I do not mind cold weather. I spend a good part of the day outdoors no matter the weather. As I’ve said many times–there is no bad weather, only inappropriate clothing. A good set of woolen long underwear is a must as well as insulated footwear.

The following falls under failing to heed my own advice. I often use water outside for animals and inside the hoop house. Recently, I neglected to drain the house properly and now cannot access water. The frost-free hydrant is, fortunately, functioning properly as I did remove the hose from it. FYI, this is necessary for the water to drain back down the hydrant. Otherwise, the frost-free mechanism will not work.

I spent some time very annoyed at myself, dragging the hose into the sun in hopes of a quick thaw.

I’ve been noticing an inordinate number of crows congregating near the Vineyard Haven post office. On Saturday I was in the ferry line for the seven o’clock and saw again a large number of crows. I wondered if they had arrived from Woods Hole on the six o’clock boat. Nothing would surprise me these days.

I’ve been busy in the vegetable garden placing flakes of hay on all the beds. Sometimes I ween and turn them over first but not always. Often I just cover them, weeds, spent vegetable tops and all. I do, however, give them all a healthy dose of lime. Our soil is very acidic here on the Vineyard so the lime will always help.

I took a trip to Vineyard Haven to check out the Christmas decorations. I was particularly fond of the andromedas in pots at the Brickyard next to Mocha Motts. They were decorated with a simple burgundy ribbon.

Both the Playhouse and Bryn Walker had colorful twigs in their greens. I love that. It’s a great way to use up paint.

The Christmas tree tiny forest in the small park next to Stark is always nice. Still missing Cheryl!

I had a nice chat with Coco at Ghost Island Farm. We commented on how our greenhouses are holding their own but nothing seems to be growing. This has nothing to do with the cold but rather the diminishing light. In a few weeks, the days will get almost imperceptibly longer but the plants will notice and begin growing. The same goes for the chickens. They will start laying a few more eggs daily.

For the past several weeks, my post office box has been stuffed with both seed and Christmas catalogs.

One in particular caught my eye and not in a good way. On the back cover of Sportsman’s Guide was an AR15 Remington assault rifle for $427. In super tiny print I was directed to a page for restrictions. Then I was to go online to find out about age and shipping information.

I come from a gun-toting family but I have to say, seeing that in the mail gave me pause. This is after I finished the Jackie Speier book, Undaunted. She survived five bullets from an assault rifle and her mentor, Congressman Leo Ryan was killed with over 45 gunshots. They were on a fact-finding mission to Jonestown in November of 1978. As you know, almost 1,000 died at the hands of Jim Jones.

Ms. Speier has been a Congresswoman for several terms. She might have a few words concerning gun control.

Seems like Mueller/Russia investigation is heating up this past week. It reads like a good spy novel. Can’t wait to read the last chapter!