Autumn Traditions

Nothing reminds us how important traditions are

 more than Thanksgiving.

It's a holiday filled with tradition...

the foods we eat, the games we play, the parades we watch...

time spent with family and friends.

To me, it's the best of holidays... my favorite!

We celebrate our Thanksgiving on Black Friday,

or "black and blue" Friday as we dubbed it years ago

in the days when our kids were younger and we spent a portion of the day

playing paintball or football.

(Paintball was eventually traded for other less dangerous activities

with the addition of babies and small children.)

With married children, we have found that celebrating our holidays

on days other than the exact holiday assures that everyone

will be able to join us in our celebration.

We try to never compete with anyone else in the kids' families for holiday time.

Picking an "off" day alleviates the problem of them having to choose

 with whom to spend a holiday.

And truly, the date doesn't matter.

Being together and sharing traditions is all that matters.

And so, this week will be filled with cooking and baking and preparations

for our Friday feast.

Neither of these fellows will be on the menu!

Hubbs and I have established our own traditions throughout the year.

One that we never miss is hiking the perimeter of our woods to check

our "no hunting" signs.

We typically do this on the weekend prior to Thanksgiving,

to ensure that the woods are adequately marked in time for deer hunting season.

Yesterday, in boots and snow gear, we hiked 3 miles around our hundred acre woods.

Snow on the ground makes visibility so much better through the woods.

The dogs, happy to hike with us, end up traveling about three times the distance,

following their noses to and fro through the woods.

At one point, Jack surprised a doe and sent her running my way.

I snapped a photo of her as she ran past me and quickly disappeared...

with Annie giving chase (I called her off, immediately, as chasing deer is not allowed.)

The doe's white tail and belly are the only things visible 

as she leaps over the fallen tree trunk...

The last leg of the hike follows the road that borders our woods.

Again, movement caught my eye and I watched ahead as several

deer ran across the road.

The snow makes it quite apparent that our woods are filled with deer.

From deer paths through the snow...

to individual tracks...

to droppings...

the signs are everywhere.

And with yesterday's traditional hike completed, they are safe within the confines of our woods

for yet another year.

We still have quite a bit of snow on the ground, but enough has melted in spots

to make life easier for the birds.

The guineas hid out on the playhouse porch until enough melted for them to navigate

the land once more.

As the snow melts, there is nowhere for the moisture to go.

The ground around our compost piles has been supersaturated for almost a year now.

And, seriously, when I say we have a lot of mud...

I am not exaggerating.

As you can see, it's over Jack's ankles.

We're soon going to need a boat to get to the compost piles!