Hidden Sunshine

I woke up to rather grey and miserable day. You can't tell in this picture but it's raining. If I look closely enough, I can spot the occasion snow flake swirling around in between the raindrops. I'm making a point of not looking real close. The DaM is full of fury and promise as the spring run-off makes an appearance. The wind is not so much blowing as it is snarling around the porch posts and through the tree branches.

Ah well, these days happen, so upwards and onwards. The unwelcome rain will help dislodge the even more unwelcome snow patches stubbornly squatting in the low lying areas. There'll be lots of sunny days to be outside I tell my itchy feet and longing heart (geez, that sounds like something Billy Ray Cyrus would sing about =0). Besides, there's a whole bunch of things I can do indoors that will complement the run-of-the-mill chores...I just have to find them.


The first order of the day, then, will be to start a fire. There's nothing like a good, brisk fire to take the chill and damp out of the day. So I hunt around looking for a few juniper logs to start the furnace. I love the smell of burning juniper.

As the house gets warm and cosy I make a few phone calls. My dear neighbour is in the hospital and I want to hear how she's doing. Nobody's answering; well, he's probably over at the hospital visiting with her. Another call is more productive and I get the low-down on all the doings in and out of our area. This isn't gossip, you understand, it's just news the papers don't see fit to print :P. It's nice connecting with people when the day is dreary, it adds a brightness.

I discover the very first shoots of my celery seeds spearing through the earth. They look so delicate! Barely discernible to the naked eye, they are on the thinnest of stems and the two leaves look like pin-pricks. I don't mind looking real close to spy pale green shoots. I also discover a couple of watermelon shoots. They're big and bold and basically shouting to the world, "We're HERE, we're HERE!!! Let the bells ring out and cheering start 'cause WE'RE HERE!!!" Deafening joy without a sound.

So the day goes. The the kids tromp in and supper needs to be made. It's a perfect day for comfort food so I whip up a rabbit stir fry with fluffy mashed potatoes and dipping sauce. So for a grey day, it was awfully sunshiny around here.

They're Coming Along!...sort of, with a little help.

My tomato plants germinated in a rather hap-hazard fashion. Gee, there's a surprise. Everything around here tends to be on the hap-hazard side. I guess that's what happens when you really don't know what you're doing but you have an inkling. Projects aren't a total failure but they're not a rousing success either; they do tend to work out in the end... sort of, if I don't kill them trying to 'help' them. If we didn't call our place 'The DaM Farm', the 'Hap-Hazard Homestead' or 'The Inkling Way' would have been good alternatives of even 'If We Don't Kill It, We'll Make It Stronger'.

The tomatoes plant are tall but scraggly. Which is an improvement over spindly, when I think about it. Both the Beefsteak and the Heritage seedlings grew the fastest. The Romas had one or two sprouts and I was pretty sure they were a lost cause. However, I've noticed a bunch of new sprouts in the last week or so and they are not spindly/scraggly at all (yet). May-be it's just the type of plant or may-be the seeds were inadvertently planted deeper. I don't know but it's something to muse over for the next year or so. The Beefsteaks and Heritages were both spindly at first. I got some excellent advice, gently run your washed hands over the plants a couple of times a day. Apparently it strengthens the stems. It certainly worked for me. My plants started standing up and growing straight(er). But they are scraggly and they're out-growing the flats they're in so I figured I'd help them along. Hopefully my good intentions won't be the death of them.

Yesterday I transplanted some. Of course, I started with my beautiful, home-grown worm castings (yes, I do make a fuss about them and mention them as much as I can but only because they have been one of the very few rousing successes). I just harvested four bags, about 13 - 15 pounds. I mixed the castings in with the earth at about a 1 or 2 parts castings per 10 parts earth ratio. I had to buy the earth because all my compost is still frozen solid. I'm kind of thinking that I should bag some compost in the fall and keep it inside. But let's not go there right now; I really don't want to be planning fall activities when Spring is set to cover the land in colour, warmth and dreams.

