Surprise! A Happy Farm Update!

Peace and quiet. Pastoral views.

My favorite: a sturdy and strong century barn.

A Jack-In-The-Box.

New glasses.

(Okay, so Sarah has pneumonia, my hip is nearly killing my "active country lifestyle," we have had our first power outage of the year (may it be the last), a 10-day cold snap has begun, my Meyer Lemon tree may not make it.)

(Just in case you stopped by for the bummer tour.)

(A little melodrama never hurt anyone. Did it?)

This weekend was a good one. I haven't uploaded pictures yet, but (after the urgent care staff and the X-Ray tech all wished us a Merry Christmas; quite seriously, we are getting to know them at the hospital) Sarah and Grace and Laura and I stayed snug in the house while my husband and Madeleine shored up the farmstead for a much-heralded wintry blast of snow and ice.

We (okay, they) installed the stock tank de-icer I raved about a few days ago. They also put a heat lamp in the chicken chalet for our remaining hens and the rooster. They set up the generator just in time for the first power outage to be over and they purchased a Christmas tree in town. Usually we trek to the woods with a Bureau of Land Management permit to cut our own, but this would not be that kind of year.

Then my husband took a shift with the recuperating masses indoors while Madeleine and I tucked her horse in to the stall for the duration of the storm. Some horses have the sense to come in from the cold or at least to keep a blanket on. Seven, not so much.

I (okay, my husband) had the brilliant thought to bring my prized geraniums into the shop for shelter. Also the Meyer Lemon. It's not looking so good, but I have hope that we didn't wait too long.

As I write, Madeleine and Sarah are playing chess. Grace and Laura are sleeping. My husband's snitching cookie dough from the batch we made this evening. I'm able to sit in the office chair long enough to download beaucoup coloring sheets from Crayola and a little weather lesson or two for tomorrow's school. What do the hip kids say? It's all good.

It's a happy farm update.