The Grass/Land - A Cool and Frosty Drink This Weekend

A Cool and Frosty Drink This Weekend

I was going to go out and do a sort of  photo essay of the storm this afternoon, but the wind is roiling around the buildings making eddies that spin the snow up like giant dust devils and I didn't dare  step off the back porch.  So the above photo is all you get today of the storm.  As you can see, the world drops away just past the lawn chairs by the fire pit and garden fence.   It is a little hard to tell how much moisture we have gotten, but it is more than we had, so it is welcome.  It is not enough.  Not yet.  But it is a start towards summer grass and hay.

I did steel myself to make the trudge down to the barn to brush the horses while my husband picked stalls.  They are in good spirits and doing well.  No one is stocked up and while they enjoyed being brushed vigorously in "quarters", to get their circulation up, no one seemed to need it desperately. 

Below is the scene we woke to on Monday morning.  It looks like we got a pretty good snow!  I will have to check the media to see what the official amount is.  Our road is plowed already, so now only the drift in the driveway is keeping us in.



The Buildings - The Sauna Gets a Deck

The Sauna Gets a Deck

Last weekend, while Elvis was busy throwing a shoe, my husband was busy building the deck on the outside of the sauna. This deck will eventually be a porch with a roof and a privacy screen and a shower.  But for now, it is a level place to cut the wood to make the benches.

Getting closer ...

The Riding/Training - Elvis Throws a Shoe and Gets a Lesson

Elvis Throws a Shoe and Gets a Lesson

Before I get into the story about Elvis, I just want to say what a JOY a good warm pair of socks is this time of year!  My daughter-in-law knitted these for me a couple of years ago and they changed my life.  Literally.  Along with a good pair of "Ice Riders".  They are made of some ridiculously expensive yarn that has silk and angora and I don't know what else in it.  They are dreamily soft and extremely warm.  Over a thin pair of socks and inside my Ice Riders - I become oblivious to the kind of cold that I used to dread and which drove me inside between chores.  I simply had to sing their praises before moving on.

Elvis threw a shoe sometime last weekend, and I agreed to meet the farrier at a friend's barn in Evergreen so he didn't have to come all the way out here for just one shoe.  My back has been pretty bad and I was not planning to ride until after I had some acupuncture done on Tuesday.  But with the opportunity to ride and have  lesson in an indoor arena, I decided to throw caution to the wind and try riding on Monday.  Elvis was pretty wound up about being in an indoor, and about snow falling off the roof, and about the P.A. system, and about the trailer ride, and my back was still pretty bad, so we had a walking lesson.  And it turned out really well.

As I said, Elvis had a lot on his mind and a lot of new things to think about, so I expected him to be pretty distracted and the lesson to be sort of a throw-away. But it wasn't.  For the first time ever, he actually started to accept some steady contact.  And for the first time ever, he seemed to begin to understand about how a frame is supposed to work.  It was wonderful and so unexpected.   It seemed like a little light bulb went on in his brain.  I hope we can turn it on again the next time we school.  We worked on being straight and some leg yields and haunches in.  He was super!

I am going to try him in Flicka's eggbutt snaffle next time.

The Animals - Bachelors Will Be Missed

The Bachelors Will Be Missed - Until They Turn Up for Dinner Again!

Winken and Joker did not show up for breakfast.  They did not come in for supper last night. So I am pretty sure they got snatched yesterday.  And I am a little afraid that I inadvertently caused their demise.  Although I will never know for sure. 

I went to Elizabeth yesterday for butter to make cookies for my grandchildren for Valentine's Day.  I was gone about an hour.  I was lazy and did not close the machine shed door when I left.  There was snow forecast for the evening and was going to put the car back in  there.  The machine shed is one of the shelters that the cats run for when there is danger.  They can squeeze under the walls in several places and most other animals cannot.  With the door open, that refuge could have turned into a trap. 

Yesterday morning, I smiled as I listened to the four of them jumping around and playing above me in the hay loft.  They often did this in the mornings in the winter.  It is a sunny, sheltered place to play after being cooped up all night in the tack room.   It was quiet up there this morning.  Both Sox and Nodkin wanted to be handled this morning.  Then Sox went off somewhere alone and Noddie sat and watched me muck stalls from an alcove in the barn wall.  He was very sober indeed.  I wish they could tell me what happened: what they saw. 

But they DID show up for dinner tonight!  'Nuff said!

The Grass/Land - Aerial Photograph of the Farm

Aerial Photograph of the Farm

Last fall, in October, a plane went over when we were not paying attention and took a photograph of the farm.  We had the opportunity to buy a print and a CD version of this photo and I am sharing it here.

I want to share it because it is telling in many ways, both predictable and unsuspected.  The work we have done on this land has been physically hard and demanding.  It has often seemed chaotic: one step forward two steps backward.  It has not seemed orderly or productive much of the time. We have had setbacks, and disappointments, and sometimes it is easier to remember those than it is to see how far we have come.  This photo shows what we have accomplished as well as points the way to what we still have to do. 

The photo was taken about three weeks before we closed the pastures for the winter and it had been so dry, the place looks perilously over-grazed.  I hope it is not.  And I hope we will still get the moisture we will need to bring the grasses back to life.  Time will tell. 

The Buildings - Sauna Photos After the First Firing

 Sauna Photos After the First Firing

Before the shots of the sauna, here is the stash of stuff that arrived from the sauna store.  It makes it seem like we are really getting closer!

Below are interior shots.



 Pretty walls and ceiling.

Cute wood stove.

Pretty door.

Cracked glass.

And Exterior shots.





The Horse Breeding - Flicka is Looking and Feeling Great at Seven Months

Flicka is Looking and Feeling Great at Seven Months

Flicka is carrying her foal easily and seems to enjoy being pregnant.  She is a little aloof from the herd these days, protecting herself and  the baby from kicks.  She is going to be a terrific mom!