sunday snaps

We've had two days of genuinely pleasant weather.

Not too hot.

Not too steamy.

Not as many mosquitoes and biting flies.

I turned off the fans in the barns!

For the first time in months I was able to enjoy staying outside after chores,

instead of heading inside to peel off soaking wet clothes and dry my hair with a towel.

Today, Della helped me photograph the bees in the perennial gardens:

"There's one!"

And Moxie helped me work in the big vegetable garden:

"That's enough work for a while. Let's sit in the shade."

But Piper said,

"Honestly? Gardening has never really been my thing.

And Those Goats are EVERYWHERE!

I'm going back inside for a nap now."

Okay, Pip. I'll open the door for you, and put a treat on your pillow.

Then it's time to check on Those Goats.

Moxie spends a lot of time in the goat paddocks.

It looks like she's outside the fence here, but not really - 

she's in another paddock with other goats.

It must have been a huge relief for the goats to have fewer biting bugs.

This Spring and Summer has been, in a word, terrible.

This weekend all the goats have been quietly browsing or resting in the sun.

Not kicking at flies or flapping their ears to get rid of mosquitoes every few seconds.

I hope these gentler conditions will continue...
right into Winter would be nice!

Everyone relaxed.

Not a squabble, not a row.

Just the way I like it!

~~~~~

windfalls

Tsuga looks pretty pleased with her branch.

We've had some strong winds recently,

which have brought down many small - and some not-small - branches.

Fern was perfectly happy with her branch.
Until she saw Tsuga's branch.

At this time of year, I only move branches and fallen trees if I'm going to trip over them. I can't afford the extra leaning.

Fern says, "Mama, why don't we share?"

The goats spend hours nibbling on branches and downed trees.

I believe they find nutrients in the bark, buds, lichen and moss, and even the wood.

Iris has found a little stick All For Her Own Self!

Or so she thought.
Brother Rocket decided he would like that stick.

Tansy found a nice branch, but then reconsidered.

"I'll have my timber 'straight up' today!"

In other goat nutrition news, I had 1400 pounds of hay delivered yesterday.

This made me deliriously happy.

It's in two massive bales.

Each one is 8 feet by 3 feet by 3 feet.

They were delivered in about 10 minutes with a skid-steer:

up my ice-covered driveway and straight into the roundtop.

It was beautiful to watch.

Unlike standard bales, which are carried one by one from the roundtop to the barns and then opened up and distributed to the paddocks,

these bales will have to be opened in the roundtop and then large amounts of loose hay will be transported over ice and snow and - soon - mud.

I hate wasting hay, and loose hay is...loose. I don't want to leave a long trail of hay everywhere I carry it, twice every day.

So I'm going to try to come up with one all-season transport method that will be effective, efficient, and which I hope will not require buying anything.

Fortunately, I don't mind a challenge. And there's a weekend ahead.

What new fun are you planning this weekend?

~~~~~

catching up a bit

Well. The laptop is back and, after a couple of initial hiccoughs, is being put through it's paces, bit by bit. Photographs have been uploaded. The optical drive has been tested with an audiobook on CD and soon - since a trip to the library this morning - a movie on DVD. So far, so good. Time for a little blog post.

Let's see. What's been happening? Well, there's been weather.

Fog.

 Snow. And more snow.

Also sleet, hail, freezing rain, and warm sun.

It's February. Anything can happen.

I've been trying to get things done, indoors and out.

Little by little.

Emptied and washed the kitchen cupboards, then reorganized.

Rearranged the stilt barn, so there is room to sneak just one goat out into a little private dining area for a special bucket of grub.

Got some of the construction disorder under control.

Made two long trips to pick up goat supplies.

Started my first seed list for the 2018 gardens.

Took hundreds of photographs.

Della - a rare portrait!

