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We had enough snow on the ground so that Sarah could try out her snowshoes, which were a Christmas present last year.

She and her mom made a snowman.

While they were doing that, I found this horseshoe sticking out of the ground.  It looks very old.

Here’s the completed snowman, with a jaunty birds’ nest hat.

We had clammy weather at the farm this weekend.

Sarah stayed indoors and made origami frogs.

As you can see, we had an extremely busy Presidents’ Day weekend at the farm.

On Sunday night, Sarah had a sleepover at her friend Sophie’s house.  Jen and I made pizza and watched a movie (Argo).

I have re-thought my pizza recipe, both sauce and dough.  You can find details at the recipe page.

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.