Robins update

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Our baby robins didn’t make it.

They sadly didn’t grow much beyond the naked pink creatures I showed you in my first post.

I honestly didn’t know whether to write this post or not. I’d love to be able to show you pictures of cute fuzzy chicks, or awkward fledglings, or even the nest abandoned since the babies learned to fly. However, that’s not how the story goes this time around. This blog is about cataloging our life in the country–the good and the bad. In this case, there’s not a happy ending.

For the first few days after they hatched, Mama and Daddy stayed close, feeding them and sitting on them, keeping them warm. But then something changed. Mama didn’t come back to the nest one night. Maybe she got spooked or got attacked. Temperatures were still too cold for the babies, and they died.

When I first saw the babies, I thought they were the most helpless things I’ve ever seen.

Even though it was too late when I realized Mama wasn’t around, I started thinking about things like heat lamps and eye droppers. But the reality is that as much as I’m compassionate about animals, I’m also a “let nature take its course” kind of woman.

Growing up with chickens and ducks and geese–many of whom we raised from eggs and then ate, and many of whom had their own ailments and injuries over their lives–gave me a somewhat unique perspective on animals. Farm living has refined my attitude even more.

Nature is amazingly wondrous and exceedingly harsh. This is a fact of life… and death… that I’m reminded of every so often.

It’s tough being a puppy

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Baxter has a bit of Friday fun for you today as you head into the weekend.

“My head… it’s so heavy. I can’t hold it up any longer… Sigh… I guess I’ll have to use this here rock as a pillow.”

If a branch falls in the forest, does it make a sound?

“Yes. Yes, it did. I heard that. My worry eyebrows and ears are on full alert.”

“Excuse me. My pillow is not properly positioned for optimal sunbathing.”

“I just want to lay here and sniff, and she keeps trying to take a picture… Oh alright. Here you go.”

Life sure is tough for a puppy dog.

I hope your weekend is easier than Baxter’s hard, hard life. For my American readers, happy Memorial Day.

Blue eggs and baby birds

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

You want a sure sign that spring is here?

How about this?

A robin built a nest right outside of the kitchen window on top of the clothesline post.

She’s an artistic robin and decorated her nest with long streamers of hosta and hay.

The only way I could get a picture of her was to shoot through the kitchen window, hence the grid of the screen.

Over the weekend, I thought that something might have changed. So on Sunday, when I didn’t see her on the nest, I snuck out for a peak. The eggs were gone. In their place, we had these.

Amazing.

It was a little chilly over the weekend, so Mama stayed close, keeping everybody warm. Mr. Robin brought her snacks every so often. On Monday, Mama and Daddy were both on duty bringing a near constant buffet of bugs and worms to the babies.

Obviously, we’re keeping a very close eye on our new little family.

Do you have any spring babies at your house? Is there any more perfect colour than robin’s egg blue? How long does it take for baby robins to grow feathers?

My best girl

Posted on May 9, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Lest you think my transformation into a dog person has made me forget about the kitty-cats, this post is all about our furry feline family members. Of course, the star of this post is my best girl, Ralph.

For those that have been following along since the beginning, you’ll recall that Ralph came with the farm. She made our first spring more interesting by giving us four kittens to add to our little family. In time, Gypsy, June and Rex all moved on to their own families. Our pick of the litter, Easter, stayed with us for a year and a half before striking out on her own.

The kittens’ birthday is today. While we don’t know Ralph’s birthday or even how old she is, she’s definitely worthy of celebration and today seems like a fitting day.

Ralphie is a superstar barn cat. She made it through the winter before we came to the farm by herself, although she was pretty skinny that first spring. She catches birds, bunnies, as well as more regular feline fare of rodents. She also enjoys her nightly serving of kibble, in case you can’t tell from the photo comparison below of how she looked two years ago and how she looks now.

She has a few battle scars, the most noticeable being her left eye. When we took her to the vet our first spring, he thought she might have had a scratch at some point, and it flares up every so often. Some days are worse than others and recently it’s been particularly bad. Despite appearances, it doesn’t seem to cause her pain or impact her hunting ability, so we’ve made the choice to let her live with it and not subject her to medication or additional vet visits.

As tough as she is, she also has a soft side when it comes to Matt and me. As soon as we enter the barn, she comes looking for scratches. Belly rubs are favourites–she’s such a fierce barn cat.

You may recall that when we first came to the farm, Ralph had a sidekick, Bert. Bert made himself scarce when the kittens arrived. He was replaced by Tom, a very bold male cat, who came around every so often. Once we had Easter spayed, Tom lost interest.

Cow Cat started coming to visit more than a year ago when Easter was still here. Easter left last fall, but Cow Cat has stayed. He’s been around so long that Matt insisted that he had to have a proper name. He is now known as Harold. Harold is still super duper skittish, so we’re not even sure he’s a he. We’ve made some progress, though. Last spring, his reaction when he saw us was bolt or pancake.

He doesn’t let us get too close, and he still runs away if we come into the barn while he’s there. However, he will now stay in the barn and just watch us from the corner.

While he may not like us, he seems to like Ralph. I’m glad she has a buddy. She definitely is our best girl and deserves only good things. Happy Ralph day, girl.

Are you a cat or a dog person? Or are you both? Any tips to help us warm up Harold? How do you celebrate your pet’s birthdays?

Happy Easter

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

A little bit of Easter fun for you today, as Baxter helps you gear up for the big egg hunt this weekend.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Crazy for a full moon

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I think we’ve established that we don’t have a fenced yard, and we’re still working on helping Baxter remember he has to come when called. So any time Baxter goes outside, he’s wearing a leash, and a human is holding the end.

As the human responsible for the first and last outings of the day, I love a full moon.

