Canadian wildfires

Wildfires burning in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada are wreaking havoc with the air quality here in Upstate New York. A storm is sending the haze and smoke down in this direction, and much farther south and east.

The photo was from 2:15 yesterday afternoon in our backyard. Orange skies are never a good sign. Even the UPS driver stood there and stared for awhile, saying "that's not good."

According to Siri, the air quality yesterday when I took this photo was 168. I thought today the skies looked better, gray not orange, but today you can actually smell the smoke/fire.

The air quality today is 218, and it looks like that big dark purple blob is headed our way.

Staying indoors as much as possible.

Good day for making goat cheddar. Inside. Windows closed.

Wildflowers, wild critters

Dame's rockets are blooming everywhere on our property. It's okay with me that they are not native, and they will have a tough time being invasive with all the goldenrod they have as competition. I think most of the goldenrod species here are solidago, native and not considered invasive.

Of course the "pretty" wildflowers in these pictures are the non-native invasive ones, the dames and the buttercups. 

Mother Nature is our landscaper, and we let her do as she pleases. In spite of the fact that we have had several late frosts, I think she is providing us with a good apple crop this year. Last year we had none.

The wildflower show was from my walk to the creek to pick up the trail camera. It had captured a coyote on the gravel bar before, this time it caught 2 together. Out of 98 photos, only 2 had coyotes, most of the rest had 1 or 2 deer. This one might be a young bald eagle.

I have seen a large eagle-size bird from the house back in that same area, but it is really hard to identify it from a distance. This photo isn't all that clear either, so I guess it will remain a mystery. Osprey or second-year bald eagle are my 2 best guesses.

And finally, there is no mystery as to the species of the last wild critter. But it is a very big mystery as to who is the owner of those feet. At 4:41 pm on my birthday, just hanging out by our chicken coop where the other camera is set up. Hmmmm...

Pop on top, the moon, and Will

Since I took down the BirdBuddy camera, I have to be more creative with finding birds to photograph. This bird house is in need of a complete rehab, truly held together with string (and hot glue, and wine corks for a roof) but the tree swallows still come back to nest there. 

That's Pop Swallow on top while Mom is inside keeping the eggs warm on this chilly day. It is 53° at noon this late in May. I am still holding off on planting my tomatoes...

For the night sky watchers out there: is this Venus next to that little sliver of moon on Tuesday night? I still haven't mastered the art of moon pictures, even with my souped up iPhone.

That's Will impersonating a mandolin. He will be 15 years old sometime over the summer. Other than his hyperactive thyroid, he is doing pretty well. He is still a very sweet boy.

Sunset time, chicks and Pidge

It's getting to be that time of year where the sunsets are prettier than usual, and they are usually pretty darn pretty.

Looking at this pretty sunset picture, I am seeing all kinds of things that still need attention. The painted peeling patio table and chairs need one more coat of paint, but I can only spray them when it isn't windy. It has been crazy windy lately, so windy it blew the ashes out from under the charcoal grill. And then there is that WoodMan who likes to poop on what we now call the poopdeck, the one I had just cleaned off earlier that day.

Hub did just mow the grass, and we had the baby tree people come out and straighten the baby trees, so that all looks good, but I do have to water the gardens again with that hose that I left there...

The teenage chicks are adjusting well to being free. It only took them about an hour yesterday to find their way out into the yard. I am curious to see how long it takes them to follow the rest of the chickens outside the open fence.

My pigeon friend is not adjusting well to the removal of the Birdbuddy. He only had 2 days of free food, and then it disappeared. So sad.

This post is for Sarah at CoopVet. She inspired me to be better about keeping up with the blog!

Big birds, little(r) birds

We got these 3 ISA Brown teenage chicks from Larissa when she decided they had too many for their little coop. We have plenty of room in our big coop, but I was a bit worried about our older hens and/or the young very fresh rooster beating up on them.

So the poor girls have been living in the big dog crate for about 10 days. I finally set them free today when only 2 of the other hens were nearby.

This will be a good test of how well the 5 Olive Eggers will do when I finally set them free from the plastic coop.

I decommissioned the BirdBuddy today. I ran out of sunflower seed, and there is plenty of other food provided by Mother Nature. I was tempted to leave it up longer when yet another species showed up yesterday—a pretty iridescent feral pigeon who came with a friend (in the background on the fence). But the pretty one wouldn't let the other one in, and he cleared out all of the remaining seed, even defending his position from the grackles.

