Preparing for Winter

The past few days have been beautiful!  Gentle breezes, temps in the 70s, blue skies and no clouds.  Our friend, Terry, rented a seeder to seed his fields in preparation for the winter and he had some more time on the seeder before it needed to go back.  So, since he needed to bring it back thru Marshfield, he stopped at our property and offered the services of the seeder.  John decided to seed the south field with winter rye (he has a more detailed description but it boils down to winter rye!). Here they are, along with our neighbor and friend, John P. loading the seeder.

John and John are removing some temporary stakes so the tractor can get as much of the field as possible with the seeder.

My John is one happy guy to be able to seed this field...it gives us a chance to feed grass to the cows thru the winter instead of relying on  hay.

Terry put that seeder in every single place he could get to make sure that we get as much seeded field as possible.

 Back it in, Terry.....he's an expert with that big tractor!

And John and John watched the whole process....the cows will be in the north field for the next two months to give the south field a chance to grow some lovely winter rye.

It feels as though Autumn has arrived in the Ozarks....but it could change at a moment's notice. I hesitate to say it's a permanent thing.  But it sure is nice today....not too hot, not too cool, a slight breeze, sunny and a blue, cloudless sky.

Thanks for stopping by.

Ten on Tuesday

This week's Ten on Tuesday is:

Ten Things You Love About September

I am all over this one!

1. Cooler weather

2. Apple season - Time for apple pies and applesauce.

3. I love the fall colours.  Orange and rust and green and olive.

4. Cooler weather.

5. It's closer to October.  October is the month my mom comes to visit and we always look forward to it.   

6. Festival of Craftsmen (Harvest Festival) at Silver Dollar City.  This is our most very favorite festival and the reason we get season tickets! Of course, we adore the Old Fashioned Christmas Festival, too.
7. Cooler weather.
8. We are only 3 1/2 month away from Christmas...and I truly do love Christmas.
9. This year, September means we are only 2 months shy of getting a new grandbaby.  November 9th is the due date and we can hardly wait!
10. Cooler weather.

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are in the worst drought in over 50 years!  Missouri is right in the middle of the area that has been designated as a federal disaster zone regarding the drought.  We haven't had any measurable moisture in months.  John hasn't mowed since mid-April - mostly cause 1) if the mower blades hit a rock, it could cause a fire that would quickly get out of control, and 2) there was no grass to mow.  Most of you folks have been watching Hurricane Isaac down south of us...we were, too. But only because we were hoping to get some of the rain that he is producing.  Late Thursday nite, it began to rain...a gentle, constant rain that soaked into the parched ground.  It rained, and it rained, and it rained some more.  Finally, it stopped raining on Saturday nite.  It is calculated that we got a total of 3 inches during that 2 1/2 days.  I cannot tell you how excited we are to have gotten that much needed moisture.

This is what it looked like when I got off work on Friday.  The rain fell gently, hardly making a sound as it hit the ground.  I worked on Saturday and that was the only subject folks talked about all day long. No one complained, everyone was grateful.

On the other hand, Gilligan couldn't have cared less.  If it had been noisy rain, it would have disturbed his nap.  Thankfully, it didn't! 

Thanks so much for stopping by.