Now that lamb harvest is over, we’re full-swing into prepping our place for winter. (And since it was 37 degrees this morning at chore time, I’m thinking not a moment too soon!)

The first thing is food for the animals.

You’re looking for a consistent quality and price for your hay–and it’s hard to find around here! Over the next couple weeks we’ll pick up a couple trailer loads of hay and a pallet of bagged feed. A pallet is 45 bags, by the way. We use Purina food (again, for consistency) and we get an extra 5% discount for buying 20 or more at the same time. Add that to the standard 10% your whole purchase coupon we normally use and we end up with about 5 bags free.

And last year we’ve finally found a steady supply of quality hay at a reasonable price–although we have to drive a  few hours to pick it up. But the animals thrive on consistency and we thrive on staying on budget! {smile}

And remember that fall grass we planted?

Yeah, it’s coming along beautifully!! All that rain we had really brought it along.

Then you start looking at shelters.

This weekend we stuffed the chicken and duck houses with fresh hay (glad we did since it was in the 30s this morning!) and went over some basic egg-collecting “rules” again. We’ve been getting a lot of cracked eggs from little farmhands not being careful!

Rule #1 : Clean boxes make clean eggs.

Rule #2 : Always take the basket with you. (A dozen eggs will not fit safely in your pockets all the way to the house!)

Rule #3 : Check for snakes!

We haven’t winterized the garden yet–I feel overwhelmed just thinking about it!–but that needs to be done too.

Next comes the yard…

We mowed (well, Mr. Fix-It mowed) and edged (well, Mr. Fix-It edged) and mulched the flower beds, and trimmed some summer dead heads and replaced our well-worn flag.

This is also the time of year when I start enjoying time on the porch. We’ve been talking about getting new porch chair cushions, but I’m sure the season has passed. Maybe I’ll come across a great clearance sale. Meanwhile, I’m washing our old ones again along with all our bright woven-wool porch rugs. We trimmed back the jasmine vines and reclaimed our porch space to enjoy the flowers and the breeze and the big Indian Summer moon.

And then you think inside…

And we finally got back to painting the upstairs and Mr. Fix-It has been working hard on the playroom before we have company this coming weekend.

The kiddos are excited about the new space–especially since we have a lot of things for the walls that we never got around to hanging before–since we were going to be painting “any day now.” {smile}

What’s new and improved around your homeplace?