Catching up

November was a busy month!  Thanksgiving was wonderful and we had a yummy dinner that included roasted turnips, rutabaga, and onions grown right here on the farm.  The turkey was fantastic--moist and full of flavor.  Margaret and I did a great job with it!

The newest addition is a 17.5 cubic foot freezer, which came in handy for Thanksgiving leftovers.

It isn't that empty anymore.

We are getting ready for winter around here.  Dad and I put the snowplow on the Farmall (well, actually HE put it on.  I fetched things and held wrenches).  All the mulching is done.  I put netting back on all the fruit trees, but didn't manage to get it back on before deer damaged one of the apple trees.

Temperatures are falling at night, although they've been in the 40s and 50s during the day.  Saturday there was frost over everything.  

It was cold out there!


Christmas is coming--we've gotten our first Christmas card of the season! Saturday morning Joe and I put up the outdoor lights on the house.  I still need to do the little evergreen out front.  I have put two t-bars in to mark where the driveway is, in anticipation of snow.  The bars have a solar light attached but there hasn't been a lot of sunlight lately, so the lights don't last long once the sun goes down.

 I plugged in the lights to make sure they work.  Margaret says it looks like a bumble threw up in the hallway.

Lights on!  Apparently the blue lights lose their color over time, which is why they look like blue and white lights.  Not sure why the section at the end is still only blue, but it's a pain to change them so they are going to stay there.  Maybe next year I will get LED lights and put a timer on.  Right now I have to go out and plug the lights in; that will get to be a pain when it gets REALLY cold out.

But by far the biggest thing that has happened is that Jean has moved to England.  While we know and agree that it's important for our kids to find their own path, it's unutterably sad to have her so far away.  We have to adjust to this big hole in our family, and it is going to take a very long time to do so--if we ever can.