It's Fall!

"For the beauty of the earth,

For the beauty of the skies,

For the love which from our birth,

Over and around us lies,

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,

This our hymn of grateful praise."

Fall is such a neat season. I love all the changing, vivid colors of the trees, the cooler temperatures, and the light of the fire in the woodstove, and the smell of applesauce simmering away on the cookstove.

Last week, Dad, Mom, Jonathan, Ben and I went up north near Lake Ontario to one of the several big apples orchards and picked apples. We picked about 17 bushels of drops and hope to pick more this week. We like to have about a total of 200 quarts of applesauce each year and this year we are almost out.

Mike, Ben, and I have gone down back several times to get firewood. We also keep an eye out for deer rubs and scrapes. Deer season is getting near and the boys are eager for it. Jonathan has built a couple of tree stands and is trying to figure a good place to put them up. He is also beginning his trapline and caught a possum so far. He is enjoying being done with school very much! :)

The geese are beginning to flock together as they get ready for their flight down south. It's hard to believe that it is time for that again. The other night we got our killing frost finally. Usually we get the frost in September or early October. Jonathan and I slept outside last night. It was only in the 40's so we kept pretty warm. We want to sleep out each month for a year. We started in June, so we'll see how it goes. :)

Have a happy fall!