Looking around – and critters!

Today was another day where I didn’t get a lot of deer photos, but I did get a few good ones.  Hungry Girl was obliging in letting me get my favourite kind – silly ones!

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I have noticed that when Hungry Girl and Barbecue come over, I get very few good pictures of Barbecue, but I always seem to get lots of good ones of Hungry Girl! :-)

Here’s another…

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*childish giggle*

With things warming up today, I decided to take the camera and go for a walk after supper.  There’s still too much snow around the yard, so I went on the road.

On my way out, I discovered that the cats just LOVE those tire marks in the driveway, left behind by the movers.  Rolando Moon was enjoying one of them as I came out.

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She was rolling around in there in absolute ecstasy!  My daughters did a burn while I was walking and told me that they saw other cats rolling around in them, and rubbing their faces in the little wall of ground between the divots.  Too funny!

One of the areas I passed on the road brought many happy memories.

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It certainly doesn’t look like much now.  It’s just three sections of the ditch that are somewhat wider and deeper, so we called it the Three Ponds.  I spent so many happy hours of my childhood, slogging around barefoot in the water, often accompanied by our dog.  He fetched rocks, not sticks, and if you threw a rock into the water, he would actually dive in and get it.

We had to be careful doing that, when he’d go after rocks even in the deep water that weren’t intended for him to fetch!

He also would fetch logs.  Which is a story for another time!

In the Three Ponds, I remember looking out for frogs’ eggs, and when they finally showed up, it felt like I’d found an absolute treasure.  I would go back day after day to look at them, watching for the tadpoles to hatch.  And then I would watch the tadpoles.  I remember seeing all kinds of interesting things in the water, including bright red mites that looked like the tiniest of spiders, and walking bits of plants that I later learned were caddisfly larva.  I’d pull up bullrushes (aka cattails) and pretend I knew how to weave baskets out of the leaves (I never figured it out!), and in the fall, when their seeds were starting to come loose, I’d make big piles of the fluff on the road and wait for a car to come by and puff right through it.

It was such fun!  I look forward to seeing how pond-ish the area still is, once all the snow is gone.

Farther down the road is a sort of driveway into our field.  I don’t know that there’s a gate there or not, but there is a gap in the fence.  This is part of the farm my parents rented out when they retired from farming.

This falls into the “why this here?” category.

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Just a big ol’ tractor tire, leaning on a tree, with what looks like an inner tube draped over it.  My guess is the guy renting it had to change the tire on his tractor in the field, leaned it there and never came back for it.

I wonder how long it’s been there?

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I just thought this picture was pretty and wanted to share it with you. :-)

Walking past the wooded section of the farm, I’m seeing a lot of dead trees fallen down.  The old cattle shelter has long since collapsed, and looks like it’s been partly cleared away.  There are also a lot of parked vehicles in what used to be the hay yard.

Once the snow clears, I’m going to have to take a good look at what all is there. It would be nice if all this stuff could be cleared away, including what’s stored in the barn, so that we could maybe have animals in there again.

But that is years down the road.

The Re-Farmer

Slowly but surely…

… spring is working its way here.

Which means the Asian lady beetles were out in full force again.  Ew.  One of my tasks of the day, after vacuuming my office window again, was to take the screen out so I could clean it in the bathtub, as well as clean the glass in the window.

Unfortunately, pulling the screen out meant all sorts of things fell on the window ledge.  More of the lady beetles – some still alive – dead flies, seeds from the Chinese elm in front of the kitchen.

Ew.

After using the shower on the screen, I returned to find even more lady beetles had come back.  At least I could just open the window and toss them outside.

Then, as I sat at my computer, some movement in the window caught my eye.  What could it be?  It showed up again.  A quick flash of something, at the very bottom of the window.

I took a look, and it was Squishum!  Directly under my window is the window to the basement, where we used to throw in the wood for the winter.  It’s sunken a bit below ground level, so there is now a makeshift “roof” over it to keep moisture from collecting and draining into the basement.  Squishum had gone on top of this.  It’s not high enough for a cat to see into our window, but when she tried, I was seeing the tips of her ears!

As I was looking out the window, I spotted the new cat, back at the food bowls!  The other cats didn’t seem to mind it being there.  Not like when the Mothman comes, and they get all freaked out.

When I mentioned the new cat was there, the girls decided to head outside to hopefully see it (it took off behind the other house in the yard), and to say hello to the kitties.

