Oh, yes...winter

 Tuesday was the first snowfall here. I did not take any pictures...grumble, grump, fuss. It's cold, heavy and sticking around. The solar panels are still 95% covered. 

My friend is complaining that we've skipped the autumn season and gone from 80s to 30s. She's not wrong. I find myself already slipping into firewood habits that work best for me and today had to empty the ash bucket for the first time. What a relief that my foot is so much better! Hauling in wood would be a trial otherwise.

Last night I put flannel sheets on the bed. Ahhh, very cozy. Although I'm still using the summer comforter; it will need to drop another 20 degrees before that gets switched. 

Curl up with a warm cat and a good book. Winter has arrived.

Not understanding

 I'm writing this out as a way to try to understand what is happening. I live in South Dakota; infamous for not mandating masks nor shutting businesses.

Besides the early blip from the meat-packing plant, there really hasn't been much happening until September. My first thought was the return to school and universities, but the local college is only reporting two active cases and the talk is there isn't much happening in the younger classes either.

Hospitalizations and deaths are way up also, which doesn't mesh with either young, healthy people catching it or increased testing being to blame. 

Would love to hear your thoughts on why it's developing this way now.

Winter?

 Well, maybe or more likely a hint of what is to come. The weatherman has started to use the 'snow' word but I haven't seen any yet.

Guess who is still here? My turkey visitor! Before she was roosting in my tree and spending the days in the empty pasture beyond the fence and now she has been staying in the chicken pen all day. As you can see she tolerates me enough to pose for a photo. Today was opening day for the pheasant season and the guns began popping before 7 a.m. Perhaps she realized it's safer surrounded by pesky chickens. 

Speaking of which: the babies are getting so big!

And the young adults have such pretty feathers:

On a more personal note; my foot is much better although not 100%. What has been more troublesome is the hip and back pain, which I suspect might be blamed on the odd walking gait from the boot. Anyway, I'm going to try with normal shoes and see if that improves. I finally applied for my driver's license renewal online. I was really looking forward to updating the picture, but not worth the risk.

I've been spending my evenings watching Poirot. Fine acting and excellent characters.

Talking turkey

 Sorry about the poor picture, it was the best I could do.

Yesterday I found this turkey trying to get into the chicken pen. I finally let her in so she would be safe from dogs and get some food and water. She spent the night in a tree and flew out again this morning. I wish her safe journeys.

Sadly, that's the most exciting thing to happen lately. I had completely recovered from the stress fracture in my foot from early summer, but didn't know the other foot was jealous of the attention. I've been hobbling around for a couple weeks; back in the boot. :(

Other than that I am slowly bringing in the apples and firewood. Stay home. Stay safe.

Rain dance?

 I'm watching the radar tonight. There is a respectable storm building out west. Please, please, please send rain.

Yesterday I got a text from my neighbor that some of the chickens were out. Confirmed; five teenagers were running amok in the sheep pasture. Of course they weren't going to listen to me so I waited for dusk. Back and forth I went with a flashlight and couldn't find them until...I looked in the coop. There they were, innocent as could be, roosting for the night. I tightened up the fence where it had sagged a bit and today the miscreants stayed in. 

The first batch of chicks are young adults now; there was even a pullet egg today. The second batch are the aforementioned teens and the latest are children, still hanging around mom, but also exploring on their own.

It's a pretty good life.

IF

 If this is global warming, I hate it. Day after day of scorching heat and no rain. The grass is brown and crunchy and I spend the smallest amount of time outside that I can. Even inside my little window air conditioner can only bring the temp down to 80. Since anything over 74 is uncomfortably hot, I am not happy.

I asked my mom what the summer equivalent of hibernating is and she said 'coma'. It's true. All day I sit doing needlepoint. It was after midnight when I finally vacuumed last night. Sigh, still haven't done the dishes. 

Someone remind me of this if I complain about the cold this winter. :) 

Parsing

I've been reading the Little House on the Prairie books. It's a nice escape from our modern world.

When Laura is studying for her teaching certificate I'm always fascinated by her ability to do math in her head and the words they can spell! My spelling is atrocious, as you would know if spell-checker stopped working. 

Often, young people complain that they must learn things they will never use. Personally, math is something I've always used, but parsing a sentence still seems like the most useless skill ever. I love to read and write, but dissecting sentences... just, no.

On a bright note: I'm still slowly learning Norwegian. I don't know if I'll ever be able to pronounce bread and figuring out where to put 'ikke' hasn't sunk in yet. :)