I have seen my first yellow leaves of fall…  (I think depression is setting in!)  As the weather cools, I am gnawing my nails worrying over the coming winter, thinking about how few cold-weather clothes I even own, and agonizing over how much more hay I need to bring in.  I am feeling this strange sense of impending doom.  I know, really melodramatic, right?  Well, I haven’t had fall or winter for nigh on 13 or 14 years.  Give me a break!

Summer was rough!  Kansas really is a state of weather extremes.  We had extreme drought for weeks on end, 108 degree heat indices (frequently) with steady 30 mph winds and 45 mph wind gusts, the grass went totally crispy-dormant, the ground cracked in huge fissures, it was like stepping out into a convection oven every time you went outside, and I had to feed hay in JULY!

Then the dry spell broke, and it rained enough to bring the grass back to life.  We came off hay.  We even had to mow the lawn once.  Crazy, right?!  Well, we are now back in a dry spell again, the grass has stopped growing, but it is supposed to seriously rain this weekend.  The cool weather is on its way!

I haven’t posted much recently as I’ve been trying to adjust and survive.  My part-time work-from-home job has also been sucking all of my time.  Now, I can’t even stand being inside; there is so much to do outside.  It’s bulb-planting time, tree-planting time, lawn-mowing time, decorating time, batten-down-the-hatches-winter-is-coming time, raise-a-barn-before-snow-flies time, etc.

Wait a minute?!  Did I just write the ever forbidden S-word?!  Yes, as rumor has it, it snows here.  I’m terrified.  I have PTSD from living in Montana during my high school and university years.  I’m having flashbacks as I write this!

Okay, back to the topic of the barn.  Yes, we are having a barn built.  Hooray!  We definitely need a barn for horse and sheep shelter, hay storage, farm implement and tack storage, etc.  I applied for our building permit today.  Ground should be broken within the next couple of weeks.  The barn is going right in the middle of the ewe paddock.  Now, I just have to figure out where I’m going to stash the ewes during the building…