Top O' The Hill Farm

Busy, busy at Top O' The Hill Farm. It's shedding time around the farm.. so lots of grooming being done. Whatever ends up on the ground is perfect building material for bird nests, another standard spring activity.

Thursday, the Third.... I spotted these poking their way up. They have the advantage of lots of sun and also the heat reflected back from the retaining wall of rocks... brave souls emerging to bring joy. Daffodils are such happy flowers !

However, with the fickle "spring" weather... I woke up Friday to find-- snow--- it snowed nearly the entire day.. wet and miserable again. But it afforded me the opportunity to stay inside and do some sorely needed house cleaning. My wonderful dear friend, Susan Lejonhud, was arriving that afternoon with Laurie Lee-- also of Maine and owner of A Kurlee Dream, who I talked about on a blog entry last year- a daughter of Good Golly Miss Molly and Mead's Chocolate Chip.. "Dream" ended up with Laurie in a round about way and has quickly become Laurie's dream horse. We had a super visit. Saturday, Susan, Laurie, my daughter, and I set up our obstacle course to prepare for the April contest of the RAC . We had loads of fun leading some yearlings through the course. I'll post the photo's later this week.

My new pup who I purchased from a woman in Maine hitchhiked a ride with Susan and Laurie. Nicodemus is his name and a handsome sturdy joyful pup he is. He settled into my canine herd quickly and shows promise of becoming a great farm dog already, along with my two poodles and my miniature long haired dachshund -- who is self appointed manager and protector of all, plus being our resident clown.

On Sunday, Laurie and Susan packed up fairly early to head back home, with a detour to visit with Adria at Green Mountain Curlies. My daughter and I had a great ride planned... bridges being our theme for this month. We were headed out to cross the North Springfield Dam bridge. The main part of the bridge is narrow and high, a concrete bridge, wide enough for only one car to pass. The dam was built in 1960 by the US Army Corps of Engineers for $7 million to prevent flooding. There are great trails in the dam area for riding and also the reservoir is a fun place for canoeing or kayaking. You can paddle around all the nooks and crannies of the lake and see Great Blue Herons nesting and I have seen eagles from the canoe a few times.

The forecast for Sunday had been sun-- but it was overcast, dreary and nippy with threats of rain or sleet. But... ride we must !!

We started out the usual way, heading

out the hole in the wall and down to the Spoonerville Four Corners, turning right down Spoonerville Road with sap buckets still hanging from the trees along the way. At the end of the road, there is a big brick house, where we can turn left if we are on a short ride to complete the 6 mile loop. The owners of this house used to have Llamas. The first time the horses sensed them there.. they were apprehensive and snorting.. Llamas can create quite an obstacle. We head straight, toward North Springfield.

Along the way, we pass the big transformer.. some horses do not like this as it makes a very loud HUM noise. Our horses were as excited as we were knowing we were headed for another fun destination.. so they trotted by without a glance.

Down into North Springfield. We could have crossed this bridge along the way.. but it's gone now--

My horse Keri loves to trot down sidewalks after her first experience in the Stone Village in Chester.

Teasel prefers to stay on the roadside. Quick stop for a phone call ! Actually Zoe is calling her older brother to meet us on the bridge for a group photo. He has not e-mailed me the photo's yet-- so I will have to post those on another blog entry.

The Mobil station on the corner where we cross Route 10 onto the dam road. Across, is our local tack shop.

We are close now... Here are some views from the approach.

Here we are on the narrow part of the bridge- it's quite high and concrete so made a echoing of hoofbeats as we crossed.

Here's a view of one of the access roads down below. From those, we can get on trails and do some nice river crossings.. but not today-- too much water and I bet it's cold from the snow melt.

After we completed our goal of the bridge crossing, we decide to head down the snowmobile trail to the airport landing strip.

Maybe we'll get lucky and will be able to catch an airplane landing right near us ! This has happened with us many times during some summer rides we have taken in the past. We ride along the fence for awhile... no planes in sight.. but wait !!

Not an airplane-- but the governor's helicopter along with a smaller helicopter which travels along with the bigger one hovers overhead and lands. Above is the smaller one which lands first.

This is the large one... coming in for its landing.

Here on the snowmobile trail we find we have a choice of routes and fuel, food, phone ??

Time to head home...

we take a different route so we aren't backtracking... down a muddy French Meadow Road and we pass some silly ducks who have arrived to find spring is not quite here yet...