Leaves, Leaves, and More Leaves...

It's a beautiful day today.  Breezy and cold...a little too cold for my liking, but after all, it is November!

The leaves this year have been just gorgeous!  They've been hanging on the trees longer than usual, and the colors have been brilliant. Today though, they've been falling...and piling up...faster than we can get them raked.

This Maple tree is right outside our kitchen door.  The leaves were so thick this morning that I could hardly rake them...

I had some company.  Can you see who's hiding in this picture?

...and this one...

Banja and James loved burying themselves in the pile and then jumping out again...

Jim pulled up the manure spreader, and we filled it to the brim.  Then he climbed in and stomped down the leaves so we could pile it even higher...

After a while we switched places, and I stomped on the leaves as he raked. It's the only time of year that I take a ride in the manure spreader!  :)

The leaves will be spread out on the fields.  I wish I could chop them all, and spread them on my garden, but there are way too many...and they'd mostly blow away.  Bummer, because leaves make wonderful compost!

The cats couldn't stay away.  Of course, tractors and PTO shafts are meant to be climbed on...didn't you know that?

Here's that same tree, three hours or so later.  There are still a lot of leaves left for another day's raking, but so many fell already!

It's sad to see the leaves disappearing.  It's inevitable, I know...but it means that winter really...and truly...is just around the corner.  The boiler is already cooking away, and the cast iron radiators are throwing off the heat, trying to take the chill away.

What is fall like in your neck of the woods?

A Beautiful Fall Morning...

This morning as we were finishing up milking, I saw a beautiful sight.

I happened to glance towards the east as I carried the last milker to the milk house, just in time to see the sun at the exact moment that it was peeking over the horizon.  The colors weren't especially beautiful...no brilliant reds or oranges...but the sun light that streamed across the fields was breath taking.

As usually happens, by the time you grab your camera, the magic is gone. And...the camera never quite captures the images quite as beautiful as they are in real life, but I tried anyway...

This picture looking to the west, of the Amish neighbors' barn peeking over the hill, is probably one of the most photographed shots that I've taken over the years, in all seasons.  You should see it at sunset!

I think the hydrangeas are especially beautiful this time of year, and the sun only made them prettier this morning... 

The golf course across the road always gives us a show of beautiful leaves as well...

The leaves are late here this year...and we're enjoying them as long as we can.  It makes the fall more enjoyable, and at least makes me imagine that winter is still a long way off!

Linking to Rurality Blog Hop today.

21 Bpm....

What is 21 bpm?

Well...it's like this...

When you've been unloading corn fodder for four hours straight with your friends...and you get a little bored (and tired)...you have a contest.  How many bales can you get from the wagon to the hay mow (stacked) in one minute?

Eric and his friends tried it.  They started out at 8...then 13...and then finally, their record...21 bales per minute.

There you have it!  Bpm...

To keep things interesting, you can also decorate the ladder with loose bale ropes...

...and crush your soda cans...

...and best of all, you go out for pizza afterwards!

A lot of fodder got unloaded and stacked the past few days.  Thanks guys!

Fall Grazing 2013

The corn and bean harvest is finished...

Rye grass has been seeded where the corn was chopped for silage, and is growing nicely...

So now it's time to let the cows out on the fields of rye grass and alfalfa for some fall grazing...

I think this will keep them happy for a while, what do you think?

Combining At Sunset...

On Monday afternoon, I posted about how we were anticipating the combine arriving to harvest the soybeans and corn.  The guys rolled in over milking time, and our neighbor captured these pictures, which he was kind enough to share with us!

Here they are, combining the beans... (photo credits...Steve Emerson)

I love those pictures of the combine in the sunset!  Thanks Steve!

By the time they got to the fields at our farm, it was dark.  I snapped this one of Jim and our Amish neighbor man watching them combining behind the barn...

When they were finished with the beans, they switched headers on the combine and started on the corn. They ran until 11:00 on Monday night, and then came back and finished on Tuesday.  The beans yielded great...no official numbers yet on bushels per acre, but we were pleased!

One more thing is checked off the list!

A Day In October...

It's just another beautiful October day...

Murphy has nothing better to do than lay in the yard.  The cats must be hiding...

The cows have been staying inside at night because it's been too cold, but they were out for a while this morning.  Although there wasn't much to eat out there, they enjoyed the freedom of the outdoors...

This will probably be the last day that the fields look like this...

as the combine should be rolling in any time.  The beans will be done first, then the corn...

In fact...I think I hear him coming right now!

I love October!

Random Five Friday...

Once again, it's time for Random Five Friday.  Here are some things that have been going on around here...

1. It's been a drenching day, to say the least. In the last 24 hours, we've had over 7 1/2" of rain!  The roads are treacherous in places, and the creeks are overflowing their banks.  The pond at the other farm, which was almost completely dry yesterday, is full again...

2.  With this weather, the cows have been staying inside the barn all day and all night.  They will be thrilled when they can go out again, and I don't blame them!

3.  I finally took the air conditioner out of our bedroom window yesterday.  It's nice to have the windows open and throw on a couple of blankets at night.  I hope now, once this front that has stalled over top of us moves through, that we'll be having typical fall weather, instead of the hot temps that we were having.

4.  Our neighbors left a huge glass pumpkin, full of M & M's on our kitchen table on Sunday...and I'm embarrassed to say that it's already about half empty!

5.  The kids are looking forward to a couple of days off from school next week.  These will be the first days since before school started, that they will be able to sleep in.  They've either had to be up early for school on the weekdays, up for early morning cross country practice on Saturday mornings, or up to help us on Sundays.

Here's hoping for some sunshine this weekend!