Small things

Sat here earlier this morning watching Mabel zip from one end of the living room to the other with her tail all puffy and her ears plastered back.  Cats, go figure. Drinking coffee and waiting for it to get light enough to go feed the outside critters.

The snow event turned out to be not much - drifted a few spots in, more than anything.  Most of it's already melted, but it brought back cold temps and wind. It was 10' this morning, although they're promising it's going to get into the 40's today.  The horses are very ready to go back up on grass.

The little birds, juncos, sparrows, nuthatches and whatnot were out swooping, hopping and pecking, trying to find anything at all they could eat.  I'd feed them, but don't want to provide that cats with a bird buffet. (I'd much rather they eat mice.)


I've been trying and trying to get a good picture of the woodpecker.  He's very audible, but so quick that I usually end up taking very clear pictures of branches.  Finally caught him, but not as close as I wanted.

Speaking of mousers...

Silence and Squeak

These two haven't forgotten or forgiven me yet.  I snapped these thru the kitchen window. (You can see, the snow is pretty much gone.)  They were out yesterday sunning in front of one of the outbuildings I've been cleaning out, but as soon as I opened the house door they both disappeared.  I'm supposed to take all three of them back in next month for booster shots.  Hopefully they'll be a bit less leery by then!



Talked to one of T's sisters over the weekend, and she's located a niece who wants her old upright piano which is currently tarped in the workshop.  No idea when they'll actually appear to haul it away, but hopefully soon.  And I don't envy them trying to get it tuned!  I've been plugging away at cleaning out there again for the last couple of days - it's a project out of the wind and best done while it's cold enough that layers are a blessing.  I peel all my outer layers off at the door and then dump them into the washer when I'm done.  Blech.
 

Workshop

Mice.  Generations of them.  I won't use poison because of the cats, so T picked up some of those ultrasonic vermin deterers.  Which appear to be working on the pack rats, but I pulled open a drawer Sunday and a very fat, very surprised field mouse was staring back at me.  Eeep!  Pushed the drawer back in, banged on it, gave it a minute, pulled it back out.... Mouse was still there.

Pulled the drawer out, set it on the floor and gave it a tap with my foot.  Presto!  Disappearing mouse.  I've added "MOUSE TRAPS!" to my shopping list.  I really don't mind them outside, and I can't blame them for wanting to live somewhere people haven't been using for years, but we're back and they can move out or die.

But I hauled another load to the dump this morning - I ask you, who saves their old, broken toilet seats? - and I think I'm making progress. 

The birds

When I got to the farm on Friday the starlings were thick in the tress. Not sure if they migrate or not, but they were all flocked together and chattering away like crazy.

I scraped up the last of the bale to distribute. I'm pretty sure this particular bale was made up of hay from along the road edge, as T said he's pulled a bunch of flattened pop cans out of it. I found a toothpaste tube, which confirms my road-edge theory. The hay itself is lovely, but odds and ends of things (and dust removal) is one reason why we shake the hay out before feeding. T said when he was farming he knew guys that would eat their lunch on the tractor and just toss the wrappers back into the baler. Bleh.

The horses got a new bale yesterday - no signs of trash in this one. I'm always amazed by how how bad a round bale can look on the outside, and how beautiful and sweet smelling the hay is once you peel off the strings & outer leaf.
The feeder calves & replacement heifers that G's keeping in the grain bin lot all clustered close - they've learned that when we feed we always throw anything the horses leave in the tire feeders as well as the outside & bottoms of the bales over to them. They aren't as fussy as the horses - they actually like the "caramelized" stuff, and they sleep on whatever they don't eat.

Not much news this week. It continues to snow and next week they're saying cold. I don't know if the flocking starlings are a sign of spring, but it's quite definitely still winter!