Im not gone but maybe forgotten?

Well it has been a while!  Spring turned into Summer and the posting just dwindled away...
I'm going to blame it on all those little mouths needing food and attention and boy did we end up with lots of little mouths!
If anyone needs some chickens (or 2 drakes!) please just ask, I have enough to spare and more....
Next year, no hatching!  Maybe under some broody mamas but that is it.  Remember to remind me of this next February when I am eyeing up my incubator again!
We ended up with 300 + chicks running around, all different ages and stages and wow was that a lot of work.  Fun but a lot of work.
Also raised 6 ducklings up and sold the 3 females and 1 male to a girl in a nearby town starting out with her first waterfowl stock.  Hope she does really well with them.



Heres a pic of the young ducks before I sold them:

And some of the chickens we raised up this year:



Some pretty Cornish Bantams we tried



Black Silkie hen that set for the first time in June

And she had some luck..

6 out of 7 hatched!





So lots of little ones and now they are turning into big ones but so is my feed bill!









A good day for ducks

       We have been getting such a lot of nice soaking rains lately....great for the grass and should make good humidity for the hatching.
I have had 8 ducklings hatch so far and there are quite a few more pipped still.  Ducklings are so slow to hatch and even often go over their 28 days, well that is the way these Saxony ducklings work for me!
I put the first 5 that had hatched out in a little duck brooder I had made, they are so killer cute ducklings!
     I decided to put in the 25 extra eggs we had on hand and fertility looks great, 24/25 are fertile w/ 3 or 4 having a bit weaker development, they usually quit early on but I have left them in anyhow for now.
I figure I will sell the early hatched ones at Milo May 12 and keep the rest for ourselves.  I will seperate the drakes and ducks and raise most of the drakes for the freezer.  We like duck meat.
    Today it just sprinkled off and on and we rode down and brought up the heifers to make a second cut for the "calving pen".  We added 16 heifers that we figured were the closest to calving and took the rest back down to the heifer pasture.  When G got home from school I had Samson ready for him and we rode out to the Rastadt pasture to gather in the last of the cows and calves still out there.
    One of the cows was Star, his cow and she has the nicest little bull calf this year, black w/ a white half moon on his forehead.  We cut out one heifer w/ a calf to keep in the gas well pasture with the other heifers and turned the rest of the cows w/calves, and 3 cows that haven't calved yet into the calving grounds.


  Put two more trays of eggs into the incubator today and moved two trays over to the hatcher, they should hatch Sun and Mon.  The little Dominique hen is still sitting tight on her 7 eggs, she is doing a great job so far, her chicks are due to hatch Mon, on O's birthday!  I am hoping to add a few chicks from the incubator to her clutch so she can raise up a bunch of babies for us.
  Making plans for Milo trip the following weekend, we will have to head out early that morning!

Display/Sale in SC last weekend

We had a good time at the "Discover the Farm" 2 day event in Swift Current last weekend.  Friday was the day for the display and we had about 150 school kids come through and do tours.  E was the presenter for the poultry section and he did a good job of it.  The hit was the incubator that was hatching chicks in it.  Most of the eggs were just pipped on the Friday and didn't complete the hatch until Sat. but the kids were still impresed and E had them all lined up to climb up the stepladder and take a peek.  Most of them had to be removed by their teacher or they would still be standing there looking in!

A couple who have Alpacas were there and the lady did a great demo, spinning the wool and telling the kids about the things she hand knits and felts while her husband let people lead around his pet alpacas who have the softest eyes I have ever seen.  The kids were also really interested in a lady who crafts the cutest animals out of wool.  Hope she forgives me for twisting her arm to get her there...you really have a neat talent Denise!
R enjoyed leading around the bottle fed Katahdin lambs and of course he loved the bunnies....



We had made display boards for the Buckeyes, Dominiques and White Chanteclers, also the Sebrights and Old English Games as those are the mature pairs we brought to display.  Overall it was really well received, the place was full on Saturday for the market sale and lots of people mentioned that they had no idea there were more than two kinds of chickens...brown and white!
I think people can't help but notice the difference between purchasing animals at this type of sale where they have time to view the animals and talk directly to the breeders/owners compared to the noisy animal auctions where you don't always know what you are buying or where they came from.