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Beep Beep decided to get vicious and attach my daughter’s leg. :-D

I took advantage of the slightly warmer weather to walk around the house and check how things were – with several cats following me.  With more of the snow gone, there were a few more “why is this there?” moments!

There was a squirrel under the picnic table, and Butterscotch decided to try and hunt it.  Which is funny, because she’s so small, the squirrel is almost half her size!  She just ended up chasing it up the maple tree in the photo below.

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I do wonder about those seats along the shed.  They look like they’re from old cars, and they’re sitting on top of logs and pieces of wood.  I am guessing they were put there so that my parents could sit down when they were working in the garden.  Neither of them is straight, so it would not have been comfortable sitting in them, even if they weren’t all covered with leaves and dirt.

I went and checked out the pile of stuff under the tarp near where we put the deer feed.  It is, indeed, a pile of old pallets.  Quite old.  Whoever put them there took the time to cover them with a tarp, then threw old branches and other things on top, to keep the tarp from blowing away.  And there is sits, with a dead tree fallen at it, as well as branches that look like they’ve fallen from the trees above.

Not sure why the tire is there.  It’s not holding down the tarp.

Just one of the things to clean up, once things warm up.  We’re going to need someone with a pick up truck to haul some of this stuff away for us. :-/

Stuff like…

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… this table.  It’s behind an area where we used to cut and stack wood, then store it until we needed to take more into the basement.  The area now has a makeshift wall, part of which is covered with landscaping cloth, and the old doghouse that is now used by the cats.

It’s odd enough for the table to be there, but it’s been there long enough that a tree died and fell over it, held up by the brush that has grown up around it.

Considering the location, I just can’t figure out why it’s there.

I can now see what’s under the dog house.  It’s sitting on a pallet, which has started to rot and collapse in the middle.

Another thing for the list.

Along with this.

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At first, I thought it was a broken handle and tried to lift it.  The rake part was buried in the grass and is frozen to the ground.

It also look like it’s partly under that old scrap carpet.  Carpet that has been there long enough for moss to be growing on it.

So if the rake is under the carpet, then it has been there at least as long as the carpet.

Why are either of them there at all?

So strange.

There were a couple of other curious things around the house.  Some curious cats!

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Coming back to the house, I found Beep Beep and Butterscotch, checking out the inside cats! :-D

My younger daughter and I headed out into town to stock up on some things for the freezer, since we’re not making our Costco trip this month.  This reminder is now completely uncovered by the melt.

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This is where the movers got stuck in our driveway.  There are several others in the ice along the driveway, heading to the gate.  Those ones, at least, didn’t go all the way into the ground, like these.

I’m hoping we can get more gravel for our driveway soon.  Maybe not this year, though.  We’ll have enough to deal with just with the house and yard!

The Re-Farmer

A New Cat!

I was settling in at my computer in the office, when my daughter happened to glance out the window.  She spotted a new cat!

I just barely got a picture with my phone through the window before it went out of sight.

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This makes number nine!  Our seven regulars, the Mothman, and now this guy.

It may be one of the cats from my brother’s place, up the road, but I don’t recall ever seeing it there.  Not that I’ve seen all of the cats he’s got in his yard, to begin with. :-D

On the down side, the reason my daughter was near enough to see it was because she was plugging in an extension cord for our handheld vacuum.  She was a sweetheart and sucked up the many Asian lady beetles on the window in the bathroom.  I had just done my own window, after counting 22 of the buggers crawling around.  Then there were the ones on the floor.  Almost immediately, another one showed up on the window, and when I picked up my USB cable to upload the above photo, I found another one on the cable.

Argh!  I just saw yet another, crawling along near my modem!

I like lady bugs/lady beetles. Honest, I do.  They eat aphids and stuff.  I just prefer them outside, not crawling around all over the place, or bouncing off my head.  These things don’t seem to have landing gear.  They just drop, with a loud *tick*, then spend the next while trying to right themselves and tuck in their winds before crawling along.

I made the mistake of glancing down at the floor.  Two more crawling along there…

Ugh.

Enough!  Back to cute things!

Like cats.  And deer.

It was busy outside our living room window, and a lot more orderly!  The deer came in their little groups, rather than all at once, coming back several times each, throughout the day.

The first two were Hungry Girl and Barbecue.

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It was earlier in the morning, so the windows had a lot of glare on them.  The deer were also very distracted.

By cats.

