I give up...fall really IS here

By Michael

Our apple harvest (Photograph from our "fall '13" folder)

When I save photographs on our computer, I put them in folders according to the season in which the photos were taken. Since we moved into our house I have been putting photos in the "Summer '13" folder. I have been dreading the transition into "Fall '13." When we first moved in I had hoped to have done a lot more with our house than we have done so far. For one thing, the windows and doors need to be changed before it gets much colder out. They are very old and do not offer a bit of insulation. A couple of our window frames are even rotten and need to go regardless of the outside temperature.

Well, I give up. It really is the fall season. Unfortunately, it has been cold here in Lviv since August 21st. I know because that was the day Yulia and I fed the bees for the first time. It was chilly, cloudy and rainy all day that day, and the weather has been pretty much the same ever since. It has been really inconvenient in many ways. For one, our laundry has been piling up. There were two cold, windy (but sunny) days this past week, so I took advantage of the relative nice weather to wash and line dry everything that needed to be washed.

But I don't want to be too glum. The coming of fall means it's time to collect apples. Any apples that fall from the trees won't store well, so we slice them up and dry them.

The apples that we pick from the trees can be stored. Yulia has been wrapping each one in paper. They store better that way. If one apple starts to rot, it will not spread to the others.

We have also been harvesting hawthorn and elderberry. They grow wild in the fields behind our house. When we go to dig potatoes at Yulia's grandparents' village next week, we will harvest some rose hips and hops which grow wild by the Dnister River.

We have another bit of good news--our new bed has arrived! Several weeks ago Yulia ordered an all wood bed for us. It is all natural. The wood is treated with an oil of some sort. The smell makes me hungry...although Yulia says that pretty much everything makes me hungry! I think she has a point! :)

This bed is much better than our previous "bed"--bee hive stands and boards.

The remnants of our old "bed"

Although we ordered a mattress and bed at the same time, they arrived several weeks apart from each other. So when our mattress arrived several weeks ago, we had to improvise. But the wait makes us appreciate this new bed even more. When we were putting it together we could see the fine craftsmanship that was put into it.

Our beautiful (and hunger inducing) new bed

 To anyone that subjects themselves to live a life of non-stop comfort: make yourself uncomfortable every once in a while. Comfort is meaningless unless you understand what discomfort is.