Time is passing quickly. So quickly that Thanksgiving is only a week away. My favorite holiday! I think of it as our version of the harvest festival, universally celebrated by all agricultural peoples by enjoying a feast. (I think Karen disagrees. For her there is more of the religious aspect of giving thanks for our blessings.) In any event, we plan a traditional turkey meal with a lot of other native american foods, such as squash and cranberries. We hope to generate enough leftovers to last us until spring.
We've passed another birding milestone. We are now "listable" in New Hampshire. No, that doesn't mean that we've been declared insane. It means that we've now identified enough species of birds in the state that the American Birding Association will list us in it's annual birdlist edition. We haven't really put too much effort into this, so it took a bit longer than it otherwise might have. The biggest variety of birds in the state are near the coast, so you don't build your list very fast unless you go down there frequently, which we don't do.
We have also logged our 81st yard bird (bird species seen in or from our yard). It was the Pine Grosbeak. Three of them were checking out our apple tree the other morning. It's an irruptive species from the boreal forest, and this looks like it'll be a big year for all the winter finches and for the Bohemian Waxwings. The local bear took down our thistle feeder a couple weeks ago, so we won't be able to attract the invaders up to our window until I repair or replace it.
It's been warmer than normal and the drought continues. The streams and ponds are mostly dry, as are some people's wells. With winter approaching, the groundwater won't get recharged until the spring thaw. Our well seems to be ok, though.
We finally got around to buying a couple cords of firewood, so I'm splitting the big chunks and hauling and stacking it. As they say, wood heats you more ways than one!
That's about it from up on our hill. Stay warm, dry, safe!
Terry 11/15/01