Be Popular with the Birds

Winter is here and so are the winter birds. Blue jays, chickadees, sparrows, dark-eyed Junko and mourning doves are regular visitors to the feeders outside the kitchen window. This spot is great for the kids to watch the antics of the various types fleeting from juniper tree to feeder to maple tree. When the squirrel arrives to indulge in peanuts, then everyone—including the birds—get excited.

My feeder wasn’t always popular. When I first began feeding the birds, I bought cheap feed. After all, it was for the birds; I didn’t have to eat it. However, very few birds took advantage of the free food. Who could blame them; the stuff looked like dried grated corn.

Cold Winter Day in Pictures

A few days ago I woke to an outdoor temperature of -24.4 degrees Celsius. That’s minus 24.4 or minus 12 degrees Fahrenheit. It was the coldest day so far this winter. The radio announcer said it was -30 with the wind chill factored in.

Watering, feeding and tending to the animals would be a challenge with frozen locks, frozen bucks and frozen gates.

Going Out Like a Lion!

Nova Scotia Sunrise: 7:53; Sunset: 16:43

The Maritime provinces is currently being hammered with a large storm. The moisture falling from the sky is falling in various states, depending on where you live (on the coast, inland, low-lying areas, mountains).

We woke to about three inches of snow covering the ground and the white stuff still falling. A few hours after dawn, it was raining. A few hours later, it was snowing again. Then it rained. Freezing rain beat on the window for a while. Now it’s snowing. We live on what we like to call the ‘weather line’. We get a mixture of what is north and what is south of us. It’s difficult to predict by the forecast what we’ll eventually end up with.

Winter Has Arrived Early

Regardless of what the calendar states, winter has arrived in central Nova Scotia. For the past week, night temperatures have been below zero and in many cases, stayed that way during the day. Yesterday we woke to our first snow fall of the season with a temperature around -17 Celsius. It made for a beautiful sunrise.

Hey, We’ve Got Hay!

It’s a strange time of year to be thinking about cutting and baling hay, but hay has been on my mind. More to the point, the number of hay bales left on the property has been on my mind since filling the hay cottage with its usually ten bales on Sunday January 1st.

 

This past summer, a friend and neighbour cut our hay for us instead of our local dairy farmer who used it for his livestock. Before this year, we had no need for hay so gave it away. Now we have two sheep, two goats and a miniature donkey to feed.

 

My little fella watching the hay cutting from a safe distance as he chats with Tazzy.

Snow Day on the Croft

Several inches of flurries fell in Milford on Thursday. Still, it was a great day for being outside with the temperature hovering around minus two and no wind. The larger animals were in the pasture and the birds were all loose, enjoying the weather. Below are several pictures taken that day and the one which followed. Until about 4:00 pm on Friday, it was beautiful.

Two Chicks for a Mother Hen

When I told Mom I was getting chicks this spring, she reminisced about the hens she’d had over her 83 years. She was fond of hens, perhaps because she was like an old mother hen herself. She liked to watch them peck around and enjoyed the way they interacted with her. She treated them like her children, complaining to them and about them but always wanting them near. She fondly remembered the hens back in Newfoundland in the early 1930s and how the chicks would scurry behind their mother whenever someone approached.

 

Sam I Am, I have your green eggs.

Yesterday, my daughter and I made a trip to Upper Stewiacke to pick up five Ameraucana chicks at Riverview Birds. The lady told us they were approximately two weeks old. They were packed in a small box for transporting, and my daughter held them on her lap for the thirty minute drive home.

Getting to the Neglected Hen House

Last Sunday was the fairest day of winter. I took the opportunity to start cleaning up the hen house. The flock had been given away two years ago, and the coop had been neglected ever since. Weeds, both deep rooted and vining, had taken a foothold. Dead leaves and other plant material measured three to four inches thick. The soil was uneven, up-heaved by the heavy rains from several storms. Although the coop was no longer attractive and needed minor repairs, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.