It Is Spring Indeed

We had a week of rain, which saturated the ground so thoroughly that I had to pump out my basement eight times. Then came a night with tornado warnings, heavy rain, hail and high winds. The next morning I found the trash bins tipped over. That would not have been surprising except that they were lashed down and one was full of heavy bags:

 Then I noticed that the heavy, 100 gallon stock tank had been blown halfway across the north field. It had been empty, but stored upside down in a spot where high winds had never moved it before:

 A trim board from the barn roof had blown off. I worried about Amy, who I thought had been giving birth during the night. It turned out that she hadn't, so the calf watch continued into the next day:

 Last year I planted 12 Globe Thistles, but couldn't tell them from Dandelions, so I left them unweeded until spring. This year, upon examination, I had only one Globe Thistle plant - but it looked healthy and robust so I pulled out the Dandelions all around it:

 I planted the two Morden roses in the place where the Globe Thistles had not grown:

 And then I put some small fencing around the one Globe Thistle and two roses so I wouldn't accidentally mow over them:

 Inside the barn, the fantail pigeons and bantam hens were getting pretty stinky, but I needed to wait until the ground dried out a bit before I cleaned their rooms. I made it a point to keep their windows open as much as possible, though:

 The bi-colored Daffodils began to bloom, though the solid yellow ones were still in the bud stage:

 The Peonies began to emerge. All the old plants had white flowers, but I planted some colored ones both last year and this year. I don't know if any of the new ones will grow:

 The 20 Day Lilies, however, had doubled in height since I put them in the ground. They looked promising:

 I came to the end of my supply of bird seed and suet cakes, so retired the feeders for the summer. One of my last views through the kitchen window was of a Hairy Woodpecker and a Downy Woodpecker together on the feeder pole:

 The rock garden was springing to life. Things are growing fast. I still had a few plants which appeared to have perished during the winter, but most are doing well:

More Snow In March

Just when it looked like we were going to get an early spring, three nor'easters in a row hit us. The third was the worst, dropping two feet of heavy, wet snow which quickly froze into two feet of hard, crusty snow:

 The cattle and horses continued to thrive in it  although they didn't much want to walk anywhere. I finally used the tractor bucket to clear paths for them to make walking easier:

 The bird feeders became more popular when all the natural food was covered with snow and ice. The suet feeder regularly draws large Hairy Woodpeckers with their long bills:

 And the smaller, sparrow-sized Downy Woodpeckers with their short bills. The big Hairy Woodpeckers are the bosses, but the Downy Woodpeckers know how to dart in for a meal when the bigger bullies fly away:

 The cattle and horses are visible to passersby on the gravel road, just past the cattails and electric fence:

 I grew weary (and crabby) with the snow, but I had to admit that it was pretty:

 There were 40 hay bales left to last the winter. Last year at the same time there were only 20, so I'm hoping to have extra. Actually, I'd rather have none left, but I wouldn't want to run short:

 The addition on the house developed an ice jam again which looked dangerous:

 Not only did it look heavy and lethal if it slid off onto a person or dog, but the icicles were reaching back to touch the windows. I began to worry that the icy mass would break windows when it slid off. There was such deep snow beneath it that I felt sure the dogs would not/could not go there. That was one good thing about the situation:

 Each morning, no matter how cold and snowy it was, I'd call the cattle and horses in for a bit of grain. But I carried some out for those who didn't come in. I wanted to make sure that they all got their minerals and nutrition:

 Red Polls are a hardy, docile breed and mine spent their days eating, then lying down to digest their hay:

 The horses played in the snow and stuck their noses into it, looking for some grass to eat. I sure want spring to get here soon!

