Raudi here. I have given a few State of the Farm addresses in recent months. Alys agreed with me that it is time for another one. So I am going to bring some very important things to the attention of Alys’s readership.

First of all, she’s mulling over the idea of having a Celebration of Life for Tinni in the spring. All us mares think this is a good idea. We also would like to participate. Just being there would suffice. It would be good for Alys if some of her horsey friends showed up for this. Then, after, we can all go for a ride.

Mares running in arena after long day in trailer

There has been talk of a 2023 horse trek – Pete wants to go and ride in the Bob Marshall Wilderness area again. Alys has a few places she’d like to go, but will go where Pete wants to go so that he continues to show an interest in this venture.

Alys doesn’t know if it will be possible to do a long trek – this book project seems to be taking up all her free and not-so-free time. She told me that she had expected for a larger space for the books to come through – this then would have made it easier for her to turn the reins over to someone else. As of yet, nothing has materialized.

The next option would be to do trips in Alaska. Alys is skeptical about this because things to do on the home front take precedence over things to do out on the trail. But, as she did point out to me, state based trips would be better than no trips at all.

Josh is coming and putting ice shoes on us mares on Friday. This, I think, will prompt Alys to ride rather than walk us. This, combined with more daylight should do the trick.

We three have been so well behaved lately. We keep Alys in sight when she lets us off-lead when out on the road, and always return to touch her outstretched arm when cars come tearing down the road. And we now go to our targets when she appears at the gate with food. Always. I’m the last one to leave the gate, but I go and join the others.

We three are obviously doing our best in order to show Alys that we are highly educated ponies. She notices, and I suspect that she’s feeling bad about not spending more time with us.

The agility arena got snowed in, so we have not been doing agility. This, Alys has assured me, is going to change. And I believe her.

The hay situation was looking pretty dire in the fall. Alys had asked Pete to buy additional hay, in fact enough to get us through the winter. The late summer early fall rains caused quite a bit of it to mold.

Pete saved the day by keeping in touch with John, our regular hay dealer, and he has made sure that we now have enough nutritious hay on hand to get us through the winter.

There’s always more to say. The state of the farm, yes, its ongoing and always changing.

Next: 39. February 8, 2023: Pit Pony Plugs on