Upcycled Tin Can!

What can you do with a tin can?  Well, in Hartney, MB Edna and Alvin are making little birdhouses!  The body is the tin can, with a little wooden roof, front and back wall, and perch.  I was fortunate to be gifted one when I spoke to the Hartney Hort Club last year.  This year, I have tenants!  An adorable pair of wrens has been building a little nest inside; it's been hard to get a picture because they come and go so fast!  I am all for recycling and upcycling, and if it involves critters or birds, then I'm a huge fan!  Don't know where Edna and Alvin will be selling them this year, but if you're interested in one, email me and I'll put you in touch with them!  They have some great oriole feeders and other houses and feeders as well!  

Winter Interest in the Snowy Garden

It's always worthwhile to consider some winter interest in your garden - regardless of where you live. Here in Manitoba, we've got to count on a bunch of snow covering everything, so things with height are important. Evergreens are major, providing more substance than just naked branches. We're fortunate here to be surrounded by well-established spruce and some pines. I've added some dwarf Mugo Pine and upright juniper in the border in front of the house and along the driveway. There's are a few other things providing pleasure now. Sedum 'Autumn Joy' (Sedum), a joy in sooo many seasons! Red-twigged dogwood (Cornus), looking good against the brick wall around the front patio. The flower heads of coneflower (Echinacea), which little birdies are still visiting for a snack. And some of our favorite winter interest: local wildlife! This visit from a partridge, commonly called Prairie chicken around here, was rare, unexpected and fortunately happened while the camera was handy! They rarely come so close to the house and usually fly away at the least sound or movement.

Farmer Man Is A Big Softie!

Farmer Man has given me a bit of hassle about caring for the little wild kitties. He wonders what I'm going to do with them, how much our feed bill is going up and practical stuff like that. He shook his head when the little kitties started showing up in the garage, where Loud Cat already lived. The wild cats must have been following me back to the house, or following my trail and they've decided that the garage is better than the drafty old straw bale chicken coop. Loud Cat seems to have no problem with that, so they've all been hanging out in the rafters together. Makes feeding them soooo much easier. Farmer Man decided, with some really cold weather forecast, that we needed to replace the second, little heat lamp in the chicken coop. I thought the arrangement had worked well last year, but sure - a better heat lamp is always, well, better. Much to my surprise, the second little heater quickly re-appeared - as a warmer bed for the little kittens! Farmer Man has a bigger heart than he likes to let on! And just in time: we woke up yesterday to a morning temperature of minus 32 Celsius, which is about minus 32 Fahrenheit, too. Freak deaky cold; but we had the confidence that everybody in our little domain was warm and cozy!

Feline Feeding Frenzy...

Are you ready? Ready for dinner? You betcha! The little wild cats are getting used to the routine. They're getting a bit more comfortable with me, and don't run away when I arrive. With the weather very chilly, I think they're now spending most of their time in the old straw bale chicken coop, although three of the seven have shown up in the garage - just exploring, I guess. I climb right into the coop to feed them, spreading the food out in five or six different piles to avoid competition and fights. They've come to appreciate fresh water, and just in the last week or so most of them go for a drink right away. The water, of course, freezes solid before the next time I'm in there, but they're drinking a good half of the container before it freezes.

Night time temperatures are already getting down to -20 C (-8 F or so), so I was a little worried about them at night. To give them a more cozy space, I put in some boxes with an entry door on two sides, straw inside on the bottom and piled them with straw on top. I don't know how much they are using them, but they are using them because a couple of the smallest are coming out of the boxes when I arrive with dinner. I've been looking everywhere for some sort of solar-powered solution for water, but there's just nothing that will keep up to our cold temperatures. We're just too far from power to do anything electric. Might be dangerous, too in a straw bale house. So far, the little cats seem to be faring quite well!

Say Goodbye to the Robins

We love our birds here at Aagaard Farms. We're not inclined to wear our iPods when working out in the field; we like listening to the sounds of nature. We've been taking down the hummingbird and oriole feeders and dusting off the suet holders! Yesterday, the robins came through, probably for the last time. The big old Dolgo crabapple tree is loaded with fruit; even though I made a couple batches of jelly and shared some crabapples with our friend Nancy, the tree still has tons of fruit! I look forward to different birds visiting it through the winter, we often get a flock of cedar waxwings sometime around Christmas - a thrill to watch! But, yesterday, a flock of robins descended! There must have been fifteen or twenty, something we don't often see. They were all over the tree and underneath the tree, feasting on fallen crabs. Much fluttering, tweeting and chirping for about an hour - and then they were gone! And we may not see them again until April!

A Rescue Mission May Be In Order!