They were all over the place!  Running across the feeding station, sparring in the bushes, making their way through the spruce grove… We even saw the Mothman climb up on top of the stack of pallets or whatever is under the tarps, with Rolando Moon very carefully climbing up to check her out.

Only Butterscotch paused long enough in a spot we could get a decent photo, though. :-)

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I even had a co-operative redpoll.

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Detail and her boy came by, and I tried to get photos of her boy’s antler nubs, but the glare was just too much.

Mama and the twins paid a visit, too.

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It was quite a party out there!

The Re-Farmer

A Whole Lotta Deer!

I am in the process of uploading video of the deer drama this morning, so that will be for another post.  They were really going at each other, today!

Until they are ready, I have some still shots for you to enjoy.

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Check out those itty bitty antler nubs, peaking through the fur!  This is Detail’s boy.  One of the twins is showing signs of antler nubs, but they are quite a bit smaller than this guy’s.

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A couple of the deer that got chased off ended up at our front gate!

With all the leaping and chasing and slashing of hooves, we had deer running around all over the yard!

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After the deer left, Butterscotch came out to her favourite spot to enjoy the sun.  My older daughter took this photo for me. :-)

In the early evening, Detail and her boy came back.

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When they came in, a bit of snow just started to fall.  I got a few photos, then took the memory card to upload them.  A few minutes later, I brought the card back – and saw the snow was coming down much harder!

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Detail and her boy were already getting quite the layer of snow on their backs!

The snow went away as quickly as it came.

I’m really looking forward to when we get – and stay! – above freezing, some time next week.

The Re-Farmer

Snoozing

After our vehicle troubles yesterday, I’d intended to stay close to him today.  I had to go to the post office before noon, and that was the only thing on my list that required driving.

I ended up out three times today, first to pick up the mail, next to pick up prescriptions, and finally to get a few more groceries.  I tried a different town this time; one I haven’t been to in probably 2 decades.  It’s a half hour drive away, and I was hoping it would be more of a stocking up sort of place.  I was wrong.  Ah, well.  Live and learn.  It did give me a chance to test the vehicle out – and be totally paranoid, constantly checking the gauges and the heat, and listening for any unusual noises.

No signs of any leaks.  I checked under the van in the garage, to see if there was a sign of puddling that I’d missed before, but the ground (the garage is just over packed dirt) has had so many spills over the years, I couldn’t tell if what I did see was old or new.  Since I was in and out so many times, though, I could compare from within the day, and there is no sign of any leaks.

Of course, I’m still going to be paranoid!

For now, I get to share adorable photos with you.  I give you…

Sleepy kitties!

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Nasty Crime Boy was back in what seems to be a favourite spot, causing us to spontaneously melt into puddles of awwwwwww….

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Then Trülbus the Crime Eater joined him, for double awwwwww….

I even got some bird pictures today; here is one of them.

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They seem to like the new feed, too. :-)

They also were completely ignored by the sunning cats. :-D

We haven’t been seeing the grosbeaks for a while now.  They seem to disappear for a while, then come back in droves.

When getting the mail, I picked up some more of the previous deer feed, that’s mostly sunflower seeds.  I plan to mix them about half and half for the next while.  That way, there will be a wider variety of seeds for the critters.

There are deer pictures for today, too.  So many have me laughing out loud!  I will share some of those in a separate post, once I’m done resizing them.

The Re-Farmer

Critters of the day

Before I go on to post about today’s adventures *sigh* here are some critter pictures for you to enjoy!

While I was home in the evening, we got visited by a lone deer (I wasn’t around to see any of our other deer visits).

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There wasn’t a lot of feed left, so it didn’t stay long.

It was very interested in the cat loaf in the grass…

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Look at that Nasty Crime Boy!  What a face! :-D

Just a few minutes ago, my younger daughter was telling me about a face suddenly showing up in their window on the second floor.  It was this handsome fella.  So she opened the window, which still doesn’t have the screen in it, in case they need to go onto the new part roof again.  This opening of the window thoroughly confused him, but he did eventually come back to look at her – going around the open window to look at her through the glass, then going under the window to check out her hand and take some pets.  Then he heard my other daughter make a noise, so he went to the other window, which doesn’t open.  She traced her finger on the glass, which he followed with his nose, with his tongue sticking partway out.

Like this…

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What a cutie!

The Re-Farmer

Animal Activity

Today, things got quite cold; we hit -20C, with a wind chill of -26C in the morning, though our high of the day was around -5C.  It was also bright and sunny, with little wind, which meant that some of the ice and snow still managed to melt a bit, and the animals came out to enjoy the sun.

