Lots of things in our life are dictated by the seasons, much in the same way it was for our grandparents and their parents. In many ways, all of us still follow a seasonal calendar so it’s really not that uncommon. There are only a few places where our alignment with the calendar seems to be so intrinsically intertwined that it feels different to how I lived before. Take August, for example. August has always felt pretty special to me. It’s warm and dry. The blow-your-doors-off part of summer has started to fade to lazy, hazy days. There is just a tiny hint of pending fall in the air combined with all of the deliciousness of summer. By mid-August, you start thinking about football and back-to-school. August just feels like a month where life starts to settle back down.
Here on our mini homestead, the feelings I’ve always had about August are a little exacerbated by harvest time. The plants are loaded with bounty and in short order, we will be inundated with produce that needs to be harvested, preserved and enjoyed. Those activities, to me, are very settling. There is a good feeling you get in making sure something you grew doesn’t go to waste. But even more, the feeling that you get that you’ve put a little food away to be enjoyed later in the year is indescribable. When the storage freezer (or freezers) and the root cellar begin to fill up, it just feels so good. In August, my sisters and I also go wild blackberry picking and in doing so, we continue on a tradition of our mother, grandmother and grandmother before her. It’s affirming and ties us both to our heritage and our environment.
As homesteader wannabes, we also need to get firewood in for the season. So, August becomes the perfect month to cut, split and stack firewood so that it has time to dry before coming inside. Since we’ve been married, I’ve taken on the role of bringing in the kindling every year. We collect kindling from downed tree branches and other smaller pieces of wood that we can use to start the fires in our fireplace. In a typical year, we may go through 10-12 paper-sized boxes of kindling. My goal is to always make sure we have at least that every year. It isn’t something Darryl asked me to take on, ironically. Instead, it was something where I saw I could make a contribution and I assumed that role.
August also brings about the Perseids meteor shower in the middle of the month and laying on the wet grass on a warm night and looking up at the stars has a way of both inspiring and grounding you at the same time.
August is, therefore, inherently special in so many ways. Because of the way we live, August becomes a preparatory month. Much like those same feelings I’ve always had about August being a return to routine and predictability, August as a homesteader validates those feelings. In August, we get ready for the months to come, just like I always did.
Launching into August, my heart settles down a bit. The lead up and the launch of summer is just fabulous, but in a break-the-routines, let-it-all-hang-out kind of way. By Memorial Day, you can feel the momentum building and bursting open that summer is “here”. In mid-June, there is a restlessness that routines need to be broken and schedules need to be relaxed, which comes full circle once kids are out of school for the summer. By Fourth of July, the doors are fully blown off. This summer, we had a wedding and our typical Fourth of July on the lake. It was a total free-for-all. July continues that pace of just enjoying the no-rules, go barefoot and t-shirts and ponytails kind of days. But as you turn into August, you can actually feel your pulse start to slow down. You’ve done at least most of the things you had planned on your summer “to do” list and your soul is getting ready to slow its backside down.
That’s where I am today. Feeling overwhelmingly grateful that it is August 1st. Enjoying the morning sunshine with two cats lazing on the back deck, the process of getting kindling started with branches for me to chop up neatly stacked on the wood pile and a garden that is just loaded with fruit. I have plans for August but they’re simple plans. A slow, simple and measured return to work but at a much-reduced pace. Helping my niece prepare her new home as she moves in. Harvesting our garden and spending a little time gathering with my sisters. Taking hikes with my husband on Saturdays as we prepare to eventually hike the 46 High Peaks of the Adirondacks.
But mostly, I plan to slow down and re-establish routines. That is what appeals most about August. Thank goodness it’s here.
The Yuppie Homesteader 