Winter beauty!

We had our second snow fall on Wednesday night. This morning we woke to a frosty winter wonderland, with the temp 12 degrees. No wind however, so we were shedding our outer clothes before we were finished with our animal chores.
Here are some of the photos I just had to share with you all. The guinea on the right is no doubt singing out a marching song.

Goats standing up against the barn in the sun.
No, it is not a polar bear hunting seals, just Bear picking up on an interesting scent.

Even the lacy chicken wire protecting our trees was pretty.

CHRISTMAS DOINGS
I got all my Christmas decorating done yesterday, my quilt club was cancelled, due to bad roads, so was the perfect time. I tried to do a Charlie Brown tree in my entry way. This branch is from one of Ryan's trees that the top broke off with the last snow storm.



I don't think that I will put out a Christmas letter this year, since I do this blog. Hopefully my son will be able to take a picture of Dennis and I and I will send out that.

I finished my Christmas runner yesterday and have it on the coffee table. Dennis says it reminds him of church. So it should do some good.


BARBARY FALCON
We had a falconer visit our place yesterday, to talk about birds, and as he was on his way to exercise his falcon on the Pawnee National grasslands. Which we live near.
Quite a beautiful little bird.
He had it in the back of his pickup with a topper of course, and here you can see the stand he made for it. The bird has it's hood on, but the fellow told me that it can see a little bit with it on. The Barbary is from the northern part of Africa. It is smaller than a Peregrine, but I read is sweet natured and easier to train than a Peregrine. They say they are about the size of a crow, but this one looked smaller. I asked him if he was worried about losing it if it were not to come back. He said that the bird is trained to a whistle, but sometimes the bird gets excited when on chase and can fly out of range. It does wear a little back pack with a tracking devise that has a 15 mile range, so he can look for it.And it also knows his white pickup. He also carries a dead young quail in his pocket for the bird, as reward. I was wondering why the dogs were sniffing so much around him. He told me the life expectancy is 10-25 years on these birds.
So,anyway, this fellow also had his hunting dog with him in the cab of his truck. He takes them out hunting, the dog points and flushes up the bird, and the falcon gives chase. If the falcon is successful, the man trades the dead quail for the game.
And no, I am not considering getting one, just thought that they were interesting.
Grandpa and Lily, taking time out to watch a favored cartoon.


More later..............