Don't know if they came this morning or not, we went to town. We go through this every 18 months, except last time was 3 years ago because we changed inspectors just before it was time. Our inspector did tell someone to go elsewhere. That's the second farm they had driven into the ground. Now he's going to another state to see how many places he can wreck there.

I hope the silence means that every one had a lovely Thanksgiving. We had a house full and a wonderful time, too much food, lots of silliness. My windows are all decorated with window crayon pictures: a witch with a big heart in the kitchen, Christmas trees on a couple of windows, whales with butterflies in their tummies, a turkey 'pooping' eggs (as Erin says), an alligator, a bat chasing a bug and a tree. The kids put up the Christmas tree, which meant rearranging the furniture. I was good, I didn't move anything, just did some directing.

The snow that they have been talking about may miss us entirely. We are having rain and warmer weather today, cooling off again for the weekend, but not so cool that it will mean anything to measure. It has been one of the warmest Novembers on record and seems determined to continue thus to the end.

Stan has opened the big silo and will be feeding out of both of them to mix up the feed a little. The cows seem to like the idea. We're shipping around 70 pounds a day per cow right now. He'd like to get that up a little. The young man who does relief milking was home from school over the holiday and came one night to milk. He said he missed his cows and told Stan that we do not have bad cows. I guess the place that he's been working on has some horrendous bossies.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Our house was very full and busy. By the time they left there were almost no leftovers.

Yesterday we had a beautiful, warm (50) sunny day. I did some flower bed clean up. A few more days like that are needed, but probably not happening until sometime in April. This morning we seem to be back to almost normal, 20 degrees with overcast.

Our neighbor is putting in a water line before the ground freezes, so hubby spent most of the day helping him dig a trench with our small tractor and backhoe. There is a lot of rock in the ground, some of it will have to be broken up before it can be removed, by hand. Hubby is not involved with that part.

We had a quiet Thanksgiving - just immediate family, but it was very nice. Last week I was a ditch-digger. I put in a new water line to a cow trough that had been "temporarily" supplied by a hose - for about five years(!) I also put in a grey water drain around the foundation of a rent house. In this part of the country foundations (slabs that sit on the ground, no basements) tend to shift and break when the clay soils dry out so we water around our houses. Our own house is sitting on stable sandy soil but this house, which is not far away, is on clay. Most of the digging had to be done by hand; I am not sure if I will ever be able to stand up straight again.

Oh, lordy, I know that feeling. Haven't done any hard digging lately, but I'm still paying for what I did in the past.

It's snowing. Started around 7 this morning and there's a good coating on the grass and tree branches. I may get my Christmas card written today - the mood is there, anyway. I have a picture that I've been thinking about for a couple of years. I've been making my own cards since we were first married and poor. Just kept doing them, although they've grown from wood blocks on construction paper to photos on card stock. the poems have gotten a bit more sophisticated over the years as well. One winter, I was taking classes and farming full time and I just didn't have time to get one together. I got complaints from all the people who were collecting my cards! Some people will collect anything!

Stan is putting the new storm door on the back. It is a lovely green Pella door that makes the house look quite Christmasy with the old red painted wooden door. It's been a month of catching up on projects for him.

Guess I'd better go feed the poor birds.

I'd love to see your card(s)! I always enjoy the poem you post.

New month new thread here: The thread "December, creeping to the solstice" in Farming forum