Here are some of the scenes I have been witnessing this early October.

The first is an interesting view of our earlier hay loft chicks that are now hens. I love their facial feathers and their very red combs.

On Monday I rotated the sheep and cows to new pastures.  For some reason, I love to watch them right after they have moved.  They seem very content on their fresh grass.  

I moved the hen and peachicks to a different shelter.  This cage has more light, ventilation and room.  She is watching out for them quite well.  

I gathered some very late summer vegetables (the very last of them) for making minestrone soup.  

Yesterday I took Steve out to the back 40 (actually four) acres.  He loves running around out there. It was pretty, but I noticed a lot of the deciduous trees seem to be dying.  I am not sure why.  I wonder about the lack of water but also maybe it is just the end of their lifespans.  I decided to take some photos to document it as it is easier to see which trees are in trouble when the leaves haven’t dropped yet.

Here is a view of the cows with the logged hill behind them.

And here are some of the trees starting to change colors.

This is just a close up of one of the hens in the foreground in the clover.

I decided to take a photo of the back of the hose as I was heading in.  I thought it was nice with the back porch with the new autumn leaves lights I put up.  But now I see that it shows that I missed cleaning the outside of the gutters on top of the porch.  It looks ugly, and I will need to get on that before the rains come.

Health Update (only for those who are interested):

Since my last update September 16, my shortness of breath and palpitations are slowly worsening again but not as bad as they were before I restarted the prednisone. The pulmonologist said that the restrictive pattern on my pulmonary function tests is just from my being overweight and not from restrictive lung disease. So he is referring me for exercise pulmonary testing which could take a while to accomplish in these Covid times. So still no real answers. I am tolerating the methotrexate well except I am having increasing bruising. I have my follow up labs soon so we shall see if there are any adverse effects of the medication on my platelet count, liver or kidneys. I am down to 6 servings of wine per week on the rheumatologist’s advise. My sweats might be getting a little better and maybe the methotrexate is keeping my breathing from getting as bad as it was. But it could be my ongoing prednisone use (now at 10 mg).