Here’s a question for you, dear readers.
Can you guess what this piece of equipment is?
Here is a view of most of it…
And this is what’s buried in the dried leaves.
Do you know what it is? Leave your guesses in the comments. :-)
The Re-Farmer
A Social Call
Yesterday evening, I was able to take a walk up the road; just to the half mile mark and back, so a short walk. It was the perfect temperature for a walk, and the skies were just beautiful.
Alas, those were not rain clouds. We really need rain right now. With so little snow over the winter, and no rains all spring, everything is tinder dry. Farmers will be planting soon, and the conditions are not good for that right now.
Today, we were able to make a trip into the city for a pure social call – a visit to my father in law. This was the first outing for my husband that wasn’t for a medical appointment, since before Christmas! Just three of us, though, as my older daughter volunteered to stay home and hold the fort. It was a fantastic visit, and my FIL very generously gifted us with a box of “almost perfect” chocolates.
What you’re looking at is a box with 2 kg of chocolate. That’s about 4.4 pounds.
I need to find out where he got these. I don’t particularly care if chocolate is ugly. :-D The last time we found a place that sold imperfects was in Richmond, BC. almost 20 years ago. We found a chocolate factory that had a store open to the public. I don’t know how much was paid for these, but in a store, the unblemished chocolates would have cost about a dollar a piece. There are at least 3 layers of chocolates in this box!
While it was a wonderful visit, it was very hard on my husband and his pain levels. Still, we’re hoping to be able to make the trip in to visit at least once a month, now that the snow is gone.
For all the unexpected hassles we’ve been having since moving out here, his being able to see is father again makes up for that a lot!
The Re-Farmer
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Domesticity
It’s been a lovely day today! Enough that we’ve actually opened most of the windows in the house. We even got the inside front door open again. I’d tried to open it while my brother was here, to show him how the outside screen door was stuck, as if it were painted shut (it isn’t). I had managed to get the top unstuck, but not the bottom. I wasn’t able to show him this, though, as the inside door wouldn’t budge. He tried it as well, but we both stopped because we didn’t want to break the door knob. When I tried it again this morning, I discovered it wasn’t the door itself that was stuck; it was the knob! For some reason, it turned only part way; far enough that we didn’t notice, but not enough to get the tongue out of the groove.
Looks like we’re going to have to add “door knobs” to the list of things to replace.
Then, I set up our little step ladder in front of the screen door.
Yeah, I’m a suck when it comes to the cats, but in this case, without it there, the cats keep trying to get onto the dining room window, which involves jumping up onto shelves that hold a bunch of plants, coffee pot, kettle, etc. All stuff that can be knocked over by our less then elegant (amazingly clumsy) cats, too easily! :-D So, the lady gets her own perch, to look out the window at the birds.
I had hoped to get more work done on the wood pile in the garden, but today ended up being more of a day of domesticity. Things like cleaning the bathroom took priority.
It’s remarkable how different something as basic as cleaning a bathroom changes when you are on well water that is so rich in iron and minerals. Regular household cleaners don’t cut it – literally – while the specialty cleaners need greater care, like making sure windows are wide open! At least they’re septic friendly.
That’s another thing that’s reaching the top of our to-do list. The tank hasn’t been emptied in 2 years and, while the house was empty, it was still used now and then. No way of knowing how full that tank was, but with 4 people now living here, it’s bound to be overdue for emptying. The ground should be thawed enough for it too be done. After this, we’ll go back to the usual emptying of the tank in the late fall.
I did make a point of going out and starting my mom’s car again, to make sure all is well, after yesterday’s troubles when the battery was put back. All was well.
Except for the bird, trapped in the garage.
Though the main door stays open right now, until we can replace the handle, the bird stayed in the rafters and wouldn’t fly lower, though the wide open door. When I later found it bashing itself into the window in the lean to my mother’s car is parked in, I went around and opened the back door from the outside. That seemed to do that trick. I heard it flying out before I got much more than 10 feet away.
My brother was sure the new door handle we got would work, even if the cable doesn’t go through the squared post like the old one did, so I took another look at it. I think he’s right. One end of the cable was woven through a hole in the plate, the squared post, and then a second hole in the plate, before being tied to the cable from the other side. I managed to get the knot undone. The end of the wire cable that threaded through the holes is fraying, however, so it took some doing to get it undone.
