Last Monday Michael and I celebrated 33 years of marriage and 35 years of being in love by taking a walk around our realm.

The technical reason for the survey: to identify dead and/or downed trees to add to our wood pile for next year. The downed ones are easy to spot anytime, but the standing dead are trickier to pick out once the snow melts.

The squirrels, chipmunks and raccoons love the dead and hollow, leaving obvious clues as to harvest ready zombie trees.

We marked trees with yellow hazard tape for later, but mostly enjoyed the trek. The deer have been bedding in the woods below the fields, close to food but open enough to spot/smell predators in good time. The coyotes sing to us morning, noon and night.

We used the deer highways to wend through the prickly ash.

One sign of spring: the deer are beginning to shed their winter coats.

Another reason the deer were bedding down here: they have a watering hole.

We didn’t see many birds or beasts on our walk, but they are there nevertheless.

Turkeys leave prints almost as large as mine.

We will need to guard our baby chicks and ducklings from these raccoons later this spring.

We close our coops every night to discourage livestock loss to this bobcat.

We keep getting older which allows us to continue building this life together. We hope for another 30 years of joint ventures, but are mindful of celebrating each day as it comes. Our partnership helps us not only be happy together, it builds outwards and lets us spread the joy.