Snow!

It's snowing here for only the second time this year. Now everyone north of the Mason-Dixon line, don't be laughing about how excited people in the south get over such a little dab of snow!

When I went out to do chores this morning, the first thing I saw was Toby cavorting around with snow dusting his back.

A couple of the peahens were out and had even more snow on their backs.

After I finished taking care of the critters, I walked down into the woods. There was snow dusting all the leaves on the ground, and some sticking to the trees. I took a picture of the slue on one side on our property.

I didn't see any owls or deer today. They probably had the good sense to stay tucked inside some sort of shelter.

My quince bush has frozen blossoms. Right now the iced blossoms look rather pretty, but I'm sure when it warms up they'll all turn brown and die.
Back up near the house, the birds were busy at the feeders and birdbath. We always have several cardinals and woodpeckers dining at our buffet.

They take turns at the feeders, and sit on the fence posts patiently waiting their turn.

You can see what blustery weather we're having by the way the feathers of this lady Cardinal are all ruffled up. She even tucked one of her feet up in her feathers to stay warm.
We won't get any accumulation worth mentioning from this morning's snowfall, but it was still fun to see some snow for a change!

Of high water & a fallen tree...

Yesterday morning we awoke to the sound of flood waters. It had rained over an inch for the second day in a row, and the creek along side our property had flooded over its’ banks.

Sometime during the night it got up over the road, though by the time I went out and took pictures, it had already mostly went back down.


There was more water over the road between our place and the neighbors on past us. This is where the creek actually passes through a culvert under the road.

Debris usually blocks some of the culvert and the swollen creek waters cannot pass through, so the creek overflows the banks. You can see and hear the water rushing and roaring as it comes out of the culvert.

This morning the creek has subsided a great deal. Here it is rushing over a fallen log.

Still, the water is running pretty fast, as you can see the way it is rushing over this limb dipping in the water.
I also noticed earlier this week, with the rain and strong winds we've been having, a tree has fallen along the edge of the woods by the bottom pasture.
Fortunately, we didn't get the tornadoes people in other partsof the state had, so we really didn't have much else but a few branches down.

A creek running high with excess water beats drought conditions any day!

Signs of Spring

When I went outside to do chores this morning I was pleased to see signs of spring. Yes, I know it’s still February, and we have more winter weather to come. Today, however, with 70+ F. temperatures and blossoms starting to appear, it reminds me of spring.

The first bright spot of color I noticed was a dandelion. Come summer, they’ll pollute the place, but for now, it’s nice to see that splash of sunny color in an otherwise cheerless landscape.

The landscape is also pretty in pink as down by the pond, as there is a quince bush starting to bloom. It’s the first bush I notice blooming here in the spring, and is extra special because it came from my dad’s farm in West Virginia. Some of the buds got frost bitten, but others bravely hung on and are opening up.

In the woods I noticed the patches of moss are starting to take on a vibrant green hue in sharp contrast to the drab brown leaves.

But splashes of color aren’t the only signs of spring. There’s also the sounds.. First thing I noticed when I went outside this morning was the spring peepers song. It’s the first day I’ve heard them, and they will get progressively louder. Some nights they make it hard to sleep!

It's not the picture here that matters - it's just the boggy area of our bottom pasture, where a spring in the hillside seeps out and the water collects in this low lying area. Nothing much to see, but you can HEAR the spring peepers doing their thing. (Ignore the ever present noise of guineas in the background now and then.)

I know we’ll have more wintry weather, but today is an encouragement I can hold onto. Cause peepers and posies, they’re both a promise of the spring to come.

Our Pond Runneth Over...

When we first dug the pond, it only took two months for it to fill up. It’s spring fed, so that made a difference. I'm sure it would have taken a lot longer if rain falling in the pond was the only source of water.

Then came the drought. Months and months of little or no rain, and the water in the pond went down, down, down, until it looked more like an overlarge mud puddle.

Lately we’ve been getting more rain and the pond slowly started filling back up. When I went outside this morning, I was thrilled to see it is totally FULL again.The water is right up to the overflow pipe. Who'd have thought it would be so exciting to see water running out a pipe?

