It feels good to be putting my hands to the house again.
I’ve been fall cleaning and although we live here sometimes we live a little TOO hard here. The farm has slowed down to basically waiting for the beef cows to be ready when it’s colder and tending to the laying hens, ducks, rabbits and horses. The garden is being put to bed with lots of compost, leaf mulch and a bit of tidying up. and garlic will be planted this weekend. We are getting a bit of snow this morning which made me smile when I let the cats out this morning.
I’ve been washing the walls down, the tops of cabinets, and all the open spaces that get grimy over the summer with so much hustle and bustle. Vinegar and water is great for this, although occasionally I haul out my tea tree cleaners and the Barkeepers Friend. I also like to add some peppermint oil for the inside of cabinets to deter pests. I often soak cotton balls with it and tuck them into anywhere which looks problematic (but only where the dogs can’t get at them.)
In the freezers, there is still lard to be rendered, steak to be made into jerky, carcasses to be made into broth, berries to be made into jam and tomatoes to be made into sauce. But these are slow day, snow day January jobs.
If I was a machine, I’d picture this part of the year as “gearing down”. Best done slowly, too fast and I will go into shock. Daylight savings time starts this weekend, something Nova Scotia still observes. Shifting to slower days as the nights are longer, prioritizing daylight starts a season of hunkering down, which we do quite well. I know from past winters, I’ll never get to all the sewing projects, my lengthy book list, or the garden planning that I dreamed of in the summer, when I didn’t have a spare minute.
But isn’t it just lovely to have the choice again.
Love Jenn xx