The Smell of Fall

Louis is stacking hay bales for this coming winter. He created a new place with horse panels next to where the horses usually feed. In the meantime, I harvested the apples from our small apple trees before the bees and wasps ate too many of them and started making applesauce. It's been smoky the last couple of weeks due to forest fires around this part of Montana and over the Bitterroot Mountains in Idaho. I can smell a slight hint of burning wood. Add to that the smell of the ripening apples and the hay. My thoughts turn to September harvests, the start of Esther's school year and all that the beginning of a school year brings in schedule changes. Since I loved school, I loved this time of year from an early age. The tinge of crispness in the air somehow makes me feel more alive. This week-end, Labor Day Week-end, we will spend partly at Camp Utmost's Family Camp...whenever we are not doing something for Beth Tephila. I'll probably have more to write after that week-end. Esther partially dislocated her right shoulder in volleyball on her first day of school. Thankfully, she is fairly stoic with pain, especially if it was connected with her beloved sports. She is an athlete - not a student. Hopefully she can still enjoy the fun of camp when she is not working at SubWay this week-end.