Bye-bye, garden

We didn't make church today, since the oldest grandson spent yesterday and most of today helping Cliff fix fence on all sides of our property.  It was in terrible shape, but Cliff said it ought to keep our cows at home.  We are so thankful for Arick's help, since I can no longer navigate the hills and hollers.  In fact, I no longer walk with Cliff.  I really miss it, but it was causing me so much pain it ruined the rest of my day.  Cliff said I had better stop, so I don't wear my knees out any worse than they already are.  That is the last I intend to talk about my aches and pains.  
I do miss our daily walks terribly, but we do what we must.  
I was going to go take pictures of the guys fixing fence, but they were so far toward the back of the place that I gave up and came back to the house.  I did take the new header picture on my way back, though.  

This afternoon I went to the garden and started cleaning up the mess.  

Looking to the north, there's a row of turnips which I hope to share with my cousin Betty, since Cliff hates them, and I can only eat so many.  Just on the the other side of the turnips is the strawberry bed.  I do not garden properly, so I didn't thin the strawberries and I never cover them with straw.  I'm lazy.

I got the tomato plants, cages, and posts all removed from the garden.  Now I have 10,352 green tomatoes to pick up and haul off.  This is still looking toward the north, where you can see that Cliff has put out a hay bale for the cattle (all four of them).

Looking south, in the foreground you can see the tastiest carrots I've ever grown, planted late in the summer.  Beyond them are a few remaining beets.  The chickens are turned out every afternoon, even though there isn't that much for them to forage at this time of year.  

The house next door has been vastly improved.  The new neighbors have a horse-boarding operation, and the lady gives riding lessons.  Her husband is a local farmer, but we notice him doing a lot of work around the barn, too  We see them putting the horses up at night, and in the morning when they let them out it's fun to watch the horses running for the love of freedom.  

This is the horse barn, with an indoor arena.  

Because of the rain last week and the fact that baby Cora's daddy works construction, Monday was the only day we had her until I begged her dad to bring her over for a few hours on Thursday (for free, of course); I told him we were having withdrawal symptoms.  We are so attached to her at this point, we'd probably pay THEM if we had to, just to be a part of her life.