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I returned to the farm after two weekends away: the first to attend a work conference, and the second to recover from the Covid I got at the work conference. I was feeling a lot better today, especially when I was greeted by this Rose-breasted Grosbeak singing his heart out over our driveway.

Daisy and I spent the week at the farm while Sarah recuperated from Covid. Saturday we had a visit from our neighbor Karen Belove and her 11 month-old Golden Retriever, Farley. Treats were dispensed equitably, and Farley got mud on my pants.

Jen is her own harbinger of spring, braving a wet, 40 degree day to get the beans started.

This weekend we saw Ring-necked Ducks (f/k/a Lesser Scaups) diving in the pond, Herman the bachelor muskrat giving himself a bath nearby, a coyote skulking around the backyard, and a raccoon in the Hoeners’ driveway.

During a cold, sunny Saturday afternoon, our cell phones alerted us to an impending squall, which in fact arrived within the half hour. It cleared up almost as fast.

Our decision to stay in New York this weekend appears to have been justified.

Jen corageously determined that the pond was frozen solid, which made sense given the single-digit temperatures we’ve had over the past few days. While it might be a good day for skating, it’s also a good day for a fire.

We had a small but festive Christmas, with just Jen’s folks visiting. Sarah presented Daisy with her stocking, stuffed with a bully stick and a dried fish skin. It’s hard to say which smelled worse.

As is her custom, Sarah made crafts for everyone. She embroider these flowers for Rinda, crocheted coasters for Lew and trivets for Jen, and painted a beautiful blue jay for me.

Here is Sarah presenting Lew with his coasters.

And here is Jen with one of her trivets.

To celebrate her admission to my alma mater, I gave Sarah my old Colgate sweatshirt, with the reminder that what happens in the Colgate sweatshirt stays in the Colgate sweatshirt (literally, I’m afraid).

Here are Jen and Sarah, ready for the holidays after the hanging of the ornaments.

Sarah is on-trend with this ugly Christmas sweater from her pal Ainsley.

I put up a trail camera in the woods, but the only images I captured were of these two sourpuss hikers.

Ordinarily we wait until just before Christmas to bring home a tree, mostly because no one is around during the week to water it. This year, however, there seems to be a Christmas tree shortage. According to The Wall Street Journal, this is not the result of supply chain interruption but rather the long tail of Christmas tree growers leaving the business after the 2007-08 recession. It takes about twelve years to grow a Christmas tree.

Trying to get ahead of this, we visited Saltsman’s Christmas Tree Farm, a local favorite just outside the village, but they had only fifteen sad trees remaining. We got this one at Phantom Gardener on Route 9, which caters to weekenders — and where, if truth be told, we’ve gotten nearly every previous Christmas tree. At right you can see the gnomish Christmas tree lot attendant who once again regaled us with his story of when, as a neophyte tree wrangler, he accidentally imprisoned a family in their car by roping the tree through the windows rather than the doors.