This is the end, my friend

It's hard to believe that summer is over and so is gardening. I thanked the park board tonite for the land upon which I grew the biggest potatoes I have ever seen in my life, and well, heck, that makes it final. The rakes are hung up, the plants are pulled, the garlic has been planted, and frankly as nice as the weather has been lately, I'm hoping it won't come up too early thinking it's spring. One dead giveaway of course, is the amount of light. Days are getting shorter and shorter. This evening - now that the moon has reached it's final quarter and not rising until later, it was dark. Really dark. The animals eyes are glowing in the brush, and one has to be careful about driving and being aware of a deer or something jumping out in front of your car.
This past weekend, the farmer next to us sucked up soybeans as fast as he could leaving clouds of very dry stalks trailing his combine. Thousands of geese are flocking around the fields picking on leftovers. Our flock of turkeys come through the yard like clockwork. They are growing quickly now, perhaps fattening their bellies for winter.
A report on the radio has the water in our lakes at or above normal levels. That's a small miracle considering the drought of the past 7 years. It's snowing, in the mountains and that means winter's coming, ever so slowly this fall, but nonetheless, it will be here... and we be waiting for it.