Is fall busier than spring??

The Garden: The produce portion of our homestead is winding down. We are getting the last of the zucchini, and there are still strawberries coming about once a week. Note that GIANT strawberry that I saved for Nate because he hardly ever gets any. Our two lone carrots - thats it for carrots this year and they are so small!! The pumpkins are getting really orange and the spaghetti squash is looking nice and yellow too. I have to admit I've kind of lost interest in going out there because there isn't too much going on, but I think harvesting those last veggies will be fun.

 a pretty good harvest for early october

Hunting: Nate went out opening weekend last Friday, Saturday and came home Sunday for his Spike Elk hunt. He also got a cow tag and good thing because HE SHOT HIS FIRST ELK!! We now have a bunch of mystery elk meat in the freezer that I have no idea what to do with. Nate plans of turning a lot of it into jerky which I am all for because I love jerky and am not so confident that I can make anything tasty out it.

 Nate went hunting by himself (despite my best efforts to dissuade him) and ended up getting stuck in the mud. Good thing for Verizon's mountain cell coverage because he was able to call Judd who came and helped him get out. We brought them over a bunch of apples and some canning jars to say thanks (they had asked for some last year when our tree wasn't producing).

Halloween Costumes: The girls (mommy included) are all being fairies this year. I ordered a bunch of tulle and robbon off Amazon a while back and finally got around to making the dresses last Saturday. I really should say Chloe made them because she did such a good job! I got the fabric and she tied it onto the elastic all by herself after a quick lesson. She did her entire dress, and more than half of Avenlea's and Zeyta's dresses. By the time we got to my skirt she was done tying but cut the fabric after Blain rolled it out. What good helpers I have!

 Chloe working on her pink fairy dress

Hee Haw Farms: Blain had his first fieldtrip to Hee Haw Farm today. I wasn't sure if we would be able to go because Chloe would come home to an empty house, so I decided to take her out of school early so we could all go and Blain wouldn't have to miss out. We envited Em and her cuties so we got to spend the day with them petting animals, going down the giant slide, taking a hay ride, following Blain around in the Corn Maze, and of course playing in a corn pit!

 Blain riding the tractor

 Avenlea and Summer petting the "Hass" as Avenlea kept calling the goats

 Chloe had a lot of fun sending the tin cans over to a goat. That goat was so funny, it would pull the cable to him to try to get the can to come faster. You were supposed to put food into the can, but it was still fun watching that goat walk the board bridge and pull the can.

 Sweet Avenlea in the corn - she was so proud of herself that she could climb in and out of the box all by herself, of course lifting her hands and saying "tah-duh" after each time

Blain making a corn angel - there was so much corn in his and Chloe's pants/underwear when we got home it sounded like rain on the bathroom floor when it all fell out

 We got a private hay ride with some lucky timing

 Em, Summer and Blain on the Hay ride

 Silly Scarecrows

 Cutest pumpkin around

 Little Zeyta slept the whole time (about 2 1/2 hours) in the carrier which surprised me because I was up and down, sliding on that giant bumpy slide, picking up Avenlea and bending over to find pumpkins. What a good baby. Tonight she also put herself to bed - she was kicking around on Avenlea's bed while I helped Chloe and Blain clean up their room. She was being so good I went out to do evening chores and when I came back Chloe announced that Zeyta was asleep on Avenlea's bed. I just picked her up and moved her to her bassinet and haven't heard a peep out of her since. Love that little cutie pie!

Canning apples: Momma came for a short visit and Tuesday night helped us pick a bunch of apples, which are fully ripe as of October 6th. That night we quartered Sam's cooler full of apples, Wednesday I juiced and sauced, and today I canned them up. We ended up with 18 quarts of applesauce (plain, no sugar or spices) and only 5 quarts of juice - which turned into 4 when one of the jars exploded in the canner :( I think I am going to nix the oven jar warming. I cracked 2 jars and then had that third one lose it's bottom and all that hard earned juice. Man I am still bummed about that. I did add about a cup of sugar to the gallon and a quart of juice while it was heating. Pretty tasty!

 So much applesauce!! I really need to do the canning right after the sauce is made because there was quite a bit of waste from burning while I was reheating it. I just don't have enough time or energy to do it all in one day!!

 My lovely jars of applesauce which have all sealed!