Nesting instinct

Posted on April 22, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

We have a new tenant at the driveshed.

It took about a dozen false starts, but a robin has finally managed to construct a nest.

The start of birds nests at the front of the driveshed

Robin's nest

The streamers of grass waving over the door track caught the building inspector’s attention. Matt gave her a boost so that she could check the construction up close.

Ralph inspecting the birds nest

The mud wasn’t dry, but the robin got a pass nonetheless.

Robin's nest

Now she just needs to move in and start her family.

Is anyone constructing a new house where you are? Or do you have any birds sitting on nests? Who’s your building inspector?

Nature

Posted on March 21, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Teri the turkey is no more.

We hadn’t seen her for a day or two and then Baxter found a fresh coyote kill behind the barn.

Wild turkey kill

All that’s left are the feathers. The distinctive turkey wings give away the identity of the victim.

Wild turkey kill

I can’t really be upset. The coyotes are doing what they’re supposed to be doing. If Teri was doing what she was supposed to be doing, she would have stayed roosted in her tree–or with her flock instead of with us.

Still, it’s obviously not what I was hoping for.

Thisclose to a breakthrough

Posted on March 9, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I’ve had this whole “break-on-through” post that I’ve been planning. You see, all winter I’ve been working my way through our woodpile. It’s three rows wide, and I’ve been slowly using up the back two rows. (Matt, the official woodcutter in our relationship, would argue it’s not been slow enough).

Loading firewood into the washtub

Well, I was almost at the end. I had snapped some pictures showing how far I’d come, anticipating the day when I would break through.

Woodpile

Then I would take my final pictures and write a blog post where I talk about how happy I am that we have a fireplace, how nice it’s been to have fires all winter, how it’s almost the end of winter and how neat it is that this breakthrough moment coincides with almost the end of fire season, how we (Matt) will have to restock our firewood in anticipation of next winter.

I had it all worked out in my mind.

But then something happened. Cave in.

Collapsed woodpile

There will be no breakthrough.

There will be restacking, more burning (sorry, Matt). And instead you get this blog post, mourning what could have been, rather than triumphantly celebrating a milestone.

Okay, maybe milestone isn’t the best descriptor, but I’d worked it all out, people!

I blame the turkey.

Her footprints are all around that woodpile.

Turkey tracks around the woodpile

Close encounters of the turkey kind

Posted on March 7, 2016 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Matt has a thing for wild turkeys. So you can guess that this made his day.

Wild turkey looking in the window

For me, walking into the laundry room and seeing a turkey peering through the window was a bit disconcerting.

Wild turkey looking in the window

Teri showed up about two weeks ago. At first, we saw turkey tracks all around the house. Then we saw the turkey.

While turkeys are usually shy and private, Teri is social and curious.

She clucked around outside the kitchen window while I was making my breakfast the one morning. And then she walked around the house to pace in front of the dining room when I sat down to eat.

According to the footprints in the snow, she has even climbed right up to the kitchen window sill.

As I’m not inviting a wild bird in for breakfast, we’ve sprinkled some grain in the side flowerbed where she seems to spend most of her time.

Wild turkey tracks in the snow

Teri’s presence took a bit of getting used to.

Matt, Baxter and I each spooked her several times in the first few days after her arrival. Having a turkey erupt right in front of you and violently woosh-woosh-woosh her wings as she attempts to lift off and fly to the nearest tree is possibly even more disconcerting than having the same turkey attempt to help with the laundry.

She appears to spend her days doing laps around the house. We’ve gotten a bit accustomed to each other, and she doesn’t spook quite as much anymore. We’re also conscious to check where she is and try not to infringe on her personal space.

Wild turkey walking around the house

Baxter doesn’t have quite the same sensitivity and wants to get as close to the turkey as possible. There have been long staring sessions into the woods beside the house (where she sometimes retreats when we come outside) and lots of conversations about “no, you can’t follow the turkey tracks.”

I gotta say, there are moments when I ask, “Is this really my life?” Even though it’s sometimes disconcerting, I love living here.

“What do you mean ‘disconcerting’?”

Wild turkey hen

Getting my act together

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

A month ago, I said it was time to get my act together, and I posted my fall to-do list.

I’m most productive when I post regular updates to hold myself accountable, so today is about sharing where I’m at in getting ready for winter.

And I am pleased to report that I’m getting my act together.

The vegetable garden

Hang the gate
Edge the garden
Put in raised beds
Spread manure

Okay. Perhaps this isn’t the best way to start. Beyond the harvest and clearing out the dead plants, I haven’t spent much time in the garden. My plan is to make the garden my focus for November.

