Shorter Days

Summer slowly is drawing to it's close here at Bradland. There are cloudy skies today with a chance of rain. An occasional occurance in Summer, soon it will be the rule. Nighttime temperatures are dropping a couple of degrees with each succeeding week, and the leaves on the deciduous trees are beginning to yellow. The Octoberfest room's exterior is now complete and the insulation work and interior walls will soon be started. Firewood, at least three more cord, needs to be ordered , paid for, and stacked out of the weather. The pipe on the wood-burning stove needs to be replaced before this years fire begins to burn. The pipe for the outside faucet needs insulation. Time for the chores of Autumn.

Autumn, of course, is the most beautiful time of the year here.. The evergreen covered mountains become the canvas for the red and yellow leaves of the less predominant oaks and madrone trees that paint the landscape. Clouds begin to appear above the mountainous horizon to the north daily on their travels eastward as the stormtrack slides south with the season. Upon the blue and green canvas of the forest and sky, the clouds and leaves paint their seasonal masterpiece daily until winter when grey consumes all.

'tis the season; mild, beautiful, serene. The Quail pair are now a covey, The small deer are bigger and losing their spots, Bears get drunk on berries fermenting in their stomachs and, like all drunks, become bothersome and too friendly with people's homes and livestock. Farmers all over the valley are making preparations for the Fall harvest; the Blueberries are in, the Blackberries ripe. Winter straw lies in circular bundles awaiting rhe barn.

Campers will abound from now until the end of Labor day and the close of Summer. The Fall hunters will be fewer in numbers but louder. Hunters need to be careful in the woods of southern Oregon in the Fall, they might find something they are not looking for and a helluva lot more dangerous than Bigfoot; Mexican nationals, or worse, local boys . "Get caught, get shot" is what one local put on a plywood billboard . Careful out there, and don't be a trespassin' ......