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Once I had the earth mixed, I got all my collected containers ready. I basically kept anything I thought would work. I needed tall, narrow containers and frozen juice cans seemed to fit the bill well. Another lovely piece of advice I received was burying the seedling right up to their first, false leaves when transplanting This will make the plant sturdy and less straggly (and a lot shorter). So I did that. My biggest fear here is that with the roots right on the bottom, it will be difficult to know when they need to be watered. I noticed with the couple of plastic containers I used (ran out of juice cans), it's easy to see the water trickle down. Or may-be what I should have done was take the bottoms off and put screen or newspaper on instead. May-be with the next flats. This is one of the reasons I started with the Beefsteak seedlings, I have two flats of those so I figured I'd try one and see what happens. If they do ok, I'll transplant the others. If they die, well I have another flat of them so not all is lost (ah, there's another apropos name for our place).

So here they are, all set for a sunny window. They looked a little droopy right after being transplanted but that usually happens so I wasn't too concerned. Today, they are all very upright, happy looking little plants. So far so good :) (Another name that would work well if we didn't already call this place The DaM Farm).

First Wash on the Line This Year

Ah, I'm probably pushing it a bit, but I'll see if the clothes will actually dry. It's been so sunny and warm(ish) for days now. I'm starting my seeds and my head is chocked full of plans for the garden. The rabbits are in breeding mode and I'm actually getting ready to start collecting eggs for hatching. These are all things I do that heralds Spring's long awaited appearance. Of course their are other not so exciting chores that are Spring related as well...namely major, not-so-run-of-the-mill cleaning. Not a whole lot of fun but windows and curtains need to be washed. The wood furnace has its charms but the walls need a wash down because of it in the Spring. So when I can put a little joy in the cleaning, I do and it's always nice to have the first wash on the line. It might sound like a boring life if the first wash causes so much excitement but there's nothing boring in Spring's arrival and I can't think of anything that trumpets the coming of Spring more than bright, freshly washed clothes bobbing on the line. It puts a 'spring' in my step and a smile on my face.

Creature Comforts

That's my bed about an hour after I made it. No, I am not a lousy bed-maker, those four white-tipped paws belong to Angel, my pit bull......... (I'm waiting for all the horrified screaming to stop, "Are you NUTS!?!? Those things are KILLERS!!! They're viscous, blood thirsty, rippers of flesh and bones!!!" and blah, blah, blah. All finished now? OK, back to my story.) Angel knows better than to jump up and sleep on the bed. But it is one of the very few things I can't break her of. She tries so hard to do what we want her to do, (that is a real trait of pit bulls). She doesn't chase the cat anymore, she comes when called, she doesn't pull on the leash at all. She's come a long way since we got her. But when you get an oldish dog, Angel was about 4 - 6 years old when we adopted her from rescue, you have to expect to deal with some things that come with the history. She doesn't jump up on the bed much anymore. She resists the urge a whole lot, I usually find her sleeping on the floor next to the bed. But every now and then the call to get up and under the covers gets the best of her. You can only ignore a ringing phone for so long, I guess. It wouldn't be so bad if she just jumped up, but no; Angel has to be under the covers, all toasty warm, comfortable and safe. I think the 'safe' part is the kicker. I don't think she felt really safe before she came here. And though she is safe now, old fears sometimes die hard.

This is Angel's reaction after I throw the covers back and yell, "AHA!!! I caught you!!! I think she moved her two front legs in reaction. She loves her comfort, my Angel.

Now I've got her moving. It was easy, I just suggested that it was probably time to eat. Food is a great motivator for Angel. She loves her food...and Dusk's food...and Whisk's food...and our food... heck, I've caught scarfing up the occasional rabbit pellet that dropped from the bag. When we got Angel, she was about 10 pounds underweight and the rescue said she had already gained about 10 - 15 pounds. Food was probably very scarce for her and not regular. So now, when she sees it, she eats it. Doesn't matter if she has just eaten and is stuffed to the gills, if a crumb drops she all over it like she hasn't eaten for a week. For the longest time, she was a counter surfer. That's something I never had to deal with before. I found out she had this bad habit when I left a pineapple upside down cake on the kitchen table. She ate the whole thing. The plate was spotless. I was sure she would be as sick as a, well, dog, so to speak. Nope, not at all, not even a burp. I guess she was so used to scrounging she developed a cast iron stomach. After the cake debacle, I simply made sure nothing was left on the counters or tables. It took a long time but she did finally manage to stop counter surfing, I can now leave out freshly baked muffins and know that they are safe. And that is something, constant hunger is a memory that never fades. So while adopting an older dog comes with its challenges, it also comes with its joys. I'm glad I didn't buy into the mass hysteria about pit bulls and did a little research of my own. I've never met any dog so willing to do what I wanted her to do. She's up for anything, loved agility, loves to play and loves to be loved. And she gives that back with all her faithful, strong, pit bull heart.