Not that I was there to see most of that; our adventures of the day will be for another post.  Here, I give you cute animal pictures!

This morning, my younger daughter got some pictures in – it was the first time she’d used this camera!  Mama and the twins had come by.  She managed to get a few good shots, in spite of the massive reflections on the glass.

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Here, Mama and one of her twins are very intently watching something.

What where they watching?

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I think that’s Squishum.  It could be Rolando Moon, but looks too small.

I was home for a while and got a few shots of Hungry Girl and Barbecue.  Hungry Girl is the one that comes closer to the house, so I can get really good shots of her face.  Barbecue hangs back, so I don’t get the good shots like this one…

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I got a few really good ones; it was hard to choose which to post.

Then Hungry Girl obliged me with a funny one…

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Mmmm…. nummers…

While my younger daughter and I were out in the afternoon, my older daughter got some photos for us, too.

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It was Hungry Girl and Barbecue again … and cats!  Can you see Beep Beep, hiding in the grass?

The Hand also came out to enjoy the sun.

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Awwww… look at that face!

Others came by, as well.

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Nasty Crime Boy came over to luxuriate in the sun, where he was joined by Butterscotch…

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… who looks most displeased! :-D

The Re-Farmer

New Deer… doing a double take!

My younger daughter and I ended up going out most of the day, getting everything we needed for Easter, and to last us until the Tuesday after.  There is no way I’m doing the Costco shopping before Easter weekend.

Then we went out again to get the thing I thought I had, but didn’t…

My older daughter got some photos of a new pair of deer that visited our feeding station today.

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It looks like a Mama and her youngster.

There is, however, something strange about that Mama.

Take another look…

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She has no tail!

Now there is a deer that likely survived a predator attack!

We seem to be getting more new deer visiting us lately.

My daughter also got a cute shot of Butterscotch.

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Butterscotch has been quite entertaining today.  I got some very dramatic photos of her this morning, as well as a funny video, that I posted on my Instagram.  We saw all of the cats except The Hand and Mothman today – I think the warm temperatures are being quite enjoyed by them!  They were certainly more playful.

The Re-Farmer

 

Hello, Critters

Ah, a much more pleasant day today!  Just the winds dying down makes a huge difference.  There are blizzard warnings for later on, but not in our area.  We’re just supposed to get a mix or rain and snow some time.

I’m still waiting for that last big blow-out before real spring (as opposed to calendar spring) arrives.

Interestingly, the better weather conditions did not translate into increased critter activity outside our window.

Nasty Crime Boy came to check out the birds.

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Later, we saw Beep Beep climbing one of the trees.  Rolando Moon came out to say hi when I brought the food out, and that was it for the outside cats.

As for the deer, we only saw Hungry Girl and Barbecue.  My being in the window taking pictures seemed to make Hungry Girl very nervous, so I didn’t stay for long.  I did get a couple of cute photos, though.  Including my obligatory tongue shots! :-D  I got both Hungry Girl…

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… and Barbecue…

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… just a peak of a tongue. :-D

It was a quiet day overall, which I’m quite enjoying.  Visits with my mother tend to require a few days of recovery time.  Seeing her every day for 5 days in a row?  I’m going to need at least a week to de-stress!  I did get a call from her today, and I was happy to learn she had booked an appointment with her local doctor for tomorrow – that was fast!  She didn’t get her brace on, though tomorrow she is hoping to talk to some staff about getting the assistance.  I don’t know how the process works in this province yet, but I’m hoping she will be able to get daily visits to put the brace on her, quickly.

I did get a quick trip into town to pick up some things for Easter that will need advance prep time, plus I got my van booked to get the safety done in a couple of days.  I really don’t know what to expect with that.  I’m hoping it’ll be inexpensive, but my paranoid side is thinking they’re going to find new, expensive problems in the process.  Because it just always seems to happen that way!  If all goes well, though, I’ll have the safety done in the morning, and by afternoon, I can get our registration and insurance transferred over.  Then I’ll finally be driving with this province’s license plates!  It’ll only be a month and a half past when it was supposed to get done. :-/

I just know it’s not going to be that simple.  There’s going to be something to complicate things, right?  :-D

I am so looking forward to this hassle being over and done with!

The Re-Farmer

A Good Day to Stay Inside!

