Last Taste of Summer

   I have written a bit about the impending fall season and finally its arrival. I have observed how the animals are scurrying around gathering the last easily obtainable food and how I sense the impending freeze, which will be here soon. Kathy and I had a chance to get away for a few days this week and as always the trip to Vermont was great. While we were away my thoughts still turned to the farm and I found myself wondering how things were going. I had left instructions with the boys about making sure the floating row cover was still covering the peppers, making sure the rabbits had adequate food and checking on the does for any signs of early kindling. I knew that they would do as I instructed but I still have an obsession for things being done in a particular fashion and I wondered how things were being done. I loved the trip and the few days we had away were spent doing less obsessing and more relaxing. We had a chance to visit some of the places that we always go to and also found some new places to visit. We went to some different brew pubs and ate at a different restaurant than we typically celebrate Kathy's birthday at. The farm was less in the forefront of my mind and more in that place that just makes your thoughts turn there occasionally.
    While we were in Vermont we had quite a hard frost on Sunday night into Monday morning and although the plants where we were showed they had been frosted before I knew that we would have had our first frost on the farm. I heated up the car to defrost the windshield and wondered how the plants and animals back home had fared. The temperature in Vermont never got quite that cold again while we were there and rain moved in on the day we left. I had expected to be driving in lousy weather all day but we drove out of the rain and when we entered Connecticut the sun was shining and the temperature was nearing sixty-five degrees. When we arrived home I inspected the gardens and the rabbits before we unloaded the car and found the does had all burrowed in to the hay in the nest boxes but hadn't kindled yet. I then walked over to the habenaro pepper plants and found that the row cover had blown off the end plant which had been badly frosted. I found myself questioning whether the boys had done as good a job as I hoped they would. I then pulled back the rest of the row cover and found the tops of every pepper plant wilting from the frost's kiss of death. I then knew I couldn't have done any better had I been home and so I thanked the boys for taking care of things while we were away.
     We've been home a few days now and I've settled back in to the routine of the farm. I've been checking the habenaro plants and there are still a number of peppers that were spared the bite of the frost, so I will harvest what ever is left this weekend and pull the remaining plants out. The kale and brussel sprouts are hardy and they did fine with the frost. The rabbits were holding out but when I checked this morning Isis had kindled and we have five or six new kits. The raspberries took a beating from the frost and this latest Nor'easter and there are only a few past ripe berries left clinging to the brambles. I knew the frost would come, so before we left for Vermont I had walked through the gardens doing what might be a final inspection. I had walked by the raspberry plants and found some really plump and ripe berries. I stopped for a moment and carefully picked a hand full and popped them into my mouth, they were wonderfully sweet and juicy. I enjoyed the taste and moved on with my inspection of the gardens. There is still plenty to do on our little farm before hard winter arrives but I'm glad I stopped at the raspberry patch before we left, for even though we have a lot garden produce in the freezer, this was going to be my last taste of summer.