Burying Nuts

   Well the full Hunter's Moon has just passed and with it a cold front has ushered in the cooler weather we often associate with this time of year in New England. We have had some really warm days this month but there have been less of them and the days have become noticeably shorter. The sun doesn't even hit the front and side gardens until eight in the morning and the back gardens barely feel the it's warming rays in the late afternoon. The growing season has continued as our plants haven't yet felt the deadly kiss of frost and so I do my garden rounds daily now, attempting to will the remaining plants to grow faster so I can harvest the last of the garden bounty. I'm sure you can feel the change in the air as much as I can; the days are not only passing more quickly but there seems to be an urgency in the air as well. I may be more attuned to the feeling because I spend a lot of time out doors, not just in the gardens and with the rabbits but also in the woods and fields.
    I am a hunter and a trapper and so I spend a lot of time scouting areas in the fields and woods looking for good spots to deer hunt or set traps for the fur bearers I target. It is this time spent in the woods that often conveys the urgency of the season to me. I walk down trails and hear the animals' increased activity, gone are the long days of summer and plenty and coming are the days of cold and want. That season hasn't yet arrived but the animals and I know it will, so they scurry along the forest floor or the margins of harvested corn fields feasting on the last of the seasons' easily obtained food. While I don't need to put up food stores and fat like they do, I can always go to the store, I still feel the urgency in the air. We've worked hard on the farm this summer and while the ground is still soft and workable there's more to be done. I have to set fence posts and wire for the chicken run and rabbit manure needs to be spread and worked into all the garden plots. I have to watch closely and wait for the last possible moment to pick a plentiful crop of habenaro peppers. The kale and brussel sprouts can stand a good frost but the raspberry canes and fans of asparagus will certainly succumb to the first icy grip of late fall so they'll need to be cut down before the snow flies.
    Though I know there is less to do than there was even a month ago I still walk around the gardens making my mental list. There are many days that I see gray squirrels scurrying through and around the garden with black walnuts in their mouths. They sense the urgency of this season, perhaps even more than I do, and so they bury the food they've gathered with a manic pace. I feel maybe just a little like them, scurrying around and getting ready for the cold season that's not far away. I hate when they bury those nuts in the garden but I understand why they do it and I have to smile just a bit since there are days when I feel like I'm just urgently burying nuts.