Once upon a December

Once upon a December....

There was lovely morning of whiteness... 

These pictures doesn't really do it justice, but it was pretty out there.

We've got snow- and plenty of it, which makes one of us (Matt) very happy, as he has been able to start training early this year. He is already getting a number of miles on his dogs. I haven't been out on the trail to take pictures of him yet this year- but here is a snapshot of him all hooked up and ready to take off. 

His pups are growing, and are getting big. They love interaction with people and jump all over us whenever we venture into their pen.

Speaking of snow, we got a lot of it early on- and it was a bit to heavy for our machine shed roof.

One end of it now has a large skylight!

Thankfully, Dad heard it crack and had time to move a few things out of the way before it gave way, some small things where damaged, but not any of our big equipment.  We've done some clean-up, and built support for the remaining half of the rafters on this end.  The plan is to leave the fixing until spring, unless the contractor gets a window of opportunity to get some work done on it later this winter.

Music:  We played a lot of music this month. 5 family concerts, sang/played as part of the Christmas program at church, and went caroling and hosted the party afterwards. We've been keeping track of things on this blackboard. While we are currently breathing a sigh of relief that we get a little break, it was a privilege to be able to share the true story of Christmas with a variety of folks this past month- some who have heard us before and some whom we've never met. Lots of folks have been so kind to our family in various ways recently and we are grateful for that.

Laura completed another semester of college last week! She is looking forward to not having due dates for the next couple of weeks.

Silas got his driver's permit... If you live around us- be careful. Ha- just kidding- He is a farm kid after all and  he has had lots of practice driving tractors and such already, so I'm sure he'll be a good driver. :)  He has also been zipping around here on the snowmobile that was purchased this fall, in between waiting for parts and fixing it. Currently the snowmobile is back in the shop as it "blew up" last weekend. I'm not entirely sure what they mean by "blew up". Names of engine parts have been flowing freely in the guy's conversation, and I don't keep up with all that very well- I've gathered enough to make an informed guess that it's going to take a bit of work before it will be zipping around again.

Nate (and the rest of us) moved his cattle home for the winter. A couple days later, my siblings helped him take blood samples to pregnancy test them. The results weren't great- and after having a vet double check them- he'll be down sizing a bit, and getting rid of open cows and heifers.  (On a side note- if anyone wants a whole beef (grass fed, cull cow), get in touch with him).

The cattle drive

Laura and Poco also like days when we work cows! 

 The preg checking crew hard at work. 

I wrapped up my fall semester music lessons the Friday before Christmas, and so also am on break til the new year. I hoping to be able to catch my breath before diving back in to a busy schedule in January.

These ornaments were my Christmas gift for students this year. 

Grace has been busy helping with whatever projects are happening here at the farm. She does a lot of farming as well and helping with meals. This past week she has been helping with refinishing a couple of our hard-wood floors, and table tops. The three of us girls also enjoying doing some XC skiing in our woods, the boys have been happy to make us trails with the snowmobiles this year.

Hope you all had a very merry Christmas! 

Enjoy the last couple days of 2019...