We are at 6° at 10 am. The high for today, 17°, happened earlier this morning. We are going nowhere but down today.

Zeke walked us out to the deer stands, snuffling all the way.

A few inches of snow fell yesterday. We have not had any significant snowfall yet. Warm weather lasted until today.

“Warm” being relative: we have had fires since October.

Fires require hauling logs from yon to hither, which in turn inspired us to dust off our weight room and start our winter exercise routines. My left arm became nearly useless after hauling my first load of logs. It is better after the more controlled pumping of iron. My entire upper body aches. The odd thing is that I don’t mind, knowing it to be transient, a step on the way to feeling strongly alive. The word I associate with this feeling is “joy.”

The feeling of holding a Grand baby I describe as “bliss.” It is related to joy; perhaps a sedentary version.

Michael trades walkie and weight lifting days with me. Hauling buckets of water convinced him we really could find time in our day for one more thing. We both lost 30 pounds or more since last January. We both feel more limber and less arthritic. Starting the year with both of us injured convinced us it was time to get serious about losing weight and increasing aerobic capacity. Now we start on recovering muscle mass.

We love seeing turkeys vacuuming soy beans from the field. We hope to keep healthy enough to share the happiness that comes with being close to the land with our children, their children, and if we are very lucky indeed, their children.

This bunch may move back to our area of the Frozen North in the coming year. We look forward to sharing the Greatest Show on Earth with these wee ones!