Wednesday was in the high 60s (it snowed on Thursday, hailed on Friday) and my Occasional Helper was here for three hours. We got a few things done, which is good because he is taking the month of March off. I sometimes don't see him for a couple of weeks, but a whole month in Spring will be quite a difference. I may have to pull my socks up and work harder. Or look for a Very Occasional Helper?

No, probably that first thing.

I've continued with the Daily Markmaking; last night was #54. It's a watercolor based on a photograph of Sambucus in a recent snowstorm.

Some nights I suddenly realize I am dozing off and haven't done any markmaking. So I grab a pen or brush and look for something I can work on without getting out of bed. Like the knitting basket on the porch table, or the last winter squash on the windowsill.

Here, Moxie is closely observing the start of a watercolor sketch:

Hope your weekend is going well!

~~~~~

today in pictures

~~~~~

january snow

This is how the snow began, shortly before I went out to do chores this morning. It was relatively balmy - over 10F! - but when I came in, I was wearing quite a lot of snow despite my efforts to brush myself off on the doorstep. This kind of snow collects quickly; the goats who had been outside looked like heavy-coated sheep. But compared to the day-after-day well-below-zero weather we've been having, I think even this heavy snow must be a bit of a relief to them. I do hope we don't get the strong winds predicted to follow a foot of new snow; that's when big trees come down, and I have several that are vulnerable.

I had a big headstart on chores today, since yesterday the carpenter offered to move bales of hay out to stock up the various feeders before the storm. I would never in a million years have asked him to do this, but what a kind thing to think of - he accomplished in four trips what would have taken me at least 21 trips. Quite a boost!

Recently I've been missing the drawing and such that I was doing in the warm weather. So beginning on the first of January, I've begun doing a bit of daily mark-making. The first three are watercolors, working from photographs taken earlier.

(I currently have no interest in painting snow. Maybe in August!)

A little portrait of little Tansy, before she was covered in snow:

Today there may be painting and knitting! And lots of feeding the fire. I cancelled my Physical Therapy appointment, as it seemed foolish to risk going off the road or having some other mishap on my way to a healthcare appointment. And as the snow continues to fall heavily, and new inches pile up faster, the choice to stay home is reinforced as sensible. The air has been white for the past few hours:

Just going out to tend to the animals will be plenty of travel for me today. The barncams are unfortunately out of order and I've brought them inside to see if they can be revived. They've never failed before last week, but maybe the constant extreme cold in the past couple of weeks was just too much. This means more actual bundling up and trundling out to check on everyone, not just going out to feed.

It may seem counterintuitive, but especially in this sort of weather, the goatcams provide much more effective "care" than do frequent visits. When I go out to the barns, some of the goats always get up from their cozy snuggeries to see what I'm up to. And then other goats get up because they are afraid the first group might possibly be getting something they want. A carrot penny. A peanut. A short poetry recital.

And then, when the goats turn to go back to their special little spots, there are all sorts of arguments because every goat now wants a spot previously claimed and perfected by an earlier occupant.

Dear oh dear.

Barncams are just So Much Better.

I'll go nudge them a bit. If I can't get them working, I'll have to replace at least one.

~~~

I hope you are warm and dry wherever you are in the world today.

And hydrated! Easy to forget in the cold, but so important.

(Full disclosure: this is a 2017 image, but there isn't enough light to take the same view right now. And it would be a nearly identical view; that mug just about lives on that corner of the porch windowsill, within easy reach at all times.)

~~~~~

morning on the upper west side

~~~~~

in brief

Yesterday:

Today:

Most days:

Special package day:

 Every day:

Grateful day.

~~~~~

friday flurries

Well, it's been a bit of a darkish day.

Snowed all morning, and quite cold.

 The wind had a real bite to it.

But just as I went outside to do the last chores of the day,
the sun suddenly burst through the greyness
and the sky turned bright blue!

Minutes later, the sun went down.
It was a colorful surprise ending to a dimmish day.

And here's another colorful surprise.
This one appeared in my email today:
the Kiva tally for International Women's Day.

Nice.

~~~~~