Once again I have fallen behind in my posts-- certainly not because there is no news.. as there is always something going on here on the farm. We spent the last few weeks de-worming horses. We finally got our first hard frost and I like to de-worm right after that. This was late for us- the pansies were still blooming up until after Thanksgiving !

Saturday was spent preparing for our first big snow storm. Weathermen work up such an anticipatory enthusiasm when there is a "nor'easter" looming on the weatherboard. They must get a commission on grocery sales as incentive-- the more they talk up a storm, increasing potential inches into feet, the grocery stores are full of distressed shoppers.

I picked up most of the "debris" from the lawn and around the barn-- stray pieces of firewood, any tools left out, the last lawn chair remaining out, coiled up all the hoses so I could find them again in case of heavy snowfall. Got out all the tub heaters and plugged them in. it's been fairly warm to date so I have not needed them. Right now-- this is 6 tubs with heaters-- so the old electric meter is a-whirrin' ! The horses surely love those heaters and I do too.

Sunday-- Teena's Avis Jane (ABC HB-60) left for her new home. She will join her 5 year old curly son (The Sojourner) to be a trail horse. Avis is a very special mare -- beautiful and in addition, out of Teena ~ pretty nearly the BEST horse in the world. OYY TigerHawk was scheduled to leave for TN on the next day, Monday but due to the impending storm, the haulers wanted to skeedaddle out of New England all together, quickly. They were anxious about the prospect of any amount of winter precipitation. They pushed up the their schedule and picked Tiger up at 1:30 Monday morning. By then, the snow was falling rather heavily-- Tiger walked out of the barn, sniffed the ramp and walked right on in to his little slant stall. What a great little horse! After his sale, Tiger stayed a few weeks with us in order to learn some neck reining. I made a short video before he left which you can view here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhcpl6ozOks

Now that the snow is here, I love the look of it. Around this time of year - when the first snow arrives late as it did this year -- I get spoiled and accustomed to the bare ground. I begin to wish the snow would never happen.. but when you wake up to that beautiful first covering, it is so beautiful- you want it to stay. The aspect of plowing and shoveling is not so appealing, but the scenery is gorgeous. Even when the snow is deep, we can still ride and we have the indoor for lessons and other training if we need to use it.

I had to take a walk around the fenceline to shake the snow off the hemlocks that are near the fence in my new areas I finished this fall, which are in the woods. Very beautiful ~ However, I quickly realized that I should have put my hood up before I started .. snow down the neck is not fun.

Enjoy the day ~