We Made It to Another Winter Findings...

So, the first day of fall has come and gone and we made it to another Winter Findings.  It's been a crazy couple weeks; what with work, finishing the last of our summer projects, harvesting the garden, and the first frost of the season hitting a couple weeks early.  I tell you, with the early spring, the hot summer, and the early frosts, 2012 has certainly been a year to push us hard.  For the last week we have been harvesting and preparing the last bit of our warm weather crops and after this coming weekend's 20 degree nights we will be bringing in most of the rest of the garden.  The Chaos of the autumn harvest is in full swing.

 

One of the holidays that my family celebrates is called The Winter Findings.  For a very long time in my life I thought that my family was an odd one who was the only family that celebrated this holiday.  Then a couple years ago I began to surf the internet and I did a video on The Findings and found others that also celebrate it.  How wonderful!  The neat things about that is because it is not well known, or part of a organized religion, or even sanctioned by the government the families that I heard from all celebrate it a little differently from east other, much like the old holidays would have been.  Holidays of old would have been celebrated when the village or family had the time to do these celebrations, not when the church or the government told us it was time.  Only now in our ultra-organized world do we allow others to dictate to us when a celebration should take place.

The Winter Findings is a holiday of late summer to early fall for most families.  Some celebrate it from the full moon in September to the full moon in October, or from the full moon of October to the full moon of November, or from the autumn equinox to the next full moon, or, like my family does, from the Autumn Equinox to a certain day.  Our ending day is November 2nd.  On or near November 2nd we have the Final Harvest, which is an agriculture time of reminder that all life ends and moves on. 

What The Winter Findings means to my family is that...well...winter is coming and it is time to get ready.  While yes, most of us have been getting ready for winter since the day of the last frost in spring, this is the time when all the goofing off changes from summer picnics to nights around the fire with friends and family.  It is the time we take down the screens and put up the storm windows, it is the time we make certain the shutters are still working, it is the time we make certain that there is enough wood for the fires needed for the long winter nights, and it is the time to make certain that all the family, friends, and neighbors are ready for winter too.

 

For me it is time of coming back together.  Often during the summer we have been "doing our own thing".  Being part of community does not mean that we twitter each other every five minutes or call each other every day or even see each other every week.  There must be a balance between being with others and doing what works well for ourselves.  During the summer I often do not see family for most of that time of year.  We each have our own projects that we do and we go our own separate ways.  But in the winter we all come back together again, hunker down, and enjoy the "rest" that comes from no longer having to all the summer chores to do.  Yes, there are still chores in the winter, but they are not the same as the summer chores.  Most of the winter chores involve warm fires and lots of hot toddies.  LOL

 

It take family and friends to get ready for the winter, so we must have a time when we put an end to the separate jobs of spring and summer and come together to do the communal jobs of fall and winter.  And, of course, often burden shared are fun burdens to have.  In day of old they held corn shucking parties, fire wood gathering parties, sorghum parties, hunting parties and all the like.  Here we still have many of those same parties but I do admit that we have machines to shuck our corn so that particular party is more a chance to get together and have a few drinks.  LOL 

On or near the Autumn Equinox we have a community party which is potluck so one person is not doing all the work and we come together to talk about what we have been up to and find out what everyone still needs doing before the first snow socks us in.  Then we make smaller parties, set dates and go around the neighborhood to help with getting everyone ready.  Especially the elderly who want to stay in their homes may need an extra hand changing out their screens for storm windows or getting those repairs done to make sure the snow doesn't blow into the chicken coop, or unloading feed or putting up enough firewood, or whatever needs doing. 

Basically The Winter Findings is the last push to get ready for what here in Wisconsin can be a season of survival.  Winter can be harsh here and while now we have groceries stores and feed stores and big box stores to buy whatever we need all year long, a few pockets of communities still exists that remember the time when this was the last bit of time to put up what was needed to make it through to the time when the spring planting can begin.  In this time when money is tight, sometimes having neighbors come together and get those repairs or chores done instead of having to hire them done may be what allows some of our more vulnerable neighbors to stay in their homes. 

 

Of course, what most people who know about my family's traditions with The Findings is the full moon fun of October.  During the October full moon my family split up between the men and women.  Don't ask me what the men do, being a woman I have no idea and have really never asked.  But us ladies, from the old grannies, to the new babies, get together, usually at Aunt Ellen's house, and have a little get together of our own.  We eat, talk, make certain that all the "women things" are getting done, and then, when the full moon has risen over the corn field, we go out and speak with the corn spirits.  Usually most of us ask them for advice or insight, or even predictions.  It's probably an throwback holiday to some old European tradition of the family's...all I know is that we have done it for my whole lifetime and my great grandmother did it her whole lifetime.  There seems to be no religious overtones.  It's just something we do that is fun and brings the ladies together to make certain their needs are being taken care of, with a bit of the whimsical thrown if for fun.

The Winter Findings ends with The Final Harvest.  This is when we go over how much feed we have stored and figure out how much livestock we can take safely through the winter.  Then it is time to butcher the ones that are left.  This is not my favorite job of being a homesteader but it is something that needs to be done.  If I am going to take over some of Nature's responsibilities, such as gardening or raising animals, I still have to play within Her rules.  One of those rules is that I can only have as many animals as I can feed.  If I keep even one extra, all the rest of the animals suffer for it.  This is where the meat that will feed my family and friends comes from.  This is The Final Harvest.

People gather together on the farms that raise the meat animals and help with the butchering.  It is cold and hard work to put that meat up and it is often best done with friends.  Everyone takes home a share of the meat after a long weekend and then what we have is what we have and winter is coming, ready or not. 


Because of the old agriculture holiday of The Winter Findings, I believe my family, friends, neighbors and my household will be ready for the coming season.  It is something that I have participated in for 47 autumn now.  It is a tradition of the old ways where people came together to celebrate life, to laugh, to eat and be merry, and to help each other.  It begins with warm early fall weather, it moves through the changing of the leaves, and it usually ends very close to the frozen ground and even the first snows of the coming season.  It is my favorite time of year.