Winter no matter what the calendar says

 It's Thanksgiving, and MeadowWild Farm's biggest turkey 

-- Momo -- joins us in wishing everyone a happy holiday.

 The girls are enjoying their Thanksgiving buffet.

 Arabica and Dream check to see if the others are getting more stuffing

 while Eclipse considers sneaking out for some early Black Friday shopping.

 Winter may not begin officially for another month yet

 but we got our first substantial snowfall on Nov 10

which allowed the deer to record their travels through the back yard. 

 Mojo wonders why none of the girls are meeting him at the fence like they used to.

 

 Chandra isn't so sure she wants to walk through this stuff to the milking shed.

 

 We reconciled ourselves to 5 months of pretty much the same view out the upstairs windows

  but then a few warm days reduced the snow cover considerably.

 The warmth didn't last, however, and we've been "enjoying" wintry temperatures -- like this morning's 10 below zero.

Because the girls seem now to have settled

 

 Mojo tries to stay warm by nuzzling a less than enthusiastic Amigo.

Dustin is personally outraged by the frigid temperatures

 and settles down for a long winter's nap in front of a heating vent. 

 "Wake me up in April."

 Feral Momma Kitty doesn't have the luxury of furnace vents, so Barb constructed a shelter for her: a fluffy pillow inside a styrofoam cooler inside a tote, with straw insulation between the walls.

 Of course she ignores the cozy condo and glares at us from the top of the hay bale mountain.

 Some cute visiting Nubian babies stayed warm by having a red-hot iron applied to their foreheads, as Barb helped a friend with the dehorning.

At the MDGA fall conference this month, Barb's submissions to the dairy foods competition did very well, winning first place in all three of the categories that she entered:

Fresh Cheeses (her Quick Smoked Mozzarella)

Aged Cheeses (her Ricotta Salata)

 

and Desserts & Appetizers (her Quark Käsekuchen).

 In addition, her Feta Bulgarian Style won a 2nd place

 and her Carmelized Leek Quark Spread won a 3rd place.

 Fall preserving continued at MeadowWild Farm, including collards 

 that were blanched and frozen

 while the remaining apples were dehydrated

 

 and Barb was out after the snow storm smoking more mozzarellas.

 

 

 She's been especially busy making and curing soap in anticipation of the Christmas gift season

 

 and the annual Christkindl Market at TJ's Country Corner on Dec 6.  

(We're hoping for warmer weather than last year's below-zero day, during which Barb and friend Laura survived only due to some timely Peppermint Schnapps.) 

 We conclude with a gorgeous sunrise that Barb captured on Nov 19 as she went out to milk

 and a portrait of Brian and Kärin's cute Electra

who is incubating some fabulous Mojo kids.