We had a very quiet Thanksgiving at our house yesterday. For the first time in years I didn't have a big group for dinner. It was just Ed, myself, my parents and our two girls for dinner.

I was blessed to meet the woman who is the head of the rabbit barn at the fair. She stopped by today and looked at our rabbit. She told me Toffee IS a girl! So that is wonderful news.

It has been a very great Fall for us this year. We haven't had the drenching rains that we usually do. That means we haven't had any threat of the river flooding. I am praying that the rains come in spurts and then we have dry weather for awhile. Then we won't have any flooding this year. That will be such a blessing!

Ed has been blessed in his job. This is the provision of the Lord. It doesn't matter what the economy is, God's blessings supersede all. Ed now has extra customers on his route, and the company gave him a big truck with a lift gate on it instead of the little Ford van he was driving before. This amounts to more hours on each paycheck. I am so thankful for a hard working husband and for God blessing his job.

My next few weeks will be busy with sewing gifts for Christmas for our daughters. We are not using credit cards for Christmas this year. We have vowed to get out of debt and stay out! So this year most all will be things made at home. My extended family will get home canned goods and breads for Christmas.

Our farm is doing well. The ducks are big and healthy, the chickens are laying less eggs, but that is normal for winter and they are starting to molt. Bessy is gaining a bit of weight and is such a joy on the place. We are so happy to find out Toffee is a girl! Our pups Duke and Abby are finally starting to calm down a bit. They are so big and so full of energy!

Today might be a good day to put away the Fall/Thanksgiving decorations and think about getting out the Christmas things. The girls always get so excited when we start decorating for Christmas.

Our newest barnyard addition

This is Toffee our only rabbit. She was given to us along with the hutch. I don't know what breed or mixed breed she is. Really don't even know if this is a "she" or not. We do know that she is pretty and healthy!

Other news on the farm is about our cow Bessy. We had her bred the end of October. She should be giving us a calf around July 31st. Hopefully we will get a heifer calf. We had her bred to a purebred Jersey bull. She should have a pretty little calf!

Thankfully canning season is about over. I have apples to can and dry and jams and jellies to make and that will be it for this year.

Ed and I went mushroom picking yesterday. We got a grocery bag full of Chanterelle mushrooms. We hope to get more before the season is over. It will be nice to have them in the freezer and have some dried. Picking fresh wild mushrooms is much better than buying the grocery store versions.

We also bought 20 pounds of fresh cranberries from a local cranberry farm. I will be making juice and cranberry sauce for the pantry and keeping some frozen for muffins and such. They are so good for us. Hopefully we will get another 20-30 pounds on payday.

Ed put up a shelter for Bessy the other day. Now she can get in out of the weather and has a dry place to sleep and eat. She really likes it too. I feel much better knowing my cow can be dry and comfortable now.

PS. Today we had to rename our rabbit. We found out for sure it isn't a "she", but a "he" instead. So Toffee has become Frank. : )