Ahhhhh, the lovely sound of running water....

Hooray! Here’s hope we don’t see such low water levels again!

Colder weather is here again!

Tuesday it rained all day, and yesterday was overcast. Today it’s bright and sunny, but a cold front has moved in, and temperatures dropped drastically. It doesn’t seem to bother the animals. Wish I could say the same for myself!

I notice the peacock has pretty well re-feathered, and has nice new plumage in time for courting.

He hasn’t starting displaying his lovely fan of feathers yet. The incessant honking that signals breeding season usually starts in February sometime, along with Mr. Peacock dancing and prancing to get the girls attention.

Then it'll be Saturday Night Fever 24/7!

Toby Chasing Thunder

When we had that bad storm last week, I took a video of Toby running around like a demented critter, chasing after thunder. Yes, the dog chases after a SOUND. He runs, he barks, he jumps... he thinks he is going to catch it, sometime, somehow.

In this first one, you see the lightning flash, and him taking off through the main pasture chasing the noise while sheets of rain blow over him.

Here he once again runs through the field, but I caught him when he came back and jumped up against the fence, barking and trying to let that thunder know some day he's gonna get it!

I don't think there's a single critter on this farm that's normal.

Stormy Weather...

We've had some wild weather here today! For a big part of the afternoon and evening, there was a tornado watch. Thankfully, we didn't have one, just a lot of rain and straight line winds.

Here's a video of the rain and wind blowing through the trees - these are mature trees, so it was moving some heavy timber!


We didn't get away totally unscathed. A fair size limb blew down out of one of the walnut trees in the back yard.

The wind also blew down part of the pallet fence The Farmer built around my lilac bush and trumpet vine to keep the goats from eating them.

All things considered, we didn't fare too badly. Just a lot of wind, and almost 2 inches of rain, which we really need!

Perhaps there's still a silver lining to every cloud?

Continuing Cold…

The weather has remained rather frosty every morning. I noticed three little lambs ears peeking through a drift of fallen leaves, 3 erect little soldiers in a row.
Our old goat gals must suffer some aches and pains with the cold, but they gamely move out in the morning, checking to see if I’ve thrown out any corn or put out any hay. One way or another, we’ll all survive this frigid-to-us weather.

Another Frosty Morning

For our part of the world, it was downright cold this morning. It was 27 degrees F (-3C), which doesn't sound so cold if you're in Maine or Canada perhaps, but it's all relative, and for us.... brrrrrrr....

We had another hard frost, and the sheep were sporting icy wool this morning. It's easiest to see the frosty fleece on a dark colored sheep like Papaya.
I don't like HOT weather, but I'm not too keen on this really COLD stuff either. The wind is wicked sharp out there today. The rocks and fallen leaves were covered with ice crystals.

Dare I say it? I wish this frigid weather would *leaf* us alone!

The Frost is on the Pumpkin

Okay, I lied. The frost is NOT on the pumpkin. However, we did finally get a hard frost last night, and as I was headed out the door to take pictures this morning, I was just sure I'd be able to use that title. Wouldn't you know the few little pumpkins I bought were in sheltered locations and didn't get frosted!?!

You can see it on the windshield of Youngest Son's car:

You can see frost on the sheep's wool and where they were sleeping:

The last of the roses got frosted:

And of course, the grass and fallen leaves are frosty:
The sun hitting the newly frosted leaves is causing a shower of leaves to fall this morning:


Right now the oak trees, like the one shown here at the end of our driveway, still have most of their leaves:But the leaves are falling faster and faster:


So I figure it won't be long until all the trees look as naked as the walnuts do:
(... that picture is for you Robin! See, you're not the only one with leafless trees!)

And last, though you can't see the frost on the trees in this picture, I decided to include it because I like it, even if I do have it upside down here:
It may not LOOK upside down, but it's not really a picture of the trees, but a picture of their REFLECTION in our pond.

So, even though the frost wasn't on the pumpkin...
It was on most everything else this morning!

It's really fall...

Today was a beautiful fall day with lots of sunshine and a vivid blue sky. It was just a tad chilly, with lots of wind. It was my kind of day!

