We can feel the inevitable change. No matter how hard we cling to the freedom that summer has brought us, the nights are growing cooler, and the leaves are beginning to turn from a rich, velvety green, to the beautiful, bold colours of autumn. Already we’ve begun to turn our energy inwards, not because it hasn’t been warm enough, although we can sense a change in temperature, but because this is the time of year when our most important work is accomplished. 
Herbs are being collected for the winter’s teas and medicines, and the apothecary is being purged of herbs that have lived out their lives, offering us confidence just by being there, should they be required. Wildflower and I have gathered them together in a crock where they will wait to be gifted back to mother earth in the form of incense at one of our family campfires, possibly the only one we’ll have at home after a summer of roaming. This serves to remind us to be grateful to all that She has to offer us; that these gifts have been in our cabinet on loan.
The harvest is gradually being pulled indoors. Bit by bit we’ll turn our summer’s bounty into treats to be stacked into the pantry. This week we have peach (sadly the peaches are not from this land) and rhubarb jam, roasted tomato sauce, dilled beans and carrots, as well as some good ole pickles, which Lil Eagle will proudly proclaim that he grew these dragon cucumbers in his OWN big garden, a 2×2 patch that I am certain must look fairly big to a two-year-old. 
The last minute wood cutting, splitting, and stacking is happening, in the usual panicked approach that we swear we’ll avoid each year, and papa bear is feeling as though he is being pulled in one thousand different directions between his day job, family, winter prep, van repairs, workshop reorganizing, chicken run building (did you catch that one honey?), and prep for our next event, selling our goodies at a local orchard. I’m not quite sure how he keeps it all together, but he always manages to provide us warmth and food, in addition to his creativity and love. 
We’ve felt the pull back to desk work, even Lil E is ready this year to have ‘cool ‘. With his own notebook under arm, he is forever scribbling down little pictures and passing around sticky notes as ‘tickets’ to the rest of the family, the way his big sister has in previous seasons. We are beginning to fall back into a routine in order to provide enough time each day for structured learning, home care, and free creative play, even for mamas.
(insert cool picture of me relaxing, coffee and a good book in hand…which doesn’t exist.)
And finally, today’s project. Reorganizing the coop to make proper homes for the new turkeys as well as the chickens being raised for this year’s pastured poultry. It’s our duty to give them the best lives we can; it’s the least we can do for the gift that they will give us.
Until next time,
xo
Haymama]]>
