Sandhill Farm by Stan
This news is by Stan. Hope y'all enjoyed the holiday season.
Up on the hill here, we have been enjoying the coming of winter and adapting to the ever changing weather. It's being quite a ride: we skated for about a week before the rain at Xmas time. We even went on our annual skate on the old lake by Memphis. It is such a different ecosystem - there was a large beaver lodge and many trees near the lake felled by the beavers for their food. It feels so expansive to see a mile of ice ahead of you! Then we played hockey on our pond for several days and were really getting into it - and then it rained.
After the rain and a few days of snow, we switched to cross country snow skiing - although it took the plunging temperatures to really firm up the snow enough for good skiing. It's fun to explore our fields and neighboring farms on the snow on skis - it's so QUIET. It's not uncommon to surprise deer in the woods.
Christmas time was fairly quiet here. We had Renay & French over for xmas dinner and then a rousing game of crokinole later.
School was out - so we had Renay home for several weeks - that was a treat (& we needed her to have enough for a hockey game!). Gigi decided to get us a family week-long pass at the RecPlex - she & Renay went every day and the rest of us went in for a day - tried various exercise machines, ping pong, and a vigorous game of basketball. Ooh - sore muscles I didn't know I had.
Laird and Ma'ikwe returned from an extended visit to the Southwest visiting family and friends and came back with lots of stories. They drove through snow from Albuquerque all the way home just before New Year's.
Also over the holidays, Jacob hosted several friends from Iowa City and we've been getting firewood, splitting a bunch, and feeding several woodstoves, including one heating our greenhouse. Gigi is still getting to know the newly installed stove there. In spite of having little sun lately, we've had fresh salads every day. That's a real treat this time of year.
We look forward to Emily coming home this week - we will all be home for about a week!
A rich and blessed New Year to all!