“Ch-Ch-Ch- Changes.”

Here in Maine the feeling of change is tangible, like someone flipped a switch overnight and summer on its way out.   There is a new crispness to the air at the beginning and end of the day.

You can see it clearly in the trees, as they frost with golden red tips and tops. Our garden knows it too;  fruit ripens, seeds mature, leaves droop.  The green steadily giving way to brown-  reminding us all that it is time to prepare for the coming months.

The fall harvest has started and canning madness has begun!

One of the most obvious marks of time’s endless passing is watching the chicks we hatched this year grow.

Everyday I search the garden for the icky no good Japanese beetles, knock them into a bucket (a very technical process)

and serve them to the guineas.

They now move like a well oiled machine.  They are so different from the chickens it is astounding.  At this age they can fly from the ground to the top of the coop.  They are much less awkward and way more deadly than the chickens.

Speaking of the chickens- it look like both of the chicks we kept from our spring hatchings are boys.

They are well handled and I am hopeful we can keep them both since we know have multiple coop options.  It is like I didn’t learn anything about keeping roosters this spring.

I am optimistic, since they were clutch-mates that they can live in peace, but we will see.  The new and old flocks have combined nicely after I removed the trouble makers to the “meanie coop.”

The garden is still exploding in some places and coming up with new arrangements for itself daily.

The woods around us are changing and we are stating to see more of the wildlife marauding around the yard and on the roads.  It is great to see families of turkeys all over the place.

The wild turkey population has been on the rise ever since they were reintroduced into New England.  They eat ticks and ticks have lyme disease the less of those little critters around the better!

Since we made the decision last fall to simplify our lives a lot has changed for our little family.  Seeing the season come back around  has reminded me how far we have come but also how much there to do still.  So much is still up in the air and that is scary but we will keep going, hoping our intentions are well placed and a simple life is possible.

Almost every facet of our lives is different now, some bad and some good.  For me, it is interesting to have the seasons to help mark the changes in our lives as the years go on.

It’s amazing to build a life together and plan for future years, future gardens.  My often overwhelming anxiety never lets me forget that tomorrow is a promise made to no one.

All I can hope for is more time with my family on both side of the country.  I want to worry less about things I can’t change and hope more.  More mornings to look out my kitchen window and feel this simple happiness with the people I love the most.

 Some things have stayed the same, like Spaz jumping the fence everyday.