Christmas and Turkeys

Our first Christmas on the farm was beautiful. As always my favorite part of Christmas is watching the boys race down to see if Santa came. The cookies and carrots are eaten and 2 specially wrapped presents are always awaiting them under the tree. We had breakfast looking out at the falling snow. Even the cat got a special breakfast! We kept the animals in the barn as we were off to the city later for Christmas dinner with the family.
We had a fabulous turkey dinner, each of us eating way to much. The turkey was fantastic! I bought it from my friend Dave who had crossed heritage breeds: Bourbon Reds with Beltsville Small Whites. It was over 15 lbs, but the easiest one I've ever carved.
I've chosen to raise the Beltsville Small Whites as I keep being told many people only want small turkeys. Dave told me he ran out of the small ones right away and was hard pressed to sell the larger 20lb birds. I'll be breeding them and I'm happy to help a breed on the conservation list, unfortunately Beltsville Small Whites are still listed as critical. Bourbon Reds thankfully have moved up and are now listed only as vulnerable. These breeds and many others don't fit the criteria made by factory farms which is why many have become endangered. If interested please check out www.rarebreedscanada.org
After dinner we went for a walk in the park with the dogs and looked at the Christmas lights. Then we came back and played some music. Paul and David on guitar, I played the violin, and the others sang along. We were all impressed at how much we had improved since last year, which was hilarious.
Boxing day morning saw us coming home to the farm early. The chickens and turkeys acting overjoyed to see me happily clucking, cooing, and many other indercipherable noises. The pigs were also super excited and looking big and happy.
Those darn turkeys are now on our porch, being quite annoying. It's time for them to go into the freezer. I'll be talking with someone next week to set up a time. As they will be for us or friends I'm able to "do them in" here at the farm. I'm not looking forward to it but I feel it's something I have to do.
This Christmas has brought me so much joy and hope for the future. Achieving the dream of owning a farm with huge prospects ahead has made it that much more enjoyable.
Warm wishes to all of you this holiday season!

Icy Out There

Yesterday brought heavy rain showers which thankfully took away a lot of the accumulated ice. However, in the evening it changed to freezing rain and once again everything is coated. Going up to the barn holding a bucket in each hand proved to be a balancing act. I need to call one of my friends who runs during the winter to find out where he gets his crampons.
After taking care of the animals and coming back down, I was quite impressed I was still on my feet. When I reached the last little hill from the barn to the house though I decided I shouldn't test Mother Nature and surrendered. I sat down and off I went. Wow I got up some speed! I have a crazy carpet out for tonight if I need it. Way better then ripping my jeans or my Carhartts. Plus it sounds like fun.

Another New Find

I went snowshoeing with Anthony and found these prints in the lower pasture. It's a set of mother and baby Lynx tracks.

Close Encounter

This morning brought another snowstorm. We received about 3 inches of snow and then once again it turned to freezing rain. Yuck. After which it went back to big fat snowflakes. I went up to the barn just now to check on the birds. Upon entering as always the count begins and I unfortunately found 2 chickens are missing. The hunt began, under the hay bales, behind the feed bins, up on both sides of the loft. Thoughts of those coyotes came to mind and I started to become concerned. I checked outside the barn door again, nope no prints in the snow.
That's when I saw them perched over on the fence. Both fluffed up and looking quite pathetic. I circled round and encouraged them to fly off to the warm barn. Both flew away, one where I hoped, the other shocked me by flying right back around and landed on the fence no more then a foot away. This is new as the chickens know me as "the food provider" but usually keep their distance. I reached for her and she just stayed still and looked at me. I thanked her for the moment, snapped a quick pick for you all and told her I needed her to go inside now.

Slowly I reached out and took hold of her legs and gently brought her under my arm. Surprising me again she didn't struggle at all. Now I was a little worried but the temperature had only gone down to -2 degrees Celsius. I took her inside the barn, put her down and watched her for a few minutes. Happily she joined her fellow chickens and pecked around completely fine. Of course I'll check on her again later, but all seems well and I appreciated the trust.

My first snowshoeing trip on MY farm!

Today was super exciting. I finally went out snowshoeing on my very own farm. Mine! This is me ready to go with one of the turkeys giving me a send off.

It was beautiful as I walked the fence line. I was happy to find I wasn't the only one roaming around, others had certainly been there. I need to find a book on identifying tracks but here are some of my best guesses:

Mouse. This little one went all over the place!

These looked like huge cat prints, almost 3 inches across. 

Not sure what type of big cats I have in the area yet so we'll see.

Coyote play area. 

We've been hearing them nearly every night for the last 2 weeks. 

After seeing their tracks only in the far pasture I feel a little better. 

I'll be monitoring how close they come.

Here are just some of the rabbit tracks I found. I'm looking forward to seeing them.

This was a wonderful walk. There was a thick inch of crust on top of the snow, which sounded incredibly loud in the wintry stillness. Absolutely no chance of sneaking up on anything. The sun was starting to go down behind the trees and I had a huge smile. Time to go feed the animals. Tomorrow I'll get the kids to come with me before they tire themselves out sledding. Hopefully we'll finally pick out our Christmas tree too!

Our first snowstorm!

The snow started early this morning and we were completely excited! Paul volunteered to feed the animals and I made a pancake breakfast with the boys. Their Aunt Cathy had brought us some crazy carpets yesterday and the boys and I were out of the house ASAP! We made a few different runs before settling on one behind the house. The others quickly disappearing in the falling snow. With the wind pushing up the drifts we can only guess we've had 6 inches so far.
Sledding with the boys is an absolute blast. Our procedure was Mommy would set up the run and then be their assistant at the top, launching them down the hill. Then I'd get my turns! The boys even convinced me to go head first a few times. Too fun. We even tried a double and a triple run with the boys and I all going down together on one sled. I even managed to get Paul to go down once. It was great, we crashed into drifts and snow went everywhere! After 2 and a half hours I talked the boys into coming into the house.
While they were finishing up I did a quick check in on the animals, let them out of their coops and cleared the snow away from the pigs electric fence. All are well.
Now the boys are asking for hot chocolate and I have none so I'm off to find a recipe to make it from scratch. Wish me luck!

Winter Is Here

Winter has arrived to the farm and a light blanket of snow covers the ground. This morning the chickens and turkeys couldn't wait to get out in it. They love running around in the snow and scratching down to the grass. After about an hour they all went to roost in the trees behind the barn.

With the cold temperatures I'm so happy our house is finally warm. I'll be attacking more of the upstairs this week, which will mean people changing bedrooms but at least it will be done. Next comes gyprock. Over 30 sheets needed. Yikes! I'll do the mudding out, sanding, priming and painting later. I just want a semi uniform wall surface for Christmas. Also I should be able to get half a kitchen in 2 weeks! Counter space, yea!
Today I promised the kids we would get the Christmas decorations out of the attic. We'll start with the outdoor lights. We have blueish white LED ones. This will be our first country farm Christmas and it's been tradition to always decorate the 1st of December.
Another wonderful Christmas tradition for me is having my Annual Christmas Cookie Swap. This was the 6th year and Paul's brother loaned me his kitchen in Halifax to host it. Over a dozen of us each brought a double batch of either cookies, fudge, bars or other sweets to share. After doing some rounds and amounting our yummy selections we mingled with our tea and coffee. I'm always amazed at the selection and we've never had anyone bring the same thing.