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We drove up to the farm Saturday morning after Sarah’s magic-themed 9th birthday party at our apartment.  We spotted 16 hawks on the Taconic on the way up — a personal record.  When we arrived, we found the pond frozen solid.  Sarah found a cat tail and made a wish.

Sarah and Jen shoveled off the thin layer of snow, but, after an hour or so, we realized that none of us had ice skates.

Saturday night, Sarah had her friends (counter-clockwise from Sarah) Anna, Michaela, Sophie and Lucy over for a sleepover.  They played Sneaky Statues, ate pizza, watched Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2, and had slices of Jen’s delicious lemon cake.

The celebration continued in the morning (Sarah’s actual birthday) with blueberry pancakes.  In the afternoon we all took long naps!

We had a nice long weekend up at the farm celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. day, President Obama’s inauguration, and my father’s 75th birthday.

It was cold on Saturday, but on Sunday it was mild enough to get everyone outside.

The wild turkeys seem to be doing OK this winter.

Sarah broke the ice to make sure the streams were flowing.

We had a persistently foggy weekend, in a non-metaphorical sense.

We had a light dusting overnight on Christmas Eve, just enough to call it a white Christmas.

Sarah left her customary note and snacks for Santa and the reindeer.

She had a great time!

On Saturday, Sarah answered the time-honored question of Hanukkah — apple sauce or sour cream? — in the time-honored fashion, by having both.  Here’s a link to the recipe.

The pond started to ice over on Saturday, but this mallard couple was undaunted.  They were back on Sunday, when everything had melted.  Maybe they will try to ride out the winter with us.

A cardinal provided a shot of color to the late fall landscape.

On Saturday night we made, as a team effort, what we called Bucatini Alla Mexicana — basically, this recipe, but with chorizo instead of guanciale and with a dried poblano addded to the sauce.  Too spicy, said Sarah, here rolling out the pasta dough.  At the edge of the counter you can see the little pasta heart she made.

This is our bucatini tree.

And this is our maple tree, holding onto most of its leaves late in the season.  In other arboreal news, we spent the morning cracking hickory nuts to bring with us to Arizona, where we intend to make a hickory nut pie for Thanksgiving.

Sarah had her last soccer practice of the season on Saturday.  It culminated in an approximately five-on-thirty game of coaches versus kids.  The coaches were surprisingly competitive.

Chuck has been spending many, many hours gathering the falling leaves.

We had fine weather all weekend.  On Sunday, Sarah brought out her bug-collecting gear.

Our bluebirds seem to be staying put for the winter.

And our lone swan continues to ply the swamp.

We escaped the devastation of Hurricane Sandy to spend the weekend at the farm.  Okay, where we live, it wasn’t exactly devastation — more like Sarah got four days off from school, and we got free bus service.  Anyhow, here’s what it looked like Saturday morning.  We had no damage from the storm.  Even the basement was dry.

Chuck Kelsoe has been sprucing up the bottom part of the barn.  I think he’s trying to con us into getting horses.

To give you some idea of what it looked like before, this is the opposite stall, still encrusted with birdshit.

We spent the weekend hunkered down in New York awaiting Frankenstorm Sandy.  On Saturday night, we attended Caedmon’s Halloween party, where Sarah got to try out the Medusa costume her mom made for her.