Crickhollow Farm

Stockings hung with care

As promised, pictures of the barn decorations, such as they are.

 

Actual Spring

The weather was gorgeous yesterday (52 and sunny!), and despite the fact that the main paddocks are absolute mud pits, the arena and north paddock were both relatively dry (not dry-dry, but not squishy & bog like, either).  I took advantage of this and let the boys out into the arena and the girls into the north paddock to get out of the mud & stretch their legs a bit.  There's no real grass in either area at this point (not that it stopped them from trying to graze), so they got their lunch hay taken out there for them.  They all seemed to enjoy it immensely.  I did have the camera with me, so there are pictures!

(Please forgive the muddy coats.  They were just in a lot of mud and certain individuals like to roll.  A lot.)

cats & other miscellany

Thought I'd do a little catch-up and post a pic of the barn kitties' stockings post-stuffing.

The bag of treats wouldn't fit in the sock, so it had to go on the pin in front of it.  That first green sock ended up on the floor a couple of times, so I think Owen was plotting, even here, how to get at those mice.

 

It's chilly out today, but bright and sunny with very little wind, so it's not totally unpleasant.  I opened up the barn a bit so I could haul some hay up from the shed this afternoon (with my battered orange tobaggan), and (almost) all of the cats came spilling out to hang out & play in front of the barn.  Rodney has taken to following Owen around, and I actually had discovered the two of them climbing in the hay shed.  I didn't have the camera then, but I went & got it a little later...

 

Flora was having none of it and chose to stay in the warmth of the tackroom.

Happy Midwinter's Eve

Happy Midwinter's Eve, everyone!  Tomorrow is the solstice and the official first day of winter.  It certianly seems like we've had winter plenty long already, though!  We've had tons of snow (and ice - ick!) here already -- no fear that Christmas won't be white this year -- and there's a blizzard going on out there now.  I have snow all over the inside of my barn.  I love the doors leading from stalls into paddocks, it makes my routine in the mornings & at night much smoother and gives the horses shelter, but they also let the elements in when the wind is driving from the right direction, and I feel like I just can't win on that score this year.  ::Sigh::

This is the drift that had accumulated in the boys' paddock by the evening hay-feeding today.  It's actually higher than the water trough at one point there.  I had to mess it up, shoveling it away from the trough and the door to Merry's stall, but I got this pic first.

 

I also took some pictures of the tackroom, which I've decorated for the holidays...

A wee stocking for each barn kitty and cat-proof ornaments made from cute Coke bottles.

Owen and Tyler pose with the wee-tree and banner that I bought because the cat on it looks kind of like Owen.  They are watching the kittens (Jeannie & Rodney), who are down below...

...checking out the snow shovel!

 

Meanwhile, Flora is napping in the kitty bed on my chair,

and Rose has snuck into the house (which she is planning a take-over of).

 

And, since this is a horse blog, not a cat blog, I give you Annie in the snow from the last snow-storm:

(That back-end disappearing behind the tree belongs to Morgana, who is quite a big girl.)

 

Again, happy Midwinter's Eve.  After tomorrow, the days start getting longer again!