As a country girl, Autumn/Fall has a different flavor for me.
For most it’s a time of endings, or activities that are season specific, and often the weather is perfect. But for me it’s a time to come alive in a whole new way, almost unrecognizable from the Me in other times of the year.
I take on a new persona, and prepare for the winter in a completely different way. I’m a part of the show, the entertainment for those sucking up the last of the warm, sunny days, helping others to safely navigate preparing for the dark days ahead. Before you know it, we’ll be confined indoors, wondering what happens next.
While others are playing, I am working, prepping for months without a paycheck or access to certain food. It’s a busy time that seems endless and painful, where there’s never enough time to focus on my garden, home, or my own life. Yet come the beginning of November, it suddenly comes to a startling end.
Each year seems a little more busy and a little less money saved, creating a panic for us in the dead of winter when there are no opportunities in sight, no fall back system to ensure our bills our paid and food secured. I try my best to prepare, but each fall and winter it becomes a little harder as resources become more costly.
Only seasonal workers will understand this struggle, or those who follow the natural ebb and flow of the cycles. It’s why we stress the importance of following this flow, flying the warning flags of a society that doesn’t understand you can’t pick a tomato in January where it snows, or find summer herbs for medicinal purposes. We try to educate, although it often falls on deaf ears.
If you’re listening, know this: celebrate and enjoy the beauty of this fleeting season, but know we all must prepare for winter, even if we’d rather be playing. Each year gets a little darker, and this may be our darkest winter to date.
Be ready.
One of my many decorative gourds grown in the 2024 season. They are pretty, plentiful, and fun to use as decoration, yet do not have a purpose for humans outside of feed for certain animals.
If you’d like to help us out this winter, please consider upgrading your subscription to paid, or making a one time donation on Ko-Fi. We are trying desperately to survive without being destructive humans to Nature, and your donations help with things like building our greenhouse, buying eggs from our neighbors, and hopefully one day very soon creating a cat rescue farm. Every dollar makes a HUGE difference!