Holiday farewell

“There’s something dead in the backyard,” my mother said on the phone.

I looked out and saw three tom turkeys and a heap of feathers behind them.

“No, wait,” Hilda said. “It’s just one of them lying down.”

Tom turkeys--the one lying down is just visible behind the one stretching his wing.

The allegedly dead turkey got up, stretched his wings, and sauntered off with his cronies to see if there were any more acorns under the fifth oak.

Terry and I took our Christmas tree down Friday. Terry did an experiment in which he stopped watering the tree a few days before. He was testing the hypothesis that the tree would weigh less and therefore be easier to move out of the house. That hypothesis was not supported by evidence. Even though the tree was not noticeably lighter, it was certainly drier.

This year’s tree was the last of the Christmas trees from Terry’s first planting. Not surprisingly, each tree has been larger than the tree from the year before. Last year, the tree put a mark on the ceiling. This year, Terry had to trim the top to get it in the stand. It was also broader than all previous trees, taking up approximately one quarter of our small living room. We had to rearrange our recliners so Terry could see the television. To facilitate the removal of the tree, Terry cut the top off. With each stroke of the handsaw, more needles fell to the floor. By the time Terry got the bottom part out of the door, there were great piles of needles everywhere. We cleaned up as best we could but continue to pick needles out of the rugs, chairs, slippers, and socks. I haven’t found one in the bed yet, but it’s only a matter of time.

That night, we got a dusting of snow. The tree looked sadly forlorn, which added to the lonely feeling of the empty living room. The holidays are over. Now we must hunker down for the rest of winter.

Our Christmas tree lying forlornly in the snow

The fifth oak looked pretty in the new snow.

The fifth oak in the snow

The weather turned unseasonably warm shortly after that. I took a walk Sunday. In spite of the balmy weather, there was still snow and ice around the periphery of our land where the ground is shaded. I didn’t take my cameral and wished I had. I saw footprints of mice, rabbits, deer, a cat, and either several coyotes or one coyote that walked back and forth a lot. The coyote prints were jumbled up in one spot, suggesting a tussle with prey. I didn’t see blood, fur, or feathers, so maybe it was something small that went down in one gulp or maybe it was two coyotes wrestling with each other. I am always amazed at the amount of activity that goes one during the night after one snowfall.