The bird feeder

Reattach feeder bracket – My cousin who made the birdfeeder post for us originally very kindly bolted the top bracket back into place.
Install a sleeve for the post – I put a section of pipe in the ground so that the post can just slide into place, no hammering required.

I restocked our seed supply last week, and we have a steady stream of blue jays, chickadees, juncos and a whole bunch of other birds I can’t identify visiting the feeder every day.

Firewood

Tidy up the trees – Matt and his Dad went to town.
Put up another row of firewood – As Matt and his Dad cut, I split and stacked, and we are set.

More details about our latest lumberjacking episode will be coming in a future post, but for now gaze upon our woodpiles.

Get Wiley ready for winter

Change the oil – My handy cousin (he of the birdfeeder) changed the oil for us.
Check the battery contacts – My handy cousin also made us a little sleeve to tighten up the battery clasp, and Wiley’s starting so smoothly now.
Remove the mower deck – Done. There will be no more grass cutting this year.

The house

Take off the screens
Clean the heat pump filter — Done
Clean out the gutters — Matt’s done this twice in October, and he’ll probably have to do it at least once more.
Turn off the outdoor water
Annual service and filter replacement on indoor water system — A new to-do

The house is another area where we’ve not done a whole lot. What does that say about me that I’m putting less time into the roof over my head as opposed to the property around my house? Thankfully, Matt’s on it.

Anyways, three categories out of five are completely done. That’s pretty good. Now to keep the productivity coming before winter comes.

How are you doing on your pre-winter to-do list so far?

A post about a post

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I’m a little bit geeky when it comes to my birdfeeder. When I first built it, I was super disappointed that it took a whole month for the birds to find the feeder. But when they finally did, I spent a lot of time watching them through the dining room window. And the novelty hasn’t worn off yet. It’s become a winter tradition for me.

This year, I wanted to make installing the birdfeeder just a little bit easier. Unscrewing the feeder from its base and hammering the pole into the ground was a bit too much effort–and we ended up breaking one of the brackets off the post last year.

Not the best approach. So the post went to my cousin’s for repair, and I went to work.

I found a length of pipe–because we just happen to have things like that lying around here–and cut a 16 inch section.

Then, I used a very narrow shovel–since we don’t have a posthole digger lying around–to dig a 16 inch deep hole.

The object of the game was to have the top of the pipe level with the ground so that the lawnmower can drive right over it.

I carefully backfilled around the pipe (not in the pipe), and then my sidekick inspected to make sure everything was as it should be.

When the repaired birdfeeder post returned to the farm, I slid it into the sleeve–perfect fit.

I screwed the feeder into place, stocked it up with seed and waited for customers.

This year, it took just a couple of days for the birds to find the feeder. The chickadees were first as usual. I’ve also seen juncos, a woodpecker and a pair of blue jays (small consolation for not seeing the other Jays now that they’ve been knocked out of the baseball playoffs 😦 ).

This post has the story about where this birdfeeder design came from–and plans to build your own feeder.

Who else enjoys bird watching? Do you have a feeder at your house? What birds do you see in your neighbourhood?

Birthday birdbath

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Everyone who guessed last week got it right. Our new addition at the farm is our birdbath.

As usual, when it came to my birthday last month, my wishlist was pretty short–as in there was only one thing on it. This year, what I wanted most was a top for the birdbath.

The base has been here at the farm all along, but we’ve not seen any sign of the top. It probably broke sometime ago, so we resigned ourselves to having a new top made.

A house down the road has a sign out front for pre-casting and a yard full of concrete animals, fountains and birdbaths. They said yes, they could cast us a basin.

I picked out a design that I liked and that I thought would work well with the base. About a week later, they delivered the birdbath (delivery was so helpful, as it weighs about 3 tonnes).

It’s obviously the end of birdbath season here in Canada. So we’ll be tucking this away for a few months, and I’ll be getting my morning bird-watching fix from the birdfeeder.

Nonetheless, I’m thrilled to finally have a complete birdbath. Thank you, Matt!

Do you have a birdbath at your house? Have you ever had anything cast in concrete?

Birthday presents previously:

Time to get my act together

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I can no longer deny it. Fall is here. I’ve been hanging onto summer as long as I can, but last week the temperatures DROPPED. As in, we had a windchill, and I wore my winter jacket, hat and mitts for Baxter’s and my morning walk.

So, it’s time.

Every year as fall rolls in, a list starts in my head. It’s not completely a do or die list, but it’s definitely a “winter is coming and you’d better get your act together” list.

