Growing Into His Ears

When Puck was just a young pup, a friend of ours asked, "Will he ever grow into his ears?"  Ha!  

He never did - his huge ears are one of his best features!  Along with his fuzzy bunny butt, of course.  

Puck is a good dog.  He spent so much time with us, traveling, and visiting, that he has pretty good manners, for a dog.  He pays attention to us, so he learned how to fit himself into our lives very naturally.  When he used to travel with us for work during the summer months, people were always impressed that he could be off the leash at our project sites, and would stay right with us as we hiked and worked.  He loved having adventures and would leap in and out of the truck, always ready to go.  He once followed us across a rushing stream and was washed away.  We watched in fear as he was swept farther and farther away before he finally figured out to swim to shore instead of fighting the current trying to swim back to us.  Smart dog.  

Puck hasn't been feeling well lately.  Last week he had a trip to the vet, and for a moment, we thought he might not be coming home.  Thankfully, his blood work indicated that his organs weren't failing, so the vet sent him home with medication for pain and infection, with the warning that if he isn't feeling much better in four or five days, we may need to think about the quality of his life.  

It's hard not to focus on what the quality of my own life will be, without him as my shadow.  I once met a corgi enthusiast.  She was wearing a sweater with corgi's embroidered on it, she had two corgi's on leashes with her, and told me she was the president of her corgi club.  She asked about Puck and when she heard his age, she gave me a look.  She said she had loved several corgi's in her life, and none of them made it past age thirteen.  If the corgi lady is to be believed, then we have been lucky to get an extra two years of good times together.    

One Weird Bird

Is it an owl?  A hawk?  A chicken? 

The hatchery didn't say what kind of bird the bonus chick they sent me was...  MJ was just a tiny, dark, and fluffy baby who was raised with giant dodo meat birds.  Now look what she has become! 

She's become a pest! She is constantly under my feet or pecking at my pant legs.  She clucks and coos and makes such a ruckus that Wendigo makes a game of putting a paw on her back so she can hear her squawk.  During the cold spell she was the only bird that didn't find a safe place out of the weather, and her feet were encased in ice one night, and she couldn't grip the perch.  I brought her in to thaw out overnight, but now she has a swollen foot and a limp.  

She's happy for me to pick her up, but she bites my fingers.  I still have to carry her to bed each night because she finds the strangest places to make her bed.   The goats do not enjoy a chicken cuddle!  She's one weird bird.  

Urban Adventures

 

While Brandon and I were in Louisville this weekend, I snapped a few pictures of the urban landscape, and Brandon said to me, "I think you might need to get off the farm more often." Ha! 

It's true though, especially after a few weeks of real winter weather that kept me home tending the hearth and livestock.  I may have taken city streets and gallery openings for granted before I settled in at the farm, but now the contrast makes it all the more exciting.  Just having city plans for two days in a row seemed like such an adventure!  

On Friday evening we attended a gallery opening with friends, and ate at a swanky restaurant that required a reservation.  The tables were set with nice china and flowers, and a man played the piano while we discussed art and architecture.  I had two cocktails.  I felt very civilized.  

As if that wasn't exciting enough, on Saturday night we met Byron and Shanna in downtown Louisville again, for kebabs and hummus before attending an Avett Brothers concert at the Palace Theater.  

 

The theater was beautifully ornate, with sconces, columns, and plush carpets. 

All the opulence of the theater may have gone straight to my head if I wasn't humbled by the image on the beer Byron selected for me.  Oh dear!

Our seats were in the balcony, and the band sounded fantastic in this space. 

Of course, the fans were so enthusiastic that they punctuated every song with screams and hoots, but the energy of the crowd was contagious.  The entire audience stood and danced with the band, for over two hours.  The couple standing directly in front of us was so excited to be there, that we were sure they were going to make a baby before the music ended, and we were going to be unwilling witnesses!    

The light show was blowing my mind.  I didn't feel bad taking photos during the performance because everyone else was doing it too.  Actually, the number of people who were on their phone during this musical experience was noticeable.  The girl next to me filmed nearly the whole concert, and I think she watched the performance through her tiny screen.  I bet her blog is way better...

