We left New Hampshire, and decided it was time to head for home.  It was hard to believe we'd been gone for a whole year already! 

So much had happened.  While we were gone, we'd had a lot of work done on our house, which we wanted to check out.  We missed friends, and wanted to just be home for a little while!  Since we had someone house-sitting for us, we decided to visit with friends, and just "visit" our house.  So we stayed on the farm of some good friends.

It was so good to spend time with them.  They have a lovely farm in Northern Michigan, about 15 miles from our home.  Their children are similar in age to ours, and the kids had a great time seeing their friends.  This city-born girl even helped with the farm chores.  I overcame my terror of chickens, and helped feed and water them.  I helped my friend repair the chicken pens, and build a place in the barn, where the chickens would be moved for the winter.  The horse who had to share the barn with the chickens wasn't sure he liked what we were doing at first, but he seemed to accept it, by the time we moved the chickens into the barn.  

We stayed several weeks, but as we approached Thanksgiving, we knew we were pushing the limits.  Northern Michigan gets VERY cold in the winter, and we'd already had several cold days, even a little snow.  So, we decided it was time to head south.  Reluctantly, we said "goodbye" to our friends, and headed to Texas, to spend Thanksgiving with family.