Fall is Finally Here!
Hello! It's October, and here in far northern California, it's still hot (mid 90s F this week), but the nights are cooling down, we had our first day of rain last week (yay!), and the early morning air has that special crispness that only comes in the fall.
Autumn is my favorite season, and this year that's especially true. After cracking both my hip and my wrist at the end of August, September was a very difficult month, despite all the help my family provided. I'm happy to say that I'm now doing much better and loving the beauty and power of nature more than ever as it has definitely contributed so much to my recovery. Being forced to slow down physically has given me the time to refresh myself mentally and emotionally. More relaxing in the garden than working in the garden, and that's been nice. I've always said that nature is my therapy, and the last five weeks have proven that to me yet again.
Two more reasons October is set to be a wonderful month... First, my youngest two kids (20 & 17) and I will be making our annual pilgrimage to Apple Hill in a week, and I'm so excited! Apple Hill is a lovely agricultural area in the Sierra Nevada foothills about 2.5 hours (by car) southeast of here. Nestled amongst its scenic winding roads, Apple Hill is a collection of more than 50 different family farms, many of them focusing on apples obviously, but also vineyards and pumpkins and bakeshops and more. There are pony rides and pumpkin mazes and various such activities for the kids, but also hard cider and scrumptious apple desserts for us older folks to appreciate. I always bring home a few boxes of heirloom apples as well for us to enjoy fresh and preserve in different ways - despite the fact that I have six nicely producing apple trees myself!
The second reason October is already turning out to be amazing is that the extra "downtime" I've been forced to endure has given me the freedom to research and actively pursue many different streams of at-home income (much-needed and most of it eventually passive). I've thought about several of these things before now, but I never felt I had the time to set them up and give them the "kick-start" I thought they needed. No excuses this past month though, and so I've begun, and it's really been enjoyable, even fun, as I've rediscovered my interest and love for activities and lines of work (more accurately, passions) that I'd set aside in recent years for reasons that probably were valid at the time but no longer are holding me back.
Another decision I made recently is to be more intentional about creating a community environment for those who follow my Olive City Oasis YouTube channel. That's always been my goal, but I'm now investigating different ways I can encourage this kind of community feeling and interactions with my subscribers to grow. One of those ways is to commit to publishing my videos on a more regular basis, so people can really depend on me giving them reliable content. Hopefully, the increased regularity of my videos, as well as my continued replies to viewers' comments (I do love interacting with fellow gardeners!) will lead to a more connected community.
One other way I'm trying to build the Olive City Oasis community is with this Buy Me A Coffee page! I did consider creating a Patreon account, but after looking into both platforms, I've decided that BMAC is easier to use and offers more versatility and an overall better vibe. I truly hope my posts and photos here, along with the monthly Plant Guides, Garden Recipe bundles, and other "extras" I'm offering to different member levels, will help all of us who enjoy growing veggies and fruit trees and herbs and flowers to come together in this little corner of the internet to discuss and share and help and celebrate each other AND nature. It sounds like a wonderful plan to me!
Thank you so much for your time and your interest! Best wishes to you in all your gardening and nature adventures. I hope to see you around in our growing community!
Wishing You a Happy October, Kim