Fresh Snow is Revealing....

Fresh trail, just after chasing the weasel out of the barn!

We've had a nice, fresh layer of snow over night, probably about 5 - 6 cm or a couple of inches.  Everything looks so clean and pristine!  It's covered the bit of a mess we made cleaning the chicken coop, covered all the little places the doggies have lifted a leg.  The fresh snow has also revealed a few new things: tracks around the chicken coop and off over to the barn!

The tracks are not my dogs, not barn cats and not the neighbors' big dogs.  It's more of a little tunnel through the top layer of the snow - with a deeper impression every two feet or so.  Like some little critter was jumping from place to place but not getting high enough to actually clear the snow.  Seeing these odd tracks, I did not open the chickens' hatch, even though the temperature has risen to quite an acceptable -12 C (about 8 F) over night.  Finished with morning chores in the chicken coop, I headed into the barn to give the goats their morning grain ration, re-fill waters and feed the barn cats.  I heard an odd squeaky 'meow' from beside the big sliding door, behind some equipment.  I went over, thinking perhaps a barn kitty was hurt or stuck.  I moved a feed bag, which was on top of the grinder and out from behind the welder popped a little brown head with bright, brown eyes.  It looked very much like a ferret a friend owns.

I'm not much of a screamer, thankfully.  I actually calmly said 'hello' to the little weasel.  Then I reached over and opened the sliding door a ways with my right hand, reached for a nearby broom with my left hand and started whacked the welder.  The little critter leaped out the door and streaked along the side of the barn, disappearing around the north corner of the barn.  The tracks went under the shed that sits on the north side of the barn.  So, Farmer Man definitely called it: a weasel is our predator!  A very strong, musky odor remains behind the welder - I didn't realize weasels had such a forceful fragrance!  So, a trap is absolutely in our future; in the meantime I probably won't be able to help myself and I'll be trekking through the snow to the barn every half hour or so today doing guard duty!  I've got to think twice about letting the dogs come with me when I go because, in my reading, weasels can be vicious fighters especially when cornered!  I certainly don't want one tangling with Blaze or Grizzly Bear - my usual companions!

Love, love, love this!

This is a young (!) Brandon boy with a big heart for the animals. It's so exceptional that someone so young wanted to do something. The family asks that if you'd like to help, well, you can buy the toys that he's put on eBrandon or you can forward a cheque to the Brandon Humane Society or Funds for Furry Friends on 'behalf of Evan'. Then, let them know and he can track his progress. If you are reading this and you are not from this area - make a donation to your local Humane Society or no-kill shelter 'on behalf of Evan' and let them know!

Fun in the Sun!

It has been a nice, sunny day but very chilly. We're still slip-slidin'-away with a dusting of new snow on top of icy roads and walkways! The Garage Kitties (previously known as the Feral Felines and the Wild Kitties) were chasing some sun, so I opened the garage doors to let them sun tan on the back of the truck. I also got one of those cheap sets of little plastic mesh balls with bells inside. Seems Garage Kitties like to play, too!

Help Some Great Causes By Voting!

I'm not much of a pop drinker, and I must confess in a taste challenge I prefer C*** to P****, but I've got to give kudos to Pepsi. They've got a program called Refresh Everything Canada where they are offering grants to great causes. Check out the website here. Fun thing is: we the people get to vote! Voting is open until December 31st. You can vote for up to ten causes every day. There are grants available of $5,000, $10,000, $25,000 and $100,000. There are categories like Health, Arts & Culture, Food & Shelter, The Planet, Neighbourhoods and Education. What's near and dear to your heart? Animal welfare? Composting programs? Music? Internet training for seniors? There are soooo many great ideas vying for the grants. You can also search for organizations near you that are competing for grants, helping to support great projects in your area. My favourites? SIFE Brandon, whose looking to develop a community garden here in Brandon at the $25,000 level. And Craig Street Cats, in Winnipeg, who work to spay and neuter and care for feral cats at the $100,000 level. I came across the Refresh Everything Canada website through Craig Street Cats' website, which I've been using for some advice on my own little feral cat population. I'm also voting for 'Keep Eagle's Fire Running', a Portage la Prairie group looking to upgrade the youth centre there and Big Brothers Big Sisters Winnipeg. There's a few other animal welfare and composting programs I'm voting for, but I can too easily use up my ten votes a day on all the great causes. Check it out, sign up today and start voting!

Feral Felines Get Friendlier!

I've been feeding some (mostly) young cats for over three weeks now. They're living in our old, temporary chicken coop; it's made of straw bales with a truck cap. See them here. They'll now come running when I call at feeding time! They mostly still keep a wide berth, though. Two, of eight I see regularly, are a little older and they will come right up to me. The younger ones will do circles around me to get to the food. They spook and run off if I so much as sneeze. But, they're getting a bit more comfortable; three of the little ones have been creeping up to sniff at my feet. I put food out in a couple of piles and then sit about three or four feet away. Some have been bold enough to come up within a foot of me to eat from the food container I bring. They are all beautiful little cats, one is a gorgeous tan shade with white feet, two are seemingly twins of orange and white stripes, one is a little grey with a short tail. One of the little ones is a brown and black striped cat with a fluffy mane - so cute! Farmer Man keeps asking what I'm going to do and I can't fully answer. I'd love to tame them all and find them loving homes. Is that possible? I don't know. I hope to, at least, help keep them alive and comfortable through our frigid winter. I'll keep you updated!

