Things in the field are slowing down (but we still haven't got a frost yet, wow!).  So harvesting and cleaning up the fields is consuming 90% of my time.   Working in this totally awesome sun I actually felt like I was somehow skipping out on work - what an awesome feeling - like I had the day off even though I was actually working! In this sunshine I've also been doing tonnes more brainstorming on ideas for next year.  I got some good ones so stay posted!  It is really hard to keep the secret but....well the details aren't quite ready yet. Soon soon....

 I was out in the fields harvesting the very last of the peppers this morning even though I thought I had already 'cleared' the patch. I found some really big ones that I somehow missed on my last go through. ' Hmm', I thought, 'I guess I just needed to see them from a different angle'.  How true is this of life?  Sometimes we just need to change the way we look at things to be able to see the gift in it.  I recently read that bad things that happen to us in life aren't meant to destroy us but rather to mold us into the person we are meant to be.  Wow, this is brilliant!  My pepper experience was just a metaphor (or something of the like, hehe) of this.  If we can just see things differently we can see how true this is.  Things are there to help us grow that is all.   

I later moved on to harvest the leeks.  One of those suckers was so well rooted that even when I pulled with all my might it still wouldn't come out! " Grrr!" I huffed, all frustrated, "Let go and come out sucker!!".  Well I can see the lesson just now in this very moment my plants were there to teach me.  We need to be able to let go and come out of the box we place ourselves in to be able to see things differently.  If we don't we fight our very own transition into becoming the magnificent being we are capable of becoming.  Wow, I love how thoughts when written come together to reveal a larger truth!

So I ask you..how would your world look differently if you just let go and allowed yourself to see things from a new perspective?  This is my contemplation for the week...

The cucumber patch!!  Yes, it is exceptionally weedy (or maybe just weeds?!).  Luckily it is now tilled in, thanks Brent:)

The Pfennings stacking crates and crates of cabbage for winter storage - filled one full storage room with it.  Holy smokes - hope someone likes sauerkraut or coleslaw, hehe.

Tomatoes!  Still ripening as there has not been frost yet, crazy!

A weird patch that didn't germinate any of my buckwheat cover crop.  Bizarre??  Must investigate....

What's left of my tomato trellis.  Must come up with a better system for next year!  Most of the trellis just collapsed with the weight of the plants and they were lying on the ground anyway.  Ideas....?

My ultimate laugh of the week.  I was told I am now a Halloween costume at Value Village - and presented with this image of a very bumpkin like person in overalls - an Organic Farmer they say:) Complete with a certified USDA Organic button, hehe.  I held up the picture the entire market asking everyone if they could see the resemblance. 

Shucked garlic ready to be planted - must do this SOON!  My thumbs were killing after shucking 360 bulbs!  Ouch.  I did spend a few moments outside the pain to contemplate the miracle of having thumbs however.  They are really quite incredible.  Check it out for yourself....

My shucking mess!  Hahah, I've been waiting since I did this to write that one!

The infamous Wolfgang Pfenning.  Never too busy to chat me up and philosophize about life and society.  My kinda guy:)

Leeks!!  You guys seem to love 'em so next year I'm doubling the planting:)

Kale!  Saying to me "Horray...Give me a K! Give me an A.....What does that spell? (KA, but you can fill in the blanks no?)

Pole Beans at end of life.  I'm saving the ones left for seed for next year (now that I know how).  Priority #2 - deconstruct trellises.  I don't want to have to be farming in the snow!