It's hard work preparing all of that meat but in the coming months you'll thank your past self again and again. I read a Boston Globe story from 2015 about former Gov. Michael Dukakis and his love of turkey stock - he takes the turkey carcass home with him from dinners at friends or family homes. I make stock with the carcass of turkey or chicken, though won't recruit other birds. There's a batch of soup in the fridge right now, and the fixings for another batch soon. He's also a gardener, and believes in not wasting food.

The back yard has been mowed, now to the major job out front - hauling the remnants of the vegetable garden back to the compost area. A friend gave me a compost enclosure thing I'm going to try out for some of this (including the food scraps from buckets can go into this - they've already broken down for weeks in a covered 5-gallon bucket, but you'd be amazed at what my pit bull will dig out of the regular compost pile). The front needs a lot more work, but I wanted the back to be ready to receive anything I haul from the front. I pulled out the holiday lights and I'll put them up this afternoon as well. There's a juniper that is perfect for decorations this year.