Spooky Season!
It's such a lovely feeling, this farm in the fall! Spooky Season is upon us! And with that comes the side of the road pumpkin carts, bulk candy on the shelves, and mornings stacking firewood and loading bales of hay! But not all work on the farm is about winter prep, because this weekend wasn't just a collection of memories built on a foundation of chores and home repairs, but also a celebration of fall with decorating, cider making, Halloween movies and reading past dark wrapped up in blankets in a hammock. Watching this place become a home holding two lives instead of one - so magical. I am a very lucky woman, I tell ya.
We spent the weekend cleaning the house. Literally. We power washed the heck out of the siding thanks to a neighbor that leant us their rig. We made a scarecrow and fall decorations. Shannon made a home-brewed stewed cider she read about online by searching "apple cider without a cider press" and ended up with this amazing boiled and mashed herb and spice mulled stovetop cider that goes down warm and feels like a meal in itself.
The real star of the weekend (beside the power washer, thanks Linda and Art!) is this chicken wire and scrap metal ghost Shannon made! When you look at it in certain light it seems to fade away, disappearing almost, like a "real" ghost! But by evening when that magic hour hit I was able to snap this picture and you can somewhat see the design. I think she made this in under an hour of simply molding the wire scraps be had into the rough form of a woman riding, but it really feels like a sculpture to me.
Tonight is the full moon, the Harvest Moon. A time to be grateful and quiet and do the good work of preparing for all of winter's wrath before the next moon comes. These are historically (and personally) a time for many cultures to turn inward and realize the healing and goodness that can come from being a little quiet with the coming darkness. Accept it, embrace it, and learn to slow down and rest for winter's slumber. For animals it means storing food and hibernating (in some cases). For us, kind of the same. There was so much done to the farm this summer that this fall and winter I hope we have more time to slow down a little.
I hope your fall is starting off safe, kind, and warm.