It happened suddenly... but secretly and slowly. The trees gave hints here and there that they were going to change colors, that the hope of summer was long gone and the preperations for winter was all we should be doing. Then last evening I looked up into the trees as I tucked my animals in for the night... and everything had turned yellow.
Xoxoxooo
It's that time of year again, when a few chilly nights are the wild's warning of the soon to come winter. My source of heat is wood, in a Treemont wood stove that was already here at the Luck Cabin when I moved in. I lucked out cause it holds a coal overnight, and that means I won't have to start a new fire every morning, which may be one of the harder things about heating with wood.
I set up the log in a stable place and take a good look at my aim. I don't have tons of extra energy to waste on missing my mark, I have to make my swings count.
I am using a "Go Devil" type ax (heavy sledge hammer-ish shape on the back end), which works WAY better then the standard tree chopping ax. I figure if i start splitting a few logs a day now, by the time the real cold comes I will be ahead of the game unlike last year which was a harsh HARSH winter that caught everyone off guard.
It may take me way more swings then I would like (check my swing style I learned last year here) and my wood may still be a lil' green (aka- not totally dry)... but it's way more efficient, good exercise, and saves alot of money to spilt the logs myself. A stack of logs a day keeps da' doctor away!
RECIPE:
I know. It's not that exciting looking, it's just dirt and some garden beds that are so naturalized that they hardly look like garden beds. I made them to blend in with the surrounding forest on purpose. :)
I started building raised bed gardens along the donkey & chicken fence - since JuJu the donkee has taken no interest in the leaves or fruit of squash plants, she doesnt even like kale all that much, I figured this was a great place to expand. I started by shoveling off rich black top soil trampled and churned in front the barn, mixing that with unwanted hay, and piles of donkey dookie to make a SUPER fertile place to throw & grow some seeds.
To keep the dirt from falling backwards out the fence holes, I lined up pieces of scrap wood left over from building the mini barn (see pic below at bottom of fence.) 
Xoxoxo
Being that I grew up in New Orleans, a place surrounded by water, regularly flooded by water, below sea level, and a culture that dares to throw a party when watery hurricanes threaten from the sky... I have developed a secret love for the power of water when it begins to overflow. Some people get a thrill from sky diving or a roller coaster - I get a similar adrenline rush of happy contenment to see a flood swelling up. The power of nature is something I can depend on, understand, and sometimes even relate to. Even when it crosses the fine line between beautiful over to destructive.
I parked my bike next to the bridge, immediately realizing where I usually play under there and collect rocks was now totally underwater. I had to carefully climb some slimy wet boulders to get to the soggy mud and squish my way upward into the woods, towards what was once a noticeable waterfall.
The water was so high in the creek and rushing down so hard the sound was deafening! I wished so much I had a video camera to share the sound with ya'll... the intensity and power was such that the once waterfall was eclipsed by it's own water volume and could hardly be seen. (Check out this link to see what the Willow Creek Rd waterfall looked like in April!)
I crouched down in the trees for a while and watched - but more so listened. I was by myself and thought it was a good time to stay quiet, sort of a nod to mother nature for being so cool.
Eventually I felt tired and was ready to go back... hiking back through the slippery leaves, steep hill, crawling under pines tree branches and squishing through the muck, and back over the slippery boulder to the bridge.
I pulled by bike back up to the road and took off.
XoXo
These changing leaf pics were taken yesterday in the wooded area near my house - the 2 year long drought has effected some of the color, but the resilience of the trees shines through with beauty.
