Memories of Autumn
September SEAHA note from the editor
Man it's been hot. It's been so hot my neighbor's corn started popping. There was so much corn flying over the fence the mules thought it was snowing. They started shivering so hard we had to put blankets on them.
It will soon be over, and we will revel in the cool autumn weather. Or will we? My friend comes from Wyoming and is a "the grass is always browner on the other side" type. He insists my memory fails me, that it didn't get cool till December last year. Lord help us.
But he's wrong, I can feel it. The long awaited rains came, all 3 days of them the past month, and now there's that feel to the air. A snap. A sense that the coolness is about to arrive, like when you're in the mountains and hear a twilight rush of wind coming down the canyon. You know in moments it will hit you, and you brace for it. The animals feel it coming even stronger. They are closely tied to the seasons because they are out in them. In nature this is the time to fatten up and prepare for when food is scarce. Until a few generations ago, that's what people did too. And the horses and mules were there to help them; tending the crops. Harvesting and moving them to storage. Carrying their owners to market to buy and trade each other's bounty. They also served the trappers and hunters throughout the summer, then carried them to the Sante Fe rendezvous. Have you ever stopped to think that 100 years ago you traveled by horse or you didn't travel? Not far. How many horses were in America? How long did they live? How did they fair? The centuries of friendship and reliance on equines are as strong in our collective consciousness as is their memory of the need to fatten up. I'll do my part, and give Horace and Cricket a little rice bran each day. Haagen Daas for equines, to go with their popcorn. (apologies to Mrs. Wilder).
Bring on the fall.
Man it's been hot. It's been so hot my neighbor's corn started popping. There was so much corn flying over the fence the mules thought it was snowing. They started shivering so hard we had to put blankets on them.
It will soon be over, and we will revel in the cool autumn weather. Or will we? My friend comes from Wyoming and is a "the grass is always browner on the other side" type. He insists my memory fails me, that it didn't get cool till December last year. Lord help us.
But he's wrong, I can feel it. The long awaited rains came, all 3 days of them the past month, and now there's that feel to the air. A snap. A sense that the coolness is about to arrive, like when you're in the mountains and hear a twilight rush of wind coming down the canyon. You know in moments it will hit you, and you brace for it. The animals feel it coming even stronger. They are closely tied to the seasons because they are out in them. In nature this is the time to fatten up and prepare for when food is scarce. Until a few generations ago, that's what people did too. And the horses and mules were there to help them; tending the crops. Harvesting and moving them to storage. Carrying their owners to market to buy and trade each other's bounty. They also served the trappers and hunters throughout the summer, then carried them to the Sante Fe rendezvous. Have you ever stopped to think that 100 years ago you traveled by horse or you didn't travel? Not far. How many horses were in America? How long did they live? How did they fair? The centuries of friendship and reliance on equines are as strong in our collective consciousness as is their memory of the need to fatten up. I'll do my part, and give Horace and Cricket a little rice bran each day. Haagen Daas for equines, to go with their popcorn. (apologies to Mrs. Wilder).
Bring on the fall.
posted by Garrett | 8:57 PM
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