the finality of Frost

the day started off with a freeze. not a deep freeze. but one that had the weather service issue a warning, informing us with all finality and no ceremony that this would be the EndoftheGrowingSeason. that anyone with AgriculturalInterests needed to harvest their crops as soon as.

there's something comforting in going all out, all summer. working dawn to night. sweating through and dirtying every t shirt you own.  knowing that some day in october the temperatures will drop and then that's it. well, of course, the kale, the broccoli, the b. sprouts, they'll live through Frost. they actually get tastier with Frost. but for the better part of it all, the summer garden is formally complete with the arrival of  Frost. which leaves us to plan and dream of Winter. when we are left to our animals and our preserves.

i'd be negligent in my writing if i didn't tell you that the tent was decidedly chilly with the dip in weather. the first night that i was....under my world of woolen and down blankets....quite cold. wallpapered to nick and rudy's warm bodies.

but the day turned herself around. long-underwear and vests were exchanged for shorts and sweaters and milk was made into yogurt and cheese and butter. like it was just any other thursday...

photos:
1. the lingering crystals of Frost.
2. 10 gallons of dairy to process.
3. we need to wash our windows more often.
4. ricotta, yogurt, butter. check, check, check.
5. oatmeal for breakfast. pumpkin soup for lunch. breakfast for dinner.
6. the sunnies are done for.
7. pitbulls playing in the sunroom.

our un-apologetically humble abode

i thought it was about time you two met. Tent, meet Blog...Blog this is Tent.

i think we are nearly, after  five weeks, just now becoming fluent in tent living. this means that we are able to keep the tent free of 1. dirt 2. rain  and 3. cold. this wasn't as simple as i had blithely hoped. i had first covered the tent's bare floor with my most special rugs, pillows, blankets. then the rains hit and those rugs were first shockingly dry... then damp... and then soaked. and then we were damp and soaked. because the golden rule about tent living is that water seeps. if one pathetic little belonging gets wet anything it touches will also, slowly, but surely, become damp to wet.

i put our bed and rudy's on a platform of old pallet wood. all of our clothes are in milk crates up off the ground. we have two down blankets because we found that sleeping every night in bags is slippery. the sub zero bags remain in a dry bag near the entrance for emergency needs.

we have a bouquet of pine to ward off the smell of Mold and Mud. midnight mason jars of water litter every surface. two prickly plants and a broken statute of a bull found at the corner store greet you on the wooden plank to the bed.

it is a little home. a dirty and smelly and sometimes frustratingly musty home. and here we prepare to move further eastward into a real home with floors and windows and doors and walls, and armoires and desks, and bookcases, and nooks to place my teacups, my typewriters, my books and baubles. yet i find myself already nostalgic for the small-ness. for the simplicity of tent living. for only keeping 70 square feet of living clean. for only having the Absolutely Necessary with us.

its a good, humbling tent.

happy birthday maman.

little bean cat and i spent all week writing and rewriting and editing and trashing and starting afresh and getting ink all over us. we neglected emails and phone calls and farm chores to bring to you the first ever of hopefully many (but probably very few) farm mysteries. its a farm whodunit. just for you. the ebook version will be available to you through a link in your morning mail.

i love you. and i'm issuing this public apology for the fact that the hardcover is just in the postal service's hands this morning.

on the subject of Needs of Me

i suppose i ought to add 'bathing in a creek-tub' right below 'milking cow' to the ever preposterous and somehow modest list of Needs of Kate

bathing in a creek-tub is Cold. lets call a hat a hat. but while the autumnal gods still manage to throw us a bluebird 80 degree day every once and again i'll be tubbing it al fresco. and when the cold returns i'll be calling on friends for the use of an occasional hot bath.

...and the leaves begin their fall.

today is the autumnal equinox. and the polite thing to do is to take photos of the trees in their glory. this one in particular has been demanding of an audience since tuesday. its been taunting me on my runs. reminding me that summer is damn near over.  reminding me that we are soon back to Cold. that this is the beginning of the end of what we will see of the green. one brilliant culmination of color. that the tomatoes we have in the garden are our last. that a real frost is imminent. that we are setting up for a long winter of eggs and potatoes and meat.

one can't help but get so predictably nostalgic at this time of season. and here i cannot help myself. so it is quite perfect that the aged p's are coming for a visit this week-end. just as they did when i was at school here.  time to go hike the same mountains we hiked in school. time to horde the same apple cider donuts i became so dependent on at smith. time to drink warm teas. time to add warmer blankets to the tent.

i hope some of you are still savoring the last days of summer with a swim in the sea. and that some of you californians continue to be innocently unaware of any season change back east. and that some of you are thinking of candy corn and long cold runs in the forest. however you may be celebrating the autumnal equinox let in be in good style. it was a good summer. and it will be a good winter. and the in-between will likely be as spectacular as this little red tree.