Falling, falling...

About three-quarters of the leaves around my cabin have fallen now.  My guess is totally unscientific, by the way.  It’s breezy today too, so perhaps even more of them will have fallen by evening. My views have opened up quite a bit, if not yet fully.  I can see the mountain to my west. I can see over towards the new pond.  I can see past my property line and over to the abandoned ski slope.   It’s great to have more open views again and to be able to see into the forest.

The old oaks are still holding on to their leaves; they are notorious for that.  The oaks, however, are also the tallest trees in my forest, so their leaves don’t much impede my view at eye level.    

The closed in leafiness of summer is one of the reasons why that’s not my favorite season. True, the leaves can help keep the cabin from getting baked by the sun, but all those leaves don’t help even a tad when the humidity is high, which it often is here.  I’d much rather have cooler weather and a view.  The only real downside to the newly visible view is that the hours of daylight are so short I don’t get to enjoy it for very long.

My animals seem to enjoy the cooler weather, too.  The chickens race from one end of the driveway to the other, flying and hopping and flapping like crazy whenever I left them out.  In summer, I am likely to find them clearing a spot for a dust bath or lounging under the cabin.  Racing around isn’t on their agenda then.  Baby Dog is much the same, racing from one end of the lead to the other, pretending not to hear me when I tell her to do something and always angling to stay outside a little while longer.  In summer, she’s always angling to return to the sofa.

The downed leaves also mean I must get serious about my outside projects before winter.  I have the old chicken coop to take down and remove.  It is falling apart, but for some reason that seems to make disassembly harder, not easier.  The current chicken pen will be placed mostly under the cabin for winter.  That certainly helps protect my girls from the worst of winter weather, and I like to think it gives them some warmth from the cabin, as well.

The gutters need emptied of leaves, as do the decks.  Summer’s hot weather gives me an excuse not to do much, but I sure have to make up for that once fall appears in earnest.