I’m only bleeding a little bit.
I’m going to have to put tape or something on the end, to be able to thread it back through the second hole in the plate.
As for the handle itself, it was intended for a wooden door. The screws it came with are wood screws, and short. I’m going to have to look around for some nuts and bolts in the appropriate size. There are jars and tins of screws, nails and who knows what else, all over the place, so I should be able to find something, somewhere.
That squared post is still a bit of a problem, though. It’s a couple of inches longer than the old one. Which means the plate won’t be as close to the back of the door as it was, before. I’m hoping that won’t actually make a difference, since the whole thing freely turns to pull the cables. It should still be up against the door, though. Ah, well. We’ll see how it works once I find some fasteners for the handle.
The cables, themselves, could probably use replacing, too.
So does the entire door, really. It’s definitely the worse for wear!
More things to add to the list!
The Re-Farmer
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Shaggy friends, a new bird ID and… a mystery!
Early this morning, I spotted some movement at the edge of our spruce grove. It turned out to be a bird, enthusiastically digging and pecking at the ground. A surprisingly large bird; not as big as a grouse, but certainly bigger than a blue jay or crow. Not something I recall seeing before. Unfortunately, it was too far to identify by eye, so I got some pictures zoomed in as far as our lens can go. They’re not good pictures, but enough to identify it.
From what I can find, it appears to be a Northern Flicker, though there are different kinds that can look quite different.
The most distinctive thing about it was the splash of red at the back of the neck. The other distinguishing feature is the black bib.
A number of the photos of Northern Flickers I saw also had a splash of red on the cheek, but this one did not have that.
As it later flew away, I was able to see the underside of its wings, which appeared to be a bright yellow.
The Norther Flicker is a member of the woodpecker family, so it’s interesting that this one was pecking, not at wood, but at the ground.
Later on, my younger daughter and I got some progress done on the sorted wood piles in the garden. We’ve now removed all the wood we’d already sorted, except for the pile I set aside to keep for potential projects. More will be added to it as we finish going through the original pile. When we got to the larger pieces, we had to saw most of them in half so they would fit in the wheel barrows. We could really tell when we were cutting apple wood! The wood is so much harder, and the patterns in the rings are so distinctive and lovely. Even the ones I didn’t choose to keep, I set them to one side in the piles we’re making near the fire pit, for use when we’re cooking or, if all goes well, able to do some smoking.
My poor daughter. By the time we were done for the day, she was just wasted. She was really too sick to be doing this sort of work, but she did it anyways, and I really appreciate it!
After that, I went to the post office and, along the way, I found our shaggy neighbours were closer to the road, so I pulled over to get some photos.
Zooming in with a cell phone doesn’t get very good pictures, unfortunately, but still. Bison!
We got some unexpected people visitors today. First, my brother and his Lady Fair, who live nearby, came over to pick up the last of some stuff he’s got in our root cellar. I was all excited because his beautiful dog finally allows me to pet him! Then my older brother came by, just as they we leaving. My mother’s car has been stored here for the winter, and she wants to register it again soon, so he came to put the battery back in. It turned out to need charging, so he started doing some stuff at the barn. When I went out to join him, I stopped to take a look at a pile of wood that is sitting in the barn yard.
Only to discover, it’s not a pile of wood. It’s a pile of something else, covered in wood.
What on earth was I seeing under there?
Whatever the wood is covering has moss growing on it, and there’s a layer of plastic. Something is showing through holes that I at first thought was ashes?
So I asked my brother.
It’s insulation. My youngest brother had put it there.
My youngest brother died in 2010.
Why is it there? My brother didn’t know.
The wood on top showed up more recently.
What on earth are we going to do with a plastic covered, moss covered, wood covered, pile of insulation, sitting in the barn yard?
The Re-Farmer
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The Return of the Deer
It’s been a while since I got deer pictures!
Some days, we’ve seen none at all. A couple of times, I’ve seen a lone deer in the evening, slow to come over, quick to run away. My husband sometimes sees them around dawn, but none have been coming over during the day, and none of the regulars.
Tonight, however, we had visitors!
