A few cisterns in happier times

I’m thankful this Thanksgiving that …

• The severe drought has made us grateful for the water we have stored in our cisterns and has made us more thoughtful about our usage and plans for conservation.
• Several years of culling to improve our flock of sheep has paid off. The market wethers are fat and healthy. The ewes are pregnant and lambing season is still a couple of months away.
• Our hoop house is complete, loaded with greens, and warm on a cold day.
• Cindy, as my partner, continues to inspire me with her energy, skills, and willingness to share this life.
• My father, after suffering a stroke this year, is still with us at 89. He continues to find the time to volunteer each week at a local church helping feed the needy.
• My mother’s eldest sister is still alive and well at 96, the last surviving stalk of that line. She reminds me through her continuing penchant for reading that one’s intellect is a gift to keep and nourish.
• The Republic still stands even as those on the right and the left trumpet its demise.
• My blogging friend Clem, with his insufferable positive outlook, reminds me to not herald the end of the world, just yet.
• My friend Rayna harvested enough pawpaw fruit this year for Cindy to make pawpaw crème brûlée for Thanksgiving dinner.
• My brothers and I (and a brother-in-law) managed to find the time for a recent get-together. A weekend in the north Louisiana woods eating good food and sitting by a fire is a wonderful tonic for the soul.

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Reading this week: Southern Hunting in Black and White: nature, history and ritual in a Carolina community. By Stuart A. Marks.