In which November 2020 is different (and also the same)
A holiday weekend during a pandemic isn't quite like anything else.
8am - feed everything
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| photo by Monica |
Okay, the "feeding everything" doesn't change much, summer or winter, pandemic or not.
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| Young birds (mostly cockerels) |
However, not having to get up early and be dressed and out of the house by 9am every weekday is one welcome change from the Before Times.
10am - make little pies
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| Little pies with apple/fresh ginger filling |
Holidays here have a lot of food elements. Since we couldn't gather in crowds as normal, I made several batches of stuff and delivered. These went to Fish Creek Farm--which supplied the apples for this batch of filling, by the way.
Noon - watch a couple of lessons
Patty and Ariana
I bundled myself up in a bunch of warm clothes to audit a couple of lessons at Fish Creek.
I like to listen in on other people's lessons, I think I learn a lot that way, but I must keep myself warm or my brain shuts down!
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| Betsey and Willy |
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| Yes, the guy in the red shirt is Henry. Yes, he is tall now. And smart, and funny. |
The White Horse trail is paved in a couple of places--perfect for training-wheels kid and a bunch of her relatives.
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| Added attraction on the White Horse Trail : a river to toss rocks into |
4pm - ride bareback around the pasture and check fences
I'm not one of those people who grew up riding bareback. The Dragon helps me stay on.
While I was out messing around, Jim was busy:
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| Santa Jim is working with several "Virtual Santa" companies this year. I'll post a link soon with information about all of them. |
Monica has also been busy:
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| Self-portrait of the artist with Wally the Starling (who was a pet in 2010) |
The end of the year is an excellent time to play the "Same and Different" game. The trick for me, this year, is to not get stuck in a whining spiral of wanting to go back to the Before Times. Looking back at this blog (11 years of blogging, egad) helps me remember that it's never the same as it used to be.
And...sometimes the changes are good ones.
Be well, keep breathing, wash your hands.
I love how the goats follow you! How adorable!
ReplyDeleteomg those noises your goats make! can you please take another video of them making those noises and not being obnoxiously loud?
ReplyDeleteI made a lot of "pocket pies" this year out of berries from our garden, and apples too. I was trying to make the perfect copy cat mcdonalds apple pie *lol* I cheat though cuz I buy puff pastry sheets at Aldi. Despite corona when an Amazon delivery guy came by, I rushed out with a raspberry pocket pie for him wrapped in paper towels cuz it was just out of the oven and I wanted someone to enjoy it. (I don't eat them myself.)
I love that photo of your horse's breath and your icy pasture. Your pasture has....trees now? What kind of trees? I remember it was just pasture, before. At leaste you don't have blackberries threading through the trees making them impassable!
Goat noises are almost entirely made by Lupin (white ears) Goat Gruff. Dobbie (black ears) Goat Gruff is not a verbal goat. The sweet noises in the video roughly translate as "slow down and wait for meeeeee!" and are not very urgent (because he knows the trees will slow her down). When I unload her in the driveway and he knows she's going to nibble the lawn for 20 minutes while I clean out the trailer, the noises are impatient and obnoxious!
DeleteTrees are alders, and they are there because the tractor mower broke, so they didn't get mowed down when they were still little. Now, some are almost big enough to harvest for firewood, so the plan is to start cutting them down, bit by bit, in a few years. We don't have blackberries all over the pasture only because the goats eat all the leaves and the vines starve. Mwa ha ha.