The cats are making use of the foot steps left by my daughters.
The Re-Farmer
Author: Re-Farmer
Marriage Certificate Progress
I almost forgot!
My telephone tag with Vital Statistics is over.
We finally connected again, today. It was the same woman I spoke to earlier, and she was so apologetic, because she’d told me my application would be processed after our last talk, where she thought she had asked all the questions she needed.
It then got sent to someone else for the final processing, and that person asked her…
Did I want a marriage certificate, or marriage registration card.
Now, the form gave two choice. The large size suitable for framing, or the small card, like our birth certificates. I’d checked off the small card.
It turns out, that’s just a registration card which, as I noticed in the image on the website, has only the pre-marriage names, not post marriage names.
The certificate (which would be the larger, framing size) would have our names before and after the marriage on them.
Which is what I need.
It’s a good thing I’d told her why I was needing the certificate, and the problem with my birth certificate name not matching any of my current ID.
For all the hassle this is, the folks at Vital Statistics are awesome.
This being Monday, I might get my marriage certificate by the end of the week. Then, finally, I’ll be able to change my driver’s license and get my health care card!
Next thing on the list; get the van safetied, so I can transfer the registration and insurance.
I might actually get all this done before the end of the month! Only a month longer than it’s supposed to be done by, but late is better than never!
The Re-Farmer
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The deer showed up, too!
One last post for today!
This morning, I was quite surprised to see Hungry Girl show up on her own. This was early enough that the feed wasn’t quite covered by the snow, yet.
She was very skittish coming in. I wouldn’t be surprised that all that snow would have made everything sound very different to a deer.
Gosh, she still looks pretty rough, doesn’t she?
Though the feed was still visible, she nuzzled pretty deep into the snow as she was feeding.
I just couldn’t resist posting this goofy photo of her!
Later on, well after the snow had covered the feed, Barbecue came by, too.
He had to dig his nose down pretty far to get at the feed by then, but he had no problem finding exactly where the food was!
He gets a more dignified profile picture. :-D
I saw Hungry Girl come along shortly after, but they were both very nervous and ran off before she got to the food again. They did come back, but not for long.
They at least got some food, though. I’m hoping that Mama and the twins come by at some point, too, for a bit of a snack.
The snow has stopped falling now. My brother who lives nearby was kind enough to come and clear our driveway out. He’d fired up the tractor to do his own driveway and just popped over to do ours as well. I’d seen the snow plows going by the main road earlier, so I’m hoping they’d already gone through the road past our place before he came over. The last time the snowplows went by, they left a windrow across our driveway. Not enough of one to be more than a bump, but having another one on top of that now would be much more than just a bump!
After doing the driveway, he came in for a bit of a chat. During the conversation, he mentioned last winter being one of the coldest in many decades! He feeds deer with hay at his place, and he said he was feeding 39 of them! I just can’t imagine that many deer crowded around by his place. He trained his dog to leave them alone. He said that they were pretty mean to each other, too, attacking each other with their hooves. One young orphan deer was small enough to jump up into the round hay bale and get some food while avoiding attacks from the other deer. After a while, he broke up the bale to spread it out, so they could feed farther apart and not be attacking each other so much. Sadly, one night, a pack of coyotes killed a young deer, right there next to his house! They had heard their dog barking like crazy, but by the time they saw why, it was too late.
Coyotes can be a real problem. Especially when the population is high enough for them to start forming packs. That’s one of the reasons I want us to get our firearms acquisition certificate as quickly as we can, and get at least a .22 rifle. Being on the farm without a gun feels very wrong. It’s a vital tool. Especially if we do start getting farm animals over the next few years.
This has been a pretty mild winter, though, so there is less chance of a hungry coyote showing up and attacking anything in our yard.
It’s supposed to be just below freezing over the next few days, then creep above freezing again.
Time to keep a close eye out on the roof, and for any more leaks that might show up! Hopefully, once the roof is shoveled off, that won’t be an issue. We shall see.
