Little Roo, a bird count, and a stream test

Little Roo is now almost as big as the big guy, his daddy. The only way I can tell them apart is that Little has black tail feathers where Big does not. It wasn't obvious until Roberta gave me this pic that our chicken coop/old milking shed is in serious need of another paint job. What it really needs is a total rehab, but we are hoping it can stand a few more years before we have to sink some money into it.

Busy day today. Not only am I participating in the Big Day Bird Count sponsored by the Delaware/Otsego Audubon Society, but also doing our monthly stream testing. It is supposed to remain sunny for the afternoon, and it's in the 60°s, so it should be a good day for both adventures.

Saturday, May 16 is this year’s Big Day for DOAS.

The Big Day is a group effort in which birders, working alone, in pairs, or in small groups, can maintain social distance and adopt infection-avoidance procedures while enjoying the outdoors. We will try to locate as many bird species as we can in a single fun day on Saturday May 16. 

Goat reported for not keeping her distance

Little Rainbow, whose name might have to change to Little Richie, stopped by The Freeman's Journal Office today to wish Thom a fond farewell. There is photographic evidence here that she did not stay the required six feet from anyone.

No calls were made to the authorities. No arrests were made.

She is the one who was born with a crooked neck and needed to be bottle fed.

Her neck straightened out just fine, and she is eating her hay and feed and is ready to be weaned, but she still LOVES her bottle feedings!

Ask Thom how fast that went empty.

Woody's weather report

It still remains to be seen if the snow is done with us. Yesterday we were back to green grass and dandelions again (just like today) and then a few more snow squalls came through in the evening.

Considering all the hype, it was really a disappointing "record-breaking snow event".

Woody says "get over it, it's spring. What do you expect?"

Cyrus says "I need more snow than that to roll in..."

Update on the weather report: Woody says it was warm and sunny outside this afternoon with no trace of snow. Mom even sat outside with a glass of chard and took this pic.

The big record-breaking May snow!

Al Roker and all the other news/weather people were talking about the huge snowstorm coming our way in MAY!!! OMG!

We did get about 2" or 3" of snow overnight, but this is not big news. It is almost completely melted away at 2 pm the next day. I guess we are all desperate for some news other than coronavirus and politics.

The robin family spent most of yesterday building a new nest in the small apple tree on the right. Mr Robin was just watching while Mrs was doing all the work. I hope she was able to complete her task before getting hit by the snow and cold and wind.

And now that my daffodils finally opened up, they all get snowed on and knocked over. Disappointing, but all part of spring weather. At least the apple blossoms haven't come out yet, only to be frozen.

Finally, MonkeyCat always gets in my face when I am texting with Little Sister. I like this pic (even tho I am in it) because he is in the blue light from outside, with me in the lamplight.

3 robins, 2 flickers, 1 Baltimore oriole, 1 great blue heron and Saturday's eagle

Today's bird count: I saw the first oriole of the year this morning (out there with the robins and flickers) and then later a great blue heron flew right by the window while I was eating lunch. Of course I did not get photos of any of these birds, but then The Husband sent me a photo of the eagle that he took with his little point-and-shoot Canon. So much better than my iPhone version!

We had a glorious sunny spring weekend up here in the north country. When does that ever happen? I spent Saturday and Sunday working on the gardens inside the big fence, and I moved the firepit to the back by the black bench. Woody supervised all of the gardening and rock moving from the comfort of his (my) favorite chair. The first location by our chair turned out to be too close to the house for my windy backyard.

I had initially planned to have the cousins over for a safe-distancing firepit party on Saturday evening, but by late afternoon the sun disappeared and the wind returned. So we postponed until last night and had a perfect party. Still a bit windy, but safely away from the house and anything else that might burn. Woody generously gave up his chair for the guests.

May morning visitor and some hens on a bench

My (old) iPhone camera is good for a quick photo, but not great for zooming in on our early morning visitor. He or she is up in the tallest willow tree surveying the creek below, and Don on the Hill's house. Thankfully she was looking at the creek, and not in the opposite direction where the chickens were out and about looking for their breakfast.

