white tail deer

Animal Activity

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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

Deer visitors – and a surprise guest!

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This morning, we had a WHOLE lot of activity out our living room window!  Detail and her boy were back, as were Mama and the twins.  Sometimes, they’d be eating peacefully together, other times, Mama would chase them off.

Then we saw more activity in the spruce grove and realize that Hungry Girl and Barbecue had tried to come over, but they were getting chased off by Detail’s boy!

Getting photos was rather difficult, though, as the sun was shining into our living room, and there was a lot of reflection of us in the way.  I did manage to crop most of that out of this image I got with my phone.

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You can actually still see my husband, and part of the book he’s reading, in the reflections. :-D

Later on, something big went flying by, and I had to check it out.  That’s when I saw a huge raven, over by our compost pile.  It didn’t stay anywhere for long, so the best I was able to get was this photo of it in one of the maples. while leaning up against the window as far as I could!

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I remember, in my younger days, reading about ravens and descriptions of them.  We never had them around, so that’s all I had to go by.  It seemed to me that they were kinda like big crows.

Then I moved to Victoria, BC, and saw a raven for the first time.  I couldn’t believe how massive these things get!  And that noise they’d make.  Yikes!

Usually, the biggest birds we see are blue jays, crows, magpies and grouse, with the grouse being the biggest.  Red tail hawks are not much bigger than crows.  Once in a rare while, I’ve seen owls and eagles.

This raven?  The only birds I’ve seen locally that are bigger than this was a great horned owl and a bald eagle, many years ago.  This thing was massive, even compared to the ravens I saw on the West Coast!  They are not at all common around here.

Early this evening, we got visited again by Hungry Girl and Barbecue, for a little while.  I’m glad they came back, because they sure didn’t get a chance at the feed this morning!

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Barbecue looks like he’s giving me the stink eye!

Or should I say “she.”  No sign of antler nubs!

The Re-Farmer

Today’s deer visitors

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I was rather late getting the deer feed out today.  We ran out yesterday, so the plan was to pick up some more after getting our Easter basket blessed in town.  That was scheduled for noon.

My younger daughter came along, so we took advantage of being out together and played Pokemon Go while we were out.  There was a major update, and all kinds of new things in the game, so we had a lot of fun – and saw a lot of other vehicles driving around and parking in certain areas, just like we were!  :-D

Which meant we didn’t actually get home until past 2pm or so.

Rather than get the same feed at the local store we usually do, I decided to try one of the places in town that carried feed.  It’s quite a bit more expensive, though we caught a good sale, so it wasn’t too bad.  We still got only one bag.  The reason for the extra cost became clear, when we saw the list of what was in it.  Our usual feed is mostly sunflower seeds with some grain.  This stuff is mostly grain, plus corn and a couple of other things.

We’ll see how it goes over.  It wouldn’t be worth paying extra, if it turns out the deer don’t like it.

As the feed was being rung up, I noticed the display had it under “pet food.”  I chuckled and commented on it.  The cashier told me, they may was well be pets, considering how much money people are spending to buy feed for them.

Interesting.

On the way out, we saw quite a few deer in that first mile on the made road from our place, and more on the way back.  Deer did come to our place while we were gone, even without fresh feed, and my older daughter got a few photos.  Once my younger daughter and I got home and unloaded the van, I put the new deer feed out.  Some came by when I wasn’t around to take photos, but the mama with no tail and her boy came by again later on, so I was able to get more photos.

I have had a name suggested for the deer with no tail.

Detail.

*groan*

Yeah.  I’m going to run with it.

So here is Detail and her boy!

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Check out those antler nubs!

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They are noticeably bigger than the last time I saw him.  I’m thinking we should be seeing antler tips very soon.

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Detail has such a long face, and a distinctive dark spot above her right eye.  For a while, I wasn’t sure if it was her fur, or something caught in her fur, but it’s definitely a dark patch of fur.

She also obliged me with a tongue shot.

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As did her boy. :-)

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:-D

The Re-Farmer

Our Daily Deer

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I’m told I missed a whole lot of deer visiting when I went into town.  My daughter and I still saw about a dozen or so, in three different groups, just in the first mile along the road from our place.  We saw more, again, on the way back, as well as a couple of other between our little hamlet and the next town.  They were really active today!

