Wintery weather has finally arrived in Montana after a prolonged, glorious autumn. Throughout September and October I often started my days on the porch with a warm mug of coffee and one of the cats purring softly on my lap. Jack and Jill would come running down the hill in anticipation of a can of oats for breakfast while Scooter napped contentedly after scarfing down his kibble. These simple joys make the world a brighter place.
We weaned the calves and are hauling hay home for them while the cows are back out grazing the pasture across the creek. Jack is partnering up with Beth to help her learn the ropes and get back in shape after a summer off. Her foal Luna has also been weaned – she grew so big that at just 4.5 months she could nurse while lying down beneath her mom.
The garden harvest continued rolling into the kitchen well into October. Short on time for canning, I instead placed the jewel-skinned roma tomatoes in quart bags stacked neatly in our chest freezer, ready to enrich our stews and chilis in the coming months. I made a thick puree with another 20+ pounds of tomatoes and will turn that into spaghetti sauce and soup bases. The gift of the garden will keep on giving for months!
Among the harvest were about a dozen buttercup squash and sugar pumpkins that are now nestled in straw in the shop. My summer plunge pool conveniently becomes a vegetable storage bin in the off months. The garden also produced two large Musque d’Provence pumpkins, but neither one ripened to the desired golden hue. Instead when Halloween arrived, I had a perfect jack o’lantern!
Coulee Creek Ranch 