We have some human visitors up from downstate today. We are going to attempt an after-dinner cocktail hour outside by the firepit (such as it is, never been used). Cousins B&M and Greg will dine in their own homes, and then come here to sit out by the fire. It won't be difficult to stay 6 feet apart outside.

The weather is perfect considering the not so perfect past few weeks. The only problem could be the wind. We don't want to set the farm on fire, now do we?

And the final photo was taken by another visitor on her way down the driveway after picking up some eggs. Three black hens on a bench discussing the current state of affairs.

Snowy farm and "farmer" and a flock of flickers

Yesterday's snow was not a big surprise, but still a bit unusual for this late in April. Last night I got some pretty pics of the house and the farm, and a not so pretty selfie of a snowy farmer going out to close up her chickens for the night.

I spent far too much time this morning trying to get a good photo of the 8 Northern Flickers that were in my yard. I have seen them here before, but only 1 or 2 at a time. I don't know why there were 8 here at once. They have been here all morning, and still now at 1:30. I managed to capture 6 in the big pic below. I had to highlight the 5 that weren't flying so that you could see them through my dirty windows.

Cyrus does most of his nighttime and early morning hunting barking through these living room windows. He would really like to go through the glass to get to whatever it is that he sees in the darkest hours. Much spraying of bodily fluids in the frenzied barking. He needs a face mask. And I need ear plugs.

Snain, snow, snore

Yesterday was a perfect spring day. Sunny and 60°, time to get to work on that garden. Woody spent the morning in my chair, and then both boys spent the afternoon resting in the sun while I was gardening. Even with that rolled up fence in the back corner, the WoodMan still managed to tromp on the garlic I had planted in the fall. Now the fence inside the fence is more secure, and the garlic is joined by some transplanted rhubarb, soon to be joined by the Heritage Large Red Tomato seedlings I have in the basement.

I also fenced off another spot by the living room windows so that I could plant the David Austin "Munstead Wood" English shrub rose. At least for this year I will still allow my weedy daisies and hollyhocks to come up in there, but eventually I want to take over that area for other flowers or herbs or vegetables.

Later in the day I celebrated my gardening success with a glass of chardonnay with sun in it.

And then came today with no weather to celebrate. A chilly rain to start the day. Then some snain. Then some snow. And a WoodMan snoring while I took the video.

Still more snowflakes in the weekly forecast.

Notes from a pandemic

Poor Willie is having a rough time surviving his quarantine. Not. He is an indoor cat anyway, and now he has his humans home more often. And when they are not home, he has the nice leather chair all to himself.

The Husband has a rougher time behaving in quarantine. He still has to go into work (by himself) and yes it is an essential job. Still has to buy hay to feed the goats young and old. Still has to go food shopping to buy the same things I bought the day before but didn't tell him about... This is a rare capture of him seated.

In contrast, I have always been good about staying home. Husband can verify that. I am trying to be a more responsible home-stayer in actually completing some tasks (paying bills, cleaning, cooking, decluttering) but am being bombarded with all these creative ways that others who are less accomplished at being idle are coming up with.

So far the only new time-waster I caved to was coloring in this NY Times graphic. It took me 3 days to finish this masterpiece, only to find that you couldn't save it. I took these 3 pasted together screen shots just minutes before Husband shut down my Chrome window.

And yes, snow in April. Today for the second time, with the sun out.

April showers?

And some day there will be spring for sure.

2 visitors and a Rainbow

Doctors T & J came by on Easter Sunday to give us some fabric masks. We must be the only people in the County who don't know how to sew to make our own. And we are both still working to some degree, so we are out and about more than I would like.

While the good doctors were here, they shared some quality time with the goat kids. We kept a fair distance from them, and they from us, but they were still able to get up close and personal with all the cuteness. Dr J gave the always hungry little Rainbow a nice warm bottle of Rosie milk. It took 1 entire minute for her to drain a 20-oz bottle.

That's Rainbow, the baby in all 3 pics. Being very fresh in the big pic above!

Bella is the red head > who was wary of the strangers and wouldn't let her baby, Red Betty, come out to play.

And WillieCat in the last pic is always my morning sleep partner. He took this selfie of us snuggling. He is just a bit jealous of the cute goats getting all the attention.