Lasselanta

[altivo]

Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen,
yéni únótimë ve rámar aldaron!
[Ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind,
long years numberless as the wings of trees!]
--Galadriel, in Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring

It's upon us already. It seems as if there was hardly a summer this year, the weather was so strange, but the birds are starting to flock in the trees. What was an occasional stray leaf on the ground has already multiplied into about one per square foot here. Some maple trees seem to be kindling into color very early indeed, and the sumac at the top of Marengo Ridge has gone crimson even before the goldenrod is finished blossoming.

We still have hummingbirds daily, but no way to know whether they are the same ones that were here all summer. Have those been replaced by transient birds, already starting their migration? It seems possible. Acorns are falling, squirrels are busy gathering them. So are the chipmunks, scurrying about and stuffing their little faces, then running off into their burrows.

The very belated pole beans in the garden have finally begun to blossom. With luck, the frost will hold off long enough for us to get a few beans out of it, but I'm not counting on it.

The approaching season leaves us with much to do. Yesterday I ordered a new blanket for Tess, so she can be out for short periods even if it is windy and cold. Hopefully wading in the snow will keep her hooves from drying out as badly as they did the last two winters. She won't like it much, but sometimes life is hard. Tomorrow will mark the second week of the new school year that classes have been in the library on Friday for stories and to check out books to read.

Banned Books Week is almost here, and the wildflower beds outside the glass wall are no longer a riot of purple, pink, and white. The remaining flowers are all yellow as egg yolk: goldenrod, prairie sunflower, compass plant. What I really notice though is the oak leaves falling at home.

Oaks can develop intense color when the weather is just right, but I've never figured out what the ideal conditions are. In an ordinary year, the oak leaves just turn brown over a period of weeks and then flutter to the ground. We already have brown leaves strewn over the grass. I don't know whether to wish for a hard frost that might turn the oaks to brilliant reds and maroons, or to hope for a long, slow autumn without a frost, so that we may yet get something from the garden and the apples and fall raspberries have their full five weeks or so of glory.

I do know one thing, though. This weekend I am going to find some apple cider, from fresh apples, somewhere.

Comments

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

I love Autumn. It's quite simply my favourite time of year. Though I do always get reminded that I have not collected enough firewood.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I usually love autumn as well. However, firewood is the least of my worries. We still do not have the hay to get through the winter. People who supposedly are selling hay in this area simply do not answer their phones or return calls, it seems. We even tried going to visit one in person only to find that he was "out cutting hay" and we should call him on the phone, which we've done repeatedly. I have a very bad feeling about this. It probably means that demand exceeds supply by so much that the sellers don't have to bother about finding enough buyers.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

Thats not good news. Can you feed them anything else? Like potato peelings or carrots? I am not sure about equine physiology.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I still think we'll be able to get hay, but it may come from multiple sources: a hundred here, fifty there. The price will likely be very high, too, and the quality may not be good. We may be scrambling all winter to keep ahead of our needs, rather than our normal mode of stockpiling 700 bales and then using them until the next summer.

Horses don't take well to changes of diet. It has to be done very carefully and gradually. High carb foods like potato peelings would be disastrous and can't be considered. Sileage, such as is fed to cattle, will typically induce founder as well. This is because horses have a different insulin control mechanism, and it doesn't adjust quickly. A sudden flood of sugars or starches throws everything out of balance, causing diabetic or hypoglycemic symptoms right away, followed in a day or two by serious digestive problems that can be fatal.

Tess is good on pasture grass now, but that won't last after the snow falls. The two boys have not been on pasture for years because of their propensity to break through fences and wander. Putting them onto grass would be possible, but will take several weeks of gradual adjustment.

Hay compressed into dry cubes can be purchased in large sacks, but it is heavy in alfalfa and thus can only be used in small quantities. The horse requires considerable bulk to keep the digestion moving and the appetite satisfied. Hay fulfills that need. The alfalfa cubes are also pretty expensive.

