RhinebeckFarm.com

We arrived at the farm for our Christmas vacation and found a deranged squirrel in the family room, hopping from bookshelf to bookshelf.  In the process, he knocked my ukulele to the ground, destroying it.  The squirrel had gotten in through the chimney in the mud room.  We chased him out the front door.

Other than that, we had a lovely holiday.  Sarah’s stocking was full.  She left a note for Santa and the reindeer letting them know that they could find hay in the barn and water in the pond.

Sarah received lots of great books and other presents, including Blitzen (pictured).

She and her mom made popovers.

My in-laws laughed as I flew my new remote-controlled helicopter into a maple tree.  It looked no better than the ukulele.

Our friends the Scherrs came to visit for New Year’s.  Jason’s birthday is January 1, and for that reason it’s often overlooked.  This year Jen and Sarah organized a cake, served at midnight.  The kids, fuelled by root beer, stayed up to ring in the new year.

Saturday evening, Sarah played with her Legos by the hearth as we had our first fire of the season.

Later, she duplicated the scene – in Lego!

Here is our new hay wagon.  It is not in pristine condition, but it lends a lot of farm cred at a low price.

Maybe at some point we can have hayrides if I can figure out how to make sides for it.

We had a very happy Thanksgiving, and quite a feast — roast turkey, mushroom and hickory nut stuffing, sweet potatoes, strawberry jello mold, green beans with almonds, and, a last-minute addition, Jen’s flash-pickled daikon radishes, broccoli stems, red radishes and carrots, all from the garden.

We had a 2:1 person-to-pie ratio, which in many circles is considered optimal.  Julie contributed the pumpkin pie, while Jen made apple and hickory nut.

Some things never change.

On Sunday, Grandpa revealed to Sarah his Secret Project.  She may possibly have had some idea of what Grandpa was doing spending all that time in the barn, why he kept coming up to the house to measure things, and why he kept making trips to the hardware store — she is very perceptive, plus her Aunt Roxy told her that her grandfather was building a dollhouse.  Nevertheless, it was thrilling for Sarah see it for the first time.  While it isn’t completely finished, it is quite beautiful.  I hope Sarah appreciates it as much as we do.

Astute rhinebeckfarm.com viewers will see that the dollhouse is a pretty good likeness.

At our current billing rates this is about four thousand dollars worth of shelled hickory nuts — about enough for a pie.  We are all looking forward to Thanksgiving!

Here is today’s sunset, which I noticed while on a conference call and slipped outside to photograph.  Fortunately, the cordless phone has pretty good range.

From Saturday evening, here’s another example of the beautiful light that makes everything look like a J.F. Cropsey painting.

When we woke up this morning, there was frost on the high grass.  We returned to New York early to watch the marathon.

We were not expecting to have the season’s first blizzard before Halloween.

It started innocently enough.

Then it snowed harder and harder.

By late afternoon we had a full-blown Nor’Easter.  It’s awful to have wet, heavy snow while the trees still have their leaves, particularly given how wet the ground has been — there’s just too much weight.  I spent a good chunk of the evening pushing snow out of trees with a rake.

When we woke up, we had at least eight inches of snow and no electricity.  Still, it was very pretty.

Del Wolcott and Chuck Kelsoe came over to help us get the generators started.

Now we’ll have to clean up the mess.

For Sarah, possibly the best part of soccer is the post-practice ice pop with her friends and teammates Sophie and Michaela.

Back at home, the supposedly wild animals are getting entirely too comfortable.  On Saturday we found two deer napping on the lawn.

And on Sunday we found these two squirrels hanging out on the porch.

Clearly they didn’t get the memo: we’ve had two casualties in the last three weeks.

We haven’t had a frost yet, and flowers continue to bloom in Jen’s garden.

Yet it is peak leaf-peeping season.

On Saturday we cleaned out our car, now officially totaled.

Before soccer practice, Sarah gathered some of the prettier leaves from the yard.