Tomorrow, when we come back from blessing the baskets, we’re going to have to get more deer feed.  I put out the last of it today.

No one was able to get photos while we were out, but thankfully, we got more visits later, and I was able to take photos.

First up was Hungry Girl and Barbecue.

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They didn’t stay for long.  Something kept startling them.

After that came the deer with no tail, and her little one!

We’re going to have to come up with a name for her.  “Deer with no tail” is a bit cumbersome.

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I kept trying to get a good shot of the little one’s antler nubs, but they are still so small, that they don’t really show well in the photos.

If you saw the video I posted earlier, you saw Mama and the twins come in, too.

Mama and the twins drove these two off for a while, but they came back soon after.

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They definitely enforce their hierarchy at the feeding station!

I just love this photo of one of the twins.

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Such beautiful eyes!!!

There was a daring squirrel that would come in while the deer were feeding, and both Mama and the twins, and the other pair, were very curious about it today.  The mama with no tail did a bunch of foot stomping at it – which the squirrel ignored – and her boy, as well as one of the twins, got brave enough to approach and try and sniff it.  Which the squirrel also ignored! :-D

I’m so glad we are getting more regular visitors.

The Re-Farmer

The Story Continues (plus critters)

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I had hoped that, after spending so much time needing to prove who I am and that I actually do live where I live, it would be done.

And in a way, it is.  A major hurdle is now behind us.

Now it’s all about the van.

The parts I needed came in this morning, so I went back to the garage to get the work done to pass safety inspection.

This time, I brought my project bag so I could do some crochet while waiting.  The garage isn’t in town, but along a major highway, so it’s not like I walk over to a coffee shop or something while I waited. ;-)

One of the things that needed to be done was replace the LED brake light above the rear windshield.  That went well, and it looks great.  The previous one had a bit crack in it.

Then there was the ABS issue.

Yesterday, they replaced the connector for the harness and hooked it up, and were getting erratic readings.

The brakes themselves are working fine.  The next thing was to replace the bearings.  Which they did.

That didn’t solve the problem.  The indicator lights are still turning on, and their readings still come back as erratic.

They ended up basically doing the entire safety inspection, all over again, trying to trace the problem (at no extra charge).  Mechanically, they can find no reason for my ABS light to be on.

Which means it could be a wiring problem, or the instrument cluster in the dash.

If it were the instrument cluster, there would probably be other things going off, too.  So it’s likely the harness.  So they went ahead and ordered a new one for me.  It’ll cost about the same as that LED light bar for the rear brake light.

Now, of the bearings they changed, one set was really bad.  The second was borderline.  So because that one might not have needed to be changed, and changing it didn’t solve the problem, they are not going to charge me labour to put in the new harness; just the cost of the part.  I’ll get a call in a couple of weeks, when it’s expected to come in.  I probably won’t actually come in to get it replaced until the end of the month, when next pay comes in.

After talking about passing the safety inspection so I could transfer the vehicle registration and insurance to this province, and confirming that I was going to keep the vehicle, and wasn’t trying to sell it, they signed off on the inspection.  At this point, there is no actual safety issue.  Just a light that’s turning on, and they don’t know why.

I did mention that it took a week after getting a new gas cap that the “check gas cap” notification to stop turning on.  Who knows.  Maybe the same thing will happen with the ABS indicator.

Once I paid for the work and got my inspection sheets, I went into town to transfer our vehicle, while the office was still open.  Yay!

I get there and give the woman at the desk the inspection form and the insurance and registration cards.

She starts going over them, so I wait.

And wait.

She kept looking back and forth.

Then back and forth again.

A perplexed expression began to form on her face.

Oh, dear.  Now what?

After a while she tells me, the VIN numbers don’t match.

What?

The VIN on the insurance and registration cards had different numbers than on the inspection form.  The letters at the beginning matched, but the numbers were completely different.

What???

I didn’t even think to double check.  Why would I?  Sure enough, the numbers were completely different.

Well, that meant going back to the garage.  However, before I left, they asked me about my husband.  His name is on the insurance and registration.  He is the primary owner of the van, which allowed us to get a veteran’s plate.

