Life's Dilemmas...

This is a daily scene in my house. Add 4 cats and a bird.  All scattered hither and yon. All in the house today because it's like 20 degrees and snow flurries and too cold for them to stay outside more than 5 or 10 minutes...every 2 hours.  Aarrrggghhhh !!!  How am I supposed to vacuum?  How am I supposed to get anything done ?  lol

 I have never been so un-motivated in my life. (I don't think).  My house is in dire need of attention. My  pantry  needs re-organized and inventoried.  I need to write. My NaNo is behind, I have a blog post due for MEN  soon.  On a bright note, I am putting away my dehydrators and canner for a while. lol  The only thing I have left to can is  [maybe] one more batch of soup. The Cowboy Soup, which I can do anytime really. The gardens are down.  We are butchering the chickens on Saturday, and they will go straight into the electric roaster to be cooked down for broth and meat and I will can that too, because there is not one tiny bit of room left in my freezer. It's time for the chickens...they haven't been laying for months and we will not feed them through the winter. The cost of feed and electricity to keep the coop warm enough for them requires that they pay their way, and they are not doing that. This will be the first time we have ever butchered our chickens ...and though I am not looking forward to it, it must be done. The boys will do it while I'm gone.  LOL  This is farm life.  You either pay your way or you go.  It's been a strange year for chickens and egg production...I'm not the only one. I've talked to several people who have had this problem.  Weather ??  Feed ??  Who knows.

  Next spring I will go back to a straight flock of Rhode Island Reds though...they have been the best all around chickens yet.

  I finished up the last batch of spearmint.  Dried most of it, tossed some of it into the compost. And Started a quart jar of oil infused with spearmint. I used grapeseed oil. It's sitting there in the dark, where it will be for 2-3 weeks. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

  Making big plans for Thanksgiving at my brothers. I am in charge of rolls, crockpot corn and a dessert that is not pie. I'm thinking maybe a fresh fruit trifle...,made with home made pound cake instead of angel food cake, and lots of rich whipped cream. Might change my mind and do the angel food cake...it would make a much lighter dessert...we'll just have to see how it plays out.  Or...maybe a beautiful pound cake with a blueberry concoction to pour over it. Hmmm.... the possibilities are endless...

 Sir Paco the cat is playing hard to get again and will not come in the last 2 nights.  It has been in the low 20's and I am worried about him of course.  He sleeps up in the attic of the garage, we finally figured out. Junko has been staying out there with him, and then comes in at daybreak and sleeps in a warm spot all day.  One of the dogs hauled a huge skeleton up into the front yard...must be a young deer, but maybe a coyote. I can't tell. No legs...just the backbone and ribs.   The bones are pretty much bleached. Generally we wind up with at least the rotting carcasses of  a field dressed dead deer in the yard.  Sigh...

  Life on Honeysuckle Hill.  It waxes and wanes. It blooms and dies. It goes round and round and we all hang on for dear life until it slows down enough to let go. And we dance and we sing and we follow the seasons , one after another. from here to there and back again.  And the season of rest and hibernation is almost upon us.  We actually had some snow today...just flurries for a bit and then some big fat fluffy flakes fell from the sky for about 10 minutes. A preview of things to come.  Bring it--I'm ready for a good excuse to stay home and not leave the hill.

Namaste.