Rule for pruning:  Trim back one third of the height of your plant, shrub or tree.  Bambi didn't know that rule when she pruned my strawberries last night.  A couple of the plants got trimmed down to ground level.  She ate the green leaves and politely left the red berries for me.

I noticed the deer hoof prints in the flower beds right underneath the sunflower seed bird feeder.  There were seeds scattered on the ground.  I was surprised that the deer did not clean them up.  

The juncos and the nuthatches were feeding on the ground when I got home from work.  It was entertaining to watch them skitter around under the ninebark branches in search of the seeds that the deer had dropped.

The wind was gusting all day.  There are only a few stubborn leaves clinging to the branches of the poplars in behind my yard.  The beautiful colors of fall now lay in wind blown piles along the fence line.

I don't like being outside on gusty days so I hunkered down with a book for the night.  The only time I got distracted was when the sun began going down.  The colors of the sunset this evening were brilliant but short lived as dark clouds moved in from the west.  Rain showers are in the forecast for tonight.  I love the smell of rain and look forward to taking in that freshness when I open the back door in the morning.

As I looked out the back window to watch the sun rise, I noticed that the wind has stripped the autumn color from the trees.  I heard the gusts through the night and this morning, the backyard is littered with leaves.

It is still windy so the efforts to rake them would be fruitless.  I need a few bags of leaves to mix into my raised garden beds so the first chance I get, I'll be collecting that backyard carpet and mixing it with the black soil.

On Saturday when I got back from the farm, I was unloading my vehicle and saw birds overhead.  This time it was not sandhill cranes.  There were pelicans swooping and swirling!

The Canada geese are not on the move yet.  I noticed many flocks in the harvested fields; picking up what the farm equipment left behind.

The chickadees and nuthatches are busy feeding in the backyard.  I've added some suet and peanut feeders to attract more woodpeckers and blue jays.  There has been lots of action at all the feeders.  The sunflower seeds need to be filled daily where through the summer I filled those feeders once per week.

The birds are preparing for winter just as I was.  The firewood stand arrived and I put that together.  The log splitter arrived and the stack of wood is split, on the stand and covered up.  The new outdoor fire pit arrived and I assembled that as well.  I haven't had the chance to use it yet.  There is some prep work that needs doing in the old fire ring before the new one can fit inside safely.  

I can't wait to try it for the first time.  The forecast for the weekend is looking great and if the wind cooperates, I'm going to try my best for an autumn bonfire.  The best case scenario would be to have some leaves left over from the garden project.  Oh, how I love leaf bonfires in the fall.  I miss my old 'leaf trees' from the backyard.  They used to give me enough leaves for a bonfire to last all afternoon.