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We had a happy Thanksgiving dinner with the family.

Geoff brought his strong pie game, with sour cherry (center), blueberry (left) and cranberry (right).

Jen’s hickory pie will always be my favorite, though.

Julie & Stacey

Erica

Geoff

Lew

Rinda

Jen

Sarah

Daisy

Here are Jen and Daisy planning for the coming Thanksgiving holiday. Just off camera is Sarah, knitting companionably.

There are many chores to be completed, including the annual Storage of the Tubers. Jen has collected about 250 dahlia tubers, so next year should be a colorful one.

Sarah, visiting home for the weekend, surreptitiously took this photo when we visited Vlei Marsh this afternoon. We saw a Bald Eagle but it didn’t stick around for long.

Here is a moody portrait of our little cottage. This angle provides a good view of its bizarre roofline.

Our fields remain unmowed, even at this late date. Herb Stickle dropped off this tractor yesterday, presumably to get me to stop calling him to ask when he plans to mow our fields.

After a relatively brief visit to the farm this weekend, Jen collected a large number (but a small percentage) of her dahlias to bring back to New York.

On Friday, we traveled to Colgate to have dinner with Sarah and, on Saturday, to watch her race against Hamilton College at the Head of the Moraine, a rare home event for the Colgate Women’s Rowing Team. We had a great visit with Sarah, and her boat bested all but one of the Hamilton crews.

We received this tulip tree as a gift from Erica and Geoff, of EvilPea Acres. Planted yesterday, it stands majestic, with its future before it.

Jen and I took turns at the shovel. We were reminded of the many large rocks lurking within our verdant fields.

This is an “on” year for our biannually productive hickory trees. We should be in good shape for hickory nut pie at Thanksgiving.

Perhaps we were too hasty in reflexively blaming the deer.

A cold and rainy day did not dissuade us from visiting the Duchess County Fair. Jen and Sarah enjoyed copious amounts of fair fare.

We saw cows, sheep, goats, and, yes, these piglets.

Jen was triumphant, winning not only her customary blue ribbon for her splendid peach lemon marmalade, but also a blue ribbon and the Best of Canning – Soft Spread prize for her newest concoction, a blackberry basil jam. Her black raspberry jam also podiumed, taking the bronze.

The Regners, on the other hand, were on the schneid. Sarah’s crocheted blanket went unrecognized while my pickles were affirmatively rejected, with the taster, although saluting their crispiness, found the pickles to have an “odd aftertaste”. I now share the feeling.