I had started to see the pine grosbeaks in some of our crab apple and ornamental apple trees. Once I picked up the the new birdseed, we’ve started to see them at the feeder. Especially this lovely couple.
She looks a bit perplexed.
She was also much harder to get pictures of! The male, on the other hand, was more co-operative.
This was taken out my office window this morning.
He started by the feeding station, walked completely around the house, then meandered his way over towards the barn.
Checking later, yeah, the wire for the electric fence is pulled up a bit again.
Need to look around for some kind of ribbon I can attach to the wire, so they can see it.
The Re-Farmer
Well, today is it. The one year anniversary for all 4 of us arriving at the farm.
We arrived shortly after midnight. We still remember the final stretch. Almost 1800 kilometers of driving (with a broken door), and less than 10 minutes from home. I saw a shadow flash across oncoming headlights and stomped on the brakes.
The cat carriers set up on boxes behind us went flying. The cat lying on one of them ended up in the front seat. Stuff fell on top of the bucket we were using to transport the fish.
But we managed to NOT hit the deer.
Everyone was okay, though the cats were pretty freaked out! How’s that for a welcome home!!
The main thing was, we made it. We were finally together again.
For my older daughter and I, all we really wanted to do was sleep. Which had to wait until we got the cats into the house and closed off into a room while we brought in the plants (some died from the cold, though our jade tree recovered), the fish (they died a few days later. :-( ), the computers and most of the other stuff we managed to jam into the back of the van. After that, we could finally sleep.
The next thing was to figure out what to do next!
The house was a complete disaster, even though it was much better then it had been, thanks to the efforts of my older brother and his wife. A couple of days later, we would find out that the movers would cost $2000 more than we expected, and the fiasco with them just kept on going.
I never want to move again.
Which I know will happen. Eventually, as we get older, my husband and I will likely need to move into someplace like where his father or my mother live. Small, barrier free, etc. We’ve hopefully got many years before we get to that point, though!
A lot has happened since we moved out here.
I think we made the right decision.
The Re-Farmer
Once again, when going out to give the cats their food and warm water, the water bowl in the sun room was NOT knocked off the warmer.
It was also bone dry!
This morning, the cats were far more interested in the water than the food! When I go into the sun room through the Old Kitchen, I have to put down the bowl of food and the pitcher of water so I can open up the outer door. Usually, the kittens are all over the bowl of food. Except Doom Guy, who goes for the pitcher of water.
Today, not only did he go for the pitcher right away, but when I refilled the water bowl, the other cats left the food for the warm water!
Nice to see that the kneeler and the terracotta pot are both being used to reach the water.
By the time I finished putting the food outside and adding more water to the bowls out there, I had to refill the water bowl in the sun room!
Thirsty kitties!
After I finished putting the food out for the birds and deer, I decided to try and knock more apples off the trees that still have some left. I’d managed to shake some down the other day, and a few hours later, there was a deer eating them. Shaking isn’t working very well, so I went digging through the junk pile by the garden shed and found an old mop or broom handle. I used that to knock some apples off the first tree (it worked much better than shaking the tree, though I still got konked in the face by an apply in the process. Not the first time that’s happened!).
Then I tried to get some off the second tree with apples still left. This one, the apples are really small; almost as small as the ornamental apples. So I didn’t try too hard with that one. The grosbeaks, at least, seem to be eating them.
Then I went back to the first tree to leave the broom handle there, and found that someone else was interested in the grosbeak that was hanging around while I knocked the apples off.
He didn’t have much luck with the birds, so he escorted me as I continued my rounds. :-D
So did his mother.
She insisted on a ride. :-D
These guys are almost enough to make me a morning person. :-)
Almost.
The Re-Farmer
Notice the bulge in this blue jay’s throat.
It had just finished stuffing it full of seeds.
Compare it to the blue jay that landed moments later.
In for a fill up!
The Re-Farmer
One year ago today, my older daughter and were on the road.
The original plan for the move was for my older daughter and I to stay at a hotel for a couple of nights, after the movers took our stuff, so that we could do at least some clean up in the townhouse before we left.
The original plan had also been to leave in the spring, and have a trailer hitch installed on the van, so we could haul some stuff ourselves.
A lot changed when we decided to leave in the fall, instead.
Then there was the fiasco with the movers, and we ended up having to leave before they were even done, because of bad weather coming in.I still can’t believe how utterly incompetent the movers were. The local company that packed our stuff was not the same company that delivered out stuff, almost a month later (something else that didn’t work out as planned!), but both were horrible at their jobs.
It wasn’t until we began unpacking that we realized what a terrible job they did of packing up what was left of our stuff. I’m still chuffed that we ended up being charged for a “full pack”, when we had done so much of the packing ourselves.
