It's been one of those months!

The end of September already!! While it's been a quiet couple of months on the homestone blog, busy has been the name of the game around the homestead and busy we are still. The haying is done, the summer has fled and while autumn is showing her glorious colours, it will not be long now till the first snow flies.

David and Vince are almost finished putting the addition on our garage to house the truck and plow in preparation for the winter months ahead. The mountains of firewood we will need for winter is also on the immediate to do list and we are dealing with some rather inconvenient medical challenges right now as well. I seem to have developed an rather uncommon cranial nerve palsy. A by-product of a nasty virus David and I picked up at the beginning of September which we are still not 100% recovered from. The palsy is causing double vision in my right eye and nasty headaches. It's not the end of the world but it has been a worry and it has slowed down my work on the computer quite considerably. To any of our wood ring folks dropping in to the Homestone ~ please bear with me and know that you will hear from me as soon as possible.

Apart from that, life is good. These are spectacularly beautiful days. Rich golds and yellows all around us and the reappearance of our four legged autumn visitors.

We have taken lots of pictures of the changing season and will post some soon. Till next time ~ take care and to our wood ring folks; thanks for your patience.

Haying with horses

August in the Cariboo-Chilcotin means haying time. Our 20 acres of hay meadows have been hayed for more than 100 years. The old timers in the area know these meadows well as do their children and many of their grandkids.

This year, as in years past, our friend and closest neighbour; Gordon Woods brought in his team of horses to hay the meadows the old fashioned way.

One of his Belgians; Jerry, is an old hand at haying ~ the mare is new to the task this year and Gord is quite pleased with how well she's taken to it.

Friends and family pitch in at different stages of the haying ritual.

A lunch break; and Gord's sister Vi from Kamloops tucks herself into the little log cabin and puts out an awesome spread for the crew including her own incredibly delicious smoked salmon.

It was a good crop of hay this year and it will help keep Gordon's livestock well fed this winter.

August on the meadow

We awoke to a very frosty world this morning. Summer is not long here. Here are a few pics to capture August on the meadow.

The main hay fields looking toward the house and cabin.

And, the first of the hay laid down :)

Our three little robins on their last day in the nest. And the tree; no more than 5 feet tall where mama robin built her nest. Right next to the horseshoe pits too !!

Lovely pastoral scenes.

The sheep enjoying their green pasture and the blue skies.

Below, 'Mister' our 4 year old ram watches a deer up on the ridge. Look at all those beetle killed pines!! So much to do. All of it enjoyable.

Early August days

Today is overcast with light showers.

These are beautiful summer days, made especially nice by our cool meadow nights.

Here are a few photographs David took the other day. One of the 'Standing People'; a gigantic spruce tree ( David's brother Vinny can be seen at the base of the tree), an old corral and some pretty summer thistles.