We had a rather dreary day with clouds, a few sprinkles, and cool temps.  First thing this morning, John cleaned out the chimney on our outdoor wood stove and wrapped the trunks of the young trees and mulched around the apple trees.  While he was busy with that, I headed off to my semi-annual dental appointment.  I had no cavities so I don't need to go back for another six months.  John heads off for his annual dental checkup tomorrow morning.

 This afternoon John helped JD get the snowplowing truck into the shop for a new water pump so it will be ready to go in case of a snow storm.  When he got back, we headed outside to tackle the, hopefully, final outdoor chore--wrapping the shrubs.  The snow weighs them  down, so we wrap them in plastic fencing to help keep the branches nice and tight and keep them from breaking.

 A friend of ours from Fort Clark had put a photo of our Texas home on her blog the other day.  Everything looked so nice and green--this is what we are seeing.  We are now into what I call our Icky Brown season.  Some snow would improve the scenery, but I rather have that wait until after we head south.