The Re-Farmer
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Blue Jay Antics
I had a blast getting pictures of the blue jays today! They were dashing in and out of the trees and to the seeds so fast, it was a real challenge. Many of the photos didn’t work out at all because of that. More than a few times, by the time I took the shot, the bird was already gone, and I was left with a picture of a pile of seeds! :-D
These photos were taken before the snow completely covered the seeds, and I fiddled around with the settings on the camera part way through, to try and better capture flight images. Unfortunately, one of the down sides of using the zoom lens is that it makes for darker photos. Between the two, I had to do a fair bit of lightening of the images. Hardly the best photography, but they were fun to take!
I just love that little head tilt!
Out of focus, but gosh, I love this one!
It wasn’t until I cropped and lightened the photo that I could finally see what was really going on here – that blue jay in front plowed right into the soft snow at landing!
It then immediately turned and hopped the other way, again, sinking into the snow on landing!
The other bird seems to have a “this guy is nuts” expression going. :-D
Another poor photo, as far as image quality goes, but I think it’s my favourite of the bunch. Just look at those wing feathers!
The Re-Farmer
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Having some fun
As I mentioned in my previous post, today’s snowfall was perfect snowman snow!
My daughters agreed.
They called me upstairs without telling me why, to see if I would notice their new friend.
His name is Nail.
Rusty Nail.
For some reason, there was a rusty nail on the roof, so they incorporated it into their little snow dude.
Yes, they made a snowman on the roof, outside their window.
Then used ink to make a face.
As we were talking about it and how the snow is perfect for making snowmen, they started commenting on how they should make a big one in the yard.
Then they promptly headed out to do exactly that.
Here is my older daughter, adding the final touches.
Meet Eunice.
I wonder how the deer will handle seeing it there? It’s right near the feeding station.
When they were done, my older daughter came in, but my younger daughter stayed out to pet the outside cats.
Then she made this, facing my office window.
I’m told it’s not finished yet, so it doesn’t have a name.
Apparently, it needs abs.
I love my daughters.
The Re-Farmer
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Digging Ourselves Out – before and after
I took a ridiculous number of photos today.
It was gorgeous out there.
Here are just a couple from my phone, this morning, as I went out to do the cats’ food and water.
First things first, though…
I would have to dig out their feeding area!
It was still quite warm – hovering around freezing temperatures – which makes for a lot of wet, sticky snow.
Perfect for building snowmen, I thought, as I shoveled my way across.
I then found a mystery.
One of the food bowls is missing.
I dug around more, in case it got knocked aside before being buried by the snow (how, I have no idea).
Nothing. No sign of it anywhere.
I imagine we’ll find it when the snow melts away, but I’m awfully curious as to what happened to it.
No sign of the cats, either, until I was done, and even then, I only saw three of them, hopping their way through the snow, out by the old pump shack. It was some time before they made their way through the snow to the food!
Though it was quite mild and gentle out here, things were a lot wilder to the south of us. Enough that our internet provider set up an automatic response at their number to tell people that the weather had disrupted service.
By the time the service was back, though, we had to get snow off the satellite dishes to be able to get a decent signal. It was so wet and sticky, it did NOT want to come off!
Later on – likely not until tomorrow – the girls will shovel the roof. This is the first snowfall we’ve had this winter big enough to warrant it.
The Re-Farmer
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In the snow
The predicted snow finally arrived last night. While other parts of the province is storming, we have had a gentle snowfall.
The feed I left out this morning has been buried, but that is not stopping the critters from finding it. Like this squirrel.
Also, our satellite internet is having troubles due to the weather. My husband has been able to get enough signal for a wifi hotspot. Let’s see how long before I can upload and post this video! It’s already failed to upload twice as I’ve tapped this out on my phone.
The Re-Farmer
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Catching Up With Old Friends
Today was one of those weird days.
I woke up this morning, feeling like I was coming down with something – sore throat, stuffy nose, and my entire body aching. Even all the knuckles in my fingers hurt. So I took some pain killers and went back to bed.
I didn’t wake up again until 11!!
I was feeling better after that second sleep, but now I’m feeling exhausted, while having done nothing to warrant such fatigue.
My old daughter was a sweetheart and took care of the feeding of critters this morning. She posted photos of a couple of cats on her tumblr, which are just too funny. She even got photos on the big camera for me.
