Fire danger is low.  This week we had about 1 1/2 inches of rain, quite normal for December.  The heavy rain from last week has soaked in - few puddles, and the creek is back down to a normal winter level.  It hasn't frozen, although it got close one night.  I'm not the only one around here to notice that the lawn needs mowing.  That's not common in December. We had a few blinks of power, but no real outages.  My three chickens that hatched in April are now starting a molt.  It's a good thing that I have a heat panel in the coop. Rodents have been a bit scarce according to the barn cats (it's partly their fault).  Birds are less plentiful than they were just a few weeks ago.  Perhaps we were just a brief stay-over on the migrations of some.  The lesser goldfinches came back one day to raid my unclean garden again.  I see a fresh mantid egg case on an outdoor swing cushion.  Pretty sure it was not there 2 weeks ago.  Work crews have been mending areas torn up by the high waters last week.  The work appears pretty well completed in our area.  There have been some fresh toadstools sprouting in the lawn.