"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...."

The song gets us in the mood, but no worries, it's not actually snowing here..yet.  As our Nordic-Friend friend keeps reminding us of the countdown...there's only ?? more weeks til it snows!  This means we're in WOOD MODE.  There's a lot of things to do on the farm getting ready for winter, but the top of the family's list is: WOOD.  We burn it for heat.  Yes, we are really sustainable people, but we're also burning wood for heat because we like the house at a mere 80F in the dead of winter...and we're cheap and won't pay that much for propane!  So, off to the woods we go to cut down the dead trees, clean up what's laying on the ground, and get in lots of fresh air and exercise!  It's the process of getting the wood that can be either exciting or a real drag.  The Pied Piper and Shadow of the Farmboy-Trio get the opportunity to put all their graffiti skills to work as they mark each dead tree with brilliant orange paint.  Behind them comes the Honorable Sons, Nordic-Friend, and Dear Farmer with chainsaws and a wood-spliter.  The Farmer's Daughters are in charge of the cleaning and stacking...driving the trailer back and forth with loaded wood and picking up all the dead stuff in the down-time.  It's a whole family affair. And from now until next year it will be happening once a week over here.