Fall and All of Its Glory!!!!

There are a lot of people who say they either don't like the cold, or they hate when it's hot, but I honestly enjoy each and every season.  But I think the absolute best part is the changing of the seasons.  I'm not talking about the date written on the calendar where summer officially becomes fall; I mean whenever you can feel the shift in the air; when the wind somehow whispers that winter will soon be coming.  It's fantastic.  Nearly as much as I love feeling that shift, I love thinking about all the things that fall into my classification of "fall."

•  Fall makes me think of the way the leaves change color, creating a beautiful array of reds and oranges and yellows.  And of being a little girl playing with my younger sister, Annie.  We had a game that we played when the leaves fell off the trees.  We loved to scrape them into a big pile and make a nest out of them.  Then we would find rocks to put in our "nests" and we would pretend we were birds.

• Fall makes me think of harvest.  I can practically smell the corn that would pour out of the trucks and into the auger to be stored in the bins.  I can hear the tractor as it revved up to run the auger, and the sound of the corn pouring out.  I think of the black shirt I would sometimes wear and the way it would pull in the last remnants of heat from the sun as I stood there.

This isn't my family's farm, but this is the same basic setup we use.

My dad cutting corn last year.

• Fall makes me think of making soups and baking, especially apple or pumpkin goodies like apple cake, apple pie, apple streusel muffins, chocolate pumpkin bread, pumpkin butterscotch muffins, etc.  I love the way the oven warms up the kitchen from the cool chill of fall and the way the smell of cinnamon permeates through the house.
• Fall makes me think of baby calves and checking cows with my dad.  Morning and night we would go out and check for any new babies that had been born that day and speculate on which cow would have hers next.  Along the way we would take time to run over hedge balls that had fallen off the trees so the cows couldn't try to eat them because we were afraid they would choke.

Now that I live out here in western Kansas, I realize that the things that make up "fall" for me may change.  After thinking about this for a while, I realize it is a good thing.  I'll always treasure all these memories and pull them to mind every time I feel fall moving in, but I'll also get to add new and different things to that list.  Here are a couple of things I already know that will soon become a part of my "fall":

• Fall means milo harvest - getting to work alongside my husband and his family as we cut milo out of the fields and the conversations we have on the CBs while cutting (they can get interesting at times!) :) 
• Fall means pheasant hunting - I went with Taylor for the first time a couple of years ago and it was fun, although I will be sure to wear warmer boots next time.  Walking across all those pastures and swinging your legs up and over the tall grass was a pretty darn good workout.

Milo harvest last year

It's kind of exciting to think about my life as it changes and what other aspects it will include over time and who all will be a part of it.

Western Kansas Fact:  Dreams (at least in the agricultural industry) seem to be bigger out here.  Back home the opportunities, especially for the younger generations, to expand and grow in agricultural endeavors seem to be fairly limited.  There is only so much land available, and as more people move further out of the cities, more and more land gets developed and the land prices increase.  But out here the population is smaller and practically the whole economy of western Kansas is based on agriculture.  So there seem to be opportunities for anyone who is willing to work hard enough to get them.  It's okay to dream big because those dreams can actually become reality.

In Your book they were all written, the days fashioned for me. Psalm 139:6
I loved this scripture because it reminded me that no matter what we face in life, we can find peace in knowing that God has a specific plan for us.  And even when we find ourselves turned away from Him and heading down the wrong path, we can trust that He knew it would happen.  But the great thing is that He will use that wrong turn in our lives to create something good.

Enjoy the fall weather and have a great rest of the week!
Lyndee