Huz makes a mean pie.

Hamilton dumps his backpack and climbs the into the horse pasture to come see me on Chaser. My friend, Eileen, shoots a photo of that, our beautiful old home and a glorious Ohio Autumn sky.

Here, in Ohio, there is little chance of ignoring the march of time and season. This is no "Always sunny!" or "It's always 73 degrees!" kind of place. Indeed it isn't even a "Come play in the snow!" destination. I think Ohio is rarely considered a "destination" at all. At least not a vacation one. Sure, we have Amish country -"Come buy a quilt and drive behind a buggy!" and we have Lake Erie - "It's green but you can drive a boat!" If you stretch, we have the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame. But do people around the country, around the world think "Boy, I wish I could go to Ohio for spring break/the Holidays/summer vacation!"? No, I think not. Unless....unless it is home. Because, Ohio is hot and humid in the summer, cold and unpleasantly windy in the winter (here at Cowfeathers, windy is a norm). But it is a great place to call "home". We suffer and relish the seasons in equal measure. There is no forced feeling about a wintery Christmas...unlike Arizona it always feels like Dickens' Christmas when December 25 rolls around in Ohio. And spring bursts upon you with it's unerring stirrings of hope somewhere in late March. Summer warms you up in June- from sweatshirts to sweaty shirts in a trice. And, fall descends along with the leaves, ready or not, here it comes in slippery-grass frosted mornings, visible breath and ice-topped water buckets in the barn.
And here we are, in that fall, will it be 20 or 50 degrees today? Sunny or bleak? Will the wind make it pitiful to be outside? Or will it subside and give me enough peace to ride? The Ohio seasons do keep you guessing. But I am home, and pleased to be so.
My calendar tells me next week is Thanksgiving, and the season here agrees. Huz will soon be brining turkeys (multiple? yes.) and making pies. My food aversions subsiding some in the past year might even allow me to participate in the preparations. Corn and carmelized onion souffles sound nice. Wilted greens, and I think something with beets. We have our sweet potatoes and blue, red, gold and white potatoes harvested (go Huz!!!) so, definitely potatoes for our Thanksgiving feast. Out here in the country, we are a rare species; a family without family. It will be just us again for the Thursday evening celebration. Every few years we've been fortunate enough to have family make the trip to see us for a Holiday(we rarely leave because of the animals), a reason to make Ohio a destination! They have braved the season, maybe cold, icy, snowy, or dry, and merely Carhartt weather, because even though we have no buggy, no boat and no ski hill, Huz does make a mean pie.