Turning The Corner

 The weekend, we turned the corner from Thanksgiving into Christmas - and just in time, too!  With Thanksgiving falling later this year, the time between the holidays is quite short.  And though we decided that this year "less is more", there is still much to do to get ready for our family Christmas party - which will fall on Saturday the 21st.

We put up our Christmas tree (having switched, last year, from a live tree to an everlasting tree.  We have room in our upstairs attic to store this tree in two halves without having to re-pack it back into its box.

  That way, bringing it out and putting it back up is much easier... less "fluffing" to be done.  This year we decided to go with a woodsy theme... 

utilizing wooden decorations that I had cut and painted a few years ago, with a backdrop of red glass balls of varying sizes and shades.

I must say... I love the look.  I only wish that I had picked up some of the mushroom ornaments that I saw when I was out at all of the Christmas shops.  They would have completed the look!  (Maybe I will find some next time I am out and about.)

At night...

I am keeping my fingers crossed as I type this... but I believe that Red may have finally turned the corner. 

 

By the end of last week, I was seriously worried.  There seemed to be a neurological element to his behavior.  We touched base with our Vet and she was able to get the Lyme disease results - which were positive.  

She suggested increasing his Doxycycline dose a little and adding some anti-inflammatory powder to his doses.  This seems to have helped our little fellow.  He is now moving about a little more freely and is behaving a little more like normal.

Believe me, I have breathed a big sigh of relief.   The thought of losing him had me quite saddened last week.  Now, however, I am feeling hopeful and (cautiously) optimistic that he continues on the present trajectory back to good health. 

The herd has been confined to the dry lot so that Red doesn't have to be alone.  

They don't seem to mind their meals of hay.  "Food's food!" says Moonie...

"Hey, Moonie... maybe don't talk with your mouth full!"

Finally, after an entire week of being unable to walk in our woods, we went for a very long woods walk on Sunday.  Even though our woods are posted "No Hunting", we try to avoid them so that the local deer can safely hide there during hunting season.  If we walk in our woods, the deer scatter and end up in surrounding fields where hunters may be.  However, there was no hunting yesterday - so we felt it was a good time for a long walk.

We noticed several more trees that had fallen during last week's wind storm - a common occurrence these days, and a never ending supply of firewood.  The mushrooms are few and far between these days... consisting only of those that grow on diseased trees.  

For the most part, the woods are monochromatic these days - a myriad of browns and tans and grays - made up of crunchy leaves and dormant plants.  Here and there a splash of green is visible...  mosses growing on old tree stumps or the few holly trees that are growing here.

On the way home from our walk, Forrest ran into the outdoor arena looking for his swimming puddle.

He was a little disappointed to find that it had frozen solid.  No swimming today!