Kissing 2025 Goodbye

 It's been kind of a tough year for us as we spent our 80th year on the planet. We stay positive as we've outlived the current life expectancy, but growing old is definitely not for the faint of heart. So, like many of our peers, we've faced some health issues. We're ending the year on a healthier note, and have hopes we can continue to be active and healthy for a few more seasons.

I joined a local mushroom identification group on Facebook, and one of the admins suggested coming to our overgrown tree farm to help with identifying what we have growing here.  

Lots of varieties, (many edible) and lots of information from the experts. I added one more to my list of personal edibles, and can identify a few more that have in the past just looked like toadstools to me. The dog is in training to be a truffle dog. (Who knew we had truffles in this area?)

He thoroughly enjoyed all the sights and smells of our little forest, but we didn't find any truffles.

In the meantime, we've had an ongoing project to deal with the pregnant, feral cat that had taken up residence in our woodshed and had three kittens. Nancy, the local cat rescuer, has helped us with traps and cameras and has been patient with both the cats and Gene and me as we helped her. For further information on that, I've written the story here: Short Story Central  Here's Nancy setting up the cameras.

Our son and daughter-in-law hosted the family gathering for Christmas, and we took the traditional annual picture of the grandkids on the stairs.

So, as we put another year into the record books, we end with a gorgeous sunrise and hopes for a good year for all.