Happy New Year!

I had big plans to show everyone some photos I took for Christmas. My computer had other ideas.....
On Christmas Eve we had a new baby calf born. He is adorable. He is big and strong and blocky, yet still adorable. He is also very friendly. He's black with a white face. His name is "Nick" after St. Nicholas for Christmas, get it?
There are also some of the cutest bunnies ever in the barn right now. The littlest ones are a light red with some patches of other colors on them, like calico. Actually there is one grey one in that litter too. Kind of strange, but what can you do?
We had all of our kids here for Christmas. That was the best part of the holiday!!
On New Year's Eve we had a few friends over and had tons of food. At midnight we were in the hot tub as planned. Several tubbers made snow angels and then jumped back in. I really wish you could see those photos!
We hope everyone celebrated their holidays happily and we wish everyone a very happy, healthy New Year!
Oh! And we have snow!! Come on up and play!!!

New baby calf!

Black Jersey had a heifer calf this morning. She is a really neat dark red color. The girls are in love with her already. Looks like a beautiful day. There is some freshly smoked bacon in the pan in the kitchen. Have to run. I'll try to post a photo of our new addition soon.

-22ºF this a.m.

Too cold! It was 22 degrees below zero and no school delay. Borderline crazy, especially since the bus was 45 minutes late!
It is so cold we let the goats stay in this morning. I think they are healthier when they go outside every day but this is ridiculous. Maybe around lunch time I'll let them out for a bit?
The boys start exams at the high school today. They'll be done at noon. One will go to work, the other will be home on the bus. He gets dropped off almost a mile from home so I should go pick him up so he doesn't freeze.
A family is coming later today for the weekend in the guest house. I would love to write about our guests on this blog because they very often are quite interesting but I guess that wouldn't be right. We've had people from many different parts of the US and world and it is extremely fascinating to meet them and have the kids learn things about their ways of life. It is very enriching.

Skating anyone?

I heard the ice is thick enough to skate. If only it wasn't so darn cold........yeah, I know, then the ice wouldn't be thick enough. But geezum crow yesterday it didn't get above 10ºF! And we're going to go outside and play?! I guess we'll have to find some wood for a fire. And you know what that means.......Marshmallows!!

Fog is stealing our snow

It was 37ºF at about 6:30 this a.m. It is supposed to get near 60 today!
We finally get some decent snow and now, between the rain and temps, it's going fast.
The girls have some great luge runs up at their fort. They shoveled paths when the snow was deep and packed the sides. They are pretty clever. Then of course the rain iced them so they are F-A-S-T too.

Winter has arrived!

The girls have had their sleds out already today........yes, it's the first SNOW DAY of the season!!!
Joe has his snowmobile for sale so he's out there running it and fine tuning it. A few guys are supposed to come to see it later today.
We're covered with snow! Now it's raining and about 24º so the roads are a sheet of ice and the snow is crusty. Hopefully it will be good for runner sleds later this afternoon!
The goats were hesitant about going out in the white stuff. The cows were wild like young calves, kicking up their heels when we let them out. They'll probably be let in early this afternoon since they aren't going to find too much to munch on out in the pasture.
No reservations for the guest house until the 17th so you can come on up!

Rain and crazy temps

Two days ago it didn't get out if the teens. Actually I don't think it got above 10º! Last night it was about 47º at 10pm. And now it is about 32º at 3:30 in the afternoon and it's been raining all day so we are in for a frozen mess. Girls called to say after school activities have been cancelled.
The goats are still outside. Since it was so warm this a.m., we let them out. It is breeding season, so 150 days from now we should have baby goats coming out of our ears! That is when you really want to visit even though it will be mud season. They are the cutest little things ever!