Update

It has been suggested to me that our blog has been somewhat haphazard in the regularity department. So we are going to try to be more disciplined about our updates.

Holly is cooking right along. She gave us a scare a few weeks ago with a sudden enhancement of her "readiness" profile. This is our first pregnancy with her so we are not entirely sure what to expect. In any case, she was just making us squirm, and it looks like we are still on target for a June birth.

I audited a great 3 day dressage clinic with Liz Steacie at the end of April. What a refreshing change she was from the typical spank and crank we tend to see around here. I am very excited to ride with her when she comes back in July (Hermione is somewhat less excited).

Speaking of Hermione, she was bred yesterday to her old sweetheart, our former stallion Harkaway Lionhawk, who now stands with his sire and brothers at Blackberry Ridge Farm. This combination produced an extraordinary filly for us once before so we are hoping for a repeat.

In human family news, Noah and Will are counting down the last few days of school. Noah is going to a special VIP luncheon at Will's school today. Will is excited about showing off his big brother to his friends.

John drained our ornamental fishless pond yesterday and found a surprise at the bottom. A snapping turtle! She (he?) was most displeased with the intrusion and displayed some fairly frightening behavior that gained the respect of us humans. So we cleaned the pond quickly and got out of the way while she re-installed herself. Will tearfully named her "Swoops" after his pet-for-an-afternoon toad that sadly hopped away while he was inside eating his dinner yesterday evening. Ah, the heartbreaks of childhood.

Stay tuned for pics!

And now a word from the Dark Side...

Noah (black t-shirt), Noah's friend Logan, and Will (on the right), with some "friends" from the Dark Side (plus Princess Leia and a Jawa). On the way home, Will told us that Darth Vader signed his book "love, Darth Vader"...disappointingly, this turned out not to be true.

My New Ducks

Three days ago, I got eleven Black Swedish ducklings. I named one of them Harry Potter. He's in there somewhere. He's the one with the most pink on his beak. Once, Harry Potter went for a swim in his waterer! You know, these ducklings are hilarious! They run around a lot because they're practicing escaping from predators (I think).

Finally!

Well, we are finally getting around to using this blog after reserving the name when Blogger got started - however many years ago that was. I will have help from my assistant bloggers, Noah (age 10) and Will (age 6). We will chronicle the last 8 weeks of our Irish Draught mare Holly's pregnancy and keep you up-to-date with the other goings-on here at Flying Harp Farm.