This weekend

Friday morning we woke up to some snow. It was snowing lightly when we ventured outside.

what's up with this snow?

By noon it was snowing heavily and throughout the afternoon we managed to get more snow than we've had in a month, although it wasn't enough to slow us down or cause any trouble other than a little bit of shoveling. It didn't require us to have to put our plow back on our tractor or anything serious. It actually helped to cover up some of the ice that was leftover, making it easier to walk.

snow on the sumacs

looking over the railing into the yard

 the chicken coop and garden

By 5:30 - 6 PM the snow had stopped falling. On the time I headed up to the barn again, the turkeys were in their roost behind Jackson's pen. 

Max was in a really good mood - he loves snow, both of our Pyrenees do, but especially Max.

Everyone else wasn't quite as thrilled about the snow, and they were impatiently waiting to get back into their dry stalls. 

Bea & Sammy

Sammy being silly, tossing his head around

Max getting his ball ready for a game

can you stop playing with the dog and let us inside please?

come on, there is snow out here! Hurry up!

 Here we come... open the gates!

the herd heading inside

Basswood and Mini

Today we woke up to blue skies and sunshine. The temperature was about zero degrees Celsius. In the afternoon we laid Hilda to rest near one of the biggest trees on the property, a tree I've always called the "tree of life."

On the way we had to cross our porcupine creek.

It was beautiful in the forest, quiet and the sun was shining through the trees. 

It was a tiring afternoon, emotionally. The rest of the day involved a lot of cleaning, dealing with a 120 pound Great Pyrenees who's got a bad nail, mucking stalls in the barn, and working on Sunday dinner.

Thank you to everyone for your kind words about Hilda, I appreciate them and I know most of you know exactly what these things feel like.

 I put out a big feast for our Sunday dinner. I think it took almost as long to clean up as it did to prepare, but it was worth it. My mother used to do this every Sunday. For us, it's once and a while, but always worth the effort and the comfort it brings. We had bread fresh out of the oven, and stir fried mushrooms and zucchini along with the roast and potatoes.

Now it's time to fold laundry and finish cleaning up so I can get to bed and hopefully get a bit more reading in... I managed a couple of chapters last night but I also stayed up until about 1:30 in the morning.

It's nights like those I begin to wonder if I should really look into books on tape.