Late Summer

It’s that time of the year again. Everything is changing, and maybe for the better.

The days are getting shorter. When I left for work on my bicycle yesterday morning, it was still dark outside, and a little nippy. There’s nothing quite like riding a bicycle down a deserted country road at night, a cool breeze at your back, and having the sun come up as you ride.

And with the cooler weather, we can open our windows at night instead of running the air conditioner. It’s also nice to have a pleasant cool breeze flowing through the house, and hear the frogs, crickets, owls, coyotes, and other wildlife at night. Out here, we certainly don’t hear sounds of traffic, or loud car radios, though on a really clear night we might hear the rumble and whistle of a train from a few miles away.

This is also sunflower season in Kansas. The wild sunflowers, when their smaller-than-most-people-think flowers, grow everywhere. Some ditches turn into a sea of person-height yellow. Sunflowers are on the sides of bridges, around people’s mailboxes — just about anywhere that isn’t mowed or farmed. Then you also pass the sunflower fields, with their larger flowers, even more sea-like.

The beans are getting tall in the fields this time of year, and it won’t be long before the milo starts to turn its deep, dark reddish brown.

But, you know, we’re Kansans. We can’t really let ourselves enjoy it all that much. Just today, I heard a conversation — apparently the Farmer’s Almanac is predicting a brutally frigid winter this year. Gotta keep our sense of pessimism about weather alive now…

3 thoughts on “Late Summer

  1. Kirklin says:

    It has been an unusually cool and wet summer here on the Central Indiana Prairie. There will be record crop yields if we do not get an early frost. There is significant respiratory illness among the pediatric population, I believe, due to the high mold and fungus counts the weather has engendered. Thank goodness we have had a bit of a dry spell with beautiful sunny but cool days.

    We had a new baby calf yesterday…its a girl! We dug a bunch of potatoes and picked beans…the beans will get blanched and frozen for “Jacob”. The baby turkeys are now 3 weeks old, looking great and growing like crazy. We will order the next batch of chicks soon to replace our current flock of 40 hens…the hens laid 30 eggs yesterday.

    It should be a spectacular moonrise the next couple nights as a very full moon is set to rise at dusk. We are getting ready for winter here. The hay is all stacked up for the cows, a new maple syrup boiling set up is in the works and we need to cement more around the cattle shed to help reduce the muck and misery of winter…..we will see what is in store for us.

    1. John Goerzen says:

      Thanks for the update — sounds like a busy time over there. Reminds me of being there at Thanksgiving.

  2. Ralph says:

    John
    When I walked outside this morning I noticed it was a little cooler and darker than usual. Fall is heading our way.
    Ralph

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.