Rolando Moon was on her favorite spot on the old barrel.
Beep Beep settled herself in one of her favorite spots.
And yes, that is most definitely grass growing through the snow!
I’m guessing this is Nasty Crime Boy, up at the top of the dead spruce tree.
All those cats make the deer nervous! :-D
I was out for much of the day, heading into town to visit with an old friend from high school. We’ve been trying to connect for a couple of months, now, and finally have!
It was so good to see her again, and there was so much to catch up on! Too much for just one visit.
We’ll just have to get together again. :-D
When it comes to playing catch up with old friends after so long, I have been finding it difficult to maintain any sense of order or time. We start talking about one thing, which leads us to jumping ahead a few years, or back even more years. Or saying one thing would remind us of something else, only tangentially related. One big change in playing catch up these days is something I appreciate about or technology. We were both digging out our phones, able to share photos and video about so many things! When we left this province, the first smart phones were still just coming out, and texting hadn’t even become that big of a thing, yet. Very few phones had cameras, and none could take video, yet. It’s much easier to share things with each other, now! It’s pretty awesome!
One thing I definitely noticed, as we went through photos, a photo album and even an old high school year book (I could barely recognize our own faces!), is how many people we are now talking about in the past tense. We’ve both lost siblings and parents, and an amazing number of people we went to school with are no longer with us.
I always knew we’d be reaching that point in our lives, but somehow I didn’t think we’d reach it quite so quickly.
After a wonderful visit, I took advantage of being in town and played a bit of Pokemon Go. One of the new things about the game is that it reflects the local weather.
Or at least what the forecasters say should be the current weather.
We’ve had all sorts of storm warnings for the Southern half of the province. We are just on the Northern edge of the forecasted storm area. I figured we’d at least gets some snow, but we didn’t even get that. Yet, according to the game, we should have been in the middle of the storm, and the game opened with an extreme conditions warning, where you have to tap a button that confirms, “yes, I’m safe” to continue to play the game! It was rather funny.
While I was gone, the girls decided to bake some sourdough bread, and make some sourdough “piggies in blankets” – sourdough bread wrapped around wieners and baked. They even kneaded some shredded cheese into the dough for the piggies. Hmm. They were made with all beef wieners. Maybe they should be called beefies in a blanket? LOL One of these days, I’ll get some good pictures of them to share. They’re a nice supper treat. :-)
I have a wonderful family.
The Re-Farmer
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Do I See What I Think I See?
I just finished going through my photos of the feeding station today.
Mama and the twins came by nice and early, and even stood together in a lovely grouping that allowed me to get photos of all three of them, at once.
How considerate of them. :-D
“Hey! Hey, Mom! Look at me! My nose is all tickley.”
I got a couple of good ones with a blue jay. I really liked this one.
Something about that tilt of the head makes me smile.
Then the sun started shining on the feeding station, and Wow! did those feathers start to shine!
The camera just does not do justice to how must those brighter blues gleamed and glittered. It was amazing to see!
Then a squirrel posed nicely for me.
It wasn’t until I was cropping the photo that I spotted something…
Is that green grass growing in there?!?! There are so many little spruce tips on the ground, that’s what I thought it was at first, but no…
I think that really is new grass!
It’s only March. We’re nowhere near done winter yet. There’s a storm predicted for tomorrow evening, though we’re at the very northern edge of the expected path. We should get a few centimeters of snow, at least. While the long term forecasts are for warmer weather, there’s almost always at least one last blizzard in April that hits, before spring finally arrives.
Seeing that green right now is very interesting. What it likely shows is how much warmer the darker areas are, even with snow under the dust and debris. Little patches of micro-climates.
Cool!
The Re-Farmer
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A Musical Problem
I have discovered a problem with the postcard records.
I can only listen to a track and a half, or so.
These are fascinating, by the way. I would love to hear all the songs in completion. I’ve lost much of my Polish, so the words are just on the edge of my understanding, but I have identified love sings, drinking songs and humorous songs.
Sometimes, all in one song.
I think.
The Re-Farmer