Wildlife Gardening

The girls at Garden Rant have introduced me to yet another fabulous blog: Wildlife Garden. This one is dedicated to wildlife gardening - understanding the critters, birds and bugs coming to your garden, planting to encourage and support them! It's a very interesting site - check it out here!

Animal Planet at Aagaard Farms!

It's a cacophony of critters here at the farm! If you've seen the previous post about the swallows, they built their nest right outside our front door. They're a little nervous every time we come and go, and we really wondered how that would work out. But, Saturday morning we found a broken egg shell, so we were hopefully all was well. Within a couple of days, five little beaks are peaking over the edge of the nest! It's really hard to get a picture; the nest is very close to the ceiling, it's dark there and every time we come out Mom and Dad swallow call to the babies to hide! I'll keep trying for a photo op but....

Meantime, Friday night/Saturday morning showed some great thunder and lightening. We woke up in the night to the dogs fussing a bit - not completely unusual in a storm. This time, though, Farmer Man couldn't quiet them (especially Panda Bear) so he switched on the bedside lamp. I woke and he poked me and pointed to the corner of the bedroom. I looked: there's Blaze curled up in the corner, shivering and shaking. Farmer Man points again and I realize that that is not our Border Collie! That's not our dog. Sweet, little, older Border Collie, very frightened. We ascertain that she's a nice, sweet dog looking for protection so we go back to sleep. Long story short: her name is Babe, she belongs to the acreage a couple over and they were away for the evening. She must have been on the run in the storm, found our doggie door and helped herself. Our little ones are so well socialized that they fussed, but didn't attack. Adorable doggie - she went home Saturday afternoon! I would have kept her in a minute.........

Then there is also the gopher Grizzly Bear chased into the garage, the baby mourning dove who spent a couple of days on the ground in the windbreak, apparently unable to fly up into the trees and an assortment of baby birds in all the trees! And yes, the piglets are settling in fine and The Hens and Rocky are enjoying the summer!

I Smell Gopher!!

Blaze is on the trail! He's got the scent! And he's not giving up......until dinner time! Anytime Farmer Man is working around the farm, Blaze is with him. The only time Blaze abandons him is when Farmer Man is working around the large north field, which is in alfalfa and grass. Soon, the siren call (or squeak) of gophers lures Blaze away. And he becomes obsessed. And he never gets one! But we give him full credit for never giving up!!

Somebody's Been Eating.....

the 'Grand Rapids' lettuce, the Romaine, the Swiss Chard, and they've been nibbling delicately at select leaves on the beets!! Up and down the rows, in the plantings farthest away from the house, are a number of little delicate hoof prints - and big chomps out of the product!! We've never had much of a problem with deer; too many dogs in the neighbourhood, we figured. Over the winter, our neighbours the Webers had to put down their big Akita, Sam. Well, old Sam may have been giving us more protection than we realized on the east side of the farm. And those darn deer have a real knack for nibbling the best, centre, juicy parts. Deer and critter repellents are a multi-million dollar business - but nobody is really happy with the results! So what to do? Can't spray a chemical deterrent on our crops. Don't have handy hook-ups for shooting water and things like that. Our friend Hugh Moffat swears by his good, old-fashioned scarecrows! Maybe we'll give that a try - with dangling, swinging-in-the-breeze CD's!

Do You Need Cute to Get You Through?

If you need cute, cute, cute everyday plus great recipes and country living tales you must check out Farmgirl Fare!! This award winning blog is packed full of all kinds of good things. It's one of my fav things to do every couple of days, just to bring a smile to my face. She's got wonderful archives of past photos so you can literally watch some of her critters as they grow up. Well worth a visit!

This photo is copyrighted by farmgirlfare.

Winterizing

Pretty soon it is going to get freaky-deaky cold here on the Canadian Prairies. In Brandon, we can expect night time temperatures to regularly hit -30 C (about -28 F, really cold!). Hopefully, this won't happen until January or February, but you never know! Plus, it's hard to winterize if there's already two feet of snow on the ground, also expected. So the chores are on the To D0 list now. Farmer Boy has already hauled straw which we put around our sun room for extra insulation, he's boxed up and insulated the air conditioner that's built into the wall of the office. And I've protected the newly planted fruit trees. Young trees, and for some reason especially fruit trees, can be prone to winter cracking. The theory is that the sun artificially warms the bark and raises the temperature. The sun goes down, it's freaky-deaky cold and the bark cools rapidly. Expansion and contraction occur and the bark can split. Sometimes it's fatal, sometimes not. Certainly always rather unsightly. So something to keep the sun off is applied - hence the white tree guards I installed. In 'olden' days, people frequently painted the bark, but research shows that is not the best plan because bark actually has breathing holes called lenticels which can get all gummed up by paint. The tree guards are also very helpful against young trees' other winter enemy: rodents and small critters. Mice, raccoons, skunks, beavers will all look for a tasty winter meal on the trunks of young trees. They can strip the bark and go deeper, killing the tree. Part of the trick I learned early in Manitoba is to go higher than one guard - my first summer here I heard of a fellow who lost all his young trees when critters got on top of the snow and ate above his lone tree guard!