Almost washed away...

Last Saturday morning. The ending of summer.

A beautiful, hazy sunrise over the tree fields.  A mix of beauty + intense rain storms that have nearly flooded out our fields.  It's the 4th wettest September on record for the Olympia area.  As of Sunday, we have had 4.95 inches of rain over the prior 3 weeks  We average 2 inches for all of September.  1.67 inches alone fell on Friday, the 17th. 

My tomatoes (that never got their final heatwave to push most of them into the red & ripe phase) are splitting from the rain.  The chickens' run is always muddy even though we're moving it pretty consistently.  And we're starting to prep the house for winter. 

It's a little bittersweet - since summer never fully unleashed here.  Quoted as the "worst summer in three decades". 

Thomas and I have been inside -- watching the rain pour down and soak the fields.  We've headed out a few times to give him his fill of mud and water (a country boy at heart), meals have switched over to the crock pot (chili, homemade spaghetti sauce, and santa fe chicken) and we've had the windows up a bit at night to hear the rain.

One visitor that we didn't invite?

A cricket. 

At first, I swore a bird had built a nest in the back of the fridge because it was chirping so loudly.  But as the cricket moved around the kitchen and living room, the outside came inside.  It got to the point that it was so funny because we couldn't catch this little animal, and it was taunting us from ALL OVER THE HOUSE.  After two days, we finally spotted it and ushered it outside to rejoin its family.  Not that the chirp, chirp, chirp wasn't fun for the Wee Ski.  :)

Looking ahead to fall. 

The last of my training Summits (that I have to fly to) is this weekend, and October looks to be low key.  Just in time.

One of the biggest changes of living on a Christmas tree farm is that the colors don't change all that much.  Fir trees don't have leaves that change color and drop.  I'll be relying on the last of my pumpkin pie candles from Illuminations to help set the autumn feel on the farm.

It's almost here.