Winter Ice

Hello everyone, I am popping in for a few moments to share some photos I took earlier today after the freezing rain of earlier this week.

 Wishing everyone a great weekend, thank you for visiting!

Farm Weekend

Hello everyone, we had a very unwelcome visit from a mink over the weekend.  It scaled the fence in the barn and killed our last 7 chickens.  We recently had 17 of our hens killed by what we thought was a weasel which had gained entry to our hen house.  Sometimes having a farm is fun and sometimes it is not.

In the spring we will be doing some work on the hen house to try to make it predator-proof and then we will order more laying hens.  In the meantime I will miss having my fresh supply of eggs daily.

Meanwhile work continues on the guest bedroom.  We found an old headboard and footboard at a local thrift shop and will give it a coat of stain later to darken the wood.  The new beds were delivered a couple of weeks ago and are a big improvement over the old worn out mattress we had before.  Chantal approves.

We are milling the trim for the rooms in the addition.  Our goal is to have the interior of the new construction look as if it is part of the original farmhouse which dates to the 1850s.  Building the millwork for the cathedral window is a bit of a job!

The chandalier is installed over the bed.

I have been collecting various pieces of Delftware and other blue and white pieces.  They will be displayed in the guest room when it is done.

Lucy approves of the bed too.

 

After spending several hours painting the new kitchen and breakfast room it was time to enjoy a loaf of home made bread.  Delicious!

 This past weekend we enjoyed springlike temperatures.  This morning our house was bathed in warm sunlight but the forecast calls for a snow storm later this week.

~Thank you for visiting~

Brrr!

Hello everyone, it is a very cold weekend here at the farm with windchills of minus 37.  We shouldn't complain too much though as other parts of the country are even colder.  Overall we have had a very mild winter.  In spite of the very cold temperatures the sun is getting noticeably warmer.

We have ice on the inside of some of our windows!

 The barn is relatively toasty at minus 2 degrees.  When the temperatures get this cold the barn is closed up.  Although the ewes dont mind the cold it can be fatal for the little lambs as they dont have the body fat to protect them.

 Hello, would you like to play with me?  You look funny!

 This little lamb is about one week old.  We have about 12 lambs in the barn at the moment.

 We made a mixture of fat, peanut butter and bird seeds to feed the birds in this weather.  All of our feeders are topped up so there is lots to eat.  We havent had much bird activity other than chickadees and today we saw a woodpecker.

We were astonished to see how quickly this black squirrel appeared to raid one of the feeders.  We like to use sections of large branches for some of the feeders-we carve out little hollows and fill them with suet.  It would appear from his puffy appearance that he is cold too.

We are taking a bit of time away from work this week to continue working on the house.  We should have some work-in-progress pictures to share soon!

~Thank you for visiting~

Horatio

Hello everyone, I thought I would share a quick post about Horatio.

I was surprised one day to see a little cat outside of my office window.  As my office is in the city and there are no homes nearby I wondered where he came from.  It was immediately apparent that he was in very poor condition with very dirty fur, bite marks on his neck and abcessed wounds on his arms.   We provided him with water and kibble which he gobbled up and then he promptly curled up into a little ball and fell asleep in my office.

He was clearly a stray and in need of medical attention.  I packed him into a cardboard box and hurried him to our veterinarian.  The poor little fellow had a high fever and was dehydrated, our vet said that he would not have lived another 2 days.  So we paid for his bills and brought him home!  As we have other cats he needed to stay in isolation for a few days so we kept him in the barn.

Many years ago we had two very old barn cats.  We thought that Horatio could live in our barn where it is warm and sheltered and he could catch mice.  He however had very different ideas.  His new life as a house cat was determined when he escaped from the barn and wouldnt go back.  We had no choice but to bring him inside.

He quickly learned that he was safe and would be well looked after.  It didnt take long for him to start exploring outside and patrolling the veranda railings is one of his favourite activities.

We are not sure what is so much fun about rolling around on a stone wall but it is something he enjoys a great deal.

It did not come easily but eventually Charlotte and Chantal learned to barely tolerate having another cat in the house.  As the ladies are older they find him rather annoying and we have had many cat scuffles.  Horatio is still very kitten like and loves to play.  He is very affectionate, loves to cuddle, purrs constantly and sometimes seems to think that he is a dog.  

So many strays end up in shelters or lose their lives trying to survive.  Horatio is so fortunate that we found him and were willing to pay for the care he needed.  If everyone would spay or neuter their pets these situations could be avoided.

Horatio is one lucky little cat although from his behaviour it often seems that he thinks that we are the lucky ones!

~Thank you for visiting~