Brrr, today has turned out to be chilly!
With some help from my daughter, though, I was able to get a lot more done outside than I expected.
First on the list was to move the old dog houses to what I hope will be a permanent – or at least long term – location.
Unfortunately, things are really level in the area I wanted to put them. After discussing it a bit, we decided which space was the most level, then hoisted the dog houses over.
Continue readingWhen I transplanted my avocado from their little jars of water into soil, I had to split the pits to get them out of the jars (note for future reference: make sure the mouth of the container is not narrower than the rest of it!). I wasn’t sure if they would survive the transplanting.
Well, they have!
They are now big enough to prune back to 6 inches or so (as I’ve read needs to be done).
I had added more pits directly to the soil to see if they would root like that – just in case these ones didn’t make it – so even though this pot is designed to provide water from below, I am surface watering the pits as well.
I am determined to grow an avocado tree. :-D
The Re-Farmer
While driving to town yesterday, we startled some birds. About 5 or 6 ravens burst out of the bullrushes in the ditch, along with some large raptor. We couldn’t see it well enough, but figured it was some type of eagle.
On the way home, as we neared the same location, out of the rushes burst a HUGE bald eagle. It flew into the trees nearby and settled onto a branch, watching as we drove by.
My guess is, there was something hidden in the ditch at this location that was being scavenged. So when I was driving home from dropping my daughter off this morning, and saw I was coming up on this spot, I was already slowing down. Just in case.
I was well rewarded!
Once again, a massive bald eagle burst out of the rushes, flew into the trees, and watched as I went by.
I stopped to get some photos, but the digital zoom on my phone’s camera is awful. This is the best I could get (I highlighted the eagle, since it was hard to pick out).
It’s hard to really get how big that bird is from the picture!
After finishing up at the old wood pile, there was time enough in the day to start on the retaining wall at the end of the old kitchen garden.
Here is the start of it.
Continue readingDelay after delay after delay (and a bit of “I don’t have the energy for this”), this evening, I finally got back to the old wood pile area.
It’s finished.
Continue readingWe have a provincial election coming up, with voting day on the same day we have a medical appointment for my husband in the city, so we are taking advantage of the advance polls being open right now.
I’d already voted and had to go through the whole registration process a few days ago, so when the girls and I came in, I had some time on my hands while they did the paperwork.
The location just happens to have a Pokemon Go gym at it, so I went outside to conquer it.
While I was doing that, I noticed some beautiful fungi at the bottom of a maple tree.
While pausing to take pictures, I noticed something amazing about the tree.
I’m going to stack the photos below and hopefully give you some sense of what I was seeing.
Woodpeckers have drilled a trench up the tree, then into the tree, with holes opening it up along the way.
That blows my mind is that the tree is somehow still alive! There is very little bark left on it.
While taking those pictures, I noticed the tree next to it.
With this, just a short distance from my head.
I have a hard time believing no one has noticed it, since it’s clearly been there a while. Which means it’s been left there on purpose. This is a municipal owned property, and all I can think when I see that is “liability.” !!
I can see where other trees have been taken down, plus there are pieces of tree trucks strewn about artistically in the grass. The trees are obviously tended to, in a general sense.
Though the power lines to the building run right through several trees.
*sigh*
Anyhow.
I just thought that swooping, bird created trench and holes in the one tree was really amazing and wanted to share it. :-)
The Re-Farmer
We started leaving food out for Junk Pile Kitten and his mom beside the junk pile, since the other cats crowd around the food bowls by the house, and sometimes chase them away.
Then the other cats discovered we leave food there.
In fact, it’s now become routine for the other kittens to follow me as I put food out, ignoring the food by the house and eating the food being left at the junk pile.
I’ve taken to leaving little piles of food on the ground beside the bowl, and even on the log I’ve set up as a seat. I started doing the same thing by the pump shack, too, since not only have some of the kittens started following me there, so do Butterscotch and Beep Beep!
While in town during my daughter’s short shift, my older daughter at home was startled by something fairly large hitting an upstairs window.
Of course she checked it out, and this is what she found.
One very stunned Northern Flicker!
She gently prodded it to see if it was okay, and got squawked at.
It seemed to be uninjured, at least.
What a beautiful bird!
When her sister and I got home, she was outside and the three of us ended up staying outside to play with the kittens, who were running all over.
Then one of the kittens pounced on something.
It was the Norther Flicker, now in the grass!
My daughter got it away from the kitten, but then the others came running.
The poor bird wasn’t going to have a chance!
Between the three of us, we managed to hold back the kittens and pick up the bird, who did NOT want to be picked up. It got away a couple of times, only to have the kittens go nuts trying to get at it. Finally, my daughter got a grip on it and tried to move it away while I dashed to the house to get a box.
We never got to use it.
The Northern Flicker got loose again, and kept hopping its way through the grass, out the yard and finally into the pile of branches by the garage.
Unfortunately, that made it more vulnerable to kittens, with no way for us to protect it. It couldn’t even be seen anymore. The kittens, however, saw it go into the branches and were making a run for it!
So, out came the cat treats, and they were all lured into the sun room to be closed up early for the night.
Hopefully, the bird will recover and fly away soon.
The Re-Farmer
I had some company while doing my rounds this morning.
Beep Beep also joined me, emerging from somewhere beyond our driveway.
We have been having plenty of rain during the night, which is making things really beautiful.
Like the berries on this self-sown asparagus along the eastern fence line.
So beautiful!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 