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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 […]

Our biennial hickory nut harvest is upon us. We’ve gotten a bit smarter: we now know which trees produce the biggest nuts with the thinnest shells, and we’ve also learned that gathering two bushels of nuts is useful only if your goal is to have mice that look like Alex Rodriguez. Sarah maintains a laser-like […]

Tonight we subtracted from the sum of deer in Dutchess County.  Everyone is safe and sound (except for the deer, and, perhaps, our car).  We’ll spend the night at the farm and try again in the morning.

Today we hosted the Landsman Kill Trail Association’s Fall Trail Ride.  About fifty horses and riders took part. Sarah fed a peppermint to Tequila Sunrise (“Sunny”), a 19 year-old who, as a two and three year-old, ran at Belmont and Saratoga, with a couple of second-place finishes.

We took advantage of the spectacular weather today — about 68 degrees, sunny and dry — to go for a long walk.  In Jen’s bag are some wild grapes and the first of the hickory nuts. Sarah and Jen caught a frog … … but they couldn’t keep him for long. On Saturday, we retrieved Sarah’s […]

The Rose of Sharon was in full bloom as we began our summer vacation at the end of July.  We had a wonderful time with wonderful people and wonderful food. Sarah was thrilled to have a visit from her Grandpa, who taught her how to play golf. We were all delighted to have a visit […]

We had a very pleasant, if occasionally rainy, Fourth of July weekend. Everyone waited patiently for the rain to stop. Our front-yard bunny found a nice dry spot. But it’s black raspberry season, so we could not stay inside forever. Jen and Sarah made a dozen or so jars of jam. Sarah made sure everything was […]

Work continues apace at the farm, as we (or, more specifically, Chuck Kelsoe and his nephew) dismantled the fence, which we are replacing.  Del Wolcott told me he that built this fence from locust trees that he cleared to build the house on the hill on the other side of what is now Wolcott drive, […]

I was not a friend to the deer this weekend, having spent hours and hours mowing acres and acres of the high grass in which they like to make their beds.  I was, however, a Hero of the Barn Swallows: they love it when someone mows because it turns into a feast.  They swoop around […]

On Saturday, we visited the Northern Dutchess Botanical Gardens to buy a few plants for the garden. We got the essentials: peppers (bell and poblano); lettuce (oak leaf, red sails, and red romaine); arugula; peas (snow and sugar-snap); soybeans; broccoli; strawberries (everbearing, Junebearing and all-star); herbs (green and purple basil, Italian parsley, and lemon verbena); flowers (coneflowers […]