First Snowfall and Other Events
Here in New England earlier today, winter touched us gently on the shoulder to remind us of her coming along with the holidays. The dogs had a frolicking time, and Riley was quick to try and make snow angels despite the limited amount of snow that fell.
Walking home after our wet adventure on the fields, the slippery roads made me feel a bit like Santa with my reindeer dog team pulling me along. Of course we couldn’t fly but the dogs showed their excitement at the surprise weather by keeping a very fast pace.
With Thanksgiving only a few days away, on behalf of all of us here in the Farmington Valley…
Lily: 
Emma:
Riley: 
Solo: 
Lucy:
And Barb And I, we would like to extend our best holiday wishes to our friends and family. May everyone have safe traveling wherever your destination may be.
As always though, the gears of the circle of life are forever turning. With every happy event, life seems to extract a balance by having something equally sad happen. I am very sorry to report that Rudder, Riley’s recent stud, and only seven years old passed away this week, due to the sudden diagnosis of cancer.
Our prayers go out to Cindy Jones and his co owners for losing such a special boy.
The disappointing news continues with our Riley having her final ultrasound tonight. She is without pups. Our disappointment for ourselves and our waiting clients however, pales to the loss our friend has just suffered.
And speaking of prior heartbreaking losses, I am happier to report that my efforts to keep our Abby’s memory alive has reached fruition. Today I applied “Abby’s labels” to my first two batches of homemade Ale. My unsuspecting family on thanksgiving will be the first to try it and see if it is worthy of her memory! If so I will give it away as gifts.
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I have found that beer making is much more complex than making wine although the fermentation process is shorter. There are many more kinds of hops to choose from than there are varieties of grapes.
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Finally, we have been doing serial progesterone levels on our Emma, who is in heat. It looks like her fertile time will be this weekend. I am in close contact with Berna at Cape Cod to see how we will arrange our Emma and her Mulder having a successful mating like a year ago at this time. Further details will be forthcoming as they happen.