The Comforts of Fall

What is it about fall that makes us want to simmer a big pot of soup on the stove?

Something about that first nip in the air makes me want to cook comfort food.

I love fall!  There's something to be said for coming home in the evening chill as the sun is starting to set, knowing that I have a limited about of time outside before dusk.  Even though the farm work is never-ending, we call it quits earlier each evening this time of year. 

Fall work is different than summer work.  We put on sweatshirts and boots, and we carry flashlights.  The animals are almost always fed after dark, and Steve never comes in before it's pitch black out.  The warm blanket finds its home more frequently on the couch. 

And it's firewood season.  All of our spare time will now be spent chopping trees, hauling wood, splitting wood, and stacking wood.  Very very soon it will be time for burning wood.  We'll burn the what's left of last year's dry wood while we start cutting the new wood. 

In just a few short weeks, we'll be sitting in front of the wood stove..... in comforting warmth ... waiting for winter.

Autumn

Fall is officially here, and as testimony, the leaves are starting to turn into their brilliant palette of warm oranges, yellows, and reds.  We have picture-perfect autumn landscapes here in West Virginia.  I don't live in the mountain region... just the hills of central West Virginia.  Here the rugged hillsides are dotted with farms.  Farm houses are built on the sides of hills or in hollows between them, as in our case.  And there are cattle, old barns, and crooked farm fences everywhere .... perfect for pictures.

 I love old barns and wooden fences.

Calves meandering along the hillside.

I love the effect of the orange pumpkins against the white of the barn.

A late September evening on the farm.
With all the beautiful colors, and the cooler feel of the autumn air, it's no wonder fall is a favorite season for most people.

Photography

I don't even claim to be a photographer.... but I do enjoy photography.  Lately I've been experimenting and gathering some of my favorite shots to enter in our local festival photography exhibit contest.  I don't even really know if any of these are contest-worthy; they just happen to be MY favorites.  What do you think?

HARVEST!

The Bolte Farm has pumpkins harvested!  It's so exciting to finally see (and cash in on) the fruits of our labor!  We have harvested probably 1000 pumpkins!!  We have LOTS of medium sized ones left for only $2.00 each.  Most of our large ones have been purchased already. 

I think these pumpkins are so beautiful... orange is my new favorite color!

A new school year

I can't believe it's been almost a MONTH since I last posted!  I've had good intentions, I planned on posting, and I took lots of pictures in hopes of sharing them.  What happened?  Farming, school, family, fun... life in general happened!  The main thing is the start of the school year happened.  As soon as school starts, my world changes.  My carefree lazy days of summer turn into hectic days of planning.  My long evenings of sitting and browsing the computer and reading books at my leisure are suddenly a thing of the past, as my evenings are now spent grading papers and writing lesson plans.  This year I had another change as well -- I am now teaching 6th grade.  I got a new LARGER classroom with the position too!

My new classroom has room for a library!

Steve sent me flowers to school on my first day!

Almost harvest time

I can't believe the pumpkins are almost ready!  It still seems to me that it's a little early, but I looked up some pumpkin sites on the internet, and it's certainly possible the are REALLY ready.  And we've also learned that many other pumpkin farmers are harvesting and shipping already.  Pumpkins can stay good for MONTHS after harvesting if they are properly cared for. 

Here is one of the mammoth pumpkins... they are huge, and hopefully getting bigger.  They can be recognized by their light orange color and their smooth skins.

The jack-o-lantern pumpkins are smaller, and they have a bright orange color.  Most of them have ridges in their flesh. 

Pumpkins are ready to harvest when they quit growing and when the color is a deep, dark orange.  I don't know if they are done growing, since we haven't measured them.  But I think they are seriously close to being all grown up!

We found some that are mostly orange but still have some green lines on them. 

And we have a few that seem large enough, but are still mostly green!  Maybe that's a good thing though.  We'll harvest the solid orange ones within a couple of weeks.  The others can wait a little longer.  I think in the future we should plant twice... one harvest can be around the first of September, but the later ones could stay on the farm for people who want to bring their kids and pick out their own on the vine.

Since the vines are starting to turn brown and wilt, we are finally able to walk among them into the middle of our patch.  I'm not sure how many pumpkins we have, but one thing is certain ... we don't have as many as we would have liked.  We have hundreds, but since we planted 1000 seeds, it would have been nice to have had at least that many pumpkins.  We've been studying the art of pumpkin farming, and most farmers have to self-pollinate their pumpkins using a pipe cleaner or similar devise to do the job that bees should be doing!  Steve has even mentioned buying a bee hive.  We have learned what all farmers know --- you live and learn!

This is Alec next to one of our largest jack-o-lantern pumpkins.  This one will make a great carving!

Anyone wanna pay in advance and lay claim to this big guy? haha

The finished head gate

Steve's masterpiece is complete!  The new head gate is all he's worked on for the past couple of weeks, but he's finally finished.... well, it needs a few touch-ups, but it's usable now. 

Steve and Lewis actually took it for a trial run over the weekend when they vaccinated the cows.  It worked pretty well, but a full grown cow actually got turned around in this chute, so it's gotta be modified just a bit.

Steve is proud!  He's really been after me to post pictures and write in the blog about his new head gate.  It WAS a lot of work.... in the sticky heat of mid-August.  We've had temperatures here in the upper 90s.... a few days reaching 100 degrees, and the humidity has been high, so it feels like 110 every day.  So, it's no wonder Steve feels a sense of accomplishment of having finished this thing! 

Lookin' good Honey!  Smile!