We'll find a solution, but I'm probably not going to like it.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

Goodness. I did not know horses had such fragile systems. If only they could ruminate. Silage might be an option then. I wish you the best of luck in finding what you need.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Actually horses are very sturdy, but specialized. They evolved to live on poor forage in semi-arid regions, not rich grass and vegetables in lush climates. They can survive for years on poor feed and limited water, though they will look bony and miserable as a result. The common donkey is even better at it, but virtually all equines are adapted for this sort of thing. We have put them in hazardous conditions by domesticating them and treating them kindly. (Though I must admit, Tess looks so much better with a little fat over her ribs than if I starved her. Hopefully it won't come to that. Gary called to tell me he just got a price quote from a hay supplier near us. Unfortunately, it is double what we've been paying for the last ten years, plus a delivery charge.)

[flamekist.livejournal.com]

You could have my firewood if I knew of a way to ship it to you. Since my dad moved in with us, he won't allow an open fire in the fireplace. He needs to wear an oxygen tube and his doctors have him convinced that being anywhere near an open flame will cause the oxygen to ignite and flames will shoot up his nose. He won't even set foot in the kitchen while I'm cooking (gas stove).

In the meantime I've got two winter's worth of hardwood firewood going to waste in my back yard. :(

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

Sadly the shipping costs would kill me more than the cost sourcing the wood locally. I will be ok. I have a jumper, and getting a gas fire fitted to my living room.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*snicker*

Sorry, I can't help it. I know perfectly well what "jumper" means over there, but in American jargon I'm given a choice of picturing you in a little girl's dress or else tied up with the heavy cables used to start a car engine when the battery has gone flat.

In your sense of the word, I have lots of jumpers here too. Because they tend to snag on things and get dirty easily, though, I usually wear an extra sweatshirt in the winter instead. Horse drool (not mine) washes off cotton jersey more easily than it does from woolen knit. ;p

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

I did not know that jumper did not mean what it does here. That's another one to add to my list. I must admit, now that I am thinking about it. It IS a bloody stupid name for a garment. Pullover IS more logical. I wonder where it originated?

I am quite a large size, so finding garments is always a problem. Had I your skills, I'd knit one myself.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

(See comment below about knitting...)

If I weren't swamped here, I'd run out and check the OED now that we actually have one... Well, I went and checked anyway.

It looks to me as if the usage for a garment is relatively new and probably comes from the Royal Navy. A much older usage referred to a line fitted to keep spars from jumping and tearing the sails in rough weather. First appearing in 1863, the word refers to a hip length jacket of canvas or coarse cloth worn by sailors as protection in rough weather. I suspect it crossed over to what we in America would call a "sweater" some time after that. Do people use the word "sweater" for a knitted outer garment over there also?

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

Yes, Sweater is used interchangably. It's more common in Scotland.

[flamekist.livejournal.com]

I really didn't want to go there, but since 'Tivo did it first, I'll have to admit that the first image I thought of was of Avon wearing a little girl's dress and flirting with the gas serviceman to get a discount on the installation...

Avon, you're not alone in your knitting envy. I'm completely clueless when it comes to the fiber arts. I count myself lucky that I can even tie my shoes. I find myself wishing I had even half of 'Tivo's skills.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Y'know, guys, knitting is actually easy to learn. Not only that, but these days it's a trendy pastime for men, and you can do it while watching television (yes, even the football game!) ;p

[herefox.livejournal.com]

I'd send you some of our summer if I could. It's been very hot the last month or so and I'm sort of done with the on fire season.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes, it seems that the west coast is getting genuine warming trends while here in the middle we're heading into nuclear winter or something. The summer was quite cool, and excessively wet in June to mid-July, followed by a drought through most of August. Even August was cool and frequently overcast, but without rain. I think we're at normal rainfall figures for the year, but it fell in deluges rather than spread out through the season. Right now we are starting to get fog of the sort we typically get in November, and temperatures more like what we expect in October.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

I always forget how wonderful Quenya is!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Indeed. It's a marvelous achievement of which there is far too little. I could wish for a hundred pages of such poetry, but...

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

We had a beautiful oak on the corner of our street in a neighbours yard...unfortunately the big storm we had in November snapped it like a week old bread stick. I do miss it and it's wonderful colour changes. Most trees around here are evergreens so the change of seaons isn't noticed too much by the trees.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Time to plant more acorns, then. ;p