Time To Watch The Animals In The Snow

We've had snow here at Laughing Dove Farm since the last week of November. It is beautiful outside , especially as I view the winter-scape from indoors while sipping hot coffee. The birds in the picture above are sitting in branches just outside one of our living room windows. The cats seem to think this is just for them and occupy the window sill during daylight hours to watch the birds flitting from the branches to the bird feeders, bird bath and back again.

Luna, our 9 month old Lab puppy loves watching birds too, all birds. She is watching a Pileated Woodpecker  in our woods and would have followed the large and very loud bird if we'd not had her on a leash.

Whimsy, my German Shepherd has appointed herself Luna's best protector and playmate. Luna and Whimsy love the snow. Our below freezing temps and deep snow don't seem to affect them. Luna loves to roll around in the snow too.

My Sebastopol Geese appear to have such bright white feathers until the snow shows up the geese in bright whiteness. The geese too, do not seem to be bothered by the snow except for the lack of a continual supply of water for their bathing and drinking.

Every day I have to haul huge buckets of hot water out to the goose troughs. As soon as I pour hot water over the troughs full of ice the geese hop into their ice bath to drink ,bathe and play until they exhaust the small amount of water I am able to supply for the day.

Goth ( center of picture), my 12 year old Jacob Sheep ram and the rest of my flock of sheep are wearing their wool coats. The snow and cold don't bother them either.

Goth is having the best time of his entire life now. He has never had so much room to roam and on Laughing Dove Farm he has acres ! Since Goth has been a very good ram ( mostly ) I am happy to keep him in his old age. I am hoping he lives many more years and dies peacefully chewing a mouth full of sweet fresh grass. ( Goth is shown here with some of my flock, most of them are his children or grandchildren.)

My sheep heading back to the barn. The snow is much deeper now, the grass is a foot under the snow.

 Our old goat Thorin and Goth side by side.

We love our new home and the knee-deep snow too. The temperature has been below zero most nights and today it warmed up to 7 degrees above zero . The hardest part of so much snow has been doing my farm chores. I have a hard time walking in the deep snow while carrying buckets of grain and water and armloads of hay. Today we bought snowshoes for me so tomorrow's chore time should be a little bit easier. This is going to help even more if we get the predicted snow ( 1 to 4 inches) this weekend.

Our new home is snug and warm, the scenery all around us is so beautiful I sometimes can scarce take in that this is our home ! We've begun a few of the things we need to do to make this place work for us but because we're retired now we're taking our time. Time to gaze out the windows while sipping coffee or tea. Time to laugh at the silly things our animals do.Time to watch the animals play in the snow. Time to walk in the woods, play with our grandchildren. Time to go fishing and camping as soon as the weather permits EVEN IF there is a huge 'to-do' list attached to the fridge. That nagging 'to-do' list has been around as long as we've been married, I expect it to be here as long as we're alive. Time to be... simply be.

Snippets

 Look at this flower blooming in an old bucket I hung over a chicken pen ! I planted bulbs in it 2 years ago and this is the first year it has bloomed. I can't remember the name of the vine but love the brilliant pink . There are even more blooms on it now and the blooms are lasting a long time.

 I also planted sedums and Kenilworth ivy in the bucket. Easy keepers and the bucket of green and blooms adds splashes of color that make me happy as I tend and watch my chickens.

 We have a pair of bullfrogs residing at pond's edge. They sun themselves in the same spots every day. When I go down to the pond the female ( shown here ) and the male leap into the pond , swim a few feet, then pop up to watch me. If I sit down and stay quiet both of them climb back to their original spots in the sun. This bullfrog is at least 12 inches from nose to back toes. I should give her a name, what do you think ?

 I have an African Violet that has been with me for years. I don't seem to be able to kill my African Violets and I attribute this to neglect. This AV is huge and doesn't look real because it is so huge. The picture doesn't do it justice for scale , but that is a large clay pot it is planted in. After many years the violet began moving itself out of the pot it came in and I relented and bought potting soil and a new pot just for this plant. Looks like I've been rewarded for my good deed.

