Galloway Farm

  A light snow is all the excuse we needed to try out our new snow tube.  Add a tow rope and a golf cart and you’ve got some wintertime fun on your hands!

The temp rose above freezing Saturday and the kids were glad to get out side.  A good fire and a little sunshine go a long way on a cold day.

Marshmallows are a well balanced lunch right?

Charles

Hubbard waiting patiently

I told Jack Boone & Hubbard that they could build their very own fire without any help or advice from me.  They’ve helped me build dozens of fires; but this was the first time I’ve let them do it all on their own.  They were very proud and enjoyed sitting around their fire the way men have for centuries.  : )

Here we are planting some new apple trees we ordered through the mail.  Planting conditions were a little chilly; but you need to get new apple trees in the ground pretty fast.  We ordered these from Willis Orchard Company.   We ordered 3 types of apple trees:  Honeycrisp, Mcintosh, & a “3 in 1″ tree that has 3 varieties of apples on one tree!  (Fuji, Early Red Summer & Granny Smith)  They do this by grafting branches of different varieties to the trunk of a young seedling. 

Interesting Fact:  You can’t just plant one apple tree.  Most apple trees need a second apple tree of a different variety to pollinate it. 

Sidenote:  2 of the trees Willis Orchard Co sent me were the wrong type.  (They sent Dorsett Golden, Anna Apple & Gordon Apple)  I called and they were great.  They told me to keep the wrong ones and they would gladly send us the correct ones.  So we’ll end up with 5 apple trees with a total of 9 varieties of apples!

3 in 1 apple tree

You could almost walk right by this Crane hiding at the pond’s edge.  These birds will sit still for hours at a time to grab a fresh fish for lunch.  They normally wade out into the water; but I guess this bird has decided 30 degree water is too cold even for a Crane.

We had an early snow a few weeks ago and it’s always fun to spend time at the farm in the snow.  The scenery really changes right before your eyes into a quiet white blanket of soft snow.

"Persimmon", our family Corgi

Jack Boone, Hubbard & Charles

Driving the tractor up onto my new trailer wasn’t too bad.  But getting it back down was a different story.  The back tires are as wide as my trailer ramps, and getting the confidence to drive backward down the ramps had me a little anxious!

After lining everything up, it helps to get off the tractor and get a view from below.

Whew, made it down with no problems!

It’s been a dry fall and the pond is down quite a bit.  So I decided it would be a good opportunity to get some big limbs/sticks out of the pond to make fishing easier for the kids in spring.  I put on my knee high “muck boots”.  But as soon as i stepped near the waterline, I SANK UP TO MY KNEES!  Both feet sank like I was in quick sand.  Dark, slimy, cold mud filled my boots.  I was stuck.  And I was by myself except for our dog “Persimmon”, who wasn’t much help.  After effortless attempts to get out with the boots on, I had to abandon ship and come out of them and do sort of a spider man crawl up the bank to get out.

My new muck boots, buried alive.

I let the animals come into a barn stall through a special door in the cold months.  I spent the weekend getting it ready for them with fresh hay, protein and salt blocks, etc.

The hay net provides hay & entertainment as it swings.

A staircase of straw is a fav of the goats.