Up here, real men call their wives “The Wife,” as in “The Wife wants me home at 5 for dinner.” Or “The Wife” has a long “Honey-do” list, the local jargon for chores. So I’m going to try calling Maria “The Wife” and see what happens. One of our favorite times of the day is visiting and brushing the donkeys. They like it too and they look sharp. We paid some bills, checked the mail. I ordered an Ipad today for the book tour and a MacBookPro for Maria and I to use for her work and mine. Lot of money.Gulp.

Cold front coming in, which is nice. Ordered fuel oil for the winter, decided to buy a capped program. Spend about $100 and I’m protected from fuel costs rocketing up. With three wood stoves, we should be all right, but it’s part of the chess match that comes with running a farm.