What's Happening Around The Farm - An Update

The fantail pigeons have weathered the cold with ease:

And they're looking good:

One pair hatched two chicks in the very coldest part of an unusually cold winter. One squab died, but the other was growing nicely until the parents stopped covering it at night. Then it got too cold and died. I had feared this would happen, so had steeled myself:

The snow built up around the stock tank, making it appear much shorter than it is. I add water every evening before dark and use a fishnet to clean out any hay or other particles. Alas, one evening the water was so dirty that I could only conclude it had been pooped in. I had to bail the water out with a 5 gallon pail, hauling each bucket away to dump it. Then I refilled the stock tank, using the fishnet to catch as much remaining debris as possible. It was looking better when I finished and will improve each time I add more water:

A flock of lovely Redpolls (the bird, not the cattle) appeared at my feeder from up north. They were lively, colorful and lots of fun. Hit the link to see a photo and learn more about them):

The problem with the Redpolls was that they threw seed all over the ground. I would have expected it to all get eaten anyway, but it wasn't:

Our cold winter nights were hard on everyone. Strong winds drove the snow right through the weather stripping on the chicken's trap door:

But the chickens just kept away from the door and were fine:

A neighbor let his horses go without hay, so I threw some into the bucket of the tractor and dumped it over the fence for them:

Other neighbors, a young couple with three young boys, attached a sleigh to their snowmobile so the whole family could ride together:

The Hammond Museum, Part 3

I had just entered the stone house, second building in the Hammond Museum complex, and discovered that it consisted of domestic scenes from an earlier era. I began in the kitchen, with its wood stove, fireplace and Dutch oven:

From there I entered the dining room, complete with a model of an apple pie:

A parlor:

And a bedroom:

Out behind the stone house was a carriage house which, it won't surprise you to learn, held carriages. Also, notice the old wheelbarrow:

And a fanning mill:

And a sleigh:

We walked out to the large barn which, I had been told, had been disassembled on a local farm, brought to this site and reassembled:

It was filled with a jumble of wondrous artifacts, everything illuminated by electrified railroad lanterns:

The barn was had a collection of all sorts of things - just as a barn should have:

From there we walked out to the blacksmith's shop:

And the railroad ticket sales office, also brought here from a local site. But this was the end of my tour. I stopped back in the office to thank the historian and her young assistant for the tours. Then I left for home, where I had a lot of animals waiting for me:

St. Lawrence Power And Equipment Museum - Part 1

I'd been hearing and reading about the Power Equipment Museum in the town of Madrid but learned that it is only open the 2nd and 4th Saturdays, June through October. So I picked a Saturday, drove to Madrid, parked my car and headed for this big, modern barn:

Old time equipment was parked outside, around the doors to the barn. This, I think, was a corn planter:

And a fire department pumper:

Inside, there were so many machines, wagons, etc. that it was hard to know where to begin. This was labelled as a shucker - for corn, I assume:

Antique harrows. Please leave a comment if I misidentify something:

OK, I didn't see any sign and I can't even take a guess at what this was:

An old buckboard:

An oil tanker:

Antique buggies:

And sleighs for winter. This is, after all, real snow country:

A manure spreader:

A more modern manure spreader. These were only a few of the many exhibits in the first barn and there was much more to see, so I left the building and continued my walking tour. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: