No pictures with these notes today. I am short on time and the best photos are of the trees as they change color and the blue jays as they come up to drink, eat and splash in the water pan. You wouldn't think so many birds would want a water bath in the winter time but they are so big they throw all the water out of the pan so I fill it more often in the winter just for them. The gold finches are back but we can't buy their favorite seeds this year so I guess when they decide they can do better somewhere else, they will move along. I will soon have a great collection of pictures to add to the bird watching section.

The garden is gone, all frozen up and dried out. The garlic from about 8 years ago keeps coming back. It just doesn't do well in this area, it was only fit for someone else to grow it in mass quantities and sell it. Ah well. The greenhouse didn't work out. There isn't a wood burning stove in all of the area for sale used or at a reasonable price. The only ones advertised were what is called "outdoors" and have no vent and a small box for wood. We will have space made where the new tomato seedlings can stay warm and have 24 hour light. This is where I will start all my new flowers and veggies that need the head start. Hopefully, some Stevia as well. We do have a new little electric heater for their area. We'd started tearing it apart thinking we would have a better set up for this coming spring. We have through December to get everything sprouted and started. This is the time to order the onions to be planted in February.

We've moved the site for the new house. But only by a matter of a few feet. The new spot is nearly level to begin with. The original spot is much more attractive for gardens and perhaps a small pond. We'd been digging to level the area but we'd still have a spot with one end of the house about 5 foot off the ground. Not a good idea seeing as how we get a lot of straightline winds that can snap big trees in half all down the line. Best to leave that area fairly empty. It is nice to have the house under nice shady trees but they also tend to scrape the house and will enough wind, a broken branch could tear up the roof.

I have been leaving the chicken's light on until midnight and turning it on again in the morning about 5. It made a BIG difference in the number of eggs we're getting. I know the ladies are getting old but it's a long time until next fall when the next hens would start laying.

The Seed Sharing project needs more work before the packages are ready to go out in the mail. Next time, I am buying little envelopes. These are cute and it's wonderful that I can make them from regular paper but there are so very many. I didn't get as much time to work on them early this week and by yesterday, I realized they wouldn't be finished until this weekend. I had run out of scotch tape and I didn't want to have to take the wide  tape and cut it into small pieces. The response has been wonderful and we may yet hear from our friend who had the daffodils.