Which meant he needed to be there.

Also, did he have his new license?

No.  I explained that he doesn’t really drive anymore because of pain, and pain was why he hadn’t made it in to transfer his driver’s license.

After talking about options, including having his name taken off (would he have to fill out a gifting form?), but the easiest thing would be for him to come in, get his driver’s license transferred – they confirmed with me that he had all the necessary documentation! – then transfer the vehicle over at the same time.

Tomorrow being Good Friday, the office will be closed; that would mean coming in on Saturday, at the earliest.  Otherwise, it would have to wait until after Easter.

I then asked about the time frame.  Normally, there is 90 days to get all this done when moving to a new province.  I’m over the 90 days.

After confirming that my insurance company was okay with it, they let me know that the provincial insurance would also be okay with it, since we are clearly at least TRYING to get it done!  If we had simply not bothered for 6 months or something, that would be different.  My file has notations for all of this, so there is documentation showing that it is actually being worked on.

So yes, I am indeed still driving legally!

When I went back to the vehicle, safety inspection form in hand, I went to look at the VIN on the dash, confirming that the one on the form did not match, while my insurance and registration cards did.  Once in the vehicle, I phoned the garage and told them the numbers didn’t match.  I was looking at the form as I called and realized that the year didn’t match, either.  Instead of a 2005, it had 2007.

The guy at the garage was flabbergasted.  How could that be?  He went and checked on the computer, looking up the number that was on their copy of the form.  Sure enough, it was coming back as a 2007 model.  What the heck?

Then he remembered.

Didn’t I say something about getting a new door?

I had mentioned this to him only in passing, so I’m really impressed that he remembered.  I didn’t even think of it.  The mechanic must have taken the VIN from the door, instead of the dash, and that door frame is from another vehicle.

So I headed over to the garage to get a new form.  When I parked, the guy (the owner, I think) came right out with one of the mechanics, and a new form.  He’d filled everything else out already, and just had to take down the right VIN and confirm the year.

As the paperwork was being prepped, the mechanic looked at me and asked, “you’re (my younger brother)’s sister?”  Yes, I am.  “We went to school together!”

Turns out he’s from my home town and we’d both gone to the tiny little, two classroom school that was here (when the school closed, there were only 8 students from Kindergarten to grade 3!).

I admitted I didn’t remember him at all.  After all these years, I barely remember anybody!

Still, it was cool to find that connection!

I now have the new safety inspection form, but that was it for the day.  There was no way I could go home, pick up my husband, then come back before the office closed.

Ah, well.

Meanwhile, the family was visited by a whole bunch of deer while I was gone, and my daughter got some photos.

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Hungry Girl and Barbecue had come by.  Mama and the twins, as usual, chased away Hungry Girl and Barbecue, though both came back to continue feeding near them later.

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None of them, however were willing to allow two others to join them.

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It’s the deer with no tail again!  My daughter got this picture through the dining room window.  They kept looking into the bush, and towards the pile of stuff nearby.  Likely there was a cat somewhere in the area.

After the other 5 left, these two did get to go over the the feeding station and get some nibbles.

Then, not long after I got home, another deer showed up, all by itself.  Number 8!

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I chose this picture because of the interesting colour changes along its jaw and neck.  It doesn’t show in any other photos.  We’re thinking there might be something from the house reflecting onto her.  No idea what it might be. Especially at that angle.

Tomorrow, the main goal of the day is to prepare the Easter basket for blessing on Saturday.  I still need to find out what time that’s happening!

I’m really looking forward to it!

The Re-Farmer

 

 

 

 

 

 

More new deer?

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Today was a chilly day, with very high winds.  There had been freezing rain the night before, so it was pretty slippery driving out to get the van’s safety inspection, with winds buffeting all the way.  Even when parked!  After they were done with the van, I sat in it for a while, updating my husband with Skype (we used to text each other all the time, but Skype uses internet, so it’ll actually get through).  The wind was rocking the van hard enough that, as I was focusing on tapping out my message, I was actually feeling some vertigo!

With the unpleasant conditions, it was no surprise that no deer came over, and for a while I thought we wouldn’t see any at all.

Then a whole bunch showed up, all at once!