Seems some little feline has had kittens in the old temporary chicken coop. No sign of any momma cat around now, but four young kittens seems to be living in the coop. Farmer Man has spotted them 'ghosting' around this summer, and we finally went looking for them. They seem to live in the coop, and hang around and play in the piles of old machinery and building materials not far away. They are extremely cute but very shy of humans! There is a short-haired blond with an amazing striped tail, looking rather like Loud Cat - a cat who has showed up in our garage on-and-off for a couple of years( hmmmm, maybe Loud Cat is a daddy). There's a short-haired gray and white, a fluffy brown, gray and white striped and an extremely adorable fluffy blond, who does look somewhat like our Blondie, who cannot be the daddy but could be an older brother. It's possible someone dumped the kittens out here - it happens, unfortunately, but we'll never know how they got here.

Thing is, within the next few months we're about to get cold - very, very cold. I worry about the little ones surviving. In the winter here in Manitoba, we can have temperatures of minus 35 Celsius - yes, that's MINUS 35 degrees! That's minus 30 something in Fahrenheit - killing cold no matter what scale you use! As frosty nights have already been happening, Farmer Man dumped a fresh bale of straw into the coop for the kittens to cuddle up in. We were bringing bales of straw for the pigs to burrow into, anyway - so what's one extra? I've started this week to feed and water them every day. I find the short-haired blond will come up to me, the gray will watch from close by and the two fluffy cats will scamper off and watch from far away. I have not tried to handle or pet them in any way yet. I'm just hoping they will get familiar and comfortable with me. I'm hoping eventually to get them so comfortable that I can entice them into a crate and get them over to our vet Dr. Sherry at Wheat City Vet Clinic. If anybody has experience with wild cats I'd appreciate any comments and info! In the meantime, I'll continue to sneak away from our dogs to go visit them everyday!

Hummingbird Farewells?

I suppose because there has been so much rain, we've been hanging around the house a bit more than usual. Among other things, it's given us the opportunity to view our hummingbird feeder more frequently. In the last few days, it's suddenly been very busy at the feeder. Of course, we have no good way to tell if this is activity is all one hummingbird or different hummingbirds. But, it has definitely been a pleasure. The little guy in the picture hang around for a couple of hours in the rain. He'd rest in the ninebark shrub, have a good, long drink and then return to the shrub. We've never witnessed such a thing before! He even chased off another little hummingbird a couple of times! Although it's a joy to watch, it's rather sad, too. It means to us that the hummingbirds are getting ready to head south. They always leave early - and who can blame them, a small bird like that probably can't take too much frost, and frost could come at any time now.

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!

I'm Gonna' Fly Now....

Mother Nature is so amazing! It was just a few weeks ago that we found a little broken shell, and assumed our little swallows had successfully hatched at least one egg. A few days later, we could see five tiny, fuzzy heads reaching up anytime Mom or Dad swallow flew to the nest. Just a few short weeks later, and the nest 'runneth over'! There are baby swallows coming out everywhere! Farmer Man put a little platform by the nest; we were a little worried that the babies had no place to go as they tried to learn to fly. Landing on the ground or the small bench by the front door would have made them easy targets for The Old Cat and Blondie the Cat. This morning, the babies are thinking about it....this afternoon the nest is empty! And tonight, seven swallows have been joyously romping around the skies about the house! They are so beautiful in flight! And rather amusing, too, as the babies are still not very good at landing and have been almost falling off the arbour in the flower bed!

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!

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!

Little Finch! Let Me Help!

I heard a small commotion in the sunroom. With small dogs and cats living in this house, you get a little 'tuned in' to disturbances. I go to the sunroom, and see Blondie the Cat in full-on hunt mode: crouched low to the ground, tail very slowly swishing, eyes seemingly intent but somewhat glazed over (rather like The Hens when they are laying!). Blondie pounces, and for a moment I see a flutter of little wings! I leap into action and swat the cat and a little wee yellow finch starts fluttering wildly around the glass room! Now, did Blondie bring the little bird in, or did he find his way through the cat door? No one will ever know for sure. But Blondie's on the move again, so I grab him and throw him in the bathroom, then close the drapes on the sunroom door to try to contain the little birdie. The camera is sitting on the table, so I grab it, like a good blogger should! Didn't close the door firmly enough, 'cause Blondie's back in a moment, pushing past me. The poor little bird is just frantic! I grab Blondie again, and put him in the office, door firmly closed this time. The little bird has followed us out through the curtains and heads for the living room, where there are large patio doors. Now The Bears want to know what's going on and they start nosing around. The little bird finally settles on the floor, beside the TV in the mess of wires and cables under the legs of a plant stand. Talking softly and gently, I reach in and she let me pick her up with out much fuss. Perhaps she was tired, or perhaps she knew I was trying to help. Anyway, a short walk through the patio doors and I set her down on the wall around the patio and she flew off in a heart beat. Then I let a rather miffed Blondie out of the office, and things returned to normal here at Aagaard Farms.

Nature Points All Over!

We are lush with wildlife lately at Aagaard Farms! Aside from watching the swallows get organized, we've been enjoying hummingbirds, a large group of little yellow finches have taken up residence in the big, old spruce trees by the house and baby robins seem to be everywhere (except when one has the camera)! We had the pleasure of watching two mourning dove babies have their first foray out of the nest and the little squirrel is getting quite bold about chattering at us as we sit on the patio. Last night, it was a symphony of frogs down by the dugout. And yesterday, when Farmer Man went to let the chickens out at dawn, a deer was calmly munching the grass right beside the coop! Sparrows, finches and chickadees seem to be having a sing-off every morning; and then, of course, the magpie babies add their raucous squawk! Oh, yes, and the veggies are growing - we'll get back to them soon!

