by Susan | Jan 29, 2013 | 2011 Garden Journal
Ice huts on the Pleasant River in Columbia Falls.
by Susan | Jan 26, 2013 | On the Farm
Hannah has been chomping at the bit to skate on the duck pond. After a week of highs in the single digits, Paul pronounced the pond officially frozen. So this morning she laced up her hand-me-down ice skates and inched her way out onto the ice. She’s not an...
by Susan | Jan 26, 2013 | On the Farm
Almost a week after I put up my Dinky Bird Feeders, I have Dinky Birds! The picture above was shot from my kitchen window. So far it’s only Chickadees at the feeders and they’ve been busy. Looking at this Chickadee lifting off almost makes me feel what it...
by Susan | Jan 24, 2013 | On the Farm
Sunrise as I followed fox tracks on a cold winter morning. Our last snow showed evidence of fox tracks all over the farm. Across the pond, around the chicken coop, over to the banty coop, and all around the duck house (above). The fox even popped up on top of the duck...
by Susan | Jan 19, 2013 | On the Farm
A light snow has been falling all day. Hannah and I rousted ourselves from the sofa to do a little snowshoeing. Today we headed to the west – a wooded area that in the winter we refer to as Narnia. It was peaceful as we wandered through areas that are...
by Susan | Jan 16, 2013 | On the Farm
The most remarkable thing happened today! It’s a snowy day here, so I left work early before the roads got too messy. I arrived home around 1 o’clock. As I stepped out of the car and shut the door the sounds of a scrape and then a swoosh caused me to turn....
by Susan | Dec 30, 2012 | On the Farm
I anticipated 3-6 inches more snow overnight. You can imagine how surprised I was when I woke up to this: The end of the day snow total is 28 inches, two storms back to back, this is more snow than we had all last winter. We spent the better part of five hours...
by Susan | Dec 29, 2012 | On the Farm
With the second storm in as many days bearing down us, Hannah and I broke out the snowshoes for a morning excursion on the Back 40. Our hike starts here in the woods at the edge of the house, Hannah wearing her saucer sled like a shield. We came across a shelter in...
by Susan | Dec 28, 2012 | On the Farm
Mother Nature dropped at least a foot of snow upon us yesterday. Everywhere you look, it’s a Winter Wonderland. Today it was time to dig out. Hannah soon discovered that snow shoes were the easiest mode of transportation. My Birch trees are sagging under the...
by Susan | Dec 15, 2012 | On the Farm
For the past few years, we’ve been cutting a tree from the farm for our Christmas tree. These fir trees have not been groomed for the purpose, so they’re “au natural” or as Paul calls them – free range, organic Christmas trees. Started...
by Susan | Dec 10, 2012 | Chickens, On the Farm
Each night when we put The Girls in their run we do a head count. There should be 14 chickens: Gilfy and Miri (Miri is always the straggler and has to be coaxed in), The Colonel, six Rocks, five Buffs. I was on chicken duty last night and counted them – twice....
by Susan | Dec 1, 2012 | Chickens, On the Farm
A bitterly cold day found Paul and I outside running fence around the duck pond. Now that the pond is solidly frozen, the ducks don’t have much protection from predators. We tuck them away into their house at night, but they’re used to having the run of...
by Susan | Nov 24, 2012 | Chickens, On the Farm
I can’t imagine what the bantam chickens were thinking as they looked out their window yesterday afternoon. Miri and Gilfy have decided that they like to hang out in the doorway of the banty coop run. They’re too big to go inside the coop!
by Susan | Nov 20, 2012 | Ducks, On the Farm
Yesterday morning, Hannah set her alarm for o’dark-thirty. By 6:15 a.m. she was out at the pond chipping away at the ice to make a swimming hole for the ducks. She worked at this for 30 minutes before the school bus arrived. I wonder how much longer this display...
by Susan | Nov 8, 2012 | Ducks, On the Farm
After yesterday’s rude surprise of a frozen pond, the ducks proceeded with caution on this morning of the first snow. They didn’t race to dive in this morning. Instead, they walked around to the high side of the pond taking stock of things before diving...
by Susan | Nov 7, 2012 | Ducks, On the Farm
A wintry cold front set in over the past two days. Yesterday, Paul fired up the outdoor wood boiler for the first time this season – a week later than last year. The wood boiler is not something you crank on to warm things up. Once it’s running, it goes...
by Susan | Nov 5, 2012 | Chickens, On the Farm
We tossed the two Jack-o’-lanterns from Halloween out into the yard and let the chickens and ducks nibble away at them. Here are Miri and Gilfy taking a turn. Aren’t they pretty chickens? The next moment, Willow (a Plymouth Barred-Rock hen) walked up and...
by Susan | Nov 3, 2012 | Chickens, On My Mind, On the Farm
The Girls are looking a little rough around the edges lately. At 17 months old, they are going through their first molt. I had no idea they’d look so ragged. We have some bad feather days ahead! Miri and Gilfy, on the other hand, at six months old, are quite...
by Susan | Oct 29, 2012 | On the Farm
This morning, I stood looking out the front window watching the trees sway with the coming of Hurricane Sandy. The activity at the bird feeder is frenetic – as if even the birds are preparing for the big wind to come. Suddenly, a massive object glided down from...
by Susan | Oct 28, 2012 | On the Farm
A little Chickadee was the bird feeder visitor caught on camera today.