At first, three came running in, with a little one in the lead.  A slightly larger one followed, while and even larger third deer hung back at the tree line.

The slightly larger one kept trying to drive away the little one, who kept coming back.  Then the bigger one by the trees went at the middle sized one.

While watching their antics, I suddenly realized I was seeing two more deer coming through the spruces, and one of them drove off the two bigger ones.

I didn’t recognize the two that got driven off.  It looks like we got some more new ones, but they didn’t have any distinguishing marks that would allow me be sure. The little one turned out to be one of the twins, and the two coming out of the spruces was Mama and the other twin.  The twins have distinctive black on their ears.

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Mama and the twins.  She’s the one with the heart shape on her forehead.

Not long after, we spotted the other two through the dining room window!  These two had cut through the spruce grove to come around a pile of pallets and whatnot that’s sitting at the edge of the trees.  Deer rarely come from that direction.  They tried to come back to the feeding station, but Mama and the twins weren’t about to let them!

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One of the twins.

Deer.  They’re so dramatic! :-D

While all that was going on, my husband and I decided we needed to get the van work done to pass safety.  We’re going to have to go into the money for the broken power pole, but what choice do we have?  Getting the new pole will just have to be pushed back.  The vehicle is the priority right now.

That decided, I called the garage to tell them to go ahead and order the parts.  Turns out that I’d called early enough that the order would go out today, and the parts should come in tomorrow.  They were able to book me for the afternoon, though I was asked to phone at noon, first, to check if the parts were in.  No point in getting any of the work done, if there is a delay in any of the parts.

It had been my intention to bake the Easter bread tomorrow.  Since I’m most likely going to be spending quite a bit of time at the garage, I decided to do it today.  This bread has such a completely different texture than our usual bread.  It’s all that eggs, butter and milk!  Then, I tried a new rye bread recipe, modified to use our rye sourdough starter.

Both came out looking awesome!

I’ll be posting the recipes separately.

We’ve also dug out our Easter baskets, and will have to use the biggest one this year.  The braided loaf I made is too long for the round one we usually use!  Even with the bigger basket, we’ll have to find some way to support it from underneath, so it doesn’t break apart.

Now that’s the kind of problem I would much rather have, instead of vehicle problems! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Video Experiment

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For a while I thought we weren’t going to see any deer today.  Then we got 5 of them, all at once!  They got very active, with them attacking each other and chasing each other around, before things settled for a while.  It turned out to be Mama and the twins, plus two others I didn’t recognize.

I’ve been able to upload videos directly into posts from my phone, but I am quickly running out of space on my free WordPress account.  We’re not in a position to upgrade, so I’m going to try uploading a video onto YouTube (I just activated a new channel today), and embedding it into this post.  If it works, I will upload other videos that I’ve posted here, then switch the videos in the posts to embedded YouTube files.  I’ll then be able to delete the videos from here on WordPress and free up some space until we can afford to upgrade our plan.

So please do let me know in the comments if it plays properly for you on whatever you use to view this blog!

Many thanks. :-)

The Re-Farmer

New Deer… doing a double take!

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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

 

Quiet – and critters

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Oh, how I’ve learned to appreciate quiet, boring days.

Not that today turned out to be either quiet, or boring – but it was close enough!

The temperatures dipped a bit today, but the windchill made it feel so much colder.  I was glad not to be going out, that’s for sure!  It was still pretty mild in our area.  In other areas South-West of us, I heard they were closing down the highways in some areas.

Though I was looking forward to sleeping in today – and even stayed up much later last night as well – it seems my brain had other ideas.  I ended up waking up at about the same time as I have been for the past week!  Ah, well.  It could be worse; my husband is up even earlier, every day, because it’s just too painful to be lying down.  That’s the crazy thing about back injuries.  There is no position you can stay in for any length of time before the pain forces you to shift.  So there’s that cycle of getting up, sitting down, getting up, lying down, over and over again.

My older brother was going to drive my mother to the hospital today, had she needed to go.  Since she didn’t, he just had a visit with her, instead.  It’s quite a drive for him to come out here, so that was really nice of him.  He even texted me a photo of her eye, though it didn’t come in for almost 3 hours!  Ah, the joy of cell phone dead zones.

