Taking Pity on the Birds

I feel really bad that I set the bird feeders up and could never keep the shepherd’s hooks in the ground.  I did set them back up right before we were supposed to get cold in hopes that the ground would freeze and I could then fill them.

It seemed like a good idea when I put them up.

But the blizzard knocked them down.  The empty feeders were even pulled off the hooks.  Then they got buried in snow.  I felt really guilty when I was scooping show and had a red-bellied woodpecker demanding food the whole time, but there was nowhere to even put it.

I had to do quite a bit of snow moving to find the ones that were buried.

Then driving home from my mom’s on Saturday, I saw a whole bunch of pheasants gathered under the pine trees up north.

Pheasants (there were a lot more to the left.

Then I pulled in my drive at home and nearly had to get out and shoo a whole bunch of cardinals out of the drive.  So I decided I had to get the birds taken care of.

Cardinal in the back yard

I am also going to say in my defense that I am feeding about a billion birds in my chicken/peacock pen.

Mr. Peacock in the rafters–his tail is growing!

I know this because they are not neat birds.  Scrubbing my water and food pans is on the list for this coming weekend.

I’ve never had the wild birds leave a mess like this before–it’s been a rough couple of weeks.

Anyhow, I dug the bird feeders out of the snow and set them in the milk room to thaw out.

Cutie decided to come in while I was out there.

I got them filled.

I need to get more bird feed so I can keep feeding them.

I even filled the summer bird waterer with peanuts and grit.  Hopefully, they won’t sit in the road to find bits of gravel now.

peanuts and grit

Hopefully, the poles will remain standing now.

The fence is so Sky doesn’t use the feeders as bait. I might have fallen over it when I was gathering the feeders.

Now the birds should be a bit happier.

A Test for Winter

I am glad our weather has warmed back up to more normal temperatures (not quite so happy that the next month looks to be above normal).

Yes, most of my posts are all done on the weekends now with the short days.

I will say the few days of real winter temperatures helped me figure out if I was ready or not.  The answer is not.

Moxie

I realized I still have a bunch of leftover wood from the Morton building in my barn.  It makes trying to get hay to the animals quite the challenge. I’m going to have to figure out what to do with it. And quickly.

Maisie

I also found out that one of my water tubs is not working.  I’m not surprised because it’s a really old one.  I need to switch it out before we get cold again.

The green tub behind Joy isn’t working.

I got the bird feeders filled again.  I’ve been horrible at that this fall, but they kept falling over in the wind since all that dirt had been torn up with the construction.

Hopefully, they’ll stay in place now that we’re getting colder.  And I really would prefer some really normal weather that seems to have been missing for quite a few years now.

Odds and Ends Saturday

I just couldn’t get focused to do anything this weekend.  I did a lot of different things, but I’m not sure I got any one project truly done.  I cleaned in the soap room.

I still have a lot of soap curing.

I’m still trying to recover from the dust created when the llamas and goats had to go in the garage (with the door open for AC) during the heat dome.

The candle shelves are cleaned and redone.

But I got another whole shelf completely dusted and put back.  Then the weather got nice, so I wanted to be outside. It seemed like a good day to winterize.  I started with getting the old tarp from the north door in the barn.

It’s still just the sliding door on the north end of the barn.

I cut it up to use for the west windows that needed some work done to them.

I also worked on the south doors.  They needed some work done in order for them to be closed.

Door on the right is tied shut. (Ava and Wanda in back)

Well, this one was just the top door.  I’ll leave the bottom open for some sunshine.  I might have a tarp there that I can pull shut if we get a weird wind from the south.  But that’s not for this weekend.  I didn’t even get the north door re-tarped.

Put a new staple in to latch the top door. (Ava below)

Flora was hanging out and demanding sweet feed again, and I decided she was still a little thin.  So I put her in with Cutie and Trace.

Flora in the Morton building door

Then Wanda was hanging out by the door to the milk room, so I let her in to get her hooves trimmed. Then Ava. Then Maisie.  Then my hands needed a break because the hooves are really hard to trim when it’s this dry.  I was going to get a blister if I did any more.

Wanda

I also took a few minutes to get the shepherd’s hooks stood back up and the bird feeders filled.  It’s done until another strong wind knocks them down.  They just aren’t going to stay up until the ground freezes.

Bird feeders in the herb garden

I did decide to bake the three pumpkins I harvested from the barnyard.  But when I cut them open, they were really odd–spongy.

These three grew in the barnyard.

So I decided to feed them to the birds and Cutie and Trace instead.

Cutie couldn’t even wait for me to put it in the pen.

one of the chickens enjoying it

Then I decided I ought to try to start getting Gabe to trust me again.  I had to catch him and check his eyes because he had diarrhea.  Eyes were perfect; I think he was actually sick with something from the crazy weather.

Gabe eating a dry leaf.

But now he won’t get near me.  I’m trying.  He took one little nibble and I dropped it.

yummy strawberry

That’s usually what happens. But this time, after I picked it back up and offered it to him again, he wouldn’t come close.

Gabe ignoring me. BJ isn’t sure about that thing.

I’ll keep working on it.  And that was just Saturday.