Most of the fields in the Finger Lakes have been put to bed for the winter. The corn has been picked with only a few fields of corn left standing. The good weather has allowed the farmers some extra time to finish combining the beans before converting their machines to corn picking heads. This is not the farming that I remember when I was growing up. The combine and corn picker were separate machines. My father’s corn picker picked only one row of corn at a time and the corn was not shelled in the fields but remained on the cob. Then the cobs were stored in wire cribs which allowed the corn kernels to finish maturing and naturally air dry.
Snow fences have been going up all around the Finger Lakes, but so far we have been lucky as we have had only a dusting of snow. But that can change at any time now. Soon the west winds will howl and the snow fences will help keep the roads open for the folks who have to travel to work or to the store each day.
Even in the middle of the afternoon, the sun is low in the southwestern sky. Its rays reflect just a glimmer of hope and the light sparkles on the water, but there is none of the warmth that lingers on a summer’s evening. The sun is almost to the end of its southern journey. On December 22nd, winter will begin and the sun will slowly start its northern journey back to the Finger Lakes.
There is a silence and serenity in the fields around this time of the year. The fields, the vineyards, and the trees will take their rest until spring.
