Welcomed Guest

OK so I've been a slacker and haven't updated the blog much lately. Couple of reasons for that (1) we're in the dead of winter so there's not much going on and (2) my day job has been keeping me pretty busy.

On Thursday of last week we were sitting at the table eating lunch when Stacy started staring out the window. Much to our suprise, the snowy owl that we've seen off in the distance had plunked herself (based on its coloring I'm guessing it was a her but if anyone happens to be an owl expert and can confirm this, that'd be great) in the tree right outside the window. Want to know more about Snowy Owls? Then click here.
















It really was an amazing site, she stayed there for what must have been 15 minutes anyway.
















And here's the last snap I got
















I tried going upstairs to take pictures more at her level but there was a big ol branch right between me and her. For those of you who know the layout of our property, this is the tree right behind the house. After a while, she flew off over to the tree between the house and barn for about two minutes but left when the woodpecker took up residence in the tree. Yup we've also got a woodpecker that seem to have taken residence in some of the trees around. I tried to snap a few pictures of it but none came out all that good.

The owl was back again yesterday, this time spotted in the same tree between the house and barn. Turkey's have been MIA since about the first of the year.

Weather's been pretty good for winter. Rainy and warm on Monday and pretty warm on Tuesday too. Today hovered around freezing with a bit of wind and not a lot of sun. Just about all the snow we had on the ground is now gone again - this time we don't have too much ice left.

Doesn't seem like spring's too far off, both of the girls have started shedding heavily this week. Also starting to see large groups of robins (50-75) pecking through the yard when the grass is showing. But then again it is winter in New England so I guess we'll just have to wait it out and see what happens.

Still looking for a horse trailer so if anyone knows of a good used one, let me know. Ideally I'd like a stock/combo 2 or 3 horse gooseneck but will take what's available.

"If we continue to teach about tolerance and intolerance instead of good and evil, we will end up with tolerance of evil."
- Dennis Prager

Came across that quote the other day - sure is a lot to think about there. At first I bet a lot of you will disagree with it. You might want to give it serious thought in the context of where society is at today. We've not only losing (or maybe lost is a better statement) the idea of right and wrong, if we talk about it or question it we are often referred to as being intolorant or some other 'ist or 'phobe. In the end, both sides can't be right about this so choose your side carefully - there's a lot riding on your choice.

"He who pursues righteousness and
love finds life, prosperity, and honor."
- Proverbs 21:21

Wiggles

Tonight we had to have Wiggles put down. Earlier this week Stacy noticed that one of his eyes was starting to cloud over a bit. Then on Thursday, we noticed that he wasn't looking too good and was having a little bit of a hard time getting around. So we took him out of his cage and let him motivate around the kitchen for a while. Later on in the day, it looked like he was having a hard time standing. When we got up this morning, he could not hold his back end up and was scooting himself around with his front end. We put a call into the vet this morning and was told that she was out on farm calls today but she would would stop by the office on her way in tonight just to take a look. So when she finally got back (slow driving out today, we got between 4" and 6" of snow today) I brought him in. The vet couldn't pinpoint the exact cause but it was obvious that he was in real pain and wasn't likely to get much better. Although it was a hard decision, there wasn't really any choice.















Ever since we've been here on the farm, he's been my constant work companion. Not one to be afraid of the cats, he used to have a good time chasing Chip around. He was a bit leery of the cattledog tho. Every time someone would come to the house, Laredo would run over to Wiggle's cage and bark at him. Tonight when I got home from the vet, Laredo went over to bark at the rabbit but just stopped and stared when he got to the empty cage.

Of late, Wiggles was known amongst family and friends as "the sleep wrecker". Whenever someone would sleep over, Wiggles would make a ton of noise during the middle of the night - pushing his ever-present tissue box around, drinking extra water, and stomping his back feet.

The rest of the family is doing OK with it. Everyone misses him but all understand he's in a better way.