…and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;”           – Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

Sunday morning drive

The Great Northeast certainly has its seasons.  Right now the leaves are starting to show off its brilliance in gold, burnt orange, and remarkable reds. My husband loves fall, the cool weather, harvesting the garden, apple picking, and (a new one for us) sending the piggies to market.

The kids named them: Ham, Bacon, and Porkchop

Growing up in New York city, the changing weather was rather inconvenient and practically inconsequential as you rushed from one gray building to another.  I never noticed the changing leaves, the morning dew, the sunsets, and least of all the varying crops that fluctuate with every season… Living in California, you can get quarts of freshly picked strawberries year round.  I remember seeing ‘knee high corn’ in one field, next to another that was tall enough to be harvested… even in our northeastern supermarkets you can get apples and bananas year-round.  So, most of us do not feel the daily movements of the earth as it makes its way around the sun…not, of course, unless you are a farmer.

Farmers here are fully aware of the shifts in weather.  They are the ones rushing to get the hay in off the fields before the rain…They are the ones counting the days for the soil to dry out before they can get the potatoes. They are the ones waking up each morning looking for the frost and then pulling up garden plants right after.  They are the ones preparing their fences for winter.   They are the ones hoping to get their heifers bread to calve in the spring… They are the ones testing their soil and planning their next summer fields…

This morning we had frost!

I guess now we are some of those farmers… dependent on the weather and the varying seasons.  Each season has an anticipated start and sometimes a much awaited finish, but with every season, there is change, often a blessing to discover, a lesson to learn, and usually gifts to share…  With that, we are calling our little homestead “Every Season Farm.”

Here on Every Season Farm,

• you purposefully move to Maine in time to plant a garden, therefore having a time to harvest the peas, then beets, then green beans, corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, pumpkin and squash…
• There is a time for chicks to hatch, arrive in the mail, and a time for a few of them to die and be buried by the maple tree;
• There is a time to seed the pasture, seed it again,  then watch it grow and feed our cows;
• A time for calves to be born, and a time for a cow to be butchered;
• A time to milk (twice a day), make butter and cheese, and a time to dry off the milking cow (soon);
• A time for chicks to grow, and a time for them to lay eggs;
• A time to stack hay in the barn, and a time to use them throughout the winter;
• A time to feed our always hungry piggies grain and milk, and a time to make room in the freezer;

To everything there is a season, for us, this season is Maine.

Grazing by the Watson Settlement Covered Bridge