An Executive Decision Has Been Made!

The swallows have decided, and in the last twelve hours half a nest is finished. They chose to build just outside our front door, beside a column that supports the porch. They're building on a little doo-dad decorative division between the roof of the porch and the roof of the breezeway. They are literally five feet from our front door, which is used a lot because we don't really have a back door (long story...) The little swallows must feel pretty comfortable with us! Talk about birds eye view! The construction of their nest is quite incredible - it's just mud and straw and sticks, plastered to the wood siding! And it comes together quite quickly. Hopefully, we'll be spying on babies, soon!

What You Gonna Do, Little Swallows?

We've had barn swallows nest around our house and garage every year. We adore having them: they are a marvel to watch fly and they eat lots of bugs! Last year, they chose to nest in our garage in the peak of the roof; in the heat of July it was just too hot in our uninsulated garage and some of the babies didn't make it. On their return this year, we made sure the garage was always closed up so that they couldn't access it. So they've been dithering around, trying to decide where to nest! They've been back over two weeks, and still no apparent nest. They tried on a plug-in in the roof of the breezeway but because it controls the little water feature we knew we needed access so Farmer Man taped it off. They've been sitting on the porch light, right beside the front door. We could live with that, although it might be a little crazy with them and us coming and going on a regular basis. There is a swallow perch at the back of the breeze way that they have used before, but they don't seem interested this year. They've got to decide pretty quickly - Mother Nature must be calling!

The Aftermath....

Just had a Sunday morning walk-about. Quite a day at Aagaard Farms! First, on checking The Hens, heard some noises behind the trees; thought somebody was trying to steal our friends' Joe and Calla's boat. Took a peak: it's some of our neighbours cattle, perhaps scared across the road to the shelter of our tree belt during yesterdays' storm. Walking toward them seemed to head them home and they took off trotting for their own pasture. Some very large trees are down at the east end of the property. It's willow shelter belt - not too surprising. A major river coursed through the field yesterday, washing out some of Farmer Man's planting. We may have corn four feet south of where he intended! More bad news: big branches down in the asparagus patch, with some loses of lovely new asparagus! Farmer Man spoke last night to our neighbour Mike Waddell, half a mile south of us. Mike had a funnel or mini tornado go through and has a number of big trees down and quite a mess around his yard. I guess things could have been worse!

The good news: some of the potatoes are up, even in this cool weather! And the dugout level is much higher than it was ten days ago! More good news: spotted an oriole and some swallows! Swallows have nested around our garage every year - their arrival means summer is close by! We have to make sure the garage is closed up or they might nest in there. They tried that a few years ago, it got too hot and some of the babies died. We love to sit and watch the swallows on a summers' eve - they are so beautiful in motion, and eat lots of bugs as they are soaring around!

First Hummingbird Sighting!

The first hummingbird of the season made an appearance at the feeder last night! The hummingbird and the oriole feeders have been up about three weeks. My neighbor Rob Holland gave me that tip a few years ago - get them up early, the birds will find them first and will tend to return to them. The little hummingbird came, flew off and then returned for a good, long drink! I just love watching them! No pictures I'm sorry to say - I was waaaay to busy waving at Farmer Man, shouting 'Hummingbird' to even think about getting the camera!

The First Asparagus, and The First Skunking...

Ah, Spring. Farmer Man found the first asparagus last night. We'd walked the rows about a week ago and found no sign of anything but weeds. Last night, he scored!! A handful of short, fat shoots - just yummy!! If you've never had fresh asparagus from the garden (truly fresh, minutes from the garden) it's glorious! Are we still eating local? You bet! Last night's dinner was our own, homegrown pork roast, our own Russian Blue potatoes, fresh asparagus and some store-bought yam (from far, far away, as they say in The Dark Days Challenge). Just delicious!

All this has been tempered this morning by Blaze and Grizzly Bear having their first meeting with a skunk this year. Wasn't as bad as it could have been....neither was fully sprayed. But even a little whiff of skunk is too much! The occasion called for an impromptu bath by hose with the special skunk shampoo. Much struggling, whining, and shaking later, the situation seems under control! Now we've just got a couple of wet dogs getting dirtier by the minute as they go around the farm!

The Neighbors Come A-Calling!

Out to check the chicken coop last night - too early and too light to actually tuck The Hens into bed. Just checking and having a stroll around. Just past the coop, what do we see but some of the neighbors! There are plenty of deer around these parts, but they don't come too close, and we don't often see them this early in the evening. I think having dogs (even though The Bears only come up to a deer's ankles) and the barking and scents seem to keep the deer away from the house. Now, if Blaze had been with us, instead of reclining on the front driveway, he could have had big fun and an awesome work-out!