A New Slant on Icicles

It's been rather psychotic weather for the last week or so, sometimes gentle and warm, other times raging and hateful - picture Norman Bates with an icicle. Not that it's all that unexpected this time of year but it does make for some interesting phenomenon from Nature. The temperature remains mild, usually hovering around 2 - 4 C so I'm not complaining. I don't care how weird the weather is as long as my glasses don't freeze to my face the minute I go outside.

The weird weather has given the chicken coop a charming necklace of sparkle and defiance, slanted icicles. All day long the ice and snow melt in above freezing temperatures as the wind blows heartily. At night the air cools off to just below freezing but the wind doesn't abate. The water falling from the coop freezes in mid-drip. And in the morning I find all the icicles leaning quite noticeably to the west. It is amazing what Nature shows up with when water, air and fire all work in tandem.

First Litter of 2010

Within all that fluffy fur and munched up soft straw are five little week old bunnies, also known as kits. I have to check the kits regularly to make sure all are getting enough to eat and are doing well. I take each one out and check then put them in a little box and go to the next one.

Here they are in the box after being checked. All have round tummies and seem to be doing great! Two grey, one black, one white and one tan. They're lively and alert. The little tan one seems to be smaller than the others but I hesitate to call him a runt because he is feeding well and is growing. He had a tough start in life.

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This is Caoimhe's (pronounced Keeva) second litter. The first litter was an incredible 12 kits. This time around, Caoimhe had a much more reasonable 6 kits. One was born DOA, that happens sometimes. The little tan one was found outside the nest. He was the first one born. No others had arrived yet. So I kept him warm and dry. The next day Caoimhe had the other 5. I popped the little tan guy in with the rest and everyone's been doing fine since.

I'm wondering if this early birthing of one is hereditary. Ceilidh (pronounced Kay-lee) did the same thing. She didn't do it all the time, just twice. But Ceilidh is Caoimhe's mom. It's not a big deal really when a kit is born earlier than the rest. But I figure it's got to be tougher on the doe and it does make it harder for the kit. When a kit is born before the rest, the mom doesn't pull fur to keep it warm and she doesn't feed it either. She waits till she drops the whole litter before going into 'mom mode'. I'll see how it goes but if Caoimhe does it again, I doubt if I will keep any of her offspring as working does. That would be sad because Ceilidh died last Autumn and after Caoimhe, that would be the last of her line in my rabbitry.

Again, With the Compost Worms

The trouble with taking pictures of worms is as soon as the light hits them, they disappear into the bin. I turn over a clump of bedding to find a mass of worms but by the time I grab the camera and focus, most of them are gone. They're fast little guys when they want to be. If you look very, very closely, you will see a few compost worms in the bin. And if you have amazing eyesight, you may even locate the little cocoon to the left near the green straw, it's orange.

The bin is doing very well now. It's almost time to replace the bedding and harvest the first castings of 2010. I had a bit of an issue in late fall. I had changed the bedding for but I didn't wring it out enough. I thought I did but obviously it was too wet. At first, because the top part of the bin was not too wet, all looked fine. After a while though, I started wondering were the worms were, the food I was giving them was not being eaten. So I dug deep and discovered a way-too-wet layer and very few worms. Even with the drainage holes, the bedding was soaking. So I added plain dry leaves and gently turned everything over so the wettest would be on top and dry out faster. I had little hope for the remaining worms. I considered just releasing them into my compost box and just re-start the worm bin in the Spring. But it was so cold by then I worried they'd all freeze before they could burrow deep enough down.

I was amazed at how fast those worms came back. It was noticeable in two or three weeks. After a month or so, food was disappearing at a good rate and worms abounded. It was a hard lesson to learn, though. Hard on me to see all my hard work drown and even harder on the worms. I think after I soak the new bedding, I'll actually lay it out for a bit to make sure it's not too wet. I have also made a habit to gently dig down right to the bottom every now and then to make sure the worms aren't learning to swim, it's hard to do the dog-paddle when you don't have legs.