 Our oldest granddaughter , daughter of our oldest son , was in Seattle singing with her high school choir at the Emerald City Choral Festival at St. Lukes Cathedral. Seattle is only about an hour or so away from Cedar Pond so we were able to see her there.What a treat to hear her sing with her high school choir and also hear amazing vocals from many other high school choirs , plus a few famous performers too. We only had minutes to visit with her as her choir hopped back in the bus and headed back home ( 5 hours away ) shortly after the performance. We loaded her down with chocolate chip cookies, flowers, hugs and kisses, before she got into the bus for home. I love this picture ( above ) of our granddaughter with my husband.

Mother's Day was so much fun for me. I got to go fishing , one of my favorite things to do , with our daughter. I only caught one fish but it was a big one. My husband caught his limit, but my fish was the biggest , so we all had a good time and I had freshly caught Rainbow trout cooked by my husband for dinner that night.

It's been a busy few weeks and any spare time is spent watering and tending our gardens. We also try to spend as much time as possible with our family and quickly growing up grandchildren. Seems lately when I sit down to read & write blogs I usually feel like my time would be better spent getting a good night's sleep ( really, when I find I have fallen asleep while blogging I know it is past bed time ! ). How about you ? Is this a busy time of the year for you ?

Where Does The Time Go & How Can I Get More ?

I am not sure how I am unable to do all the things I think I need to do.Maybe all the things I think I NEED to do are not really needed, or needful...I love making the felted wool balls out of the fleece of my sheep, and I especially love needle-felting designs of whatever strikes my fancy on them.But is this needful ?

I have been making doll clothes for our 6 granddaughters' American Girl Dolls for their ( granddaughters) birthdays, but is this needful? ( It is fun )

Ice storm damage clean-up is an on-going task, and we have had a lot of help from family...(2 grandchildren helping above)

...granddaughter...

...grandson...

...and friends. Yes, this is needful.Cleaning up after the storm will take at least all of this year, and needs to be done so we can plant our gardens and tend our animals well.

Tending my sheep and watching over them as they lamb is needful, without doubt.(Valkyrie with her new-born ram lamb)

Of course there are all the regular , every day, mundane, but very needful things like preparing meals, cleaning up after meals, washing up, dusting, vacuuming, cleaning the bathrooms,changing the bedsheets,feeding the animals, cleaning up after the animals. Then I need to spin, & weave the wool my sheep produce, goodness... so many demands on my time.It seems there is so little time, yet there has always been only 24 hours in a day, every day, and I don't think there will ever be any more hours added, so that does not change. I have so many more things I love to add to my days, blogging,gardening, talking to family & friends, playing with my dogs, sitting on the porch with my husband as we watch the birds & new lambs and discuss our thoughts.I am always amazed anyone can be bored when I and so many others I know cannot find the time to invest in all that interests them. Guess it is all a matter of perspective, and my perspective better get a bit smaller so I can fit it all in. This big, wide, beautiful, amazing world has too much to take in, but I want to take in as much as I can, and hopefully give a little bit back too.Anyone have any ideas on ways to add hours to the day?

View Of The Past

See the tower ? It is on the end of the dock in front of our hotel, and near the ferry loading docks.The ferries come and go to Victoria , Canada several times a day. As one walks on the dock to get to the tower you pass a building..... ...the roof of which is seen here from the tower. The building houses a Marine Life museum and hands on Marine life experiences for people. The sides of the building have 4 very large, life size murals depicting the early history of Port Angeles. So I am going to give you a small history lesson...it's not too uninteresting. "This depicts the 1750 Indian Klallam Village, I-enn-nus. The name Klallam means 'strong people' in their language. They were primarily a hunting / gathering culture but also practiced forms of agriculture." "Today many Klallum cultural and traditional practices continue among Native people here on the Peninsula." "This 1889 scene shows The Puget Sound Cooperative Colony. It's founders, frustrated with the world as they found it, decided to create their ideal of an utopian society." "These people were responsible for building the first opera house, many of the first Christian churches, first schoolhouse,steam shipyard and lumber mill as first depicted in this mural. Unfortunately , this cooperative as an organization did not last more than ten years due to internal conflicts of interest, however, many of the people stayed and helped make Port Angeles what it is today." The mural artist, Cory Ench, spent many hours researching for this mural." All quotes were copied from the sign on the dock explaing this mural.

"I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work God has done from the beginning to the end." Ecclesiastes 3:10,11