1) Today Northland hosted a friendly competition which involved driving through an obstacle course with a team of two and a team of three. A bunch of cool people came of all types of driving experience, it was fun and we learned some things. Daniel and I both completed the course without losing too many points, though I don't believe anyone was keeping score anyway. For the record, Daniel beat me, but technically we weren't competing in the same class.
1a) Our friend Ben is visiting and documented the event photographically, the results of which can be seen below. He also got the opportunity to drive horses (actually, a mule and a donkey) today. He is going to medical school but we're trying to get him to be a horse farmer before he gets too far into that scheme. You can also see photos of him below (be sure to comment and say how good/ natural he looks driving horses, maybe together we can convince him).
2) Daniel and I got the first opportunity to drive a wheeled vehicle yesterday (the snowplow), which was exciting because there's an added complication of having to balance on the forecart while also trying to drive. Very cool. Ben also documented that.
3) We've been farmsitting at
Kingbird Farm in nearby Berkshire, they have a lot of cool animals, including Highland cattle, Fjord horses, guinea hogs, silkie chickens, etc. (What is a silkie chicken?? Great question. check out the photos below & be amazed, astounded, confused? It's sure to be a conversation starter. What is a chicken, really? What is an animal? You may end up questioning how you define yourself as a person. (You may not but they are cool looking.))
4) The weather is getting warmer, which means the sap is starting to run, which means tomorrow we are going to tap a few sugar maples, which for me personally is very exciting but Ben and Daniel also happen to probably be as excited as I. We'll post photos of that as well.
5) Our greenhouse plastic arrived!! Plus we're supposed to go pick up the poles on Tues, so that project is on the up and up. Slated completion date: within two weeks.
I think that's it...except for a huge shout out to my mom for sending a substantial ($8.90 USPS, priority mail, and the contents of this box totally deserved priority mail) box of cookies. Said box is maybe half gone, we got it this afternoon. Check out the photos, all credit Ben.
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| Miley, one of the two farm dogs. She's an Australian cattle dog. Gets a bad rap around here but secretly she's on my top two favorite dogs list. |
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| Jack, the other farm dog, who is a New Zealand Huntaway. Of course Miley is invading the shot, this is indicative of the relationship between the two. We haven't seen them work sheep yet so at this point I'm pretty sure the only thing Jack is good at is barking and running down the driveway compulsively. He's cool though |
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| Daniel and Donn driving the snowplow |
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| Two horses at Kingbird. The left is a Fjord, right is a Halflinger. |
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| Sorry, but I really like this photo. A Highland grooms herself. Great portrait of that breed. |
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| Daniel with one of the guinea hogs, incidentally a small guinea hog (a guinea guinea pig?), incidentally named Heather |
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| The much referred-to silkies. whoa. |
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| here again |
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| Some very cute Tamworth piglets |
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| We ate this for breakfast this morning. The fact that one eats extraordinarily well is in my top three reasons for farming. |
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| A great one of (l-r) Lady, Polly and Connie |
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| Daniel navigating the slalom portion of the competition course with George (black mule) and Eddie |
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| Ben on the lines. Yeah Ben. |
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| At this point no post on this blog would be complete without a photo of Lee, seen here checking to see that a slalom pylon meets regulation |
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| Ben driving George and Eddie. |
