every year.. I want a little cow like your honey! c
Thank you for your visit. I admire your adventure into self sustainability. I have relatives in Upstate, NY who do some of that. Tough with the economy and only so much land they also have to have ‘outside’ jobs. I’m in the suburbs and close to a small city. But also close to Amish farms. I try to support the local farm markets. I hope to come back occasionally and visit. All the best to you and yours.
It is because of the tough economy and dubious food practices that I prefer to grow my own food.. it is honestly so much cheaper and healthier in the long run.. thank you for dropping in Jules and welcome.. c
I love Mother Nature.. she does remind us that so much in life is not in our “control”.. and why would we want it to be? There’s nothing more beautiful than her surprises and I look for them daily. I hope you get another little cow! xx
Celi, I don’t know that I have ever even felt 22 degrees. Seriously. That is such an odd thing for me to contemplate this morning. I easily acknowledge the forces and strength of Mother Nature and stand in awe of the cycles and seasons. The seasons are a driving metaphorical force in my own determination, but my daily workload isn’t much affected by the process of winterizing, or planning ahead in the way that you must for sustainable living. It’s very cloudy this morning and we may actually have a few drops of rain. I think it will be quite natural for me to have thoughts of you today. I hope it is a wonderful day for you and yours…including those precious life-giving animals! Debra
You are a lucky giel, but more importantly you don´t take anything for granted. That´s a blessing 🙂
For butter content (the cream) you can not go wrong with a Jersey or a Brown Swiss, both are great milkers and wonderful mothers…(you can breed to a meat bull (shorter legs and squatter bodies) for the calves —anyway that is what we would do. Unless you are wanting to keep the girls…then you must breed true to the dairy herds. Holsteins are wonderful producers, but more milk content than butter fat. But of course, you know all of this, I think I was just having a farmer chat with you.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
And I do enjoy our farmer chats.. any heifer of daisys that is pure bred will be worth a bit of money so it is a catch 22 really as anything that is not a heifer is for the freezer. I looked up those Brown Swiss and they are magnificent cows.. c
Such a beautiful post, Cecilia. You seem to know Mother Nature very well. We’re winterizing here too. We had our first frost yesterday. It was frosty again this morning. Everything that could and should be picked was taken care of over the weekend. The rest (broccoli, chard) will do okay in the cold for a while.
Would goat’s milk fill another gap?
There really is a cousin relationship going on here Celi. For years when I lived in the city – working in television – very much the career women – I dreamed of having a Jersey Cow. Her name would be Ludmilla and my Siamese cats would be part of her entourage, Their caramel coats and enormous eyes shared by cow and cat alike. I like it that now a few Jersey cows are my neighbors. T he dairy farmers keep them out of sentimentality. Their dairy herd are Holsteins but at one time (before cream became a naughty word) these same cow men raised the finest Jersey cows in the country. One might say I’m living my dream but not cleaning out the barn. I hope there is a Ludmilla in Farmy’s future. Virginia
I really do not like holsteins they are bossy bad tempered cows, even more bossy that Daisy.. i hope you are able to pop over with your pot and get a few pints of the good jersey milk.. that cream is what i love the most.. c
Hi,so pleased to find your page. I have just. Bought an iPad. And am learning to. Use it ! I am a retired teacher living in the North West of UK I found your page looking for recipes using buckwheat. Today I. Tried a leek and cheese. Flan using. Half buckwheat and half plain flour.(too many full stops sorry ) It was. Ok, will use more cheese next time. I. Love the photographs. And the images of prairie life that you evoke. Dare I say it brings back memories of reading “Little house on the prairie” to my first primary class 35 years ago? Best wishes Gill
Sent from my iPad
Good morning and welcome, welcome.. those ipads are such a trial but so convenient.. have a lovely day .. we are in an even littler house on the prairie!! c
You choose such wonderful words! Loved this post.