Fall already?

I can't get over it. Where did summer go? We just finished up the coolest July on record and now it's fall? No fair!

It was a balmy 44 degrees F when I got up this morning. There's a fog as thick as pea soup outside.

I'm headed to work with an armload of clothes. I look like a bag lady. Working where I do, I have no idea how hot it will get or how chilly it will be when I get started, so I try to be prepared: extra jackets, shorts and tanktop in case it heats up in a hurry, etc.

Harvest is still going strong. Hubby picks pecks and bushels of goodies daily for me to process. He's been a huge help since I really don't have time to pick and process. Little Sis has been great as well; she's a pro bean breaker and loves to grind tomatoes in the food mill.

This week I'll be making hot sauce, wing sauce, tomatillo salsa, tomato salsa, habanero jelly, canning crushed tomatoes and freezing green beans and peppers. I think I have enough zucchini frozen but the plants are still producing. Not a bad deal...free chicken food.

I have at least two bushels of hot peppers in the kitchen just waiting to be frozen and at least three bushels of tomatoes on the porch to be processed, not counting whatever Hubby will bring in today. I'm not complaining. It will be nice this winter to have all of this garden fare.

For once, I'm sort of looking forward to winter. If all goes according to plan (insert evil laugh because you just can't hear those words without one), we'll be busting a$$ to get the firewood in, but hope to have it all done and, for once, not haul wood in the snow. We are planning to splurge and rent a log splitter once all the wood is cut and stacked. We've always done our firewood 'by hand' with an axe or maul, but having it all split is a tempting idea. There's nothing fun about coming home from work, shivering and dripping wet, only to find that no firewood is split, so it's back outside in the freezing rain to split some, ya know? Anyway, once that's done, we can enjoy winter, maybe work on the interior of the house a bit, and, if all goes well, I may get another quilt started.