NEW YEARS EVE DAY.....

I was lovin' this morning! Mild...mild...mild.

Phoebe even graced us with her presence.

When I opened the door to the barn, Dream strolled out to make sure all was well. She knew the horses were inside, but called to them from the pasture. Once she is certain she can go in and out, she considers eating some of her grain. For the past two days she has eaten half of it, and that is an improvement.

Did the usual....

The horses did their usual...

I am so glad that Dream is now eating out of the same pile of hay as Winnie.

Got back in the house fairly early and cleaned up the kitchen.

The dogs went back out with me for a few minutes after lunch. They run around like little rabbits.

Around 1, my friend Karen drove out from Rochester to give me a New Year's hug. That was above and beyond the call.....

She brought her kids along...Phoebe and Gucci were thrilled to see them.

Sounds like they had a very nice Christmas.

At 1:30 Randy and Arlene arrived. They called yesterday to see if we wanted to have a New Years lunch instead of dinner. We thought that was a great idea. It was their grandson's birthday, so they made him a "card" and we sent the pictures to him through Face Book.


They brought two New York Style pizzas (thin crust).

I made a salad...we sat by the fire, and just plain relaxed.

Then it was time for the Sequence play off for the year.

It was tense...the men were beating our pants off again.

we made a comeback and quit at 3 to 3. PEACE!

Next year we are starting with a clean slate!

Then it was time for tea and cookies (Swedish style).



At 5 I went out to do chores and took some quick shots in the dark.

Happy New Year from all the ponies!!!!

Berlin



Abbe



Pony



Winnie



Dream



And the herd leader...Masterpiece of '79

Phoebe, Gucci and Bermuda send you their best wishes for a healthy 2010!
I'm now off duty. Night all!

AHHHHHH....NO WIND AND 20 DEGREES WARMER...

Before I forget again...here are a couple of shots I grabbed from Facebook (our daughters album).

Hmmmmm...the one above came out full size (Ariana at her recent band concert) and the one below is teeny weeny (Daniela modeling the cowboy boots we got her for Christmas). That's what I get for stealing photos of our grandaughters!


An interesting sunrise....

To the south it was very orange.



Ta Daaaaaaaa....announcement, announcement. Abbe is doing fine! Thanks for asking.


Now, for today's news.


Look who is eating her grain this morning! A crappy picture, but you get the idea.



Both pups joined me today. It was such a peaceful morning without the snow and wind.

They lasted for about 40 minutes and then I put them in the house.

Not before they played in the snow....




Fed the horses their hay in the pasture since it was so much nicer. Dream liked that, as she feels safer in a bigger space.





I took off Abbe's wrap and was very happy to see that she was doing well.


The wind blew the snow off part of the grass and the horses went for it. I can't imagine what they are finding!


This is a piece of plywood I put over the water trough at night (as I unplug it til morning). Do you do this? It really makes a difference. Obviously this was used to giving parking directions at one of our barn parties.



Barb stopped in to visit Dream tonight. This photograph turned about as well as the one this morning! Orbs orbs orbs.... Dream was a little anxious, walking around instead of eating.


We decided it was because of the full moon.

I had to go to Rochester today for my annual mammogram, so I did not have time to make a great dinner. Instead, I thawed out some cabbage soup and it was hmmm hmmm good.

Cut up some fruit and toasted English muffins.

I still have not recovered from getting up at 4am yesterday. Need some rest. Night all.

STRIKE TWO...

At 4:30 this morning Gary woke up and realized that there was no heat in our bedroom, library, living room and dining room. We have three heating zones in our house and that was the only one not working. With the wind last night, the temperature was below zero for hours and hours and he thought the pipes were frozen (we have hot water baseboard heat). So, he put on some warm clothes and was down in the basement trying to figure out what was going on. The hair dryer was going on the pipes...I started a fire in our wood burning stove in the living room...it didn't matter...nothing worked. At 7:30 we called Scott C. who has done a lot of work for us and he was here in about 20 minutes. Fortunately, it was just a valve that was stuck and they got everything going.

I lasted outside for about 15 minutes, and had to go get a second pair of mittens. My hands were frozen (that did the trick). With the windchill, it was -7.

Grey...and way crispy!

The sun was doing that thing again.

Fed the horses in the front paddock for the same reason I did it yesterday. .... more protection.

I've been using a lot more hay lately.

I need to take an afternoon and really groom all the horses.

Dream was feeling intimidated and hid around the corner.

Gary came out to help me after Scott left.

Gucci wanted to be there with us...fortunately it was a little warmer with the front doors closed.

Once we got back in the house, she warmed up in front of the stove.

Phoebe spent the morning on her throne.

I only had a couple people in class today and didn't take any photos. I need to get with the program!

Gary took a 2 1/2 hour nap and I have been up since 4:30.

When the afternoon light was coming into the house I decided to get out my new camera.

Thought it would be fun to put it on the portrait setting and see if I could learn something.

Phoebe was my model.

So coy...

Whenever I take pictures with that camera, Gucci runs away. She is so afraid of it. On Christmas Eve, Tina took some pictures with her camera and she reacted the same way.

Today she went in and jumped on Gary who was taking a nap.


Got the kitchen stove stoked up and tried to get warm before evening chores.

This camera does a much better job with the photos of the fire.

The flowers aren't that different....

But I think the outside shots are a little better....









Gary brought a lot of wood in the house before leaving for Rochester to watch a Johns Hopkins basketball game. He went to SUNY Brockport with the coach and ironically, his grandmother used to own our farm. Small world.

The sun is quite amazing between 4:30 and 4:45. If it's out, that always seems to be the brightest part of the day during the winter.

During evening chores Abbe fell and cut her back leg...I cleaned and wrapped it...hopefully it is not going to be a problem.

It's shower time! I've been up way too long without a nap.
Night all.