Spring, wherefore art thou?

When I look out my office window, all I see are fields of white.  It is the tail end of March and we still have lots of snow left on the ground. Unlike last year when we were in T-shirts and some neighbours were getting their fields ready to plant, I am still sporting a winter coat in the evenings and wearing insulated boots.  

Yes, the red-winged blackbirds and robins are back but I am sure that all of them are checking their travel itineraries and wondering what went terribly wrong.  We just sheared the sheep and I think a couple of them have the OSPCA on speed dial.

The sap is running... sort of.   We are having on and off again runs where one day it runs like crazy and the next two to three we get nothing at all. We only tap a few trees around the yard to produce enough for our use.  We are hoping to get about 8 litres of syrup and we are well on our way to producing that.  This year we are trying a turkey fryer to boil down sap and then we finish it off and bottle it in the house. This summer I hope to put up a little three sided shed that I can put a wood stove in to boil sap down outside the house.

This spring brought a new Maremma pup to the farm. His name is Zeus.  He is about 4 months old now and is a pen with two 8 month old lambs.  Unfortunately they do not have the temperament to correct his puppy nips so we will be putting him in with the rams today. They will teach him what behaviour is acceptable and what is not.  He also is getting introduced to our other dogs: first Mayla and later Titan. Mayla, is on reduced duties due to her multiple dysplasias.  Zeus was purchased to replace Mayla when we are no longer able to keep her comfortable. I still have a hard time believing a breeder could sign a health guarantee for Mayla and then totally dishonour their guarantee. This is definitely a case of buyer beware.

Shearing the sheep revealed developing udders.  Lambing starts in about 5 weeks.  There is lots to do before then.  I just hope the fields start drying up and growing so we can put the ewes out soon after the lambs are born.  

We just set up an incubator with 31 Partridge Chantecler eggs.  We have lots of orders for chicks and mature birds so we will be filling the incubator at least twice this spring.  

The day lilies have started to sprout.  Hmmm, maybe spring is not too far behind,

TTFN,
Laurie   

New Hawks at Hawk Hill

When we first moved to this farm we took some time to decide on at name for the farm. However several walks to the back of the farm gave us the obvious name for the farm.

First we live on a hill and in this area there are not too many of them. From the very top of our hill we can see the hills of Quebec to the north and those of New York to the south. We really are wedged into that top eastern corner of Ontario.

Second, there was at least one pair of red tailed hawks nesting on our property; one at the top of the hill and one in the woodlot partway down to the back. Over the years those birds have moved on but we have had marsh hawks, sharp shinned hawks and others for the summer.

This year we saw a Kestrel for the first time in years... and she has taken up residence at the end of our barn, nesting in a pocket between the ceiling of the stable and the floor of the hay loft. We have 4 very determined chicks staring at us out of the hole between the boards.

We used to have starlings nesting in the same area but I think they became "Take out".

We have deer in the backyard, turkeys in the pasture and the occasional skunk chowing down on the cat food in the garage.

Check out the babes and their next door neighbours, a nest crammed with barn swallows.

As an aside we just took our 50 day weights on our lambs. They ranged from 32 lbs for a ewe lamb in a set of triplets to a 70 lb ram lamb (one of a set of twins). Our daily average gain is 0.83 lbs.

TTFN,

Laurie