I can tell we are moving into autumn because I am wanting to sleep in later and later every day. With so many huskies in at night, we sleep with the window open (otherwise we’d suffocate!) and it’s getting quite chilly over night now.

Which makes snuggling under the blankets with an extra layer of warm pups just feel sooo good!

I swear the outside pups can hear our eyelids flutter before we even get out of bed though and if we don’t move quickly, a collective “AWROOOO!” will start up in the dog yard. And no one wants to hear that first thing in the morning, especially the neighbors, I’m sure! 😆

So yeah. There is no sleeping in at this little homestead.

Which is fine, because I have a lot to do! Yesterday I managed to get one of the dried corn stalks moved around to the front to start decorating.

They aren’t heavy, just awkward, and my skin doesn’t like touching them so I broke out in hives afterward but it was worth it. They are going to look beautiful once the ribbon I ordered arrives and we get the straw bales and pumpkins and other things put out there with them.

I’m not sure the sunflowers I’m drying will hold up so I might get some silk ones to tie in with them, we’ll see.

The sunflowers in the flowerbed under the red maple nearby are still blooming and add to the overall look, though…

Same with the purple daisies which are re-blooming next to the little pond, which is also near to where we are putting the pumpkin/straw/corn stalk display.

The pumpkins aren’t quite ready to pick just yet, but they are getting there.

I have some fake ones I can use, but I’d prefer the real thing.

This morning, after I appeased the pack and got some coffee in me, I went out to collect eggs and fill my basket with garden things. I noticed that the pheasant have been helping themselves to the cucumbers which are growing next to their pen…

At first I thought it was a mouse because one ran out when I started digging around in there, but the feathers and the fact that the distance from the wire fence to the half-eaten part still left is exactly the length of a pheasant’s neck kind of gave it away.

Well, that and the way the little male who is already super friendly acted EXTRA friendly when I showed up.

He was more than happy to let me give him the half he couldn’t reach.

They are ready so I did manage to pull three beauties out of the cucumber patch that the mice and the pheasant hadn’t nibbled on and there are still at least a dozen more in there which are close to ready.

My black and white pumpkin seeds arrived in the mail yesterday and I put them up with the other seeds for next year’s planting.

Which seems so far away! Probably because it is. Eight months or so until we can sow seed again, and that feels like foreverrrrr. 😮