We rode the wave of band induced adrenaline all the way home to our little farm.  I tucked the chickens in to bed, told the donkeys the nights highlights, and commiserated with Brandon about the late hours.  We stayed up past midnight two nights in a row!  We still got it, right?  

Winter Hay, Eggs, and Water

The hay racks are empty.  The hay pile stored in the pig shed is long gone.  The stack of hand baled hay in the barn is down to the last row.  I purchased hay for the first time in mid December, buying two giant round hay bales, and I officially broke into the last one yesterday.  It will last three weeks or more, but then it will be gone too, and we are months away from green pastures.  Are the animals nervous?  

Nah.  All they care about is getting to eat plenty right now.  I'll buy more hay when the time comes.  Considering this is the second winter with animals, and this is the first time I've had to pay any money for hay, I think we're doing pretty good.  A months worth of hay for four goats and two donkeys cost me fifteen dollars.  Look how adorable those shaggy donkey foreheads are.  Of course they are worth it!  

Brandon built the goats a new hay basket.  He used an old fence panel made from heavy wire, and bent it into a square and hung it on the gate.  I can scratch hay from the nearby bale, and use the pitch fork to fill the basket.  The goats can pull the hay from the holes in the basket with their lips.  They waste some, as they don't like to eat hay once it's been stepped on, but then they sleep on what falls to the floor.  I read that each goat should have three to five pounds of hay per day.  I fill the basket with hay twice a day, and everyone seems to get plenty. 

I counted, and in a single day of being snow bound I took sixteen pictures of sleeping cats.  Cats really know how to enjoy a warm fire and a cozy blanket!

I enjoy looking at my snow covered domain from the second floor window.  I can see the paths we make in the snow during our daily chores.  I can also see the fly on the window!  It's three degrees outside and we have flies in the windows.  It's not fair!  These cluster flies are hardy bugs, for sure.  

See that tiny brown egg?  What's up with that?  The hens are starting to lay more eggs now that the days are longer.  Especially the hens that lay blue eggs.  This morning Brandon made breakfast and bragged about how it was made from only blue eggs.  He thinks that's special because I normally want him to use the blue eggs last, because they look pretty in my basket.  I gave a dozen eggs to a friend once, with one blue egg, and she told me later she was peeved when her husband used the blue egg first.  I know! 

The chickens have spent their snow days closed up in the chicken coop.  They don't like to come out into the snow anyway, so I put some fresh hay on the coop floor and gave them a feeder full of pellets and a bucket of water.  During the previous cold spell, I fed them outside like usual, but they spent most of their time in the barn pooping on everything, so this time I let them stay in their own space.

Nice tail feathers, Cogburn. 

The guineas are sometimes bullies, but even after being locked up together, with three roosters, for several days, I didn't see any evidence of abuse.  I'm hoping this time together will force MJ, the little hen that was raised with the dodos, to become more of a normal chicken.  She's afraid to sleep with the big chickens still, and I find her sleeping on the floor of the coop instead of roosting.  

It's so cold I've been really appreciating my face mask.  Balaclava, not baklava, right? 

How much snow did we get?  I don't know, but it was chest high to a corgi!

I was trying to capture the sparkles in the snow.  Can you see the sparkles?  With the sun at just the right angle, it looked like diamonds spread on the snow. 

The sunset through the greenhouse plastic made it glow.

 
Some places the snow was smooth or rippling.  Other places were cris-crossed with rabbit tracks and tiny bird feet prints.  When I pull the tarp from the hay bale in the morning, little birds and mice make a run for it. 

I was talking to my horse owning friend about the challenges of providing water to animals in the winter.  He said his ten cows and several horses will empty a hundred gallon water tank every day during this cold weather.  He wrestles hoses every day, trying to keep them drained so they don't freeze.  

I put a bucket under the bathroom faucet and one under the shower and leave them drip through the night so the lines don't freeze.  In the morning, I carry the full buckets outside and fill up the animals heated buckets.  Between the goats, donkeys, chickens, and dog, I carry about four gallons of water a day.  It's really not bad.  I'm glad I don't have any cows!  