  We sold about half of what we had for sale including some hatching eggs at the prices we wanted.  Noone complained about the prices but I think it is still very much a new idea for people to raise and preserve heritage breeds of poultry.  However, I think a seed may have been planted for many.
  Lots of people came in the afternoon with their kids and grandkids mainly to look and that was great to see.

  E was tickled because he won the grand raffle prize after buying 3 tickets for $5.  It was a small chicken tractor that had been donated. 
  Our friends from MC were kind enough to haul it to their place for us so we just have to pick it up from there.

Plans are in place for next year and all in all a great event!

Spring rolls on.......

  We have had lots of chicks hatching each week, we just keep cycling through the different brooders.  I have one box on the porch w/ 2 -100 watt heat lamps in it and small wire openings in the lid that they live in for first 2 weeks, then they go to the shed to a similar box w/ much larger openings in the lid and sometimes just a wire top.  After 4 weeks they go into one side of the big wire brooder which has an auxilliary heat lamp in it.  Then into the other side w/out the heat lamp, it only has the brooder element on the top.  The next step is vaccinating them for ILT, they get a drop in one eye and changing up the leg bands.

 Then I put them into a big metal stock tank wrapped w/ foil bubble wrap and 65 watt yellow heat lamp.  Then it is time for a booster drop of ILT vaccine and sizing up of bands as needed.
Hopefully then after a week or so in there the weather will be decent enough they can go out to the old shed we moved into the trees which doesn't have any power but this year I plan to put in a solar shed light that comes on at dusk to prevent some piling at night.  Then I can open the pop door to let them out into a pen during the day.
Whew....Only 3 more pens/stages to move to and then the keepers will be ready for the main hen house and the eating stock will be eaten!


 We had some very hot weather last week and we were steady busy riding every day to bring in all the cows and heifers from the big winter pasture.
I have been riding Moonshine, Spud and Pokey Joe in turn.
We cut out the heifers at the gate and bring them into the pasture closer to home where we can feed them better and keep a closer eye on them as they calve.
 The cows get chased out onto the calving ground pasture because they are expected to calve on their own with just daily checks. Brought in a neighbour's stray.
Still have cows w/calves out in the Rastadt pasture but we will wait until their calves are a little older to move them as they don't cooperate too well at this stage!


Just got spit on yesterday, tiny rain in evening but this morning some drizzling down....one heavy sounding shower when I was in the metal shed, rain sounds 10 x as good as it really is when you are in there!
Hoping for lots more, we are in sand country so the more the merrier (but you can keep the s***)
You can just about hear the grass growing because around here that is sometimes all the moisture we get in the Spring and the grass has to make do with whatever it gets!


I am happy with my new hatcher, had a pretty good hatch of chicks last week and now I put 13 duck eggs into it. They are due to hatch Sunday or Monday.
I am thinking about putting another 2 1/2 dozen duck eggs in my big incubator that I was going to sell, hmm do I really need ducklings running round end of May?  Tempting ,but ducklings are messy little critters. 
Nice thing is they are so much less work than chicks because they don't need heat except for first two weeks so maybe I will do it....


Stilll kind of drizzly out there, I think a day making buns will be a good choice!

All the Pretty Chicks!

We had our first big hatch of the year on Wednesday.  Most of them hatched Wed night and then were 3 late hatchers on Thursday.

They are a mix of Pure Barred Plymouth Rocks, bantam RIRs, silkies, 1 Buckeye and some Barred Rocks crosed with Easter Eggers. 

They are in a brooder on the porch and I have a 175  watt and a 100 watt heat lamp in there.  I plugged the 175 watt one into an outlet dimmer switch. Today it was so warm I was able to dim the 175 watt to almost off.

They are so nice and plump looking today, all fluffed out.  There is just no comparison between chicks you order from a hatchery that have a long stressful trip and chicks you leave in the incubator until they are fully dry and then pop them right out under a heat lamp with lots of feed and water.  The hatchery chicks always seem so frantic at first, loud and scared.

