Tag Archives: snow

horse

Snow Day!

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Today was a snow day on the farm. We got a good 10 inches of snow overnight. It kept snowing until around noon time. The two older kids had a traditional snow day. Griswold had decided to forego the snow day for a virtual learning day, but most of Amanda’s teachers gave short easy assignments that left room for some snow play between classes.

This morning was spent snow clearing and doing the every-day chores that seem to take twice as long on a day like this. Trudging through thick snow to get food and water to all the critters is hardly a glorious task, albeit necessary.

Rob and Alex used the tractor and snow blower to clear the drive way and around the house. We all fed and watered the horses, goats, chickens and rabbits. The rabbits have moved to the basement until the weather gets better.

Amanda spent her lunch break skiing, and convinced her brother to build a snow fort with her after school. We decided to hitch Huey his Kingston easy entry cart with sleigh runners and drive him around for a bit. He was a good sport, although it was getting cold and the sun was fading.

Enjoy some pictures from our day and a three short videos here:
Rob and Amanda cutting fresh tracks
Rob and Amanda driving Huey
Anna and Amanda driving Huey

horse

Horsin’ Around

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Today we said farewell to Misti as she was returned to her previous home.  We owned her for 10.5 months, but she just wasn’t the right fit for us.  Of course, you will have to stay tuned to future updates, as I doubt there will be an empty stall for long.

On Friday, we got a nice fresh 9″ of snow.  Saturday afternoon, Alex, Vicki, Amanda, and Alexis (who boards Ace here) went out front for some more fun in the snow.  Alexis and Vicki have decided to get brave and do bareback jumping with their ponies.  Amanda was happy to ride around on Huey, but every now and then he would canter to catch up to the others.  Vicki had to take a short turn to work with Huey.  I took over 300 pictures, so I had to choose only the ones that really captured the moments.  Enjoy the pictures!

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Snow riding

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Yesterday brought the first snow storm of the season and we got about 6″, which was perfect for some fun with the horses.  This morning while working on chores, Vicki and Alexis disappeared.  We discovered them riding bareback on their ponies in the front pasture.

Alex and Amanda finished their chores and spent some time trying to build a snow fort.  Mack was helping.

After lunch, we saddled up all 7 horses for a short 4 mile trail ride.

We had a nice relaxing day on the farm with just the right amount of snow!  The day ended with a pretty sunset as we did the evening chores.

 

horse, kids

Riding in the snow

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As is the tradition, the girls had to do some bareback riding in the snow.  Vicki loves to ride bareback in the winter because it keeps her warmer.  Vicki decided to try out Dakota, Alex’s new pony, while Amanda rode Huey.  This was Vicki’s first bareback ride on Dakota and it went well.  Both girls had a good time and no one fell off.

Alex and I will be doing a trail ride in the snow after lunch.

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horse, kids

Riding in the snow

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Yesterday afternoon, instead of sledding, we hopped on some horses and rode in the new snow.  The kids have been enjoying riding the fuzzy ponies bareback.  I think they have discovered it saves time on tacking up and when they are popsicles after the ride, there is less tack to put away.  It was about 28F outside and we had a solid 9.5″ of powder in the arena.  Alex rode Precious.  Vicki rode Devil.  I rode Calli and Amanda rode with me.  I decided to put my western saddle on Calli (for the first time ever) since I wasn’t sure how she would respond to the snow covered arena and Amanda wanted to come along. Everyone had a blast.  Alex only came off once when Precious reared up as Dillon, the new dog, came running up behind her.  Vicki rolled off into the powder as she steered a corner too tight while trotting and didn’t have stirrups to keep her balance.  Calli did great and Amanda and I stayed in the saddle.

Some of the pictures aren’t great because Anna’s hands were freezing as she used my iPhone.  And the horses were moving.

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The kids have arrived!

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In January, we added Cedars of Lebanon Betty Ford (Betty) to our goat herd. We specifically bought her because she was due to kid before any of our other does, and therefore we would resume getting milk for the family sooner.
Today, Betty had twin doelings! Both are healthy and doing well. I’ll take some better pictures tomorrow in the light. We haven’t decided on names yet. The 2 legged kids have some ideas, but I am looking for a theme for the year.

But that’s not all we did today. This morning it was snowing, and we were expecting to get about 2.5-3″ of accumulation. However, it warmed up and never even stuck to the roads. By the late afternoon, it was almost all melted.

I had another craigslist find for the weekend. I felt like I was in American Pickers when I went to a farm to look at some rabbit cages. I ended up buying a large double cage for growing young ones, a 16′ quad cage for whatever, 1 transport cage for rabbits, 2 transport cages for mid size animals (maybe young goats or pigs), and a 100 gal Rubbermaid water trough. I spent the afternoon working on one of the cages since we are getting more rabbits tomorrow.