The pine trees to the left are along the front edge of our yard, and the big tree at the right is a huge oak sitting at the corner of the yard by our driveway.

We don’t seem to get the right weather conditions to have a lot of leaf coloration in the fall. Most of the time the leaves just turn brown and fall off the tree, but we do have a few with some colored leaves.
Here's a close-up of some of the leaves near the top of the oak. It was tough to get a sharp picture since the wind kept blowing the leaves around!

There were all kinds of bugs out busily gathering nectar from any flowers they could find.

This goldenrod seemed to be a particular favorite for all kinds of bugs and bees!

Somewhere along the line this summer, some butterfly bush seed must have floated over to the pond banks, since I see we now have a little bush growing there. It's even blooming!

The pond water is beautifully clear around the edges. A lot of leaves have fallen into the water, which the wind has blown to the edges.

If we're really lucky, we'll have a lot more nice weather like today. I'm not going to count on it though. A hard frost can't be too far away, and winter coming fast behind that.

But for today, it was fall and it was beautiful.

A Change in Weather

When I looked at the weather forecast today, it said the high would be 95° F. (35° C.). I thought, “Wow! It’s going to be a lot cooler today!”

You know it’s been too hot for too long, when 95°F. sounds cool!

It’s probably cooler because last night it rained. Not just a little-bitty, very brief hardly-wetted-down-anything shower, which is all we’ve got for weeks and weeks, but an honest to goodness thunder storm that lasted for hours. Wooooowwwww…. there was actually 2 ½ inches of water in the rain gauge this morning!

The garden was actually wet without me having to water it!
The dirt in the flower gardens was actually damp!

The pond had more water in it, which was all stirred up from the rain!

There were actually still WET spots on the driveway and road at mid-morning!

There was even a puddle of water on a little table on the front porch!

Did you notice all the fallen, brown leaves in these pictures? That's because of the drought, cause it certainly isn't fall, and the weather certainly hasn't been cool, let alone frosty!

Yes indeed, we sure could use some more of this change in weather.

More rain, and cooler temps please!

Southern Heat

I don’t know about global warming, but I know it’s plenty warm here in the south. I’m not too thrilled when you pass a bank thermometer and it has THREE digits!

Even though it’s in the shade, our thermometer has been reading 98 degrees F. for the last three days. (For those of you using the Celsius scale, that would be almost 37C.) That’s just TOO hot.

Everything here on the farm is trying to cope with the hot weather, from “A” to “Z”. (Okay, so the closest I have to the front of the alphabet is cat, with sheep at the tail end.) All the critters look for shade, but have different habitats and various ways of beating the heat.

Spot, the Cat, likes to lounge around in the shade under our truck, and keep his thirst quenched with Birdie Broth, otherwise known as water out of the bird bath – just a “faint flavor of birdie essence”. I'm not sure if I put fresh water in there for the birds or the cat.


A dust bath is the method of choice for a quick cool down for the Chickens... … while the Dogs like to hang out under the back porch or in the shade of the big walnut trees in the back yard.

Neffie takes a rest (above), while Toby enjoys chewing on a hunk of wood while lazing in the shade (below).

Even our Garden needs help with the heat, especially considering we are also under drought conditions. I’ve had to water the peppers and tomato plants almost every day. (Thank goodness for well water!)

Of course the Goats like to hang out under the shade trees in the back yard with Neffie.

Keira the Llama often joins them, but she also cools down by “burying” herself in a sea of green plants in the bog area of the bottom pasture, though it’s not much of a bog right now!

In the aviary, the Peafowl go for a combination of bathing in the dust or pool.


Last, but not least, the Sheep also opt for spots under the shade trees. Our flock matron has a special spot under a pile of lumber and gets double shade from that and the overhanging tree branches.
One way or another, everyone is looking for shade and the coolest spot possible. I’m thrilled to be able to enjoy the air conditioning inside the house. Yep, I admit it, when it comes to extreme heat, I’m a Wuss.

Beating the heat from "C" to "W" -
Just keep that air conditioning on for the "W" please!