My mother’s eye is noticeably better today; amazing how quickly it’s recovering now that she’s off that one medication.  The new medication is considered a blood thinner, too, but it doesn’t lead to bleeding the way the other one did.  She even let my brother put the brace on her leg, too!  That is such a wonderful step for her.  Now I just hope she’ll be able to get home care to help her get it on.  Theoretically, she can do it herself, but it would be very difficult to get all those straps tightened on her own without the brace shifting out of position, and it’s really important to have that knob properly aligned.

After seeing my mother, my brother came over to our place and we had a nice visit.  Plus, we checked out the door on my van.  The door that he worked so hard to replace has started to drop again when I open it.  *sigh*  It isn’t much, but after what happened previously, I’m a little paranoid about it.  We tightened the hinges again and it’s better, but it looks like it’ll be something that will need to be continually monitored.

One of the things he and I have been talking about was setting up security cameras.  I had been thinking around the house (more to capture the visiting wildlife… :-D ), but he was looking to put one above the garage door, too.  It’s the perfect spot to cover anyone coming in and out of our driveway.  So while we were still in the garage, he closed the door from the inside to look at where the cables would be coming in from a camera mounted outside.  Over there, he points out to me.  You see where that wasps’ nest is?

!!!!!

Turns out we have a fairly large wasp nest inside the peak of the roof, against the garage wall, plus there’s a row of 3 more new nests, just a couple of inches long, and what looks like the remains of other beginning nests.  It was fairly dark (since we don’t have the electricity to turn on the lights, thanks to our movers), so I couldn’t quite make out all of them.

We’d never seen them before because any time we go in the garage, it’s through the main door, which hides them when it’s open.

My husband is allergic to stings.

Those are going to have to disappear.  Preferably before it warms up enough for them to come out of hibernation.

So I’m doubly glad my brother came over!

He didn’t stay too much longer, though, as he was concerned about road conditions, but he still took the time to check out the barn, which also needs to have power restored to it again.  When we get our power pole by the garage replaced and electricity restored there, he’s arranging for the barn to get hooked up again, too.  At some point, we’ll look at restoring the water, too.  When we got running water in the house, with a new well dug in the yard, a trench had been dug towards the barn.  The pipes for the septic field, as well as for water to the barn, were installed all at the same time.  Along with a water pump in the barn, two heated water fountains had been installed for the cows, so they would always have water, even in the coldest of weather.  When, how or where all this got shut down, we don’t know, so there’s going to be some sleuthing to do before any of that is restored.

Add that to the list of things that needs to be worked on, now that we’re living here.

It’s a long list.

In the afternoon, my lovely daughters did some more bread baking, giving me a chance to catch up on my crochet.  With the blustery weather, we weren’t seeing a lot of activity at the feeding station, and what activity we did get was very quick!  I managed to get a cute bluejay photo…

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I love how they tilt their heads like that.

Hungry Girl and Barbecue came over as well.  They dashed in quickly, and seemed very antsy – probably eager to eat and then find some shelter from the wind! – so I didn’t try to take very many photos.  Seeing me in the window seemed to make them more nervous, and I didn’t want to startle them away from the food.

I did manage to get a very pretty profile picture of Hungry Girl.

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In going through my folders of photos, I’ve got quite a lot of photos like this; the deer frequently look behind the house while feeding, so many images are of them in this pose.  I never tire of seeing, them, though.  They’re so lovely!

Ah, but of course, I got some fun pictures, too!  This time, it was Barbecue to was sticking his tongue out (though from the lack of antler buds starting to show, I’m thinking he might actually be a she!).

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This one had me laughing out loud, but I think the next one is some kind of record…

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I think that’s the most tongue ever, in any of the shots I’ve managed to get over these months! :-D

They didn’t stay for much longer after this.

Tomorrow we’re technically supposed to warm up a bit, but the wind is supposed to increase, with more snow.  How much of that will reach us, we shall see, but it’s still going to be another chilly one.

Oh, how I’ve already been spoiled by the calm, warm days we’ve had for the past week.

I think I’ll go through those seed catalogs I got in the mail and dream of warmth and green, growing things.

The Re-Farmer