What a Beautiful Day! Enjoying the fall festivities at Hickey Farms, a family tradition of 5 years now.

This week is a week of celebration, our harvest is in. Krista has canned everything accept the apple pie filling which will be processed and canned this Monday.  The carrots, tomatoes, beans, blueberries, apple sauce, pears, pickles, Saskatoon jam, pumpkin,  and chicken are all canned and stacked in the pantry.

We harvested our russets and northern red potatoes, onions, chives, peppers, lavender, rhubarb, and raspberries.  Our pantry shelves are stocked for the winter, until next year when it starts all over again.

We are already daydreaming of the coming Thanksgiving Feast in November.  We will purchase a turkey, didn’t raise on this year, and use the bounty from our garden to supplement most of the meal.   I am looking forward to a week off from work, teaching, and the Covid restrictions teachers have faced this year in and out of the classroom.

“King me, please.” My son and I enjoy a game of Pumpkin Checkers at the local Hickey Farms harvest festival.

This year we were blessed to visit a local farm with fall festival activities such as a small corn maze, games, live music, crafters, and family fun.  We purchased our sugar pumpkins there and will use them for our pumpkin pies this year.  It was a beautiful fall day when we went.

Today the sky is clear; the frost is on a barren ground.  The snow from last week is now gone.  The first snow storm hit, and we were not prepared as I had hoped.  Usually, we take the cars to the local tire shop and have them swap the all season tires for our mounted snow tires using their free service.  This year I was swapping the tires myself outside in the snow, so we could travel to Spokane the next morning.  The entire area from Spokane through the northern panhandle was covered in 3 – 4 inches snow.

Later this afternoon, I plan to put our future shop’s new concrete slab to bed for the winter.  I plan to cover it in straw and wrap it in plastic.  This should prevent frost heave during the cold Northern Idaho winter.  When Spring hits, I hope to build the walls and put the trusses on and hopefully have the outside shell done for the next winter.  We shall see.

Our world has been pretty much turned upside down since March of last year with the fear of the coronavirus and shortages on shelves in all areas from food to building materials.  As a government teacher, it is difficult to teach students the government process in this political climate.  Never in my life have I seen it this out of sync with the purpose of government elections.  The American people should never make a decision for the president based on which one they accept despite their crimes against our country because they hate or fear what the other guy will do. One thing is for sure our country is in trouble when people tune into a debate and can’t hear concrete, logical plans to solve our country’s domestic problems.  If you step back from this paragraph, you should realize that I speak about both candidates the same. I would not be surprise if two people from different sides of the political aisle think I am talking about their presidential hopeful or against him.

I don’t talk politics much on here and during this political season I see this election like the last, a lose if either candidate gets elected. The American people used to elect people for their ideals, visions for our country’s future, and hope for a free people.  This year our election is quite the opposite. I see no ideals, except censorship, the vision is everyone believes one way or our side will abuse the other verbally until you do, freedom is left to each governor’s whim.  Our nation is in deep trouble because people do not read the original sources for themselves, and those who do and call out the shenanigans of elite, power-hungry individuals are immediately labelled as conspiracy theorists and censored by their social media platforms.

This season my family is prepared for whichever candidate is elected, we understand the risks of the pandemic, we also realize the coming shortages if another shutdown occurs.  That being said, the sun still rises, the birds still sing, and the stars still twinkle behind Starlink’s armada of satellites.