April Anecdotes

The Sled

Okay this didn't happen in April but I keep forgetting to share this story.  We had had a fresh snowfall and after morning chores I walked out to the cabin with the dogs.  This morning walk is helping my back these days.  As we were coming back through the woods behind the house there were some very interesting animal tracks.  It appeared to me to be an animal pulling a sled.  Really, a sled.  Behind the animal was a squared up trail, seeming almost to have a runner at each edge.

I wondered if a coyote had dragged a dead animal.  I discounted this as there was no blood and the track was too consistent.  I then thought of a beaver.  Yes, it must have been a beaver dragging its flat tail behind it.  Still, though, that didn't seem right.  There was such a rectangular shape to the track.

Back at the house I checked out google images until I discovered who my visitor had been.  I was thrilled to learn it was an otter.  And sure enough I followed the trail back to the creek that runs south of the house.  The creek travels east to a neighbour's large pond or west and south right down to the St. Lawrence.  The "sled" was the otter's belly as he moves along in his travels.  He had come up from the creek and checked out one of the still very frozen ponds near the house.

I look forward to observing some otter play when the weather is warmer.

Maple Syrup

The long Easter weekend was somewhat dedicated to maple syrup.  As early adventurers we decided to tap just two trees.  A friend came over with spiles and buckets and a drill...  Hubby had been dutifully checking buckets for days and we had accumulated enough to get boiling.

We got a fire going in the cook stove in the cabin and poured the collected sap into the top and bottom of mom's turkey roasting pan.  It is still blackened from our teenage adventures doing the same thing:  boiling sap.  I still roast turkey in this pan.

After days of progress the well reduced liquid was  brought to the kitchen for completion.  It was not long before the small amount remaining suddenly reached the correct temperature and consistency.  I had to go out to the barn and hubby was minding the stove.  When I returned he was straining it into a bottle.  Oh, and it tastes wonderful!

We are continuing.  The temperatures are suddenly right and the sap is flowing more abundantly.  As a result we have collected a lot in the last week and I began the cook down process today.  I had to split wood first.  That was a pleasure with the new wood splitter.  In addition a friend has given us his remaining sap as he will be away for a week.  So, more syrup is under development.



Needling

What better way to spend your holiday Easter Monday than to help your sister needle her sheep?  This worked for my sister and I appreciate her help.  Needling sheep is just that:  giving them needles.  We vaccinated the sheep for clostridium infection.  At this point in their gestation the vaccination will provide some protection to the newborn lambs.  A booster will be necessary.  We did the boys too.

This vaccine is administered by subcutaneous injection.  I am not really comfortable with sub-q however it all went well.

We got the sheep in the barn with some grain.  Remember - to the sheep grain is candy.  Then we bribed them further into a penned area.  The idea was to get them crowded into this pen.  We got 14 of them into the pen.  Of the 5 outside of the pen, 4 were yearlings.  I guess they are not yet into candy.  I climbed from one sheep to the next, while my sister handed me the prepared needle.  The sheep were calm.  They were comfortable, not too crowded and not too worried about anything.  The job went fairly quickly.

The 5 evasive ewes required a different approach.  Two of them we managed to get into another penned area.  One yearling was laying down and she is very friendly so I just walked up to her.  One very skittish one I managed to grab and she leaped into the air but I hung on.  Fortunately she is not too big - yet - and I had a good hold on her. 

Each one had the top of their head marked with a red crayon so we would know who we still needed to catch.  When they all had a red mark on their heads we went in for tea.

Signs of Spring

It is April 8th and this afternoon we were blanketed in snow.  It was very very pretty.  It is not cold, barely sitting above freezing, and quite pleasant actually.  We are however tired of winter.  The season of mud has just begun and is a welcome assurance that spring has arrived.  The snowfall is just mother nature teasing us - further!

There are no baby lambs yet, not even anyone looking really close.  The due date is tomorrow.  I think maybe next week.  My neighbour has no lambs yet either.  We wait.

There has been a lot of bird activity.  Many flocks overhead have been seen and the tell-tale "V" of the geese.  I saw a blue heron last week.  We think we have each seen the Northern Harrier.  And our own chickens are everywhere, it seems.  They are happy to stretch their legs and travel the ground exposed by the melted snow - until this afternoon, that is.

The sheep have been taking strolls around the field, searching for morsels of grass.  I don't see anything green worth eating.  Nonetheless they get muddy mouths for their efforts.  They come back to the barn a lot to pick through the leavings from their last meal.  And they lay around outside, enjoying the fresh air.


Burrs

I've seen deer across the road a few times; and so have the Maremmas.  The other morning Millie ran barking down to the fence at the road, Ruby following closely behind her.  I followed their gaze and could see the flash of white tail as two deer slowly pranced away from the canine noises.

Later in the early evening the dogs roared down to the fence again.  It looked to me as if the deer were now returning home, back to the bush from which they must have emerged in the morning.  The dogs barked a long time.  Although there is a gap under the fence there, they have never gone under the fence.  I've seen Millie run back to the barn to jump over a fence there rather than get under that fence at the road front.

This was not to be today.  Next time I looked up the dogs were gone, flashes of white appearing in the field across the road.  Beau and I wandered over that way and I called and called.  When I could tell that the dogs were not heading further toward the neighbour's farm house, I slowed up my calling.  I then puttered in the front yard until the dogs returned.

They both hit the ground and inspected themselves.  There were each full of burdock.  Ruby's tail now contained many more burrs than it already had.  What a mess they both were.

The Thief

Her name is Ruby.  Yet, Millie possesses the traits of a thief, too.  I refer to Millie as garbage girl.  If she hears a plastic bag it must be garbage and destined for her.  Several times I have left a bag of garbage outside of the back door to put in the secure bin in a few minutes.  Millie must have a super 6th sense because she gets to that bag in minutes.

I found a sock in the barnyard the other day.  My sock.  Granted it is half of a pair with holes and destined for the holey sock pile.  Ruby must have taken if off of the clothes line or found it near the clothes line - and then back to her lair in the barnyard!

We've been cleaning up the cabin and bringing stuff up to the house.  Most of the stuff has to be cleaned before it can be assessed for its utility to us.  A cutting board broke when it got to the back door so I left it outside to dispose of shortly.  One of the two pieces is no longer at the back door.  There was also a barbecue fork that had previously been repaired and was now destined for the landfill.  I carefully wrapped the sharp end in newspaper and a plastic bag.  I found it on the shavings pile at the barn this morning.

And then there was the hamburger.  Both dogs had disappeared up the road.  This always worries me.  A while later I spied Millie near the end of our driveway eating something, a tell tale plastic bag nearby.  She was eating something wrapped in meat paper.  It was meat.  The paper was stamped "hamburger"  just the way our butcher does it.  Millie inhaled it.  Ruby bounced into the picture and had a wrapped parcel in her mouth.  At the house she dropped it and I grabbed it to get it out of the paper.  Ruby was determined to eat it, and now.  I dropped it out of the paper and she was on top of it.  Beau went for a morsel and was thoroughly told off.

We expect much of spring.  Nature does bring us the next season in due time.