Time to take a break. Grackles, squirrels and pigeons are the main feeders these days. The BB is not coming back until Fall. I have plenty of photos of other species to entertain you with until then.

Cyrus and some other critters

Cyrus is quite content to settle in the tall grass and soak up the sun while I am playing in the garden. Woody, not so much. Usually he prefers to stay inside and nap on his favorite bed.

I made Cyrus the lead photo instead of the cute snake, because I know some of you are not fond of snakes. But I really think this guy (or girl) is very pretty. He was hiding under a water bucket, and when I uncovered him, he just stayed there posing for his portrait.

And even I can find nothing cute or pretty about slugs, but I do very much love this photo of a grackle bringing food to the party. No Tupperware necessary, just carry those little slimers in your beak to share with everyone at the Bird Buddy party.

A bird obsession: Part 4 — Black-capped chickadee

I am still enjoying my expensive Bird Buddy. With some help from the IDs that it provides, and even more help from my David Sibley book, the camera has captured 20 different species. 

That's not counting #21, the squirrel. Cyrus finds great joy in chasing them. Woody doesn't care.

These little chickadees are mostly hit-and-run at the feeder. They usually don't stick around long enough to get their picture taken, but they have been coming around since we first put up the BB back in October.

According to the files, they have visited 204 times, and the camera did manage to catch a few very cute pics.

When I run out of sunflower seed (very soon) I will take down the feeder for a few months, but I will still have enough photos to fill up the downtime. I just need to get better about posting them here.

Another going and a coming

I didn't mention in my last Comings and Goings post that The Husband finally did it—he finally retired. Last Friday was his last day! I thought mentioning his retirement might get lost in an all about animals post, so I saved it for today where he only has competition from one cute little goat.

Meet Treesa. For about 5 minutes she was Teresa, but I decided to change it around a bit because my Grandpa used to pronounce my Grandma's name like that. This is my Irish grandmother who was my maid of honor.

Now that Hub and I are both retired, we are hoping to maybe find some time to visit Grandma's relatives in Dublin, my cousin Tony and his wife Rose. 

I am not sure if we will share with them the news that we have a goat named after Rose. We had a Tony too, but he is no longer with us...

Comings and goings

Spring is here. In the last warm week we made it up to 80° and humid, feeling a lot like summer. The grass is finally turning green, the daffodils are blooming, the birds are singing. 

Starting today we are chilly all over again. Spring is taking a break.

This is the time of year when animals are coming and going on the farm. We unfortunately ended up with 3 roosters—2 that were hatched by the broody hen, and a chick from the store who was supposed to be a hen.

They got along just fine, until they didn't. We sold 2 to our Greek friend, and kept this young man, the one who was getting beat up the most. He is going to have a tough job protecting his ladies from the fox family.

It is also the time of year when we sell most of our goat kids. Two lucky young men went to live a charmed life at the Neighsayer Farm with friends Tom and Julie.

And the final 2 cat pics just because. Yin and Yang. Yin and Yin.

There was grass. And then there wasn't.

Posting this for the Jersey folks who are bemoaning their lack of snow.

C'mon up for a visit! We have plenty and it's almost April.

After a few days of warmth and sunshine, we found the grass and the firepit again. Still a bit of snow where it had drifted, but most of it was gone.

All day yesterday Siri was predicting rain in the afternoon. Even while those big snowflakes were falling, Siri said it was raining.

Our friend Wayne says this is "sap snow". It's sugaring off season up here, and this time of year we tend to get really wet snow with really large snowflakes. It usually disappears just as quickly.

No, Siri, that was not rain. Rain is not nearly that pretty.

Sunday homemade jam

Who knew when we moved here a dozen years ago, that Husband would find even more friends to play with than in his days down by the Delaware River with the Holmesburg Jam folks? 

He is spending his lunch hour playing right now at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown. The SLUMC Coffee House was Saturday. He played on St Patrick's Day at Mel's, I can't keep up with his busy schedule.

I prefer the homemade jams. I can sing along when I know the words, and I don't feel uncomfortable with friends as the only audience.

This incredible home was built by the banjo man, Jeff. Musical talent, a great voice, and he built his own house? How is that possible?

I think the Hub is getting used to me disobeying the rules of the blog. I'll just keep sneaking in pictures of him until I get scolded again. :)