We have 1 big brooder filled w/ Dominique chicks, one with bantam RIRs and now the porch one as well.  I have a hatch set up for every week now, and tomorrow I hope to put in the duck eggs.  G has two dozen collected for me now.  I will put them in the hatcher so I can hand turn them and then just put them over to the bottom of the incubator while I am hatching in the hatcher. 

Hope that works out ok? 

Finally had a really warm day, it is amazing how that green grass sprouts up so suddenly, I saw chives and green onions and rhubarb starting today, yay!

I love the look of this little silver EE X chick:

Snow Day

It was very well predicted and yesterday we got hit with one heck of a blizzard: high winds and about a foot of very wet snow which fell for most of the daylight hours.
Because it was so mild there was not too much worry about the animals faring ok although I was a little uneasy about a possible power outage.  H was out checking the generator to make sure it was ready to run just in case.  I have the large incubator loaded with eggs and 2 brooders full of chicks so it was a bit of a concern.
Thankfully the power only blipped on and off here 3 or 4 times and was back on again right away.
I had planned to go to a neighbour's house to quilt so I headed out after chores.  Although she lives fairly close it took me a long time to get there because visibility was terrible...I could see the fields on either side mostly but it was hard to judge where the edge of the ditch was!
Coming home was much better as the snow had mostly subsided.
The school bus made it ok with only getting stuck in 1 yard.
I was a little worried for my chicks overnight as the forecast was for -13 but it did not drop until about the middle of the night.
I have the young ones in a brooder box lined with foil bubble wrap insulation and a 175 watt heat lamp in there.
The older ones are in a large metal stock tank w/ 2 lamps, a 175 and 100 watt one.  I am so glad I wrapped the outside around with the bubble foil and also covered the top mostly up.
   I put my 2 Dominique roosters back with the others last night as they were getting snow blown on them in their summer digs and the heavy snow had collapsed the net over their run.
  G has 1 duck laying and so we are getting a duck egg every day now.  Hopefully the others will start soon as well.

Hard to believe that just last week we were riding and moving the cows back to better grass, coming home with our coats undone and fresh sheds tucked under our arms!
The snow is pretty deep but the sun is working as hard as it can to melt it now and we always appreciate the moisture!

It is beautiful out in the sun with all the fresh snow but today does not really feel like the first day of Spring!

3 leetle chicks!

Although the little upside down chick pipped first, he was the last one out!  But at least he did make it out all by himself!
Here you can see the second one hatching and the one with the window still inside:

 I had pretty much given up on the first little one and was determined not to help him or her out in any way so imagine my surprise when Tuesday morning there were three little black fluffballs cuddling in the mini incubator!
Now what to do with only 3 little chicks?  I ended up putting them back in the Brower incubator which is round and has a 40 watt lightbulb in the middle for the next few days....they seem pretty comfortable in there but now they are starting to make  more of a mess so I have set up the first brooder box out in the shed and hopefully I can get them out there today.
We have 6 dozen eggs ready to go in the OvaEasy 190 today and so I plan to load it around 1:00 PM....so hopefully there will be lots more chicks by the end of the month!
Here they are all fluffy and cute:

2 out, 1 peeking through a window, 1 still unknown!

Today was hatch day for the 4 remaining eggs in E's mini incubator...last night there was a pip in the wrong end of one of the eggs and you could hear peeping.
This morning there was a pip in another egg, at the right end this time and by the time E left for school, he/she was out!
Black w/white hairs on head...Barred Rock daddy for sure, but looks like it has a rose comb so maybe Dominique mom?
By the time I checked at noon there was another one, all zipped and I got to watch it hatch, also black, not sure about the comb yet...
No action from the last egg but there is still time, the first 1 with the window in the wrong end is not doing much...it is hard but I learned my lesson last year, I won't help them out, it is not a kindness after all...
At least I have two out, it is so important to have a buddy!

I finished the top now!

Well I finished the top of the table runner, now I need to buy some quilt batting and some more pink fabric to back it with!

