It's hard to believe

But tomorrow's forecast includes the possibility of snow flurries! I'm not ready - are you?

The ponies have good winter coats of fur - and warm blankets in the tack room just in case.

Gillgan appears to enjoy the fall weather in this photo. He's found some grass and some sunshine and a beautiful spot to relax by himself in the boys' paddock.

We had a busy weekend.

On Saturday, we went to Kemptville College to watch the Canadian Sport Horse (CSH) Mare Inspection. Natasha, Mom and I met up there and watched four mares go through the inspection process. The inspectors described how each mare met the criteria to become an approved brood mare. That was very informative. We hope to bring Delilah to an inspection next spring. We already know she makes great babies!

After that, we had lunch at Broadway in Kemptville, then went down to visit Delilah at Saddle Ridge Stables where Reuben and Karina are working with her to get her to be more comfortable with humans. Reuben let us watch him work with Delilah - she joined up with him really well and let him pat her all over and even run his hands down her legs. She's still a bit anxious about his hands on her legs, but we could see the improvement.

Then it was home to do chores.

On Sunday, we had a lot of wonderful visitors. Jen L. asked us to post Roxy on Equistation and several people called or emailed about buying her within minutes of posting her photo in the ad.

Lynn V. came to see Roxy and bought her!!

Congratulations on your beautiful new horse, Lynn!

Welcome to the barn as a boarder, too!

Yes, Roxy will be staying here as a boarder, and we're thrilled. Natasha looks forward to showing Roxy next spring and summer, too.

Lynn V. has also decided to sponsor Otis. Thank you, Lynn, for your generosity!

Alexandria Clarke came to visit the farm with her parents and decided that she wants to sponsor Levi. Thank you very much to the Clarke family, and especially to Alexandria. We look forward to your visits.

Two more of the chicks have names: Fluffy and Rosy. That means that six out of our eleven chickens now have names. If you'd like to name a chick, we'll tell you which ones are which and you can name one of the last five. So far, we have Fluffy, Rosy, Chip, Harry, Nemo, Red, and Mama. They live in the coop by the barn - they'll be part of our fly control program next spring and summer. We hope that they'll lay eggs for us over the winter, too.

Otis is a bit of a ham. Natasha took this picture as he appeared to laugh as Mom tickled him on his neck. Standing still is one of his best tricks, so it's easy to get photos of him. (Sorry, Natasha, it's hard to tell who took which picture when we all use Mom's camera.)

Despite his short stature, he's happy to have one or two children or an adult on his back for as long as they want to be here. He's got really good ground manners, so he's a pleasure to lead, too.

Fire is growing up. She's a year and a half old now.

Mom listed Dreams Firecracker (aka Fire) for adoption for $500 on Used Ottawa. I know she'd rather not sell her, but I think she'd make a wonderful child's hunter pony. She's about 13 hh now and should finish about 14 hh - not too tall for a child. Beauty, Fire's mom, is due to foal again in April. Mom doesn't really need five ponies - with Beauty's new foal, she would have six. Someone has to go.

We'll make sure Fire gets a good home and we'll ask them to keep us up to date on her progress and send pictures.

Bart, the beautiful black barn cat who thinks he should be a house cat, brought me a salamander the other day. It's a Blue Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma laterale). Blue spotted salamanders have a range that covers most of North America. Mom found a lot of references to variants of blue spotted salamanders all over Eastern Canada and down into the United States.

The salamander had an injury to his tail, so I put him in the aquarium with some rocks and some water to let him heal. He's all better now, so I released him in the woods so that he has time to burrow or find a den for the winter. You can see the notch in his tail in the photo that I took. The picture that Mom took through the side of the aquarium shows his blue spots.

It's a plastic aquarium designed to hold a Beta fish, so it was tough to get a clear picture. We didn't want to stress him by picking him up repeatedly, though, so Mom did the best she could.

Congratulations to Amelia on her engagement! We wish you all the best and hope your beau loves Scrappy as much as you do.

Serge finished the run-in shed in the cow field. I think he did a marvellous job - take a look and be sure to tell him how great it looks. Spook, Aggie, Belinda and Stew will enjoy it this winter. We hope to build some new run-in sheds in the other fields soon, too. If anyone has a few money tree seeds to spare, we have lots of room to plant them and good fertilizer, too!

Reminder: The Halloween Fun Day is this Sunday. Be sure to bring costume stuff for your horse or pony - if you don't have one of your own, you can borrow one of ours.

This weekend coming will be a busy one, too. We plan to attend a Breast Cancer Benefit for a friend of Mom's on Friday at the Lucky 7 in Embrun. Saturday is Natasha's birthday (Happy Birthday, Natasha!!) and the Oxford Downs Pony Club Used Tack Sale at Rooneys in South Gower, and of course, Sunday is the Fun Day.