I spotted them as I went into the living room, coming in from the opposite direction we usually see them. Two smaller deer in front, and a larger one somewhat behind. Unfortunately, my coming into the living room startled them, and they ran off – the two smaller deer one way, the larger one the other.
The smaller ones didn’t go far, though. I managed to position myself and the camera as they slowly came in. Eventually, I could see the third one, going into the spruces from the other side of the pallet pile, then making it’s way through the trees to the garden area, before finally coming around from the other side.
The first of the little ones was looking very rough!
Aside from the burrs, there appear to be missing patches of fur, and it looks like his ribs are sticking out!
Notice the antler nubs?
The second deer made its way over, and in this picture, is watching the third deer going through the trees.
The male doesn’t look as beat up on this side!
The third deer came around and they fed for a while, but they were very nervous and kept looking out way, as well as at what I figure were cats around behind the house. Unfortunately, with our light on, there was nothing to hid our own movements. My husband moved an arm to pick up his water bottle, and off they ran!
Once again, though, they did not go far. I could see them grazing on the far side of the wood pile and…
Was that a fourth deer?
Sure enough, it was.
After a while, all four of them came over to feed. By this time, it was too dark for photos, but I could still see them fairly well. There was something familiar about the battered face of the fourth one.
It wasn’t until I uploaded the pictures that I was able to confirm that yes, these are deer we’ve had before!
There’s the little one with the scars on either side of its snout. The fourth one, with the battered face, is the one I’d identified as her mother, the last time they were here.
I’m happy that they came back, though they do look the worse for wear!
Though I’d put plenty of feed out in the morning, the birds had been at it all day, so there wasn’t a lot left by evening. Since the deer are coming very early in the morning, and in the evening (if they come at all), we’ve decided we will start leaving more feed out in the evening, instead of the morning. That way, the evening visitors will get feed, but there should still be plenty in the morning, since the birds won’t be eating it during the night.
So after the deer left, but before it got too dark, I went to put out a bucket of feed. As I was coming around the house, I was startled by the weird, loud, breathy cough, and the sound of hooves. All for of them had been in the garden area!
As they ran off in opposite directions again, and this is clearly a family group, I expect they’ll make their way back to join each other. Maybe even back to the fresh feed I just left out! :-)
The Re-Farmer
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Checking things out
This afternoon, I took advantage of pleasant temperatures to walk around the yard and the spruce and maple groves. There was snow on the ground the last time I went into these areas, so I was able to get to areas I couldn’t before.
Walking through the spruce grove, it continues to strike me, just how many dead and dying trees there are. Quite a few have already fallen, but many have not. It’s slowly being taken over by broad leaf trees, but a lot of them are dead and dying, too.
This is from one of the spruce trees.
You can certainly see why it fell. This is caused by carpenter ants. They nest in wood and can cause all kinds of damage and, in this case, weakened the trunk enough for it to fall, probably in high winds. When I was a kid, splitting logs in the basement for the furnace in the winter, I would sometimes split a log with a hibernating nest of ants in it. They’d fall out into a sluggish mass on the concrete.
Then they’d go into the fire.
You don’t mess with these guys.
Thankfully, we’ve never seen signs of them nesting in the house itself.
Walking through the row of apple trees, which are just barely starting to show leaf buds in a few places, I discovered why the mystery box jammed into one of them hasn’t blown away.
It has a mystery bucket inside.
I’m sure someone had a reason to put it there. I just can’t think of what it might be!
I started going into the maple grove next. It used to border the garden, but at some point, a couple of rows of spruce trees were planted into what used to be garden. The garden area was slowly made smaller and smaller over the years, with tree plantings.
So many are dead or dying. What you see on the bottom left is where there is a water tap. That used to be at the the very outer edge of the garden border.
This row of trees was planted some time after I left the farm. Like so many others, they were planted way too close together. Most seem to be dead or half dead.
I don’t think there’s much left to salvage of this old willow, but we’ll see better when it’s in full leaf. I remember it being huge and healthy, when I was a child, as was a second one behind it. That, too, has many dead branches on it, but it’s not as broken as this one.
I eventually made my way to the fence side of the house in our yard. I was noticing some wasp nests, and remains of wasp nests, under the eaves when I suddenly realized I was looking at something that didn’t make sense.
