Tom was looking out the kitchen window while he was washing eggs this morning and saw a pheasant rooster!  He looked healthy.  We had thought we had lost the last of our pheasants after they escaped last winter (see Bad Week), but we were wrong.  Tom grabbed my camera and took this photo of him.

I was wondering if the swans attracted him to our front yard, maybe the lack of dogs (they slept in this morning), or the access to unfrozen water.  Regardless we are happy to see him.  Tom thinks he is smart because he was good at camouflaging himself.

Our calf Indy continues to do well.  She is starting to eat more hay and is handling this cold weather well.  She is retaining her colors, dark brown with red highlights.  We are still giving her 2 milk bottles per day.

In other news, we bottled 3 1/2 cases of perry and plum wines today.  I have one more carboy of blackberry wine still fermenting.  Tom has bottled 24 gallons of cider so far this autumn with 50-60 more to go.