So here we go: the fall to-do list.

The vegetable garden

This was my biggest home goal for 2015, and before the year ends, there are a few more things I’d like to do.

Hang the gate – The gate has been hanging around unhung for long enough. We need to take a bit of time, sort out the hinges and just get this done.
Edge the garden – We have a huge pile of old fence posts, and my plan is to use them as kind of “curbs” to help keep the weeds out of the garden.
Put in raised beds – I’m going to use the rest of the fence posts to make a ring of shallow raised beds around the outside edge of the garden.
Spread manure – This is our chance to knock two tasks off our to-do list at one time: clean out the 17 stalls in the barn and fertilize the garden. The manure is well-aged since it’s been here since before we bought the farm.

The bird feeder

I love watching the birds from the dining room window, and feeder is the best way to attract them.

Reattach feeder bracket – Last year when we were hammering the bird feeder post into the ground, one of the brackets broke off. My cousin made the post for us originally, so I’m going to tap him to reweld the top bracket.
Install a sleeve for the post – To make sure we don’t have to hammer the post anymore, I’m going to put a length of pipe in the ground so that the post can just slide in every fall.

Firewood

This is our first fall with a fireplace, and we’re so looking forward to firing it up.

Put up another row of firewood – We have two rows of wood dried, split and stacked. I think we’ll need one more row to get us through fireplace season.
Tidy up the trees – Tree maintenance that’s an ongoing task at the farm–as demonstrated by the big tree above that came down over the weekend. Fortunately, we have a steady supply of firewood as a result.

Get Wiley ready for winter

Our handy-dandy tractor needs his annual tune-up.

Change the oil – More accurately, have my handy cousin change the oil for us.
Check the battery contacts – Wiley’s a bit reluctant to start sometimes. In the spring, we had a loose connection on the battery terminal, and my cousin made us a little sleeve to tighten up the clasp. Cold weather starts are even harder for Wiley, so we want to make sure we do everything to help him out.
Remove the mower deck – It’s that time of year again.

The house

There are a few things to do for the place where we actually live.

Take off the screens – The screens get so dusty during the summer, I’ve found it’s necessary to take them off and give them a good cleaning before it’s open window season again.
~~Clean the heat pump filter~~ – I broke out the shop vac on Friday, figuring that we’d need to fire up the geothermal before the end of the weekend. Sure enough, as of last night the heat is on.
Clean out the gutters – Matt did round one last week, but we’ll need at least one more cleaning before the snow falls.
Turn off the water

I feel like I’ve been taking it easy for a little while when it comes to work around the farm. So step one to completing is to find my motivation. Any tips?

Obviously, some of these tasks are unique to the farm. But some of them are universal no matter where you live.

What’s on your fall to-do list? Are you feeling the pressure of impending winter?

Previous fall to-do lists:

Owl

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Like so many of you this winter, we’ve had a few incredibly cold days over the last little while. The nights have been even worse. Last Friday, shortly after the post about the birds that have been visiting our feeder was published, I saw a new bird for the first time–a little owl.

Unfortunately, the sighting was a sad one. The cold had been too much for this little guy. He was dead.

He was a beautiful, fascinating creature–his multi-toned feathers, his pointy ears, his curved beak. I wish I’d been able to see him alive. I’ve heard owls around the farm, but I’ve never seen one.

I was surprised how small he was. His feathers were so fluffy that they deceived me into thinking he was much bigger than I realized. However, under his feathers, he was truly a very little guy. No wonder the cold was too much for him.

Birds of the farm

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Our bird feeder has been very busy this winter. Chickadees are still our most frequent visitors, but our flock has diversified quite a bit.

I spent some time hanging out the dining room window with my camera, trying to get some (not very good) pictures of our birds. It turned out that I was just in time for the Great Backyard Bird Count. The count happens over four days every February, and the goal is to collect data on wild birds to get an idea of where and how many birds there are.

Here’s a few snapshots of our little flock:

Male cardinal

Female cardinal

Blue jays

I think this fellow might be a junco

Woodpecker. I think this is a red-bellied woodpecker, but we also have a pure black and white one that visits every so often.

Woodpecker facing off with the male cardinal

For some reason, there’s an understanding among the birds that the feeder is a one bird at a time operation. The woodpecker is our most skittish bird, but he swooped in while the cardinal was still in the feeder. I swear I heard the cardinal hiss at woodie as he hopped to the roof of the feeder.

Do you have a bird feeder at your house? Who are the members of your flock? Anyone know whether I’m correct in my identification of the junco and woodpecker?

Here are the plans to build our simple bird feeder.