Last week there was a coating of ice on the animals water dishes, and the hoses I use to water them were frozen. It thawed quickly, but it called my attention to how my routines will be changing as the temperatures drop. I will have to haul buckets of water, and bundle up for chores. The animals will be staying in their shelters more and we will have to deal with the mud when the ground isn't frozen.

Brian has been working hard with our preparations; chopping wood, caulking and painting, and clearing out the gardens. He planted lots of garlic last week, and our compost pile is overflowing with garden debris. I dug the last of our storage potatoes (yukon golds) and put them in cold storage. Brian picked every last tomato, so I have been making sauce for every meal and we have green ones in boxes to ripen slowly.

Today we are going to do our last big apple picking of the season, so we are excited for lots of apple pie, apple crumble, applesauce and just plain apples!