Dear Friends and Family,

Christmas packages arrive daily via UPS, Fed-Ex, local mail. My deck is the designated drop-off for any thing that will not fit in the farm's roadside box or mine. On Thursday I had to stop a new UPS driver from coming up my brick walk and onto the deck. He apparantly did not realize how slippery those ice-coated surfaces can be. Fortunately, he could walk in the grass along the edge of the deck almost to my door, then toss the small package he carried. I try to keep an eye out in bad weather. Last winter our regular mailman Steve got out of his car with an armfull of packages, took one step onto the bricks and literally flipped onto his back. He said he was only bruised. Weeks later he was still saying he was getting much better. I am so glad he didn't seriously injure himself.

Sasha and Madeline check in daily. They have figured out that Christmas packages arrive here. I used to try to keep them out of sight until Christmas day. No more. They are eager to carry them over to place them under their tree in the A-frame. They helped select and cut down one of our cedars on Friday. The temperature that afternoon was over 60 degrees. Tonight (Sunday) the west wind is blowing. We are expecting a low of 9. (It's been that kind of Fall).

Yesterday I spent part of the afternoon helping Sasha make and wrap a box for a special present, purchased last summer with his own money, for his mom. It was so big we had to pull it over to their house in my garden wagon. This afternoon Madeline finished a project that she started last summer. We wrapped that for her mom. A little earlier Robin had pulled the wagon full of USPS packages back to the A-frame. The children are thrilled to see them piling up under their tree. I feel a little like Santa Claus.

I've been making cranberry-orange breads as Christmas gifts for neighbors. I took some to church this morning for friends there. Cranberries were my first connection to New England. I discovered them one summer during a visit to Mary Anne when she lived in Sandwich on Cape Cod. I remember going to the Daniel Webster Inn for dinner. We had cranberry juice as an appetizer. I thought I had never tasted anything so delicious. And such a beautiful clear red color. After our meal we admired the antique cranberry harvesting tools and cranberry glass in their gift shop. We drove around the Cape to see some of the cranberry bogs, even stopped at an Ocean Spray museum-gift shop. I bought 101 All-Time Favorite Cranberry Recipes for 25 cents. (This was the 1960's). The soft cover book had about 40 pages (some are now missing) of thick tan paper with wonderful hand drawn cartoon illustrations. It was printed in three colors: black, red, white. My keepsake book wears the stains of constant use, 40 years or so of orange-cranberry breads and cranberry relish.

Sasha and I have been making use of this quieter farm time to focus on his reading. We are working our way through Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, one of his favorite books. At first it was very tough going. He is used to working with his hands as well as his eyes, so he found the physical aspects of reading quite difficult. Just sitting still was a trial. But we stayed with it. I confess I bribed him at the beginning. He owed me $40 for some MegaBloks. I told him if he would read his way through Mike Mulligan he would not have to pay me back. He has done very well. We are even at the point now where he has developed some motivation and momentum of his own. What a pleasure to be part of this important piece of his education.

The tobacco is stripped and ready for market. On rainy days Paul and Robin and Sasha spent hours out in my barn taking down the tobacco sticks one "room" at a time, pulling the leaves off the stems, grading them, and bundling them. Paul built 3 "tobacco" boxes, one for each grade, for bundling. They are roughly 1' x 4' x 3 1/2' heavy wooden rectangles, with removable tops. Three grooves are cut on front and back to hold the special tobacco string in place. As the box is filling with leaves, they are pressed every so often to form a solid bale. After the final pressing the lid is removed and the strings are securely tied. The front of the box opens so the bale can be lifted out. Some of our bales are weighing 80 pounds, which bodes well for a good price for our crop. Once that job was finished Paul fashioned an entrance for Earl, so he now has a deluxe stall to shelter in as the cold weather bears down.

We look forward to welcoming our neighbors Kay and Mel for our Christmas turkey and lamb with all the trimmings (cranberry relish!). Our hearts are warm and filled with gratitude for the goodness of this fruitful earth and for the sustaining love of family, friends, neighbors.

That includes each one of you, love, Louise