It must be fall...

Fall, autumn--whatever you want to call it--is my favorite time of year. I love everything about it. I love the decorations and the colors of the season. I love the smells when people start up their wood-burning stoves for the first time, the leaves that start to fall and give that faint musty smell. The air is cool and crisp, just begging for time spent outside. I would seriously petition for fall to be here 6 months of the year, with each of the other seasons only 2 months long. I like winter, but 2 months of the snow and super cold temps is enough. Spring is just wet and soggy, but it brings Easter and flowers. So I'll take 2 months of that, too. Same with summer. I like summer, but I hate the heat. Two months of 80+ would be enough for me. Then 6 months of fall. Sounds perfect, right?

Well, I've decided that Fall is indeed here. Why? Oh, there are lots of reasons. We have been in the 30s at night and 60s during the day, some of our leaves are starting to change colors, the kids are back in school, soup is on sale at the grocery store. I could go on and on. But one thing that really made me realize that fall is here? Our deep freezer is pretty close to empty. Fall is when we get all our meat for the coming year. We have a steer and a hog butchered. Andy goes hunting and gets venison from his deer. We go into winter with a freezer full of steaks, chops, roasts and burger. Well, the other day I went out to the deep freeze and it was remarkably empty. I'm talking 2 or 3 roasts, a couple packages of steak and a few packages of things we give to our friend--the livers. No hamburger, no pork or venison at all, the chicken that I buy in bulk is gone. It was depressing. Even more depressing? The price I paid at the grocery store for hamburger yesterday. Yikes. I haven't bought hamburger in YEARS and let me tell you, I don't want to buy it again for years.

So I had a little talk with my hubby, seeing how and when things were going to start arriving in our freezer. He takes care of that part of it, I take care of organizing and eventually cooking it. It's an even trade, I figure. And he assured me that it won't be too much longer. I hope he's right. I don't think we can afford to buy all our meat!