That’s an electrical cable running from a hole into the “basement”, up to the roof.
When I was a kid, I spent many summer nights sleeping in this building, and even had sleepovers with my friends – back when it was still is decent shape. There was no power hooked up to it. We used candles and kerosene lamps for light.
Now that I think of it, I do remember one time when there was electricity being used in there. My brothers also used the house, for parties. I recall there was a stag held there one, and the next morning, I’d joined them to watch a movie on the TV that was brought in. I also remember lights and music playing. I had completely forgotten about that until now. I wonder if this wire was the source of the electricity?
So where does the line go?
Straight through the branches…
Over this dead tree on the other side of the fence…
Then it disappeared into the grass.
So I went around the fence and pulled it out of the grass to see what I would find.
There was far more length then I expected, before I pulled up the insulator – then there was even more wire before I found the plug.
From what I can tell by the electrical tape at the insulator, the wire is spliced.
And that plug… well. You can see the inner wires are exposed.
I am guessing the insulator was attached to the pump shack, then the cable continued into the pump shack to one of the outlets inside.
It’s basically a giant extension cord.
I’m starting to wonder how no one ever caused any electrical fires and burned this place down, over the years!
Speaking of burning, as I was walking around, I could smell smoke. I couldn’t see smoke anywhere, and have heard nothing about any new fires, but then, I didn’t see smoke or hear anything about the last two fires out here, for some time.
Meanwhile, my wonderful, awesome daughters got 4 van loads into the shed today, while I brought over my mother’s dressers from the bedroom, taking out the drawers and removing the mirror off one of them. Even without the drawers, they were surprisingly heavy. The mirror alone weighed more than any of the others we hauled out. This bedroom set of my mother’s is of amazing quality! It’s a shame she left them behind when she moved out, though I suppose they would have been too big for her current apartment.
By the time they were done unloading the last of the stuff into the shed, their bodies let them know, in no uncertain terms, that they were still sick. I am so grateful that they got it done. While they did that, my husband and I decided on how we’d arrange things for when the hospital bed is delivered, and I switched some things around. We are at the point now that, once we get the call that it’s on the way, we need only to take out the bed we’re using now.
Once the box springs we are borrowing are loaded into the shed, we have nothing else that will need to go through the main part of the house into storage. There is just the Old Kitchen and sun room to work on, so things can go straight outside from there.
Little by little, it’s getting done!
The Re-Farmer
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Hello, Shaggy Friend
Heading to town, I paused on the side of the road to get a picture at one of the neighboring farms.
Until today, we’d only seen them way in the back, in a corral. This farm has been raising bison for many years now. I was happy to see they still are.
I like our shaggy friends. :-)
Today, we had a visit from someone in home care. As part of my husband re-establishing the medical and other specialists he lost in the move, we was referred to home care for assessment.
As far as direct home care services, nothing is needed at this point. Not with three adults in the house to help him. He will, however, be getting a hospital bed. Some time within the next two weeks, though it could be as early as Friday (two days from now), depending on the delivery drivers.
Which means it’s now urgent to get my mother’s dressers out of the master bedroom, and we have to figure out what to do with the king size bed. At least we’ve got a spare twin, so I’ll still have a bed.
Unfortunately, we are now all sick. Though I am recovering from the cold quite a bit, I’m still coughing a lot. My oldest daughter seems to have gotten over the worst of it, while my younger daughter is just getting into the worse of it, and now my husband is starting to come down with it, too. :-(
Which means that, at the moment, it looks like I’m the healthiest person in the house!
As we spoke with the woman from home care, I brought up about wanting to put in a ramp outside. It turns out Occupational Therapy assesses for stuff like that, so she will start that process for us. OT has been here for my dad before; that’s why there’s arm bars all over the place. Though my dad did have a wheeled walker, he usually used a non-wheeled one. At least for inside. His wheeled walker had a seat on it, with storage underneath. He kept his tools in there, so it was handy around the yard. :-D
We still have that walker. I intend to hang on to it, should I ever need one. I’ve been doing really well, as far as mobility goes, and haven’t needed to use a cane in ages, but I never know when something will suddenly dislocate again, or a knee will bend sideways. Better to be prepared, just in case!
