fire danger is low.  We have received about half our usual rainfall for November in the first week, so it's rather sloppy.  On the other hand, all this wet has kept us warm.  We've only had one morning below freezing so far this fall.  The big leaf maples and the cottonwoods saw fit to drop their leaves this week, so there are plenty leaves on the forest floor.  Apples are still hanging on some of the trees - I need to get them very soon.  They are so sweet.  I see piles of cut and tied Christmas trees at some of the local farms, so they are beginning to ship them out.  There are plenty birds about.  I've seen owls, falcons, and the pilated woodpecker recently.  The deer continue to visit our yard to munch the fallen apples.  Grass is green, growing, and needs mowing.  Weeds likewise are growing pretty vigorously.  I rather expected the storms that came through this week to down some trees, or at least large branches.  So far, it doesn't seem that it did, but I haven't yet explored widely.  Soil is quite soft, must be careful where we take the tractor.  Lots of people are having persistent respiratory problems, and I see the pollen counts have sometimes been up.  Something is blooming, perhaps the redcedars?  The creek has been slow to respond to all this rain, but this week it did rise about 3 inches.  There is a private reservoir about a mile upstream, and perhaps they slowed the overflow for a while to fill their reservoir.  I don't really know, but seems like a probability.