And already I have an idea for another one, I think I need some green to go with these what do you think?

Bonfire day

It snowed all night Friday and then most of Saturday and now we have more snow on the ground than we have had all winter.
Finally we could burn some brush piles that we have been meaning to burn for years.  Sunday was an amazing day, sunny and bright, no wind and perfect for the project.

February break is over

I haven't blogged at all over the break, the kids had 9 days off school and it was pretty busy in the house.
I found this quote :  "It is the purest sign that we love someone if we choose to spend time idly in their presence when we could be doing something more constructive."  -S. Cassidy
....  and I think that about sums up what I did all week!
I did manage to get a mini quilt project started one day, the mouse fabric was from a fat quarter that I received in a fabric swap and I chose the rail fence pattern because it was so simple and because it reminded me of a maze...kind of mice in a maze idea.  I think I have just enough fabric left now to make a narrow border with the mice print and then I want to make a wide border around that with the green fabric.

That wonderful sun!

    The ground was covered in frost this morning, I think it was down to -15 last night, quite a bit colder than we have had it in a while. What  suprised me this morning was how much power the sun has in it now, a big change since last month. By the time I finished feeding the horses and calves around 9:30 it was warm enough to take off my gloves and as I walked, the heat from the sun was so nice on my bare hands...Spring is getting closer.
      I want to finish off my breeder pens and move my Barred Rock pair over there so the hens will be ready to go with their own roosters soon.  I have 7 + 10 eggs growing in the incubator now, but they will not be purebreds.
   R found a fresh brown muley antler yesterday.  It was down where they were feeding the heifers.  It was just a small 2 point but now the treasure hunt  for antlers can begin!
   It is a lot more fun than picking up cans for sure, we find most of them while riding but it is quite a feat to carry them home...sometimes we find a better one so we leave one of the poorer ones  in its place.  Usually 4 good sized ones at a time are the most I can manage depending on how far I have to ride with them (and who I am riding at the time!).  My favorite thing is to scout around and find the matching pair of a set, especially if they are a little unusual.

She wants to be momma...it is only February but maybe she will take some chicks if this incubator hatches any for me!

8/9 aint bad!

OK I candled the 9 eggs last night and they are all viable except for 1 bantam egg so surprise, surprise, that big guy must be getting something done after all!  He doesn't have a whole lot of style but I guess it still works!

So now (depending on the idiosyncrasies of this incubator) I may have some chicks to look after end of the month...I do have a Dominique hen who is broody so maybe I can talk her into the job!

couldn't wait....

   I know, I know, I was going to wait until March 1 but I was dusting off an old incubator wondering whether to sell it or not, got it up to temp and thought why not?  So I threw in 9 random eggs from the henhouse...they could be sired by a Barred Rock rooster, one of 2 Old English Game roos or a bantam Rhode Island Red rooster and the hens....could be any of 6 breeds!
    I was just going to see if it worked or not and here I am , it's day one.  Figures that we already had a power outage this morning but oh well it is early days yet so time will tell!

about walking..

   It has been wonderfully warm and the ground is mostly open with some small hummocks of ice in patches.   A couple of friends were telling me about their new treadmills and elliptical machines that they have.  One friend works out on her elliptical for an hour every evening and is pleased because she has lost 17lb since October.  My neighbour was worried about his risk of having a heart attack when he will have to drag calves around at calving time this Spring.  After walking 5 km every day on his bowflex treadmill he said his exercising heartrate rarely goes over 125 now, apparently at first it was up to 135 beats per minute.  I believe that exercise of any kind is good for the mind and body but I think walking outside every day is good for the spirit as well!
  I love walking outside and this has been a great winter for it.  It does help to have company though.  Whenever I suggest a walk to the dogs they jump around so eagerly, wagging their tails and then their whole bodies until they are wriggling with pure joy.  Even if I am feeling ambivalent about a walk and especially when I don't feel like going that day, just  knowing they are waiting outside and expecting me is the motivation I need.
   It also helps to have a wonderful place to walk in which I think I do: No traffic and exhaust, no hard pavement or other people in sight.  Just creeping juniper and native grass poking up through the sandy soil and an open view in every direction... I like to walk a different way every day, I don't have a plan in mind, just start walking and go wherever my fancy takes me.  If it is really windy I try to walk into the wind on the way out, learned this the hard way in really cold weather, I walked too far away from the wind and had a terrible time keeping my face from freezing on the way back.
One thing I really like out here is there are very few worries about large predators.  Where we lived in B.C. it would have been smart to pack a rifle at certain times of the year as bear and cougars were common.
 I usually try to cover an outer circle all around our home place every week, I think it may help to keep the coyotes and foxes away from discovering our free ranging poultry as the dogs mark their territory all around as we walk.
  Today we saw several mule deer, I haven't been seeing many deer lately. The sun is out and there was lots of frost on the grass, it was down to -10 last night.
   I seperated the silkies into their own pen under the nest boxes so their eggs will be pure for setting.  I am getting kind of anxious to start hatching but the plan is to wait until March 1 to get the incubators out.

