WINTER ON THE FARM

Winter on the farm is always an interesting time. We have visitors that stop by for snacks. The chickadees are voracious now as well. We’ve got two seed feeders where I can access them and I have to fill them every other day. We put out suet as well for them. We convinced the meat department at our grocery to save the fat trimmings for us to use and the birds just love it. Chickadees, Gray Jays, and Pine Grosbeaks have been all over the feeders. The birds don’t want to stand still, however. So, I snapped a couple of photos of a visiting moose instead. He was just outside the window working on cleaning out the flower gardens for us. Such a thoughtful moose. BTW, they are really big up close. Sometimes they stop by to say “hello” to our resident T-Rex who appears to be a little short as you can see in the attached picture.

The peonies are all tucked in snuggly warm under their foot deep blanket of snow. Even though it has gotten down into the -20s F already, they remain warm. Temperatures under the snow remain above zero all winter long. Nature is certainly remarkable.

While winter may be snowy and deep, it is, also, beautiful here. The trees shimmer in light from the sun which is only up for 2-3 hours a day. We’ll start gaining time again after today (20-21 Dec) but until then, we only get a fews hours of daylight from a sun that barely makes it above the horizon. While we are in the throes of winter, Spring will come soon and the peonies will leap out of the ground. We look forward to seeing all our friends this summer.