The First Day of Blog School

Is there anything harder than the first post on a new blog? Perhaps it's the first sentence that is the hardest, that jumping off point for starting something new, so we're going to jump in and hang on!

Farm

It froze last night...the worst sign that summer is over and fall has arrived, with winter just waiting around the corner to change our world from green to white. The temperature was 27 degrees this morning and I've yet to get out and inspect what damage was done to the garden and orchards.

Yesterday's wind made it a real challenge to try and protect the entire garden with a plastic cover. We started out with just three of us trying to get the cover in place, but it had ideas of it's own, helped along by 25 mph winds. Finally we called out for more help, and with six of us working the monster was tamed and the garden's safety was insured. They're saying we might get more frost tonight, so I guess we'll keep the cover on for now.

We have so many tomatoes still coming along that I hate to lose them all. In addition the watermelons aren't done and I'm hoping that if we get through this first cold snap that the days of Indian summer will help them to finish maturing.

Ponies

The ponies and cobs have known since mid-August to start getting ready for winter as they are all putting on their winter woolies. Some are more into it than others, but they will all be toasty warm underneath their thick winter coats once the cold weather arrives to stay. We have some additional fencing to finish before winter as well, and the new tack/feed building is just about finished. It's very cute I think and will be very useful.

We raise registered Welsh Ponies and Cobs, mainly Sec. A, The Welsh Mountain Pony, but also a few cobs as well. You will be introduced to them in time through these pages and get to know some of our very favorite friends. Today's pony (pictured at left) is Heritage Hall's The Cat's Meow, a twelve year old bay Sec. A mare and an outstanding girl. Her barn name is Marey and she's produced six foals, all very nice examples of the breed. Gotta love Marey.

Photography/Writing

We just received our advance copy of the new book "Seasons On The Farm" the other day. It's a wonderful collection of essays by various authors, including our own Samantha. She wrote an essay for fall all about the Scarecrow's contribution to the farm. In addition Dan and I took a lot of the photographs for the book, about 50 in all, and it's been a real treat to see them all reproduced in this wonderful book. If you enjoy reading about farm life, including maple sugaring, lambing season, auctions, scarecrows, harvesting and more, you'll really have a great time spending time with the Seasons book.

Samantha also has two new articles coming out in the November issue of "Out Here" magazine and is currently working on several other projects. Dan's busy, busy with photography and shooting new images every day. This is a busy time of the year for photography, the colors are just beginning to change and we are pressed to hurry our chores up a bit so that we can get every bit of enjoyment and work out of each day. Once winter sets in, it tends to make most of the decisions for us.