Hope is the thing with feathers . . .

If I weighed just a couple of ounces . . . I'm not sure I'd be able to handle this weather as gracefully as these little guys hanging out in the bushes do. But then I remember what it's like to pluck a chicken for dinner, and realize that if I had that much warmth protection per square inch, I would probably be ok too.


And amusingly enough, the day after the I whine about no birds at the bird feeder . . . look what shows up:

A friendly neighborhood downy woodpecker. Frozen suet must not be too bad.

Just Another Day

Not much exciting going on around here. Just another day on the farm. T-Bone is participating in one of his favorite sports . . . chewing on the wood that the stock tank box and his shed are made out of:

We put out birdseed and suet at our bird feeding station over a week ago, but I have yet to see the birds flocking about it like they usually do. Maybe we need some fresh bird seed; I think ours is a couple of years old. But how do birds find out about a bird feeding station anyways? Do they smell it? Or does one just stumble upon it and then tell all of their friends? As long as the seed isn't moldy or rotten, why would it matter if it's fresh? Nutritional value?


Waiting for lovely feathered friends to brighten our window scene:

Still Frightful!

Winter is still here with a vengeance. Cold, snow, wind. We came home from church yesterday, and it looked like this outside the window:

Out our west kitchen window, you should be able to see our neighbor's farm, but instead it looked like this:

So we stayed inside, made ham & beans with corn bread for supper, and took a nap. Though Checkers looked a whole lot cuter that we did taking her nap:

Shadow Play

With the sun shining so brightly it makes for some neat shadows on the snow this afternoon. One of my favorite things about snow is seeing all the shades of blue, gray, and purple that the shadows make on it.

And while hackberry trees don't really rank super high on the list of being stately trees with graceful silhouettes, I think that they do make a pretty neat picture in the afternoon sun on the snow.

And their overabundance of wildlife attracting berries every other year(2010 being one of those years), make O'Hara's Corner Farm the place to hit up this winter if you're a berry eating bird, or squirrel, and I hate to say raccoon and opossum. 

A Certain Kind of Light

The other day, I realized that part of the variety I could add to my photos out the window is to take them at different times of day. I'm remembering to grab my camera more and more, instead of just thinking, "Oh, that would make a pretty picture."

One of my favorite lights to try to capture is that of late afternoon, when on a sunny day things seem to glow and shine a little bit:

Whether at home or some place a little farther away:

At at that certain slant of light, things seem a little bit more than ordinary. Like time could stand still for a little while, and one could get lost in it; then suddenly the light changes, and it's moved to sunset. The view isn't golden anymore.

While things at the farm aren't particularly golden this morning, it is at least a bit warmer than yesterday. I think it was more like 13 or 14 instead of 3 this morning. The calves were outside waiting for their breakfast, and Henry the tomcat was anxiously, loudly waiting at the garage door for his daily bowl of cat food.


Maybe if it stays sunny, a walk to the woods is order. Gotta enjoy the sun while I can. Happy Thursday!

Brought to you courtesy of . . .

Another beautiful sunrise courtesy of our Wondrous Creator, via my humble, humble camera.


Makes up for what my thermometer said this morning (ignore the clock, I can't get it set to the correct time. It was actually about 7:08 AM when I took the photo this morning):

Winter is here with vengeance today. The snow has cleared out, but without the clouds it is just plain cold!

Happy Wednesday!

Variety

It has been suggested that I not limit myself to the view from just one window in our house, when we have thirteen options! So here is one, more towards the east, out our laundry room window (will have to work on the screen situation, sorry!):

A view of our building in a box hay shed, 6' x 6' poultry shed, O'Hara garden shed, and our various junk. Imagine that, a farm that has junk . . .

Out this way, you can see the other part of our property:

A sleeping garden, the clothesline, empty meat turkey pen (occupants now in the freezer), grape arbor, compost pile, straw-covered strawberry bed . . . this part of the property feels pretty neglected this time of year. We don't spend a lot of time with our plants in the winter, and through experimentation, I found that clothes don't dry very well outside below about 45 degrees, so the clothesline just hangs out with itself until spring.

Mostly this time of year, its just making sure that all our outside critters have enough food, water, and dry bedding to stay warm and maintain enough energy to grow or lay eggs as is their job. Much to my chagrin, we found out that the calves drink more water when its cold, in order to process more food to help stay warm . . . more watering hauling for us . . . just part of the bargain huh?

And inside, we eat warm food, wrap up in blankets and wear fleece and flannel.  Craft, work on house projects, play games, and cuddle.  Enjoying down time that doesn't exist during the busy spring, summer, and fall.

So even if the calendar says its still 14 days until winter, I'm going to go ahead and welcome in the season a little early. Happy winter!