  I have been looking through a couple seed catalogs, found a couple that sell only open pollinated, heirloom varieties so I can save the seed.  I  planted some last year and it was fun to share the seeds with other people like this really meaty pumpkin, a very old variety from France.

January 20, 2012

The third day of -30 C in the AM, the first day was actually -40...we kept the kids home from school that day even though they still had the bus running on our route.  Stinkin’ cold!   Well, after the first day the next two at -30 didn’t seem quite so bad but sometimes it’s the cumulative effect that causes trouble;when it’s not just a one day thing.

This morning was cloudy, no sun in sight but at least no wind to taunt you.  I noticed that one of my Dominique roosters has frozen his wattles, he has quite long ones and I guess they got wet when he was drinking from the water pail and now he shakes his head vigorously as I imagine they hurt him quite a bit. 

A friend of mine brought her frostbitten roos in the house and doles out liquid Advil to them every 6 hours or so to help with the pain. 
But whenever I bring an animal in to doctor it, it seems to me to cause them every bit as much stress as the pain does, unless of course they are too far gone to care, but at that point there is not much good to be done anyhow.
My Dominiques are wild enough that I think he will be better left alone with his aching wattles.  I wasn’t going to use him as a breeder this year anyhow and I guess this is reason enough to keep him out of my breeding program if those long wattles are going to be a problem.

The hens seem happy enough but their coop is staying at a pretty reasonable -6 or so.  I give them the leftover oatmeal in the morning and they go crazy for it.

Things were not so good in the calf pen. The tiny little heifer that has been bloating up off and on the last while, was slumped in the back corner of the calf shed, just like an old, forgotten heap of blankets.  I had to get her up yesterday and bring her along to eat hay with the others.  I know when the kids fed them at supper time, A had to get her up again.  She did eat with the other calves once she got there but I guess it just wasn’t enough to keep her going through another cold night...

We started with 10 in the Fall.   Only 8 little calves to feed now. 

But if you have a dog (or four) there is always some joy in every day....
Ace is the happiest creature I know:  He exudes joy from every pore.  Every fibre in him is alive and absolutely bursting with enthusiasm for the moment.   And I think he fully expects even better things to happen in the future!
He found his truck in the snow, pouncing on it and trying to push it with his nose back and forth on the ground, covering his muzzle completely in snow.
Then suddenly he switched to his “purse”, a soccer ball with a strap, and he tore off across the yard shaking it wildly!
I remember G remarking one day:  “Ace makes Bee seem old.”  You don’t notice how slow and pokey your dogs are getting until you have a young dog to contrast them with! 
It made me feel better just to watch him and it almost seemed that Ace's joy spread to the other three dogs as well as we set out for our walk in the snow.

January 17, 2012

-30 out there this morning.  But no wind thank goodness!  Sounds like we are in for a week of steady cold...

