December has been a busy month, fraught with chaotic activity. Not all of the activity has been chaotic, however the month was kicked off to a screeching start by our Nibs kitten deliberately hiding in the dryer in an attempt to surprise us. Unfortunately, the surprise was on him as wet laundry was being thrown in there and no one saw him; he was rescued a few minutes later and rushed to the vet's with a severe concussion and full-body bruising.

He is now being considered the most lucky kitten on the planet by some, among whose number is included both us and not only our regular veterinarian but also the emergency veterinarians who monitored him overnight that night. Not only did he come out of it with no broken bones and no internal bleeding (this sort of situation usually results in dead kitties), but he has by now made a FULL recovery, and he is up to all sorts of mischief, including jumping onto the washer while laundry is being prepared or changed over. The only sign that he has learned something from the experience is that once in a while when the dryer is turned on while he's in the laundry room, he'll go tearing out in a brief-lived panic.

We've been jokingly referring to it as a Christmas miracle, but after all, it happened well before the start of any of the various winter holidays. Still, we're very relieved and thankful and tell him on an almost daily basis that he's used up three of his lives in one go with that - and to never do it again.

It's been a very busy month in other ways, with charity work and baking for the neighbors, but also with quite a lot of work around the farm. Several barrels of wine are now bubbling happily, the yeast in them doing its work to turn large quantities of honey and fruit juice into something which will be both delicious and unique when it's finished its composition. We hope to offer it for sale next year.

More wine recipes are under discussion, but the most recent work has been sheep-related. Having lost several sheep to scouring and suspecting coccidiosis, we have begun a deworming in earnest. We sold several of the cull flock on Christmas eve, and having faced down the losses, the remaining culls gained reprieve for their troubles in order to replace the losses; these were caught, tagged, dewormed, given a hoof trimming and marked with sheep paint, then herded down to the pasture prepared for them. The ewe flock which we call the nunnery was then herded up to the work area, and the ewes given the same treatment. The rams and Mitey and his harem will be receiving the same treatment in the very near future.

One of the ram lambs we lost to coccidiosis we put out for the scavengers; the ear tag was not saved and when we went to salvage it, the entire corpse had been taken. We'll have to do some forensic discovery of which number is missing in sequence.

We lost a hen to owl strike, resulting in our renewing the overhead netting and purchasing more hens. Of the new hens, only one didn't make it, having been going through a fairly savage molt and succumbing to the stress of the move and the cold weather. The others have settled in very quickly and nicely, however, and we have been getting eggs almost every day.

The coming year brings promise - of wine, of education, of good food and good drink and good companionship. It is our hope to all our readers that it brings the same to you.