Around The Wintry Farm

The Red Poll ladies are doing well and staying fat despite the cold and snow:

 I usually throw and armful of hay aside for the little horses when I put out a new hay bale so they won't have to compete with the much bigger cows:

 I saw this amazing sight one morning in the southeastern sky. I looked it up online when I got back indoors and discovered that it was part of a sundog, also called parhelion, a phenomenon of sunlight passing through ice crystals in the atmosphere:

 This is a photo from the internet, showing the entire parhelion (pl: parhelia). I could only see the rainbow part on the bottom right. A few minutes later, I could also see the part on the bottom left, which was in the northeastern sky:

 One of my kitchen windows has a direct view of the bird feeders. It is common to see both Downy Woodpeckers (on top branch) and Hairy Woodpeckers (on square post). As you might expect, my cats think the windowsill is a theater seat for them to watch their favorite movies:

 I thought this was a Hairy Woodpecker, the bigger of the two, when I snapped the photo - but when I got indoors and saw the closeup, I decided it was probably the smaller Downy Woodpecker (because of its shorter bill). Needless to say, it's not always easy to tell them apart unless they appear together:

 
 I have a multitude of Chickadees. They used to be skittish, but have learned that I am the source of the goodies and now come within a couple of feet of me. If I aim a camera at them, however, they usually scatter:

 To help them pass the time during the winter, I've been opening the doors between the chickens and pigeons every day. The new Easter Egger hens seem to prefer to be with the pigeons:

The Easter Egger bantams also lay most of their eggs in the pigeon room:

  The older, Barred Rock bantam hens, mostly stay in their own room. They also haven't begun laying yet. They're getting kind of old now, at least for chickens, so their egg laying may be slowing down:

 The new Easter Egger bantams, however, are laying up a storm. Most of the eggs are green, but some are pink:

 The pigeons are having a difficult time starting nests with the chickens around, but no eggs or hatchlings would survive in these temperatures anyway, so no harm done:

A Snowy Day

I was in Massena when it began snowing, and the roads were hazardous as I drove home. My driveway had deep snow, though I was able to drive in and park. The weather bureau predicted continuous snow, increasing in intensity, all through the night:

The neighbors' horses were outside, apparently ignoring the snow:

I went out to do my evening chores:

The cattle, on the east side of the barn, were peacefully munching hay. They didn't seem to mind the snow much either:

Blue and Remy were covered, but also peacefully munching hay. They could have gone into the barn and eaten hay at any time, so apparently they weren't bothered by the snowstorm:

It was quite a scene, and the snow kept piling up:

I moved the bale feeder off the remaining hay and brought out a small bale to supplement what was left. I would bring out another big, round bale in the morning. I threw a brick of hay to the side for Blue and Remy:

When I walked away to go back inside the barn, the two little horses followed me:

I let the dogs out into their snowy yard before I went inside for dinner. Jack thought it was fun:

Seamus seemed to enjoy it also, though Daphne, Clover and Fergus wanted no part of it. Jack ran back and forth between Seamus and the other dogs:

I finally got Fergus to come a little closer (and Jack tried to get him to play), and Clover moved a few steps. Daphne was not interested:

A Downy Woodpecker was working the suet cake when I returned to the house.  I added more seed and brushed off the snow before retiring indoors for the evening:

Around The Farm

We had a relatively mild January, but winter finally arrived in February:

The barn, orchard and hay bales were all covered with snow and ice:

I began seeing fox tracks every morning after a new snow. They walk around the house and barn, check out the hay bales, go under the porch and into the barn. This does not bode well for letting the chickens out in the spring:


The fantail pigeons are beginning to lay eggs, though there has been no progress toward hatching them:

They have also paired off, though a few singles remain:

I began letting the hens out with the pigeons every day:

And the new hens prefer to lay their eggs in with the pigeons, especially atop the open bale of pine shavings:

The pine shavings bale is the first place I look every time I enter the coop:

The old hens have not yet begun laying, but the little Easter Eggers are going great guns:

I got a notice that some of my cattle photos had been used (with my permission) in the current issue of the Red Poll Journal:

They appeared in an article on winter feeding - and yes, I did get credit:

I have both Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers at the suet cake, but this little bird was a Downy. They have gotten used to me and let me get closer than they formerly allowed: