Soaking up the sun, and number 12

It's true, the snow is melting. 

Woody took advantage of a sunny afternoon yesterday and laid down in what is supposed to be my garden. The one he digs up every year. The orange day lilies and rudbeckia and weedy hollyhocks are the only plants to survive.

All is forgiven. My old man can soak up the sun anywhere he pleases.

My other old man found himself a much younger woman on Monday afternoon. We were wondering if Stella was ever going to give birth—all of the other does had given up their kids back in January and February.

I had just been out to the barns and didn't see this little one in there. Lo and behold Husband comes home from work a half hour later, and there she is! We ran out of S names for Snow, Shirley, and Stella's kids, so this little girl is going to be Teresa.

And she is definitely a keeper! :)

(I think I am allowed to post pics of him when he is holding a cute little goatie in his arms...)

 

White and green

I managed to make my way through the wavy ocean of snow on one of the warmer days this week. It was time to fill the bird feeders.

It was nice enough that I was able to sit in the chair by the firepit, with snow up to my knees, and appreciate the sun as it was going down. 

A few days of sun melted a lot of the snow, to the point where we started seeing grass again, and then we got another blast of cold today and maybe another inch of white stuff to cover up the "green".

It wasn't really all that green...

There was a lot of wearin' of the green at Mel's on Friday for St. Patrick's Day. I am sneaking in a pic of the elusive Husband as he was playing with his Fast Friends. Cousin Greg and I sat at the bar and had some not green Irish beer.

Much fun was had by all.

Icing on the floor

I wrongly stated in my last post that 16" of snow was due on Monday. Although the storm did start on Monday, the real snow from this nor'easter didn't come until Tuesday. Thank the heavens above I did not have to go into work on this ugly Tuesday!

I think we might have actually received the predicted amount of snow, but it came with so much wind that there is no good way to measure it.

After temperatures in the 40°s yesterday and today, huge drifts of snow and icicles are exploding off the roof. It is going to take more than a few days of this warmer weather to melt all those drifting waves of snow. 

Cyrus discovered what it is like to run through the ocean. He blasted through the snow to chase 2 crows from the bird feeder. He had difficulty making it back to shore as some of the drifts are taller than him.

I do miss the ocean...

Icing on the cake

Winter is still hanging on. We have had more snow in the last couple of weeks than we had all season. Siri threatened us with 16" of wintry mix today, but, so far only a few flurries.

Woody just passed the second anniversary of his doomsday visit to the vet. She suggested we might want to euthanize him when she found a mass on his spleen. She did not recommend surgery as he was too old to go through that.

Our best guess is that he is now 14 and a half. We didn't kill him. We didn't go for the surgery. We got him off all the meds but one, and he probably doesn't even need that little happy pill, but it has no side effects so why not.

His new thing is that he likes to sit in my lap. Not sure what he thinks he's doing other than pestering me. I let him stay until my legs fall asleep, and then convince him to move on.

So I move to a different chair to read my book. Chances Are by Richard Russo. 

Then these 2 join me.

I guess we are still adjusting to mom being home all day.

A bird obsession: Part 4—Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers

On a day when I have had to repeatedly chase not one, but two squirrels from the feeder, I am going to focus on cute little birdie pictures to take my mind off the varmints. There's just no good way to put a squirrel baffle on a tree...and I can't put the feeder inside the dog fence where I want it, because it's not close enough to the WiFi signal.

If you have ever seen these cute little woodpeckers before, you will know how hard it is to distinguish one from the other.

These top 3 photos are of a male downy woodpecker. They are a bit smaller than the hairy guys, and the beak is smaller as well. The bottom three are of a female hairy woodpecker.

I was first able to tell the difference when  I saw one of each at my other feeder, pre-BirdBuddy. There is a noticeable size difference, but only if you can see them together.

Now that I have the magic camera, I can actually see the difference in beak size. Not much chance I would have noticed that otherwise.

 

4 and 20 plus even more birds

Even though we have a fair amount of snow (again) the birds are saying that spring is definitely on the way.

The first red-winged blackbird showed up on February 21. Then word must've gotten out because 4 and 20 of his friends showed up on March 1.

And, keeping an eye on the arrival of these new and bigger birds, was this large hawk. I am still trying to identify what kind. (Northern Harrier?) He only hung around for a minute or so, and then took off for the other feeder. 

I am hoping Dr Pam can help with the ID, but if anyone else has an idea from these bad pics, please let me know.

Mostly dark gray or grayish brown on the top, mostly white underneath with a stripey tail and wings.

And the last pic is just another of the house finches. They travel in a group that is more like 2 and 10. Over 1,000 visits to the BB so far!

All types of birds were 0 and 0 while the hawk was out there. The crows gave the warning signal. Lay low little birdies!

UPDATE: Dr Pam and Becky the Birder agree that this is likely a Northern Harrier, probably a juvenile.

Just because

Two boys chilling on the Cadillac bed. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Visiting goats and goat visitors

Little goat boy is sporting a pink jeweled collar to go for a ride. 

I had promised all the newspaper folks that I would bring a kid for a visit— it was Bring Your Kid to Work Day yesterday! If you look close you can see Kathy, Larissa, and Tara reflected in the window with The Freeman's Journal behind them.

Little goat boy is supposed to be adopted by friend Dr Julie, so she will have the pleasure of naming him once he moves to the Neighsayer Farm. :)

And friend Roberta came by for a visit with the little ones on one of those nice warm days we had this week. Let's just say she was dressed too nicely and probably needed to do some laundry when she got home.

And the TFJ office might need a carpet cleaner.

At least the Kia was relatively unscathed.

Black dog and black chair :)

Sorry folks, I can't help being silly most of the time...

It's fairly unusual in mid-February to have a warm day that's nice enough to sit outside and watch the sun go down. It wasn't all that warm, and there was still plenty of snow that hadn't melted, but still.

Woody was not interested in hanging outside with Cyrus and me for the sunset celebration. He stayed inside for a nap on the Cadillac bed with his buddy Monkey.

More cold and probably more snow on the way, but we are all happy for the warm sunny days in between.

Black heads and black birds

When these 2 boys sleep next to each other, I see they have the same black on their handsome heads—both ears, part of the nose—it makes me smile. They are both about 14 years old. Woody's black parts are fading, and his brown parts are almost all gone. Willie looks young as ever. I guess cats don't fade...

I'm not ready for Part 4 of the Bird Buddy series, but it is starting to look like spring is on the way. New birds are joining in the fun. 

The starlings are back in force feeding on whatever goodies they can find on the ground now that the snow is melting.

And this Common Grackle found the feeder for the first time today. 

He scared off all the little birds, probably because he looks so scary with those yellow eyes!

Unfortunately, our lone squirrel, Steve, showed up at the feeder last week too. And he brought a friend. 

I am not happy about that!

Enough people asked the BB team to adjust the AI that IDs the birds so that it could ID their most common visitor as well. Pretty cool that they succeeded.

At least, so far, they are not my most common visitor.

Cold enough for ya?

Frigid and blustery—temps in the minus teens for the past 24 hours—thank heavens we have the heater out in the bigger goat barn.

Stella, the last possible pregnant doe, is still holding out. Not sure if she's got a kid in there or not.

It's supposed to make it all the way up to 40° tomorrow, so come on out for goat kisses, like Dr Julie did last week before we froze. She is still trying to figure out which 2 kids they are going to adopt.