Spring, Summer and Fall at Lava Lake are all wonderful and unique in their own ways; experiencing new life and mountains carpeted in bright green, afternoon fishing and barbecues after checking on the irrigation and livestock, and watching the landscape morph into an exquisite collage of reds, oranges and yellows.

I wouldn’t give up any of those times. But there is something extra special about winter at the ranch; the stillness of the land is captivating and it feels good to just be quiet. Feeling the horses’ thick winter coats is, perhaps, my favorite thing of all, as well as reuniting with the ranch dogs and having a hot cup of tea with the Bennett family.

My parents and I made a trip to the main ranch over the holiday break and, although there was little snow to speak of, it felt great to be back. The barn additions completed during the fall looked fabulous, as did the new paint job. Other than corralling a few escapee horses everything was in great shape.

During the winter there is not much activity at Lava Lake Ranch. However, the new year does bring new life as we are currently in the middle of our lambing season. Here are some adorable photos of our lambs.

Lava Lake herders, Optaciano, Edwin and Cricenio enjoying the Trailing of the Sheep festivities.

From the archives – 1948 photograph of Lava Lake by Ansel Adams

High Heel Rock

Last weekend we harvested crabapples at Lava Lake.

Fall is a time of contrasts for me. Summer is such a busy time at the ranch, but the days are so long they can handle all the busyness. In fall it seems like the pace actually picks up, if that’s possible, yet everything around us – the shortening days, something indefinable but palpable in the air itself — is clearly trying to slow us down, ease us into winter. In our cold country, animals and people alike harvest what crops remain. Bears gorge on choke cherries, rodents store up grain, folks cover their gardens at night in the hopes of protecting them from frost and gaining just a few more warm growing days.  And I pick crabapples.

Our trees are only about 12 feet tall so we can climb up on short ladders and get the fruit easily. Crabapples hang on stems in little clusters. I like to hold a cluster in my hand and carefully bend the stem just at the top of the fruit so that I don’t have much work to do before making them into jelly – I don’t want a bunch of stems and leaves in my bowl. This means I have to pick slowly and carefully, and I found myself enjoying every minute of that task. I didn’t want it to end; I wished it could take all afternoon. The pleasure was in standing outside in the sun, feeling the cool breeze, noticing all the shades of red as the crabapples plopped into my bowl and imagining the beautiful little jars of ruby-colored jelly I would make with them.

Sometimes we hurry through our chores, rushing to get to the next thing. Sometimes that’s necessary in our busy lives. But more and more I am trying to enjoy each task in my day, whether sitting at my computer to do some writing, organizing the storage shed or harvesting fruit.  I’m not giving up efficiency – I can’t afford to. But being in the moment, being grateful for whatever task is before me, seems to reduce the stress of busyness.  Maybe it’s a fall thing.

Next weekend I’m going to make jelly. I’ll let you know how it turns out.