A Perfect Split

Beyond

Bizarre. The weather that is. Woke up to rain and a sweet chuckling bird song that pulled me right out of slumber. It took me a few minutes to even realize what it was, as it is so out of place right now.

A robin. Not that there haven't been robins around. Many of them routinely winter up here in the north. We had at least ninety a couple weeks ago. Still to have one chortling right outside the window was startling.

And then....

Either the boss forgot to cover the wood or the wind blew the canvas off because we are faced with getting the fire ramped up with ice-covered wood and a rather low bed of coals. Probably isn't going to matter much as it is oddly warm..welcome to the weirdest winter I remember, but I ain't complaining. Every odd day brings us closer to spring and the robin is here to remind us.

Magical Moo Maker

What be dis ting?

Hey, Gramma

Oh, you mean like dis?

Ah-Mooooooo-ga

He, he, he

Hammer and Tongs

Well, chainsaw and log splitter really. Yesterday the stove was pretty much out and the house was an iceberg. (Except in the Peggy space where there is extra heat.) 
 
See there is this thing where I would tend the darned stove if I could  lift the logs, but if they are the size of my torso I cannot put them in the stove. I started tending a wood and coal stove the winter I turned EIGHT, and lived many years with only a wood fire as a source of heat in very cold domiciles where it was build a fire or freeze.

 The stove is supposed to run at 184-6 degrees and it was languishing at 126. I went out to deal.

Broke up tiny dry box elder twigs. And then bigger ones. A broken bird feeder....my how lovely that cedar smells when burning. An old lilac bush that fell in the horse yard..... Dang, that stuff is stringy. After I went at it for a while Liz sent Jade out with the little chainsaw to cut up some apple, bigger box elder...too big to stomp on to break....and sundry other odds and ends.

Farm Show Fox

Then the boss brought down some excellent hickory...best firewood in the world...and the fellas brought the tractor over and split it. Splitting the firewood so the womens can lift it is a tradition not much honored around here.

Then there was some actual dry box elder brought in too. I tended stove all day and even oversaw the night time stuffing of same. 

This morning I got up to a warm house! Actually had to take my down vest off when I came in from filling it again. I now have it topped up for the day and the place is toasty.

I have explained to the boss that this is what he can look forward to if he makes the wood small enough for me to lift and toss......all he has to do is bring it and split it and throw it in a pile. .

The Big Bang

Small blessings...my two favorite birds in the same photo

I was upstairs hanging up laundry when Liz hollered to me.

"Ma, we have an injured hawk down here."

Say what?!?

But yeah, a bird had hit one of the big 4' x 8' windows in the living room and was grounded on the lawn. We very rarely get bird strike on them, fortunately. It is probably because of all the shotgun pellet holes....

However, sure enough there was a large, immature Coopers Hawk on the lawn under the window. It wasn't much hurt because before I could run and get the camera it flew off to the mulberry trees for a bit of a rest and then was gone. I guess it made quite a crash though.

Peggy was fascinated. Long after the sun went down and the windows showed nothing but darkness, she kept calling us over  to look out for the bird.

A fledgling birder? Wouldn't that be nice.....

Farm Show

Went to the Pennsylvania Farm Show Sunday for a while, but ended up at Cabela's because the show was so crowded we couldn't even get to any of the booths or take any  photos.

It was the boss's first trip

I think he was impressed

Cabela's was fun though and Alan bought me a buffalo burger so I can cross that off my life list. You should have seen how busy the firearms department was.

Frosty

Out Around Town

Every single building at the fairgrounds was lined with gulls at sunset, mostly Great Black Backed
I thought they kind of captioned this photo themselves

I was trying to get the binoculars on a large flock of Snow Geese down over the river when the pup practically ripped my arm off. So much for birding and dog walking as a cooperative venture.

Mostly Canada Geese and Mallards but there were other birds mixed in

So I ran in and asked the boss to drive me downtown to the bustling metropolis of the twin...non-cities....villages actually...of Fonda and Fultonville.

We needed to go to the store to....gulp....buy milk.....anyhow.

The Snows were gone, but there was no shortage of other waterfowl. Lots of them.

I wonder....why isn't this area better known for the birding? 

Yesterday there was nothing more exotic than a single female Hooded Merganser, a small flock of Common Mergansers, and a plethora of Great Black Backed Gulls among the Herring and Ring-billed Gulls and Mallards and Canada Geese. 

However, for sheer volume our little bit of river is hard to beat. And I would not be surprised that a better birder might spot better birds. Liz saw a Bald Eagle eating a goose on the fairgrounds the other day.....

Anyhow, the proximity of the shallow, teeming water is why we get so many waterfowl on a dry land farm. They may not live up here, but they sure do fly over.

Tell Tale

If you lived here in this kitchen and looked out the window to the old heifer pasture a thousand times a day, you might think that not much happens there.

Oh, deer and turkeys are spotted now and then, crows, Red-tailed Hawks, sometimes even a Bald Eagle. However, it usually seems pretty quiet and dull.

A frosty bit of dampness and a little leftover snow tells a far different tale.

I took a short walk yesterday, just up past the old trucks (this was made possible by the cows being in the barn now. I don't like to go out alone in the field with them. Sometimes the friendly attention of a creature that weights three-quarters of a ton can be a bit overwhelming and all).

 I saw the tracks of mice and shrews and foxes, coyotes, deer, rabbits, red and grey squirrels, an opossum, and birds of many sizes. Stories were written in the white and blue and grey....here a coyote slipped and slid down the hill...interrupted in his trotting by ice.

There a fox took the easiest way down to the  frozen stream probably hunting the tiny creatures who left tracks smaller than a pencil might make if you poked it in the snow.

In another spot a bit of drama, large deer tracks skidding down the hill, overlaid by coyote tracks the whole way. Did the deer escape? Who knows? At least it made it over the creek and up into the field behind the barn. Someone has forgotten to turn the electric fencer off...I can hear it clicking from the hop house....so there is no way I am crossing the trail to track the tale any farther.

I didn't see a single actual mammal and only two birds, a Downy Woodpecker and a White-breasted Nuthatch. However, it was easy to see that the woods and field are busy places when no one is looking. If the snow stays crusty like it is now...not too likely with warm weather and freezing rain coming in, I will be walking out there often.

Oh, and I did see a Ram.

These Boots are Made for...

Somebody else.....

And she gets a huge laugh out of stealing my chair in the living room. If she is just too busy to sit there herself she takes it by proxy. It is always full of dollies, or babies, or ponies.
Now she has started on the kitchen chair too. Wish you could hear her when I discover that my seat is occupied.