Our Newest Addition

Eric hasn't been worn down enough to let me get a pony for the girls to ride, so I satisfied myself with a Halloween addition. We introduced Bony Pony to the herd on Saturday, much to our amusement.  Saffron is NOT a fan and has Powered Up into Protect the Herd mode like a good donkey. Gwyn has decided it's just another thing that Mom throws at her and she should ignore it.

We also hung skeleton person, who has seen better days. It seems more halloween decoration acquiring is in my future :D 

Saffron on high alert

We also took a trip over to our neighbor's house. She has brand new baby chicks!

Both girls were thrilled!

And on Sunday a friend came over and Gwyn got lots of loving.

Happy Solstice and Welcome Winter

Happy New Year as well!

We now have a facebook page, huzzah.

We had snow and the snow is gone. The weather was gorgeous for New Years weekend here in Michigan and we spent today outside with minimal outerwear. Temperatures are supposed to drop though, so it's back to deep freeze.

Saffron now has her own turnout sheet for those blustery wet cold days. Since the wind whips right across our property it seemed a good investment. I'd often see Gwyn out in the open without a care in her sheet while Saffron would be huddled by the tree line. Now they're both out.  These are just rain coats, if you will. Neither critter is clipped so they have their own fur for insulation. When the temperatures really dipped, poor Saffron was shivering, so I knew we were in need of something for her.

Eric got some pepper seeds for Christmas so we're sprouting them and have decided to set up a hard to utilize corner of our kitchen as a mini greenhouse. Seedlings will be moved downstairs and eventually into the aquaponics set up, since having the plants will increase our fish survival. Plus a coworker of Eric gave him a small fish tank so we can run a mini aquaponics set up and get some seed water for the larger set up.

We need more grow lights.  That's the TL;DR

Goals and To-Do List for the Farm in 2017
-Have a successfully cycling aquaponics set up: any size
-Regularly harrow the arena
-Replace and regrade the footing in the pens
-Spread manure in resting pastures
-Fix lawn mower
-Finish the drainage stream through the pasture
-Fix the drainage path from barn to stream
-Acquire wood chips for pathways
-Revamp play set (replace tarp, fix lean on the A-frame)
-Plan and plant front garden

Our christmas tree, still with root ball. It will be planted in the spring, until then, it's living inside!

Itty bitty but pretty!

We made our own plow for the driveway. It worked really well. I'll go more into that in another post.

Me dressing up to go feed dinner.

I added barn lights because my imagination was going crazy. I kept opening the door in the dark and turning on lights with my heart racing, expecting to see something waiting for me. Logically I know it's silly, but this helped.

Saffron's new blanket. 

Keep Saturn in Saturnalia!

Our stockings. The left one is mine, made by my grandmother. The other three were made by my mom for E, K and H. Hazel has the biggest stocking of them all.

Happy Samhain

The end of harvest and the beginning of winter is upon us. But I haven't posted here since the end of August!

We had lots of critter sightings.

My trailer has lots of fun bumper stickers!

And then I got all dressed up to go to a job interview!  (Part of why posting has been infrequent)

Taking advantage of the sun to dry some diapers.

Pony face who lost her fly mask.

HUGE grasshopper!

Boop!

Kaylee started school!

Velociraptor doesn't run away like he should.

Ponyface is good with my babies.

We throw up our heels too.

I did some organization in the barn in preparation for winter. Now all of my blankets have a place to hang up!

Smartpak sells these awesome over the edge bottle holders which are perfect for off the shelf fly spray and show sheen.

And I added more places to hang up pitchforks and my shovel.

Then we tackled the arena.  It was in a sorry state with plants growing everywhere. It was a mini Alder Tree nursery. 

But we got it churned up good!

Then dragged.

Next we'll be salting it periodically to prevent plant growth.

In October we did a few shows!

We even got a ribbon!

With minimal plants in the arena, it was a fun time to pretend to be a ghost.

And love on the donkeys in your life.

Taking naps is fun.

And we decorated for Halloween.

Fall colors and rain.

And it's starting to get cold. Ice in the water trough in the mornings.

And frost.

And our first snowfall! It barely stuck and melted nearly immediately. It was mixed with rain so was a generally cruddy day.

This past weekend we made a trip to Home Depot to make shelves and cavaletti. It was a warm day!

Someone can finally sit on her own and got to sit in the grass!

Handy husband.

Halloween trick or treating!

And naps!