It was just a bit nippy out there! :-D

I posted a video, taken from the cat food area, on my Instagram showing some of the branches blown into our yard, though a few of them were there from a previous blustery day.  I took another video from the deer feeding area that I posted previously.

That was the only time any of us stepped outside today!

The wind actually managed to knock over some of the insulating foam we’ve got around the base of our house.

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I can see the one bin being blown over, as it was empty, but the other had stuff in it to weigh it down.  Plus, there were bricks holding up the foam.

It was the only area I had to fix, though.

I was holding the containers of deer feed when I took this photo.  You see those seeds on the bin and the step below it?  That was blown out from them, in just the few seconds it took me to get out my phone and take the photo!

I ended up not having to refill the cats’ food at all; I just got some of the snow out of what was already there, then refilled their water.  Only Rolando Moon braved the winds to say hello, and take a few bites…

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… and give my finger a gentle chomp, immediately after this shot was taken! :-D

The deer feeding area had only quick visits with deer, including one I didn’t recognize that came by, but didn’t go near the feed.  The area is just too exposed to the wind, I think, and they were very skittish.

I first saw what I thought was Barbecue, running away from the feed, across the garden area.  I’m pretty sure I saw Hungry Girl already ahead of him.

It turned out they were chased off, by two more deer I’ve never seen before!

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This one dared come to the feed for only a few quick mouthfuls.  I noticed the mark on its neck and, once the photos were uploaded, confirmed that it was indeed a scar.

It looks like there are antler buds on this one, too.

The other deer didn’t even get that close…

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This second one started towards the house, but only a bit.  Then they both ran off.

It wasn’t until I uploaded the photo that I saw the red mark on its inner leg.  It looks like a fairly fresh wound.

This one also seems to have antler buds starting to show.

Happily, Hungry Girl and Barbecue did come back later, but only for quick visits.  The area, however, was just full of redpolls, today, in spite of the winds!  Those little guys sure do move quick!

We humans, on the other hand, stayed warm inside.  Normally, we would have gone to church for Palm Sunday, but if it’s this windy by our house, the roads would be far worse.  Instead, my daughters baked some more bread, since we were going through the last batch so quickly.  I started a list of what we’ll need for our Easter baskets and prepared some recipes.  The girls requested I bake a special bread I used to do regularly, when opportunity allowed.  It’s very similar to challah, and I enjoy making pretty shapes with it for our basket.

Our Easter basket is based on the traditional Polish Easter baskets of my family’s tradition, which means it will be full of symbolic foods, plus a few token chocolates, if we happen to pick them up.  The bread is the centerpiece, and of course, there are lots of eggs.  We make sure to have both peeled and unpeeled eggs (no unnecessary work is to be done on Easter Sunday, including peeling eggs, if it can be avoided).  One very non-traditional way of doing eggs we’ve decided to do again is pink pickled eggs.  Those require 2-3 days to pickle in, among other things, beet juice. Sometimes we like to do herb and olive oil marinated goat cheese, but those need about a week to marinade, so it’s too late to do that this year.  The basket will also include ham, kielbasa, butter, cheese, salt, horseradish (we’ll be buying that in a jar, this year) and a few other things.

I had asked my mother again about the horseradish growing here, and this time she told me where she’d last transplanted them.

Under the spruce tree, next to the house.

I tried to get her to be more precise as to which spruce tree she meant, since there are quite a few by the house, but I never did get a clear answer.  She seemed to assume I would know exactly which tree she meant! :-D

Ah, well.  We’ll see where it comes up and will know for next year!

We make sure to have the basket ready by the end of Good Friday, so it can be assembled and taken for blessing on Saturday.  The contents are then used for our Easter brunch.  It’s one of our favorite traditions, and I’m really looking forward to it.

This tradition is huge in Polish culture (shared in Ukrainian culture, too).  I recall when our Polish priest had to finally retire for health reasons, and we got a new and younger priest that was…  I don’t know, actually.  Just “not Polish.”  :-D  When Easter came around, he announced that there would be no blessing of the baskets.  I don’t remember the exact explanation, but basically, it wasn’t “Catholic”, so it wasn’t going to be done.

Boy, did he have a revolt on his hands!

By the time the uproar was done, he was doing the basket blessings.

That priest didn’t last long.  He was a very bitter man.  I don’t know how he was ever ordained in the first place.

As far as I know, no priest assigned to this parish has ever tried to end the tradition of blessing of the baskets!

The Re-Farmer