Brasher Falls State Forest - Part 1

I haven't had much energy lately, but one fine morning I felt I had to get out into nature with the dogs. I drove to Brasher State Forest and found what is called a truck trail, leading off of McCarthy Road. It had a closed gate but that wouldn't have been needed because there was a four foot snow pile along the side of McCarthy Road which I had to climb over to get onto the trail. Snowmobiles had packed down the snow on the trail:

The dogs were ecstatic and had trouble deciding if they'd rather run wildly or stop and sniff everything. They tried to do both:

They'd run too far ahead and I'd call them back - and then we'd repeat the process:

The sun was bright but trees shaded parts of the trail and made photos difficult. But of course the dogs didn't care about my pictures - they were having too much fun:

Daphne, Clover and Jack kept finding what looked like small dog poops, too small for coyotes. I wondered if someone besides me had been walking their dogs here:

Jack, the little engine that could. He chugged along running first one way, then the other:

I hadn't planned on going far, but the dogs had other ideas:

Seamus looked like a new dog since he got his haircut. He didn't seem at all cold, though:

I've tried teaching them the meaning of "Stop!" Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't:

The four small dogs stopped to sniff something and Daphne came over to me to be sure I was OK with that. I was:

Besides running, Jack likes to roll ecstatically. In this case, his rolling took him downhill on the ice:

And onward we walked. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow:

Around The Farm As Spring Has Sprung

Our weather had been swinging wildly between blizzards, rainstorms, thaws and high winds. We could have all four in a day, but the Red Poll girls just keep calmly eating their hay:

The snow and ice on the pasture began to disappear, making it (I hope) safe for the cows to walk out there:

But mostly the girls snoozed on the waste hay by the east side of the barn:

The pigeons' room badly needs cleaning, and I'll have to get to it soon. Nonetheless, the pigeons are healthy, happy and nesting:

The hens get more ventilation and mostly confine their poop to that corner under the roosts:

This is how the hens get ventilation - I can open the windows and the trap door. The pigeons' room window will open, but not easily and I don't want to remove the insulation around it too early:

Blue and Remy, like the cows, are now eating nothing but hay, and they seem to be thriving:

And they have their own personal pet, a Cottontail rabbit who has come to live in the barn:

He or she is not too afraid of me, allowing me to get this photo:

I thought I was just making a joke about the horses considering their rabbit to be a pet, but one day I entered the barn and found Blue lying down in the hay, face to face with his bunny. Alas, I didn't get my camera out fast enough to get the rabbit in the photo:

And speaking of wildlife, I was just pulling into my driveway one day when I saw this Ruffed Grouse right near me, on the lawn by a cedar tree. I stopped the car, rolled down the window and managed to get this picture as it took off for the woods across the road: