Robin City

Ryan said that they would come . . . the robins that is. 2010 was a mast year for hackberry trees in our yard, meaning that they produced a lot of them! A few birds had found them, but nothing in mass quantities. Until this weekend. When a huge group of robins and their familiars, starlings, showed up to eat hackberries, take shelter in our trees, and poop wierd dark orange hackberry poop all over our new ivory metal roof. Ryan thinks that the light color of our new metal roof makes for a bird poop magnet. At least it washes off in the rain :)


Maybe they can tell the weather, and knew a practical hackberry farm would be a good place to wait out a winter storm. If they're lucky the hackberries won't get iced over. 


For now we just enjoy the sight of flocks of robin red breasts hanging out in our trees!

Right Now

Right now on the Corner Farm:

Vegetable-Beef soup is simmering on the stove, made from an arm roast from a locally grown dairy beef steer. Sorry I can't share the smell via the Internet:

I have the sewing machine out, making a 2nd turkey hen apron for Ginny the turkey before turkey breeding season starts in mid-February. Have to save the girls backs from Thomas's heavy claws. We found that when Essie wears an apron she is a lot less likely to get nasty scratches and cuts . . . turkey love is a little rough sometimes. Will try to get a picture of them wearing them, maybe that will explain them a little better.

Outside the window . . .  it's snowing again. What's new?

Just chillin'

You want to know what the farm animals are doing today?

Hamburger & T-Bone: eating hay, as well as not very good/too old for human consumption corn casserole, and head butting in the knees any human that enters their enclosure (the reason why there are no up close photos, afraid I would drop camera).

Henry & Sally: Taking advantage of warmer weather to check their territory. Sally is just along for the ride, and is more interested in chasing Henry's tail than actual territory checking or mouse hunting. Finally got a face picture of her not eating . . .

Thomas, Essie, Ginny, Herschel & The Girls: They're mostly just hanging out today. Thomas is randomly strutting getting ready for turkey breeding season (he has so much competition [eye roll]). Everybody else just laying eggs, clucking/screeching, or crowing as their natures require. No picture cause my battery died when I was in the chicken house.

Inside we have the lazy bums.

Pumpkin & Kiddo doing what they do best. Napping . . . 18 hours a day, don't bother me to catch a mouse, I'm too busy sunning myself.

Checkers is just hanging out in her bed, napping, barking, or staring off in to space as she so desires. Waiting for Ryan to get home. He is so much more exciting than me evidentally.

My favorite new living thing in the house right now, my fast growing freesia. Look how much they've grown in 2 days. One of the few things in the plant world that is great for instant gratification . . . fast growing young sprouts.  Happy Wednesday!

Fluff

That's what is going on outside . . . fluff. Snow that is. I beg to disagree with the weatherforcaster who predicted only an inch for the day. I would think we already have that much, and it's still coming down pretty good.

And the temperature is rising a little bit. It was a balmy 17 when I went out to do chores this morning. That's warmer than it got all weekend! Maybe that's why the calves were out frolicing in the snow, even though they were starting to look like abominable snow steers, the way the snow was sticking to their fir.


I haven't taken a from the road photo in a while, and thought it was about time. So here is:

White, white, and more white. With occasional punctuation of color from the buildings, house, and trees.



And in the case you're tired of snow . . . I have a little bit spring going on in my windowsill. I had some freesia bulbs leftover from an Easter gift from my sister last year. Everywhere I read on the internet said that it was highly unlikely that they would come up again after being a forced bloom. Well a couple of weeks ago when I went to throw them out I noticed a a little, very pale green nub on the ends of several of the bulbs. So instead of throwing them away, I took them out of their old dirt, planted them about an 1 1/2" deep in new dirt, watered them and put them in the windowsill.

Two weeks later this is what I get. Which I didn't notice until on Saturday Ryan brought my attention to the fact that we had green. Woo hoo!

Siberian

Don't let the lovely sunshine in this photo fool you . . . it is positively Siberian outside. As in "like Siberia".  I present the thermometer photo as proof:

According to the thesaurus other words to describe today: bitter, icy, frosty, glacial, wintry, subzero, hypothermic, raw, biting, piercing, bone-chilling, penetrating, cutting, numbing, arctic, polar, Siberian, nippy, etc. . . I underlined the ones I liked best.


Yes, I am one of those crazy freaks who could sit and read the thesaurus like a novel. Reveling in all the new words to learn . . . totally boring the rest of society. I took the History of English Language class, and was the only non-major in it.


But less about me and back to the farm. So far everyone, I mean the critters, seem to be handling the cold OK. The calves shook their heads a couple of times over the indignity of touching their tongues to the freezing plastic feed troughs as they were eating their breakfasts. Inside, everyone is searching for blankets, or a spot in the sun like Kiddo.

Good luck staying warm. Happy weekend :)

Hibernal

Looking for new words for snow and winter, I went to my trusty writer's thesaurus. I learned a new word today . . . hibernal = relating to winter. So my pictures today are hibernal. From the Latin hibernalis, related to the Greek hiem . . . snow. Which is funny because you think of hibernating as meaning to sleep, burrow away; when it has more to do with winter. Oh, the twists and turns, the word roots, meanings, and connotations of the English language. Maybe tomorrow I'll do some more thesaurus diving. To find some new words for cold and freezing. Because according to the weather forecasters, that is what we will be expecting on the farm tomorrow.

Farm Originals

Meet what are fondly called "the black hens" on the farm. I call them farm originals because they are the only domesticated animals born on the property since we've owned it. The result of a cross between a Barred Rock hen and a Silver Laced Wyandotte rooster. The eggs were hatched by Essie the turkey after she broke all of her own eggs the spring of 2009. To this day they seem to have special relationship with her, and will be hanging out with the turkeys when none of the other chickens are.


While they look like neither of their parents, these two hens definitely inherited some of their father's personality. How can we tell? The Silver Laced Wyandotte rooster that was their father, Sparky II, was one of the meanest, most obnoxiuous roosters you could ever hope not to meet.  When he was alive, it took 2 people to gather eggs . . . one to catch the rooster and hold him upside down, while the other person gathered the eggs. While these hens are not mean per se, they lack the docility of most of our other hens. I don't bother trying to take the eggs from the nest when they're near it, unless I want to have beak marks on my hand. And heaven forbid you should do anything to disturb them . . . they will walk around squawking and clucking loudly for a 1/2 hour for no good reason (I timed them once!). Their redeeming features: they are a beautiful irridescent black, and when in lay they regularly lay beautiful, well-shaped dark brown eggs. Besides, how could we ever get rid of the first critters born on our farm.

Melting . . .

Yesterday the yard was this beautiful, pristine picture of lovely pure white snow:

And today it has turned into one of my least favorite things . . . the mid-winter melt:

Which must be distinguished from the early-spring melt. With the early-spring melt there is the distinct fragance of warming earth and air filled with bird song. The mid-winter melt . . . cold, wet mud, blah,gray skies, and the knowledge that this is only January. The mud will not warm and soak up the damp for another 2 months. Instead it will freeze on the surface. Leaving me hoping for another big snow to cover it all up again.

On a less winter blah note . . . even though the skies were rather gray yesterday, the sun made an interesting appearance late in the day. Just barely showing itself through the clouds.

Peaceful Friday, thankfully!

Here on the farm its pretty peaceful today as you can see through my photos. A nice blanket of snow, chilly air, very little breeze. Everything is either snuggled down, or out taking a stroll through the winter wonderful land. We are so blessed.


Want some food for thought . . . check out Mary's post today. I know it made me survey my world out the window a little differently this morning.

Not much new around here

Snow, snow, and more snow. And this is nothing compared to what they have up by Lake Michigan or over on the East coast. This is a measly 6 inches. Its just been a while since we've seen it like this. On the farm everybody is pretty well adjusted. Extra straw, check. Extra feed, check. Snow boots and wool socks, check. Snow shovel, check. We're good to go.

Snow Day

So for once the winter weather advisory was warranted. I would say all in all we ended up with about 5 inches. We took this photo about 5:30 PM last night. It was still snowing and blowing then:

The sun peeped out for a little while during chore time this morning. After eating breakfast, Hamburger and T-Bone took off on an adventure around the pasture . . . they don't seem to mind the snow near as much as they did the first couple of times:

My favorite snow experience this morning . . . Sally the cat. Since she is just a few months old, this is definitely her first winter. And she seems to think playing in the snow is the best thing since sliced bread. You can see her in the far right center of the picture above. Here's a close up:

Not sure what is so exciting about the snow on the side of the tent, but I bet she played in that area for about 5 minutes before her paws got cold. And then  she took to running and pouncing in the snow as if there were some imaginary animal just below the surface. I really wish I could have video taped it.


One more photo for the morning . . . sun  across the garden. Catching and glinting on the fine snow crystals, lacking a better cliche, like diamonds.

Winter Weather Advisory

So I think that a winter weather advisory is a little bit overboard for a few inches of snow. I remember when I was a kid we used to get excited when there was a little line of text on the corner of the tv screen . . . it meant there really was a big storm coming. Now I have to talk myself down when they put those up, because I don't want to get myself excited for nothing. I'm one of those wierd people that likes to get snowed in. So instead of thinking about how much snow we might be getting, I just took my camera out with me when I went to dump the compost bowl, and explored the winter wonderland a little bit.

From the far east corner of the property:

From the east looking out over the pasture:

From the chicken house steps:

The cows standing out in the snow for a lot longer than it takes to get a drink. Their fur is evidentally thick enough that they don't notice.

Monday Count

Number of eggs to put away this morning (had to take a photo before their trip to the fridge): 3

Which is very exciting considering the lack of eggs over the last several weeks. The last couple of days we have been getting 2 or 3 eggs a day. So I think the hens are coming back into lay. Which is good for baked goods and egg customers all around!

Other counts . . . number of birds outside 5 minutes after removing the door to their outside ramp (it was too cold for them to be outside yesterday): 9!

Number of mice caught by Checkers and Kiddo this weekend = 0.

Number of hours said dog and cat spent hunting mice this weekend = too many to count

Number of mouse traps set in stove bottom drawer = 1

Number of mice caught in stove bottom drawer = 1

Minutes it took Henry the outdoor cat to eat caught mouse = less than 3

Time to go reset the mouse trap, and tuck Checkers into her bed. She is exhausted from her weekend mouse chasing.

Where did they go?

I know all you can see is the black back of Hamburger sticking out from behind the chicken house in this photo. The real story is that he is sticking his head up the ramp to the chicken house, as if to ask "Where did they go?" I think that he and T-Bone see the birds as part of their "herd" and if they could, they would trot up the ramp and roost with them at night. Mostly they just spend a lot of time around the ramp trying to find their "herd".

Return of the snow

I knew we wouldn't go too long without some white on the ground. It has been a light flurry on and off this morning. No deterrent to the critters though who are still enjoying their barnyard freedom this morning.

The chickens will be sad though. They are about to lose the freedom of slipping under the gate to explore the yard. I didn't mind them doing it until I found all 5 hens scratching in the straw coveirng my strawberry bed yesterday. The strawberries had a tough enough time with a dry fall without having chickens dig them up during the winter. Though if there gets to be more snow on the ground I won't have to worry about their wanderings anyways. They won't come out of the building if we get the ground covered.

Canning in January?

Making tomato juice in January. If you're scratching your head wondering why I would want to make tomato juice from the nasty tomatoes available during the winter . . . I'll let you in on my secret. The freezer! I did not make tomato juice this morning from florida tomatoes . . . these were straight out of our garden in September . . . by way of the freezer. The nifty thing about freezing tomatoes is that when you thaw them some of the water is already drawn out, cutting cooking time, and the skins fall right off, saving you having to blanch them. Plus you can gather up a whole bunch to do your preserving in great big batches instead of having to constantly be doing little batches all during tomato season. Now if you're wanting the tomatoes for their texture, best to use fresh. The freezing process ruins the fruit structure as the water in it freezes, bursting plant cell walls, and causing it to lose any firmness it might have had. No big deal for sauces and juice though.


These 4 pints are the last of our 2010 tomatoes. The rest can be found in the 30+ jars of salsa, and small batch of spaghetti sauce hanging out on the basement shelves. We are big salsa eaters here, and find it a great hit at most parties and carry-ins, so we always make a bunch. We also like to use a lot of spaghetti sauce for Friday night Italian suppers: spaghetti or pizza as our whim dictates. But we have yet to find a sauce recipe that we really like, and are working on the best mix of tomatoes that gives a good flavor, just the right balance of sweet and acid. Most of our batches to date have been a little on the acid side; we think we need more paste tomatoes and less big beefy German Pinks, which are great on flavor, but high acid too.


All this talk of tomatoes makes me want to peruse the seed catalogs. In just a few weeks we will need to be seeding our onions, and a couple of weeks after all our early crucifers. And before you know it, it will be time to till all that rotten cow manure/straw under, and uncover the strawberries, and watch for turkey eggs. Oh wait . . . we still have to survive January, February, and March. There's a lot of winter still left.


So maybe I just need to be like the cows today, huddle up, and enjoy the sunshine while we can. Another snow will be just around the corner.

First week of January

Yesterday I sat and prepared the pages of our farm journal for the first 3 months of 2011. How odd it felt to write week 1 -- January 2-8. It doesn't seem as though enough time has passed for it to be a new year. But that's how it goes; the older we get the shorter a year seems. I think it's because as you get older, a year becomes a smaller and smaller proportion of your life. When you're 8, a year is 1/8 of your life. When you're 30, a year is only 1/30 of your life.

2010 was a typical year of changes, subtractions and additions. The opening picture shows one of the largest additions to our farm this year, dairy beef calves. We've determined over the past few days that cold and clouds is not what keeps our animals inside for most of the past few weeks. It was snow on the ground. Even though it was cold and breezy yesterday and this morning. All our animals were out braving the elements. I wish I could have managed a picture of our birds this morning. We have an old a-frame portion of a swingset out in our pasture. The youngest turkey hen was perched on top of it, and all the other chickens and turkeys were quietly gathered around, as if holding poultry church, or an important livestock meeting.

Happy New Year!