The fall harvest finished on our road around Oct. 20. With the corn gone our little hideaway is out in the open and we can see for miles all around us again.

Last month I wrote about the possibility of a carnivore roaming our acreage because of the lack of mice and rabbits. Well, if there was one it is gone because once again there are rabbits and mice aplenty.

A couple of weeks ago, during a mid-October evening, I heard a pack of coyotes very close, just behind our machine shed. I was walking from the garage to the house when they started up. Once on the back porch I stood listening to them howling and yipping for a few minutes until just as suddenly as they started they stopped. To hear them howling far off in the distance is lovely, almost romantic. To hear a pack just a few yards away from you is something different altogether.

A small wind storm blew through recently throwing dirt and debris at our house from across the field to our west. Just a little warning to us of what might be coming. We need to finish getting the place ready for winter. The weather forecast for this coming weekend looks like it might be a good time to take care of that.

As a kid when I would complain about being cold during the fall or early winter my dad would tell me I was not yet “climatized.” The more time you spent out in the cold, he would say, the more used to it you get. Well, sure enough, as winter went on what was a cold day in November felt like a heat wave in January. As I get older I dislike winter more and more, but I still look forward to becoming “climatized.” The only drawback is how much cold you have to endure to get there.

The harvest of crops along our road started September 12 and continues now into October. Just sections at a time have been taken so far, with the entire field to the south of us finally all gone while we are still surrounded by beautiful golden corn on the other three sides.

I write this on October 3^rd and only a few trees have begun to change color. The garden is winding down, with only the tomatoes left producing. The forecast calls for widespread frost this coming weekend, so that might be the end of it. Our son-in-law has offered in the past to bring out several containers of turkey manure to spread on the garden and I think we will take him up on the offer once we have the garden cleared out.

A few weeks ago I was cleaning up part of the machine shed when I noticed a couple of piles of animal scat, long and dark, on the floor. My first thought was raccoon, but there was no other evidence of them such as the usual chewing and general destruction. My second was a cat, for two reasons. We have seen one on our property a couple of times over the summer, and the rabbits and mice have almost disappeared. I have not seen a rabbit for maybe two months, which is roughly how long it has been since I have emptied a mouse trap around here. We might have an unseen visitor prowling the acreage.