Wow! The 17th of January already...and winter has finally arrived.  There is about 6 inches of fluffy,dry snow on the ground.
H loaded the wagon with 40 bales yesterday and they hooked it behind the tractor to feed the cow herd out in the Rastadt Pasture today.  Yesterday they took out 20 bales and found quite a herd bunched up so they are expecting lots to be waiting for breakfast today.
E curled last night and it was pretty cold already when he got home around 10:30....pretty late for him on a school night and this is a busy week for the senior high as they have to complete their online courses by Wed. and next week is exam week. With the semester courses, most of them will be sitting finals not midterms.
G still has two online courses to finish up as well.
It was only -7 in the henhouse this morning, -11 in the roo house so not too bad, they looked pretty content, although the roosters tend to huddle a bit more than the girls who are always busy scratching around.
Last night I checked the hens on the roost and saw R's little black silkie hen looked strange.  When I looked closer I saw there were "things" hanging down all around her face.   They were icicles, hanging off each feather in her headdress "poof".  When she drank out of the open water pail, her head feathers must have got wet and then froze solid in the cold.  I got the scissors from the barn and gave her a nice boyish "do" and she seemed happier for it as she jumped up onto a higher rail of the roost when I put her down.

All the dogs to walk with today because they don't usually follow the tractor...there was a slight wind which made it cold on the face heading West but not too bad on the way back.
I let G's ducks out as it seems too cold and dark when he gets on the bus to let them out then.
His ducks do  pretty well in the cold but they do like straw to sit on instead of the snow...they kind of "body surf" across the cold snow, keeping their feet tucked up under their wings!

January 12 2012

-6 this AM and just a light wind.
A home day for me.... I don't have to drive anywhere!  The last 4 days in a row I had to head out and it is nice to have a day now that I don't have to do that.
The sky was so dark this morning though it was hard to get going.  I felt a lot more like heading back to bed instead.  But as I set out with the dogs after chores, the sun broke through the clouds and that was an encouraging thing.  No snow on the ground, only small hummocks of ice in places so we can walk easily anywhere we want.  Walked north to the "Broccoli Tree", a big tree standing on its own out on the flat, I think it is a Balm of Gilead tree.  We took a coyote by surprise, he was only a few feet away from us, had his head down probably hunting for mice in the juniper.  Ace was hot on his heels and Bee backed him up but of course there was no contest, the wild ones can easily beat these two.  He does have a little more at stake though.
H helped me move the sheet of plywood roof that blew off my Orange Fortress in the wind the other day.  I think I will just leave it down for now, no point putting it back just to blow away again.  I will have to devise a more windproof way to attach it.
Our dozen roosters looks so good this year, they are in better condition now than this time last year.  It makes all the difference when they can get out every day.  They have found a sheltered spot near the wall of the shop where the sun reflects off the metal siding and they sit there and bask in the sun.  I took my camera out there after chores and took some photos of them.  They are a nice color contrast with their pure white, black and white ripples and deep mahogany feathers.
I have so much I could and should be doing today but it is hard to choose what to start on. I think the trick is to find the balance between inertia and stressful action.  When I have very little I have to do I tend to get very little done!
I bought some cutting mats and a rotary cutter as I plan to cut some material ready for quilting.  Soon the CWL will be meeting again to make baby quilts during Lent and I haven't done any quiliting between last year and now.  I have made lots of aprons though.
I am going to go assemble a lasagna for supper tonight, not E's favorite but that is too bad, everyone else likes it so 6/7 aint bad!

January 10th 2012

The wind...I  think I write a lot about the wind....Today it was a force to be reckoned with.  It started out light but by noon it was pretty steady from the NW and the temperatures plummeted from 0 in the AM when we left for appt. in SC down to -10 by the time we returned.  And of course with that wind going right through you it felt much worse.  E had picked up O from curling for us because we figured we might be too late back.  Somehow the little kids had managed to feed the calves their supper hay without it all blowing away first in the wild wind.  Just past the full moon tonight and you can feel the wind shaking the house and roaring like a wild animal through the west wall.
My friend in MC has a ewe due to lamb tonight or tomorrow...sure hope she waits.

