Top O' The Hill Farm: February News in the month of March !

We had a fairly nice February thaw this year- I mentioned to my daughter, it seems as though the ground hog may have been wrong about winter... but even as I spoke the words, I was kind of waiting for the other snowshoe to drop- so to speak. And drop it did- winter is back again ! But, since March is coming in like a lion, I suppose this is good news. They do say as the days begin to lengthen, the cold begins to strengthen. It is warm by afternoon though and some people are already tapping their trees. One maple syrup producer had to bulldoze paths into the sugarbush to get to the trees we have had such a snowfall this winter!

During the month of February, we tried to get a few of the very

old apple trees pruned. Number 1 son came over one half blizzardy Sunday with his new "toy".. a chainsaw on a long pole designed just for a job such as this. Here is our first victim-- the 'before' photo.

Pruner at work - It was a lot harder than we thought it would be.. but we also decided that perhaps this handy lopper was not intended to saw through the kind of timber we were taking off. We ended up with a montrous pile of large brush and a few pieces of firewood. Nothing quite big enough to saw lumber though.

Of course the entire process was closely monitored by the nosey bunch of Curlies on the other side of the fence

They were lining up even several fencelines away- this is OYY HummingBird, ChesterBelle Chip's Chocolate (born last November, 2008) and OYY Nimue.

And the dogs are always with us no matter what we are doing-- Dickens, Nicodemus (papa to the pups) and Fritz (King of the Hill). India is inside with her litter.

OYY Tupelo Honey continues with her schooling in the indoor. She is coming along nicely and I managed to get a video of her third time under saddle in the indoor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQoSrx9Jt1o

OYY Nimue is being schooled in the indoor for her first show in April- but during this nice defrosting we experienced, she was able to get out on the road for a change of scenery. She so enjoyed herself ! I don't know the schedule of the UPS route, but somehow, no matter who we are riding or driving-- he passes us everytime! Here's a short video of her foray out on the road

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-QFp51CMpQ

Nimue is such a wonderful pleasurable pony-- riding or driving.

Mead's Chocolate Chip came up into the indoor for some exercise. Lately, he has been ground driving, but today- he had 'free play'. When we free longe him, he loves to head for the poles so we set some up for him. We had a cavaletti set up from schooling another horse-- Chip decided he might try jumping too!

While normally our time with Chip is a little more disciplined.. he enjoyed his change of pace today.

Last Thursday, OYY Sharona delivered the little pony foal we have been anxiously awaiting! This is her first- and she's a perfect mama. He was born around 8:00 in the evening. He's got LOTS of curly mane, dark buckskin curly colt. We named him OYY Beowulf. Sharona is 12.1 hands, Sire- OYY Finnegan is 13.2 hands. Measuring this little guy's leg from the hole in the knee to the coronet- he is estimated to mature at 11.2.

Here's Finn with Zoe- his dam is 13.3 hands, his sire- 14.1.

Sharona is out of Sugar- 12.1 hands and Frostfire's Tadpole- 14 hands... so lots of 'short' stock in Beowulf's pedigree.

Puppy update-- they were one month old this past Saturday. Here's my daughter's Number 1 son showing off the reddish pup- Rocky.

And the fat pup- Sylvia.