Nature

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Happy New Year

Another new year has started and I am happy to say I have  made it through the old one. It always feels like a fresh start when the New Year is rung in. January is not a slow month for us here though. Although the animals and gardens are not doing much other parts of our little farm are in full swing. The 29-30 of this month means the Guelph Organic Conference is here. This is probably the biggest organic event in the country. My other life as a designer means I am connected in various ways to the organic world.  I am very busy in front of the computer busily trying to get stuff done for the conference. January also means that the seed catalogues have come in and it is time to look at all the gardening and farming goodies. New animals idea have come up which also means a fair bit of research to see if it would all fit. The nicest time of this year though is the chance to observe things that I don't often get to see, at least not alive. The other day when putting the woolies away I saw a very unusual visitor to the paddock. The sheep were quite scared, but curious at the same time. In the middle of the paddock, at 4:30pm, sat a large opossum. The gender of the animals I don't know and really didn't want to find out. I did know that it was scared and the woolies were scared and I had to do something. It looked fine and I saw no injuries nor blood on it or the snow around it. Luckily I had a box in the barn for the potential, yet failed barn cat. So I pulled iut out, along with a bucket and trapsed out to the paddock. Izzy and Mr. Tufts were running around the poor opossum. It hissed back but wouldn't move. So I went over to it, put a bucket over it and slowly guided it into the box. I scooped up the box and proceeded out to the back field. Earlier I checked to see where the animal had come from. I followed the tracks from the neighbours bush, around the back and in our yard through a hole in the fence. Not knowing what it was doing, and not wanting to get it too lost just before dark I put the box down  just outside the fence line on the path the opossum had come. It was really only 50 feet away, but the animal was at least out of the way of the woolies and able to continue it's journey. I quite like opossums even though they look like large white rats. The are cute and North America only marsupial. Most of the time I see them dead at the side of the road. I feel very honoured that this creature decided to grace our yard. I just hope it was okay.

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Winter is here

The great white blanket may be here to stay for a while now. No more teasing flurries and flirty snowflakes. It is all out lay em down snow, and it ain't going anywhere. Many of the tell tale signs of winter are now here.The birds are now hanging around the big cedar trees by the house. Every morning they collect around the front and back door of the sun room.Every time the house door is opened they will flutter back up into the trees. Only the brave winter birds are still here, the Cardinals, House Sparrows, Chickadees, and the new arrivals from further north, the Juncos. Juncos are small, unassuming grey and white birds. They have no fancy plumage nor an interesting song. What they do have is a perfectly simple colour scheme that compliments it's roly-poly proportions absolutely perfectly. Junco's are highly social birds. they always seem to have some sort of juicy gossip going on and but never let anyone else in on the secret. It is also the time of year where the ground tells stories. Summer like to keep it's woodland secrets under wraps, but winter, she hides no one. Winter tells of the fox that came up to the compost pile to see what he could find, but found nothing and returned the way he came. The cat that thought the barn might be a good place to find food, and the coyote pair that thought it would check out the broiler barn manure pile. They weren't in a hurry, but they did stop a couple of times to check out an interesting smell. Another fox found the garage cat food and had a good game with the old shirt that was in the box. She checked out everywhere but only found one food dish. She didn't return a second night. The relationship between the stray Mum cat and the neighbours cat. They are getting used to each other but not enough to hang out...not yet.