Anyhow. A ramp wasn’t included in the mobility improvements done for my dad, though one of my brother’s had intended to build a ramp for him, himself. Instead, my dad ended up in the nursing home, so it never happened. She’ll put in the paperwork for OT to come and assess the house and confirm if we qualify to have a ramp put in. Even if it can’t get done this year, at least we’ll have the information we’ll need.
Tomorrow, however we are feeling, we have to start hauling things to the shed and get those dressers out of the way, so the hospital bed can be put in. The delivery company will assemble and install it. We just have to make sure the space is open. We have been forewarned that it comes with a basic hospital mattress, so we might want to pick up a mattress topper for it or something.
It should be interesting.
This afternoon, I figured I was feeling well enough to start working on moving the wood piles in the garden. I started in the area I wanted to put the wood, near the fire pit. There were already dead trees and branches I needed to clear up, so I’ve started one pile for logs and larger branches, and another for the small branches and twigs for kindling. While working, I kept seeing beyond into the maple grove, with all the dead branches and trees, and was just itching to start cleaning up in the yard. Unfortunately, my mother has been obsessed with getting the garden area plowed. I don’t want it done, and it’s far from a priority. I can’t help but feel a bit angry, because I’m having to focus my limited energy working on the garden, instead of cleaning up around the yard, which needs it so much more. But it’s her place, not ours, and two out of three of my siblings agree with her, so we’re outvoted, too.
With the snow completely gone, we can finally see the condition of the garden area itself. I had been told it was very rough (another one of the reasons some family members are insisting it get plowed; it hadn’t been done properly last year, so for some reason, it’s now really, really urgent to do it this year). Like so many other things, it was even worse than I expected. Not so much because of how rough it is, but because of how full of rocks it is. I spent many years helping my mother in the garden, and while there have always been rocks, I don’t remember there ever being THIS many! Unfortunately, plowing it is just going to dig up more rocks. Geologically, we’re on the bed of an ancient glacial lake. This entire area has shallow soil, with lots of gravel, clay, sand and rock below. What I want to do is build the soil up, not tear it up even more. I much prefer to use no-till techniques, for many reasons. Plus, if we do get chickens, they will be kept in the garden area and can help keep the weeds down and build up the soil, too.
So we will continue to work on removing the wood pile from the garden (thank God I was able to prevent it from being turned into a bonfire!), before we start cleaning the yard itself. There is a lot of work to be done, that’s for sure. I don’t mind. I miss the manual labour. :-D
I didn’t get too much done in the garden before I had to stop. Instead, I started working around the fire pit area. There are three maple trees in a group with an old awning under them, among other things, that has been sitting there for many years. I wanted to get the dead branch that’s overhanging the fire pit, which meant clearing that stuff out.
It took some doing to get it out. It turned out to have been there long enough for soil to build up over the bottom of the frame!
After moving it, I found this…
… in between two of the maples.
I wonder how many years it’s been there? Probably longer than the awning. That’s been there long enough that my daughters used it to get into the trees when they were little, so we’re looking at probably around 20 years.
At least it wasn’t another fridge or freezer! :-D
I did get part of the dead branch down. I basically just reached up and pulled. It’s been dead and dried up for so long, it broke quite easily. Now, there’s just half of it, and it’s too high up to reach, so it’ll wait until we bring over a ladder.
I found another odd thing while working around the fire pit area.
Old cow poop.
I found it in the area where I’m putting the wood piles, but I was also finding it around the compost pile, as I cleaned up what had fallen out as the snow melted. These are two very different areas of the yard.
Now, the farm has been rented out and the renter rotates his cattle here, but this is a fenced yard. They should not be getting into the yard.
Also…
That’s not cow. That’s horse.
The only person I know of with horses nearby, is my own brother. I don’t know if the renter has horses, but even if he did, why would they be with the cows?
So both cows and horses had gotten into the yard at some point, and not that long ago, either.
Oh, along with cow poop around the aluminum ring that contains the compost pile, I was finding small branches and twigs in the pile itself. Plus a plastic container of the kind sour cream or cottage cheese comes in.
I seem to remember that the wood pile in the garden had originally been put on the compost pile, and one of my siblings was going to burn the whole thing until another said not to. I don’t understand why anyone with do that, since the compost pile itself is right next to trees. Burning the pile means burning the trees. That would explain why there’s so much wood in the compost pile.
