SUMMER, WINDING DOWN

Well, summer must be done - the humming birds have left the country. We have two feeders that hang right outside my kitchen window and I've been watching them war over who has access to the sugar water since May. It seems lonely now to look out at the empty airspace before me. Not that you can get an accurate count of how many tiny birds there are circling the feeders at any one time, but we think we probably have five or six mating pairs, and come August when the juveniles join the adults to top up their tanks for their flight south, I almost feel a need an air trafic controller to keep from being speared with their pointy little beaks while I'm flipping burgers for supper.

Harvest is in full swing - or it was before Mother Nature decided to slow things down with a rain. Growing conditions were perfect to begin with this summer. The soil moisture was perfect for planting, the weather was sunny and warm with timely rains, never letting the plants starve for water. Even in July, when the temperatures started to climb, the constant sunshine was still good news for the crops. Unfortunately, it got to be too much of a good thing and the yield potential started sliding backwards. Although the grain heads were there to make big yields, the heat and lack of moisture dried the kernels up and the bushels went down. Now, to add insult to injury, the weather is being finicky with cool rainy days that hold back the harvest and drop the grades on the grain. Such is farming - always next year country.

Because we have so little to combine, we are done except for a few acres of oats down in the low spots where it stays green longer. While we wait for that to ripen, Glen is busy baling straw and swathing slough hay. The hay crop was fantastic this year and we have more than we'll ever use in two or even three years. We'll be putting some of it up for sale, and Glen plans to custom feed a neighbor's herd and add to ours as well, so we'll put a dent in the pile by spring.

I was gone on holiday for a week, so I am seriously behind in my gardening, pickling, and yard work. Glen entertained his cousin and her family while I was away, hosting a bonfire and wiener roast one night. It's something we like to do often during the summer, but I always try to have the grass cut before so that the mosquitos are less of a problem. I spent all day Sunday mowing the lawn - it hadn't seen a lawn mower for three weeks - I hope his guests didn't get eaten alive!

While he was keeping the home fires burning, I was out in Kananaskis Country in Alberta, camping with my sister, hiking a few trails and trying out white water rafting. Although I love my Prairies, and wouldn't want to live anywhere else, I do love to visit the mountains.

Now, it's back to the grind. The first day back to work I couldn't even find my office keys (a subliminal message, do you think?) , and once I got back into that groove, our daughter, Jesse, has been in daily contact trying to get plans underway for a wedding next year. Come this time next year, I'm liable to need an extended holiday.