We were lucky to have a lot of friends stop by over the long New Year’s weekend. Some of the photos are mine, some I stole from my dear friend Brody Rose’s facebook page. Thanks Brody!

Here is one group of guests taking a farm tour. Baby it is cold outside. I’m not even sure we’ll reach a high of zero. I’m happy everyone was brave enough to take a walk.

Me and Nancy. This is one of Brody’s facebook photos.

Maddy hanging in the snow

This is a really nice horse photo, I’ll have to get the original.

Meeting the ducks. Maddy grabbed one of her feathered friends so people could feel how soft they are.

Getting some fuel before Apples to Apples. I forget who won. I’m sure someone will remind me.

Our friend Todd took a break from his special forces career to spend some time on the farm. Aaron warmed up quickly.

Aaron having fun with more and more presents.

Maddy trying to figure out Todd’s new phone.

Christmas with the siblings.

Aaron enjoying lots of new stuff.

Maddy, Aaron and the dogs.

Cousin Nancy and her friends.

Winter has been hard on the ducks and chickens. They miss their days of foraging in the yard and now settle for visits from humans to bring them food. The ducks really miss their swimming pool.

Chuck fills a small black dish with water and on days when they dare go outside, they try to bath in this little dish.

It gets pretty crowded in the dish. One time all three birds made it inside.

Another activity of theirs is to dig down into the snow. I’m not sure what they find down there, but when they come up it looks like their bills are covered in frosting.

The chickens don’t have the same need for water that ducks have. They are happy to stay inside this winter.

They are happy both upstairs and down, pecking at the grain provided.

But I sure do look forward to they days when they can run around outside.

We took a trip to brother Paul’s for Christmas. Here’s Chuck, Paul and Larry enjoying the holiday wine.

Here’s a wonderful picture of you mom.

Tara and Jason’s first Christmas as a married couple. Next Christmas they will have a baby to join us. Congratulations!

Maddy and her two aunts, Kathy on her right and Kim on her left.

Now we have Maddy with her mom and grandma.

Larry and Kathy

Duke has made a new friend.

Brandon and his girlfriend Jenny.

It’s time to catch up on some holiday blogging. We were fortunate to have seen many family and friends over Christmas and New Year’s. Here is Maddy baking some wonderful chocolate shortbread cookies.

They sure are pretty and they tastes wonderful too.

Oh what fun we’ve had creating a product line. A lot of people bake, can and bottle all sorts of things, but I’m not sure they all develop a brand. This is a problem when your household is full of marketing and design people. We brand our own goods. Ah, but what fun we’ve had. Now that we’ve had a taste with this, wait until next year.

Our most popular products are the wines. We’ve only  opened a bottle of the Black Raspberry and were extremely surprised. It is a dry red wine with berry overtones. The wine is outstanding and exceeded our expectations. Suddenly those hours of fighting thorns and mosquitoes were worth it. Next summer I believe we will pick berries with more enthusiasm. The Rhubarb wine is sweet and will be used as a desert wine. The Gooseberry wine will not be ready until this summer, but our sneak preview tests suggest it will be superb. It has many layers of intense flavor. I will report more as time goes on.

Until then, we will enjoy all of our other products.

Every now and then I take a favorite photo. This is the photo for this week.

It is with great sadness and great joy we say good-bye to Ginger. She will have a new home with an owner seeking a best friend.

Here’s mother and daughter—everyone is waiting around for Ginger’s ride to show up.

Some day I’m sure Ginger and Athena will see each other again. Ginger isn’t that far away and we will be sure to join each other at a horse show. I look forward to the reunion.

Durango may miss Ginger most of all. He was rather infatuated with her.

Durango and Athena will have to learn how to get along, they only have each other until April when Monty returns.

I’m sure they will work it out.

Ginger, you’re a beautiful horse and we will miss you.

I am happy to report, all ducks are home.

One of the wonderful things about living on this farm are the beautiful picture windows. This is the side house view.

This is one of my favorite trees right outside the house.

Here is the view from the front. It is a great window to watch the deer cross the road.

So far this is my favorite. I hope to get outside more with the camera, but I see the winds are really picking up.