a quick state of affairs of early winter on the farm

There is very little color in our landscape on these early winter days. Daylight is in short supply. Sunrise today was at 6:49am and He will set back down at 4:17pm. A stellar crescent moon has been rising up to our South. And I can see Orion's group through my bedroom window. I've been falling into bed around 8pm. Which means I wake up at 5am having had too much, and it is still dark. The grass on the hayfields and in the pasture has only the hint of green. The trees are hillsides of brownish gray sticks. We are looking forward to the snow. To spark a little color onto these hills. My downstairs neighbors (see photo 1) have returned from their summer pasture for the winter months. Bella has grown the most magnificent red coat. The house cats seem unusually fat. The sheep are shockingly picky about their hay. The chickens are trying to roost in the hay loft. And Albert the bullcalf is finding welcoming friends in the pigs. We are two weeks away from drying off Winnie. I made the season's final batch of yogurt last Tuesday.  Everyone is beginning their own special hibernation. It sounds melancholy but I wish I could show you it isn't. It's early winter of our third year farming. It is time where the outside world winds down. Now is the season where we go indoors and turn on many lights and make merry with family and friends. I remind myself to be grateful for these slow dark days. They are the needed antidote to the long work of summer months.

Happy Thanksgiving

p.s. These are fake b/w pics. The last time I took real film camera photos the developer said something went wrong with the camera and all of my shots were exposed to the ever-devastating Light. Since then, I've been so scared of losing photos that I've given my film a wide berth  So, these photos have the color edited right out of them. I found the originals were too bland, too early winter.