I always forget when exactly fall starts so I checked this morning and we are just nine days away now! So it’s a good thing I began my fall decorating early because if I wait until it’s official on the calendar there’s a good chance it will be rainy, windy or too cold for me to want to bother!

Our seasons change very quickly here in Idaho. One day it will be snowing and the next day it will be a sweltering, 90 degrees out. Okay, I am exaggerating a bit, but not much. We definitely get all four seasons here, which I love.

It’s gorgeous all year ’round, but fall is particularly pretty.

I especially love this time of year because it means snow fall just up the road from us, which means getting the sled out and going on adventures with the pack.

It also means the pups stop shedding so dang much and get their thick winter coats which makes them even prettier (and saves me from having to vacuum all day!).

It also means that my immune system calms down since it prefers the cooler months and I feel soooo much better from about October through April, so roughly half of the year I get a break from the worst of my symptoms.

Symptoms like brain fog. Which makes me lose my train of though. Oh, yeah! Fall is almost here!

The pumpkins are in a race against the clock now I think since so many of them are still quite little and might not ripen before it’s too late. We do have a dozen or so that are close to ready, though, but not quite there yet.

Yesterday I did the fingernail test on the orangest ones and it made a dent so they still have a little ways to go.

You wouldn’t know looking at the pumpkin patch that there are at least thirty pumpkins in there, but I counted, and there are!

It’s also hard to believe that the wall of willows along the back is over seven feet tall now!

It will be dying back soon and hopefully be twice as tall by this time next year. We thought of adding a row of pine trees in front of them for an even denser wind break, but I don’t think we’ll have enough room for both once the willows fill out. It would cut into the area we are setting aside for growing more pumpkins next year and we don’t want to do that!

Plus, I want easy access to them because I plan to take a lot of cuttings from these fast growing willows in order to sell them next year. My plan is to expand the homestead using money I bring in from selling our extra things we grow and that includes pumpkins, willows and our backyard critters.

The pheasant are still laying eggs…

The quail are, too…

And the new flock of buff orpingtons should start any day now.

The quail and pheasant and ducks take a break during the winter from laying but we have our chicken coop set up to keep us in eggs all year long. That will only apply to our layers now, though. The breeders will get a break until spring and then our chicken run should be filled with babies to sell, too!

Speaking of babies, we have two of our girls in heat in the pack now, so we might have two litters at around the same time which would be super fun. This will be Juno’s last litter since she’s already had two for us and we only let them have three total. It will be Coda’s first, so we’re hoping she will be as good a mom as Juno is.

It means they’ll both be out of commission for the first part of sledding season, but with almost six months of snow ahead of us, I’m sure they’ll get some time on the line before it’s spring again. 🙂