But at this time last year, we were just glad it was over, were under the belief that our stuff was already on the way to our new province (it wasn’t), and looking forward to being reunited as a family again.
And tired.
So. Tired.
The Re-Farmer
This morning, as I headed out to give the outside cats their food and warm water, I was very pleased to see that the water bowl was still on the warming set up!
It was completely empty, but it was there, at least! Which meant no new ice on the concrete floor.
I think we’re still going to have to increase how often we bring water out for them, though.
This is one of the water dishes we still use, outside. You can see the holes made by little tongues, trying to get through the surface ice, to the water below, before it froze solid.
When I go out with their food, they are normally all over each other, trying to get at the bowls of food.
Not this morning!
Oh, look. Fancy tree fruits.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, hanging out in the ornamental apple tree.
Towards the end of my rounds, Butterscotch did try to join me, but soon, she was hanging out in a tree, too!
So what changed, this morning?
This guy.
My brother’s dog came over for a visit!
He looks so sad that Butterscotch won’t come down for snuffles.
He actually let me pet him, without much stand-offish-ness, this morning, which made me happy. :-)
As you can see by the ribbon attached to his collar, it’s hunting season right now. In fact, I heard two gun shots this morning, while doing my rounds. Someone out there is getting meat for their freezer!
While doing my rounds, I went back to see the electric fence the deer broke. I didn’t like all that wire tangled and looped up in one spot, so I found the broken end and started pulling it back. The end was near the gate, so there were quite a few holders for me to loop it through, before I reached the full length. I found an insulator on a post to loop the end through, so it wouldn’t spring back again, then found the other end and pulled that back as far as I could.
The break turned out to be right next to our septic outflow.
Which is looking pretty dramatic right now!
The ground is too frozen to absorb the grey water, so the ice is extending quite far, already.
I’m guessing the piece of metal roofing was put where it is, deliberately, to prevent excess erosion from the water being pumped out the top of that pipe.
There are quite a few willows here, including this one that used to be quite massive. Which says something about how quickly willows can get huge. My father planted these by just sticking branches into the marshy ground. Which means these were planted in the early to mid 70’s.
I am remembering something the younger of my brothers had said, shortly after we moved here. Something about how he had been trying to kill off the Chinese Elm growing by the septic field, because they were planted too close to the outflow and the roots were causing problems.
I’ve gone through were a few times over the past year, and there are no Chinese elms growing here. Just the willows my late father planted. He planted willows because they are good for taking up water, and would prevent the area from becoming too marshy. Some of it is lower and forms a sort of pond, when there’s enough rain (which meant there was almost no water at all, this past year), but the outflow is closer to the barn and several outbuildings.
So… I don’t know what my brother was talking about, in regards to any elms in this area. Odd.
The Re-Farmer
At least the bluejays will eat some of the tiny seeds, though they prefer the sunflower seeds.
The Re-Farmer
While walking about the yard this morning, there are areas that I can see where the deer have gone.
Along the edge of the spruce grove, there are now several areas like this.
This patch is new. It wasn’t there yesterday. At the end of the row of spruces, near the feeding station, there is a patch they’ve been pawing at for a while, now, and it’s getting quite big.
I think, in the process of clearing out that area and taking out the bottom branches of the spruces, I also gave them better access to something in the moss that they like. I can’t see what it might be, though.
While continuing around the yard and by the garage, I noticed deer tracks coming from the barn towards the yard, so I followed them.
Then I noticed something odd about one of the wire holders for the renter’s electric fence at the gate. It looked bent.
That’s new.
Heading over, I started to find wire.
Lots of it.
So I started gathering it up.
Here is most of it, along with the holder that is bent the most.
The other one turned out to be bent, too. The wire is still running through it. Considering how much wire got dragged into our side of the fence, I think it may well have broken loose right at the solar battery area. Which is almost at the other end of the fence.
In case there was any doubt as to what rapscallions did the damage…
There were plenty of tracks, showing exactly where they came through!
The fence wire would not be easily visible, and with the cows moved out for the winter, the electric fence probably doesn’t even have electricity running through it right now. The deer probably didn’t see it to jump over it, and would not have felt any shock to cause them to back away when they touched it.
We like the deer coming around enough to put up with any damage they do; there isn’t a lot. But this is a bit more than just digging up the yard. The wire should be fine and just need to be re-attached. I believe those wire holders are new, from the last time the cows broke through. I know the renter likes the deer, too, and this sort of thing is just what we have to live with when living around here. I just called to let him know about the damage. With no cows here, there’s no hurry to fix it.
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 