If humans had evolved in the Pacific Northwest instead of Africa, we’d have webbing between our fingers and toes. When it is this wet for this much of the year, humans with webbing in their feet and hands would have survived much better than those without.

Miasa 美朝 and her chicks come looking for me when I am outside, especially if I am headed to the cabin to make tofu. They know that once I’ve wrung the soy milk out of the soybeans, that they are in for a treat. They gobble up any okara, the soybean solids left over after making soy milk, that I give them.

The fall colors keep intensifying. The wind has knocked most of the leaves off the taller trees, but the bushes and small trees are still a riot of color. They are brilliant on sunny days, but rain gives them a special, luscious look too.