YAGP Competition Last Weekend

Well, it was one week ago today that Anna was getting herself ready for her first ballet competition.  Her ballet school had a "warm-up" class on Friday morning before everyone headed out to Providence, but Anna wanted to prepare herself (and not be around a lot of nervous people), so we rented the studio from 9-11 am, before everyone else got there.  I always find it amazing that even though she is only 10, she knows what she needs and is responsible for herself.  Here are some photos of Anna warming up...

And now she's warm...

 

Look at those legs!  These photos don't just capture a split second, she's holding those positions!

And here she is running her variation in costume...

 

 

Anna is really a serious and lovely little dancer.  She did well at the competition - no nerves, wobbles or mistakes, she held her positions, had a high arabesque, and kept a beautiful smile on her face the entire time.  We don't have any back stage, pre-performance photos, which in a way I wish I had taken, but I think it would have interfered with her mental preparation.  She didn't place in the competition this year, but she was invited to participate in the NYC Intensive.  So in March, no competition performance, but master classes with amazing ballet instructors and finalists from around the world.  She is very excited!

Finally, Some Snow!

This has been a very UN-snowy year for us, which, for Anna and Crash especially, has been a big disappointment.  But it's snowing now, our ground is finally covered again, and Little Miss Anna was outside in her coat, boots and red snowflake jammies first thing this morning taking photos.  This one is her favorite....

...but the majority of her photos were of the animals.  That's Jumper looking up from his hay....

 

Here is the sheep water bucket...

  

This photo of Buttercup surrounded by all her duck tracks is adorable...

Ducks are by far the most adventurous of all our animals.  They love the rain and the snow, and cover a lot of territory when the sheep and chickens won't even come out of the dry sheep shed.

Let's hope this snow lasts a long while!

Homeschooling On The Go

Today we spent our morning working for Habitat for Humanity - at a very long (and surprisingly contentious) meeting with some town officials.  Anna fit some of her schoolwork in on the drive there.

She is a very serious student, as you can see.

Farm Chores

I thought I'd give you all a little peek into our morning taking care of the animals.  Usually I do the feeding, watering, tidying up, adding hay to the laying boxes and freshening up Buttercup's bedding while Anna spends time talking to the animals, petting them and feeding them treats (no wonder they love her!)  But today, since I had the camera, Little Miss Anna did all the work!

Feeding the sheep and chickens some apples (it's treats first, hay and layer pellets later, when Anna is in charge!)...

 

Carrying fresh water from the pump, and filling the bucket...    

 

Buttercup finally figured out she had to get INTO the bucket to splash around...

A little chicken friend comes to visit...

Chicken Girl!  (She actually likes when we call her that!)

We hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Tracks

Yesterday Anna was out with the sheep and came across these tracks approaching the fence at the far end of the pasture:

 

They look like little dog tracks, so we are thinking they might be fox.  They walked up to the fence...

and then appeared on the other side.  

Last summer we lost one chicken and one duck to a fox, and another chicken and duck were injured in the attacks.  We put chicken wire along the bottom portion of some of the sheep fence, (the rest to be finished this spring) but I'm wondering what we can do if a fox can climb over the fence.  We started brushing Crash along the outside of the fence, hoping that his fur would be a deterrent to animals, but Crash also needs to step up his patrol!