Being able to see my shadow at 6am and 10pm is a luxury.

On most of our walks this winter, I was stumbling over ruts, tripping over tufts of grass, straining my eyes for telltale strips of white–and my nose for the putrid scent–that signifies skunk.

Now that the days are getting longer, our walks are starting to be lit by the rising sun. However, I still have a special fondness for moon walks.

While the full moon is reputed to cause craziness, full moon walks are so much more relaxing. What drives me crazy is if my full moon is hidden behind cloud cover.

Aside: Apparently there was an eclipse yesterday. I missed it. Eclipses are neat enough that I would have given up my full moon without complaint.

What’s your favourite phase of the moon? Is anyone else wandering around outside in the wee hours of the morning and night? Did you catch the eclipse?

The vulture has landed

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

The turkey vultures have returned to our neighbourhood. They spent the weekend gliding over the farm intimidating animals and humans alike with their dark shadows, their red heads, their beady eyes and their giant wings. At one point, two touched down on the ridge of the barn, opened their wings and stood there sunning themselves.

They are absolutely massive birds. Unfortunately, Matt got outside first and yelled at them, so they flew away before I could get a picture. (Matt’s a bit concerned about any… let’s call it “interference”… landing on our new solar panels).

Here’s a picture from last year when a trio touched down on the barn roof. (Look how green! And no snow!)

I still don’t think this photo conveys the scale of these birds. Just keep in mind the barn’s really, really big, and you can clearly distinguish the vultures sitting on top of it.

Do you have turkey vultures in your neighbourhood?

Life lessons from my dog

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

When the going gets tough, I get trudging. With all of the snow and wind we’ve had recently, I spend a lot of time trudging.

In the photo below, I am up to my thighs in the snow, while Baxter the lucky dog lightweight stands on top.

When the going gets tough, Baxter gets hopping. He makes like a bunny and bounds through the snow.

Sure, sometimes he lands in a drift that’s over his head. There’s a moment while he ponders the injustice of the situation and how he came to be buried up to his ears. However, then he gathers himself together and makes a larger leap, charging on through the snow.

Other times, he embraces the drift and dives in deeper, searching for real live bunnies.

This week, when work has been particularly hectic, when things seem to be much more difficult that they need to be and when I’m feeling particularly frenetic, a dog’s enthusiasm and joy for life are good lessons.

How’s your week going? Anyone else enjoying/dealing with particularly deep snow? What lessons have you learned from your pets?

Eating us out of house and home

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Downside of the ice storm:

No power for 3 1/2 days
Broken branches and downed trees everywhere
A driveway that is now a skating rink
Grasses and branches all hidden under ice and snow

Upside of the ice storm:

Because all of the grasses and branches are hidden under ice and snow, the only food available is in the bird feeder (okay, this is probably a downside from the birds’ perspective)
Lots of fallen branches give me lots of material to make artificial bushes around the bird feeder so that the birds can scout out the situation or line up to wait their turn

Since putting up the bird feeder at the beginning of November, I have had no customers. Then, on a cold snowy January morning as I was sitting at the dining room table, I glanced out the window and I saw it. A little black dot in the bird feeder.

Was it?

Could it be?

It was!

Finally, a bird had discovered the feeder.

His friends soon followed, and now we have a steady line up of chickadees every morning.

I love sitting in the dining room, eating my breakfast and watching the birds. This is exactly the scenario I envisioned when I built the feeder.

At first, only the chickadees were brave enough to come to the feeder. When I was outside photographing them, I heard a jay and eventually I was able to spot him high in the trees across the driveway. After a week of building up his confidence, he finally made his way to the feeder. It was neat to watch him cautiously select a seed and then take it up into the tree for his mate who is still too shy to join the buffet line herself.

Although it’s a large feeder and the chickadees are very little, everybody goes one at a time. Occasionally a greedy guy will try to sit in the feeder and steal more than one seed. A waiting bird always flies up and moves the glutton along.

Even going one seed at a time, the birds are quickly emptying the feeder. This thrills me immensely. So much in fact that Matt is worried that I am going to blow all of our money on bird seed and we will lose the farm and end up destitute. However, having gone half the winter with no birds, the 50lb sack of seed that I bought back in the fall is holding out very well. In fact, I couldn’t fit it all in the Knodd I got from Ikea, so the sack still has some seed in it. The Knodd is really convenient though any time I have to scoop out more seed to refill the feeder.

As I’ve been working on this post, I’ve had Feed The Birds from Marry Poppins in my head. It’s by no means my favourite song from the movie, but for some reason it’s all I can think about.

Our birds seed is a mite more expensive than tuppence a bag, but I still don’t think it’s likely that we’re going to end up destitute selling bird seed on the street corner any time soon. So come one, come all. Just try and eat us out of house and home. (Just don’t tell Matt).

Do you have a bird feeder? Who are your regular customers? What do you feed your birds? What’s your favourite song from Mary Poppins? Has anyone seen the new movie yet?

Merry Christmas

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Given that it’s the week before Christmas, I’ve decided to keep it light and have turned the blog over to Baxter. In the meantime, I’m still working on the house behind the scenes and will have lots more DIY for you in the new year.

Well, it’s been really nice hanging out with y’all this week. Julia says this is my last post for the year, though, and that I have to wish y’all Merry Christmas.

I’m a little sad to be saying goodbye, but here goes. Merry Christmas everybody.

(Note from Julia: I take no credit for this Christmas scene. This is not our tree, not our stockings, not our fireplace, not our house. Obviously, it is our (solemn) dog. Thanks to my brother- and sister-in-law Greg and Kristine for hosting all of us for a relaxing pre-Christmas get-away. And for taking a cute photo of our favourite guy.)