Walks in the Snow

We have been enjoying long walks in the snow.  I even got to miss a few days of work due to icy roads.  It's one of my favorite things about living so far away from town.  No one salts or scrapes our road, so I'm stuck at home with all my animals for days at a time.  Some folks start feeling trapped or cut off, but as long as we have plenty of provisions, I don't mind at all!  Brandon thinks we should invest in a four wheel drive vehicle.  It's smart, but I love snow days!  

I think the hay I piled against the house foundation, plus the snow, must block the cold breeze under the house, because our water never froze up during this last cold spell.  Unfortunately, this meant I had no excuse to not washing dishes or laundry.

Wendigo is in her element when there is now on the ground.  She lounges in the snow, chewing sticks and playing games.  She blends in well, too.  On our walks we could see coyote tracks in the snow.  Wendigos paw prints are much larger than coyote prints.  She never seems upset when the coyote's sing at night.  I hope they have an understanding about boundaries.

The sky looks turquoise when the ground is white.

Puck, you have a few flakes on your face.

We explored our narrow strip of forest too.  The tiny stream was flowing, and familiar stumps and bramble piles looked strange with their snow caps.  The dogs found lots of sniffs to enjoy, but we had to keep moving so our toes didn't freeze.  

It's going to warm up today, and the snow will be gone soon.  This could be the last snow of the year.  It was a good one.

Goodnight, Dodos.

Is everyone enjoying this heat wave?  I think it was nearly forty-five degrees today!  After days that dipped to single digit temperatures, it felt practically balmy.  We climbed above freezing temperatures on Sunday, and our waterline thawed out just in time for us to butcher the fourteen monster sized meat chickens.  We guesstimated that each bird weighed about ten pounds.  

My morning chores seem so much easier now that I don't have to chisel ice from the meat chickens water bowl, or line their coop with fresh hay.  I sort of miss their funny dodo honks and grunts, but I'm glad to stop feeding their voracious appetites.  The birds had plenty of fat on their organs, so I think I was feeding them plenty.  

We will enjoy chicken dinners for months to come thanks to those silly birds. 

The meat chickens were twelve weeks old, and grew to twice the size of normal roaster chicken from the grocery store.  I'm not sure we will try raising that kind of chicken again though, especially in the winter with our current set up.  They never got to eat any grass or bugs because they weren't the kind of chicken that would roam around and help themselves.  They were so defenseless I couldn't let them have free range, even if they would have wandered more than a few feet from their food bowls.  Of course, they made a lot of meat in a short time, and weren't that hard to take care of.  

Goodnight, dodos.  

In the Glow

Brandon is on his way back from New York early, due to the blizzard that is hitting the city right now.  He was able to see everything and meet with the people on the top of his list, despite having to make a run for it to avoid the snow.  The last I heard, the roads were closed in the city and it was still snowing.  

I know I'm supposed to feel bad for being left behind in this frigid weather, but I couldn't help but enjoy myself the past few days. In the evenings I stoke the fire, turn out the lights, and roll out my yoga mat in the glow of the Christmas tree and firelight.  

I have also been enjoying my new essential oil diffuser.  It was a gift to me, and makes soothing smells and pretty lights.  

I have a fuzzy electric blanket that the cats and I enjoy in the TV room.  So, despite the cold house (the temperature in the kitchen was 48 degrees this morning!), I have warm places to go.  I did not miss pounding the cold pavement in New York. 

I won't mind a break from the freezing temperatures though.  I found one of my old white hens dead in the chicken coop yesterday.  Little Buck gave me a fright this morning, when he didn't emerge from the barn to eat with the rest of the herd.  I think he was just enjoying his warm nest in the hay, but the goats are normally anxious for their breakfast.  

Wendigo follows me around bumping my backside with a squeaky toy, enticing me to play, so I think she's handling the cold just fine.  

I'm fantasizing about a complete garden overhaul.  I'm rethinking the fence, the layout, terracing... all that stuff.  I'm ready for a big project, and I want a design challenge.  I keep dreaming up additions and alterations we could make to the house (warm ones!), but we don't need to act on those just yet.  The garden though, could really use some attention so we can increase our production.  I'm about to break out the measuring tape and scrounge up some graph paper!