*sigh* Even our compost pile is in worse shape than I expected! And why would anyone burn it, when it’s right next to trees?
Ah, well. Little by little, we’ll get it done.
One thing’s for sure. By the time we are done cleaning up all the dead trees and branches in the garden area, yard, spruce grove and maple grove, we’ll have enough fuel for dozens of wiener roasts!
I’m hoping I didn’t push myself too hard, too soon, by working on this stuff today, but gosh, it felt good to finally be doing it!
The Re-Farmer
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A Bird in the Hand
Another Stunner
It was a rather cold day today, but peaceful. At least for us. From what I’ve heard, two more homes were lost in yesterday’s fire to the North of us. At this point, I know nothing more. The province’s website that is supposed to have an up-to-date interactive map of current fires has not been much help. It didn’t have either of the local fires on there at all. I’ve seen others comment on the site’s lack of updating, as they’ve had to turn to social media to keep on top of the fire situation.
We never got the predicted showers, but at least with the reduced wind and colder temperatures, the fire risk has dropped a bit.
It was another day of the birds, outside. I think it might be a while before the deer start coming back.
Oh, my. As I was inserting the above photos, I heard another thump at the dining room window. I went outside and found a little junco on the ground. My younger daughter came out to hold on to it, to keep it safe from the cats, until it was ready to fly away on its own. I’m hearing her come back inside right now, so it must be gone.
This is the second junco we’ve tended to after it hit the dining room window, just today. The earlier one took quite a bit longer to recover.
Here is the female, dark eyed junco from earlier today, in my daughter’s hands. It was very calm about being held, too.
It started to stand itself up and look around after a minute or so. Note its bent under foot. The other foot was like that, too. No damage, it turned out. It seems that it just wasn’t aware of it, quite yet.
When it finally did start to flutter away, it just moved over to my daughter’s arm. And immediately pooped on her! :-D
It seemed fully aware at this point, looking around and watching us closely, but content to stay on her arm for several minutes more.
After a while, it flew off to the bench seat on the platform to our old clothes line. There was a cat about, though, so I came over to encourage it away. It moved to this bush and stayed there for another minute or so before finally flying away, none the worse for the experience.
While it’s unfortunate so many birds are hitting our window hard enough to stun themselves, it is so amazing to be able to hold them and watch over them until they can fly away on their own. They seem to like the warmth of our hands as they recover, too.
Pretty awesome!
The Re-Farmer
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A Day for the Birds
With the fires in the area, it’s no surprise that we aren’t seeing any deer, at all. It has, however, been a day full of birds outside our window.
Mr. Blue Jay allowed me to take his photograph today, though they certainly did make me work for a good shot!
In amongst the masses of bark eyed juncos, this bird went off into the flower garden and started digging like mad into the dried leaves.
I’ve had two strong suggestions as to what this bird is. Either a fox sparrow, or a type of thrush. I spent some time looking and comparing photos online to ones I’d taken myself.
Bird identification sites often have really unhelpful photos, I’ve come to notice.
Ultimately, it was the markings on the head that made the ID for me. These are fox sparrows, of the “red” variety.
Speaking of red.
I had taken so many pictures of these red birds before the snow fell, but it never occurred to me to try and identify them. I think I may have just lumped them in as another type of bird in my mind. While looking up local bird species online, however, I found photos of these guys, and it turns out they are purple finches. In the above photo, you see both the bright red males, and the less showy females.
As I was zooming in to get photos of what I though might have been the thrush/fox sparrow I wanted to identify, the bird turned and I realized I was looking at a new visitor!
This is a male white throated sparrow. Love that distinctive patterning on the head. It made it much easier to identify it, though it wasn’t any easier to find online. My bird book doesn’t have it at all, though it does have several other types of sparrows.
Just look at the face! :-D
Looks like some females were in the crowd, too.
Weather willing, I will soon be raking near this area, to get some of the leaves out of the flower bed and clean up dead branches. We are finally starting to see some green forcing its way through the dead leaves. Not too much longer, and we’ll be able to start trying to identify the plants around here, as well as the birds! :-)
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 