We drove up to Amherst, MA this weekend to visit Patty and family. She used to be a post doc in Chris's lab and moved up here 1.5 years ago. They recently bought a 120 acre farm and have been fixing it up. It was wonderful to visit, and I can't wait to go up there again.
A beautiful gift for Elliot, an alpaca hat from Bolivia. It's so soft! and will be wonderfully warm in winter. Looks cute too (a little gnome hat).
They have many acres of forest, with creeks running through. We took a walk along one of the forest paths, out to the CSA veggie farm on the far side of their property. I hope Patty's daughters (ages 4 and 8) realize how cool it is to grow up on a farm with so many gorgeous amenities like their own forest to explore, horses to ride, creeks to swim in, apples to pick, chickens to chase, and soon, cows and goats to milk.
Elliot met his first horse (though he slept through the whole experience). This is Rose, a draft horse (formerly owned and trained by the Amish). She and her horse partner pull the wagons and other farming implements. Patty's husband Bernard is trying to go "petroleum-less" as far as working the farm goes. He has many horse-pulled pieces of equipment. The whole place is going organic too. It seems like so much work, but incredibly rewarding in the end.
The farm, which they bought not too long ago, has had horse-boarding facilities for many years. They decided to continue that business.
A beautiful gift for Elliot, an alpaca hat from Bolivia. It's so soft! and will be wonderfully warm in winter. Looks cute too (a little gnome hat).
They have many acres of forest, with creeks running through. We took a walk along one of the forest paths, out to the CSA veggie farm on the far side of their property. I hope Patty's daughters (ages 4 and 8) realize how cool it is to grow up on a farm with so many gorgeous amenities like their own forest to explore, horses to ride, creeks to swim in, apples to pick, chickens to chase, and soon, cows and goats to milk.
Elliot met his first horse (though he slept through the whole experience). This is Rose, a draft horse (formerly owned and trained by the Amish). She and her horse partner pull the wagons and other farming implements. Patty's husband Bernard is trying to go "petroleum-less" as far as working the farm goes. He has many horse-pulled pieces of equipment. The whole place is going organic too. It seems like so much work, but incredibly rewarding in the end.
The farm, which they bought not too long ago, has had horse-boarding facilities for many years. They decided to continue that business.
This bear tastes pretty good, though most things these days seem to taste good. Or at least they tend to end up in or near his mouth. He's entering the oral fixation stage. He has very little hand eye coordination thus far, so getting things INTO his mouth is tricky (his hands being the exception.)
