RhinebeckFarm.com

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.

The trees were in high color this weekend.

Even the squirrels got into the swing of things.

On Saturday, we visited the New York State Sheep & Wool Festival at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, where we saw a sheep herding exhibition.

The sheepdogs were impressively well trained, but, frankly, so were the sheep.

Sarah took a break from watching sheep being sheared, milked, and judged for conformity with their breeds, and took in a Mad Science show.

She also befriended a llama.

Sarah made this paper airplane launcher in her after-school Art in Orbit class at Caedmon.

She launched a few before soccer practice on Saturday.  You can see a bit of frost in the high grass by the pond.

The leaves are coming down at the farm.

On Sunday, Sarah produced this self portrait.

Here’s the real thing.