"Some people talk to plants; others listen"

January 5, 2012

10 C!  Crazy hurricane force wind outside, lasted most of the day.
After lunch I took A and  two of her friends down to MC for an afternoon of beauty treatments and skin care.
It was A's 13th birthday treat from us.
They all went in looking beautiful but I think they came out feeling beautiful which is of course a beautiful thing!
Two bite brownies and chocolate milk picnic and they were very happy...

E arrived home with a hole in his foot (and boot).  He had been helping a friend and his dad clean up their farmyard and near the end he stepped on a spike in a board.  It bled out well because he told us that his work boot had filled up with blood!  He did drive  himself home but is limping pretty bad on it.

I saw two owls today, 1 was a male Snowy Owl  perched on a fence post down near Alkali Pasture.  When we were out walking we disturbed a Great Horned Owl from a tree in the Gas Well pasture.

Tomorrow, a home day.

Tuesday Jan 3, 2012

+ 3 C this AM
Up at 5:30 today, we took A, O and R to MH for the day.  Took them to see "Chipwrecked" at the theatre.  R had never been before!  So we thought we should do that.  The theatre was almost completely empty and it was even "cheap day" we hadn't realized that, so that was a nice surprise!
E and G stayed home.  They did chores, G went hunting again and they helped R and E take springs off the retired Dodge to put in the using one.  E wants to put a bigger horn in the jeep now....
The coyotes are singing tonight and so are the dogs, they are going crazy right now.  It is so warm here still, almost unbelievable for January!

Monday, January 2 2012

-3 this AM
"In seed time, learn;
in harvest, teach;
in winter; enjoy."  William Blake

We never saw the sun today until it broke through the clouds when it was almost level with the horizon, just before setting.  Everything was covered in a rosy,orange glow for about 20 minutes.  Here, when the sun is hiding for even a day we miss it, I think we are spoilt that way.
Jock was out early this morning with another load of hay.
E went skiiing at Elkwater with some of his friends. He drove the Jeep in to FV.
When Bee and I were walking this morning in the Gas Well pasture, we came across a den in the hillside with two entrances.  One higher up the hill than the other and lots of sand dug out underneath each. There were no visible tracks but the dug out sand looked really fresh.  Maybe a fox or possibly a badger's den?
In the afternoon we went down to the dugout to see if we could make it good for skating on.  The surface was really rough so G chopped a big hole in the ice and we started flooding it by pouring out buckets of water across it then shoveling it clear.  I'm not sure if it will make a rink since it is supposed to stay warm this week but we got lots of exercise trying anyhow.
Waffles and bacon for supper.  E was home late, had a fun day I heard.
O and I played Operation, G and H and I played Scrabble in the evening, I love that game!
It is so mild, the chickens are ranging out quite far each day, I think they have decided Spring is here and who knows perhaps it is.

Sunday January 1st 2012

-14 C this AM.
It was hard to get up early this morning after staying up to wish in the New Year.  R made it until just before midnight.  After declaring, "I'll play the winner of the game", he promptly fell asleep face down on the carpet beside us... When the chess game was over we sang Auld Lang Syne to him before we carried him off to bed. However he was the first kid up this morning so he and I headed off to church together but when we got there we realized SS had been cancelled and so we were early for church service.
After lunch H, R and E flew around, looking at the cows.  The kids and I except for E walked down to the stackyard where they are each making a fort on top of the different hay stacks. When H and R came down we played Hide and Seek Tag and Sardines...Bee is a good seeker, but not such a good hider, she often gives us away with her wiggles. Ace is good at going up the stacks but pretty cautious going down, I think he remembers the fall he took off the top.  G was hunting pigeons, there are too many of them roosting down in the old shed there. I don't think he really likes to kill them. They are surprisingly beautiful birds, their feathers are so glossy and colorful.
I have 38 fresh chicken eggs sitting on my counter tonight.
 
"I can never take for granted again...an egg,
Such a perfect package,
Smooth, brown shell protects the dark yolk and white within,
A quick meal for me but.... a whole day's work for a hen."
IW
For now, omelettes and baking but in Spring...a bunch of fuzzy, new chicks to look after again!
I love being able to finish chores in half an hour or less these days but still I kind of look forward to the busyness of Spring.