Big red birthday sun

Of course the sun was bigger and redder than my little iPhone could capture while I was driving home from work tonight. And by the time I got home 10 minutes later it was behind the mountains.

Trust me. It was beautiful.

The sofa

The Sofa
The sofa is a comfortable place for humans to sit.
The sofa is a comfortable place for dogs to sleep.
The sofa is a source of great delight when dogs are tired of sleeping.

The End

And yes, Cyrus helped.

Big chicks, little doe, and be-bop-a-re-bop rhubarb pie

All the little chicklets were freed from their basement pre-school/prison, only to go to a more rural facility. I have them fenced in out by the chicken coop to give them a taste of the outside, and also to get the older chickens used to being around them.

The fenced area is not extremely predator-proof, but they do get locked into the big plastic crate at night when they are most vulnerable.

Thankfully, I have not seen the bobcat return, but I did see my first mink back here by the house one morning before the coop was opened up. They are notorious chicken-killers. I hope he moved on to a new hunting ground.

This little doe that was born on Sunday is far too adorable like all the new little ones. The Husband hates his picture on here, but too bad, I think you're pretty adorable as well. :)

Finally, we have a rhubarb patch growing back by the house. I never ate rhubarb until we started growing it, but I must say I am loving the strawberry rhubarb pies!

Latecomer to the party

We were just a bit surprised when Lizzie, our only doe who had not produced a kid, gave birth this morning. The others were all born in March, so we thought she would have gone around the same time. It was only in the last week or 2 that she started showing signs of being pregnant.

I still haven't checked to see the sex of the little one. He or she was still wobbly, but feeding well off of mom when I went in for the pics. I did not want to disturb her.

Stormy the pig is still not my best friend, still not happy with me being out there, so no chance of me going inside the muddy pig pen any time soon. But little piglets are getting to be bigger piglets, and not so easily corralled by mama back into the shed. They look healthy and well fed and were sunning themselves with mom when we were out there earlier.

In spite of the extended cold weather, it should be a good year for apples. The trees waited just long enough to put out blossoms, and the bees and birds (even a hummingbird) have been going crazy doing their share of the work.

We are thankful for those brief moments of sunshine we have seen recently, although there is still far too much rain. Yesterday we had fog in the morning, sun most of the day, and then this storm blew through in the afternoon that made a snowstorm out of the apple blossoms. Plenty on the ground, but enough still on the trees that I think we will have more than enough for apple butter and pies this year. And maybe a few left for those little (soon to be big) piggies.

A deck, an eagle, and a stripey Woody

Last week we had invited our architect friends Susan and Ralph over to discuss building a deck in the backyard. I can handle the garden design, but am clueless about laying out the backyard as a whole. They gave us a lot of good ideas, all of which I had to mull over with a glass of wine last night after work. Finally we had a sunny evening that was warm enough to sit outside.

While I was sitting there, my friend the eagle flew right past the setting sun. Always a welcome sight!

And my 2 boys had to put in their 2 cents about the backyard design. Of course the entire layout is based on how we can best accommodate the dogs.

Sad but true.

Tulips and piglets

Yay, it's spring!

Still chilly up here, even thinking of firing the woodstove again, but the daffodils and tulips are blooming, and leaves are finally budding out on the trees. I am happy the apple trees still haven't blossomed. Last year, I had to actually buy apples to make pies and apple butter.

Stormy the pig, who I have been calling Miss Piggy because she is so full of herself, is at least allowing me to lean over the fence and take some better photos. Little piglets (SO little compared to their big mama!) have been coming out of the shed to enjoy the sun!

My fun day yesterday: I was helping The Husband clear out a church basement. Carrying a heavy rock up the stairs, I whacked my head on a nail. It made a nice enough gash in the back of my head that I needed 4 staples to close it up. I will spare you the lovely photos that Tara took.

You're welcome.

Canadarago Lake with eagles

I have always joked about our lake view—with the builder, the architect, the appraiser, anyone who asks if we have one. We live in Schuyler Lake, now known as Canadarago Lake, but we are not actually very near the lake.

I took these pics from our upstairs bathroom window. See it's true. You can view the lake—if you have good eyes, if there are no leaves on the trees, and if you stand in just the right spot. But the real reason I took these photos is because the eagles moved their nest last year so that now we can see them along with our lake view.

I know there are little ones in there. This is what they would look like if we had placed a camera up there like they did in Big Bear Lake, California.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b2dUgK6VV4&feature=share

Piglets and bed hogs

Stormy still doesn't like me near her little ones, but the little ones are getting bigger and coming outside to explore. All she can do is watch me carefully. Stormy apparently doesn't know about the old saying "Never bite the hand that feeds you". She is even defensive when I am reaching over the fence to pour food and water into her bowls.

And the second pic is just my 2 little bed hogs. Willie spends most of his day up there. Monkey only joins him when he is not watching the chick show in the basement.