From snow to rain. . .

January 18, 2011

Yesterday it was warmer, so the snow mostly melted.  There was still some in shady places, but mostly, it got gone.  That’s good, because it was a little strange to see guineas on the windowsills.

picture of guinea fowl bird on windowsill

"Can I come in?"

I’m used to seeing cardinals, and English sparrows, and Tufted Titmice, and a lot of other wild birds, but I don’t usually see a dove sitting on the windowsill.

picture of dove looking in window

"Got anything to eat in there?"

I guess their usual feeding places were covered in snow. 

The chickens and the guineas hated the snow.  HATED it.  They didn’t want to get down and walk in it, so the chickens stayed in their roosting areas, and the guineas just flew from tree to tree, or to fenceposts.

picture of guinea sitting on fencepost after snow storm

"I am NOT getting down in that cold white stuff!"

Now they’re all out and about again, so things are back to normal.  Well, as normal as it ever gets around here.

So now after a beautiful sunset last night. . .

picture of sunset

Sunset on the farm.

We’ve got a dreary, rainy day.  But it’s warmer.  And the snow is almost all gone… still a little in those shady areas of the woods!

In the south, liquid precipitation is much, MUCH better than solid precipitation!!!

The Snowy South

January 12, 2011

It’s even colder today than it’s been all week.  The snow is not going to melt any time soon from the looks of it.  Our local weatherman informs us that this is the third largest snowstorm in history for this area, the first being 1963, then 1988. 

I wasn’t here for either of those snowstorms, but The Farmer was.  He says he remembers the one in 1963 well.  Having just moved here from Wichita, Kansas, the snow didn’t seem unusual to him at the time.  Now after living in the south so many years, he knows better, ha!

We took a ruler outside with us and measured snow all over the place.

picture of ruler in snow

Measuring Snow on top of wellhouse.

Most of the places we measured showed around 7-inches of snow.  Although some places measured a little more, and our neighbors swear we got 8-inches of snow, 7 was the average around here.

The guineas and chickens hate the snow.  The chickens have mostly stayed put in the sheds, but the guineas get out and fly from tree to tree.

picture of guinea in tree

Guinea flying up into snowy tree.

Some of the guineas even flew up on the windowsills to check things out.

picture of guinea sitting on windowsill

Guinea peeking in window after snowstorm.

The snow doesn’t bother the sheep or llama, and even our goat doesn’t seem to mind getting out in it. 

The Farmer and Toby and I enjoyed tromping through the woods and checking out the snow.  Here’s a video with pictures I took from around our snow covered farm:
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This last picture I took this morning when The Farmer and Toby were walking around the far side of the pond.

picture of man and black and white farm collie

Farmer and Farm Collie in the snow.

All this snow reminds me more of when I lived in West Virginia or Iowa or northern Ohio.  It’s been fun for a while, but I’m glad we don’t have to deal with this much snow on a regular basis.

No more snowmageddons in the south please!

On the fourth day of Christmas. . .

December 22, 2010

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me . . .  

picture of baby birds dressed up for christmas

The Fourth Day of Christmas

Four Calling Birds!
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picture of ewes with hats

The Third Day of Christmas

Three Fat Sheep!
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picture of two llamas

The Second Day of Christmas

Two Spitting Llamas!
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picture of parrot with santa hat

The first day of Christmas!

… And a Parrot on a Fairrryyyyy!

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New Style, cost of 4 Calling Birds: $0

Old (Classic) Style, cost of 4 Colly Birds: $0

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But wait! Just what IS a colly bird???

The verse as sung today as four calling birds is actually a corruption of the English word colly or collie. So, it’s really referring to “four colly birds” or “four collie birds”.

In England a coal mine is called a colliery and colly or collie is a derivation of this and means black like coal. So that makes a colly bird a black bird.

picture of a blackbird

Blackbird

Both our four calling birds and the four colly birds are wild birds, so counted as free.

Therefore, today the costs come out even, and the total stays the same.

Total to date:
New Style – $1,970
Classic Style – $463

How did that happen?

December 9, 2010

I looked out this morning and saw a bird hanging from the suet feeder.  Now generally, they are hanging ON the suet feeder, not hanging out of it.

picture of bird caught in suet feeder

Dead English Sparrow Hanging from suet feeder

I’ve had that suet feeder hanging out there for probably 10 years, and never had this kind of thing happen before.

Since I doubt this little bird had a death wish or was executed by other birds (“Push him through the mesh and hang ’em!”)… I can only assume it tried to get down inside the wire basket to get the suet, then tried crawling out through the wire mesh and got stuck. 

Evidently the idea of going in reverse didn’t occur to its little birdbrain.  Or maybe it was so tightly stuck it couldn’t back out.  So it got stuck and froze to death.

Bye, bye birdie.

Name that bird!

October 7, 2010

There’s a bird that visits the birdbath from time to time, and I can’t figure out what it is.  So I figured maybe someone who reads this can tell me.

photo of bird in birdbath

What kind of bird is this???

Here’s another view so you can see more of the markings.

photo of bird

You can see the top of the head here!

This last picture isn’t the best in the world, but it gives you an idea of the size of the bird. There’s one in the water, and another on the side.

picture of birds

Two mystery birds & one English Sparrow

The bird on the left is a little English Sparrow.  Don’t go by colors in this picture, because the other two birds were in shadow and I had to lighten the picture quite a bit to be able to see them.  But it gives you an idea of the sizes anyway!

So!  anyone know what kind of bird that is?

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