Spring is finally here

I'm glad to say that spring is finally arriving here in my part of the world.  It sure has taken its time this year, but things are beginning to turn green instead of being brown.  I won't mention the fact that there are flurries forecast for tomorrow because that would just ruin everything...

So, I have daffodils!  Yay!  The one thing that the goats simply don't eat.  I'm not sure why, but apparently they just don't taste good.  All the other bulbs were destroyed by the goats, before they really made it out of the ground, but the daffodils keep coming back.  That's a lovely treat for me since I love gardening and used to have a really beautiful flower garden.  One day when I get fences put up, I can have one again I hope.

There are three different daffodil cultivars in my garden now - the classic all yellow, the one above that is white with the pale yellow "frilly" inside, and this one below, which is rather beautiful with its dark orange rim.  See the little ant in there?  I didn't notice that when I took this picture!

The tree leaves are just starting to come out.  That's pretty late, even for here.

I have a lot of trees with black knot fungus.  Unfortunately it's so widespread in this area that there really isn't much point to trying to control it.  It only affects Prunus species, which in this area means choke-cherries and wild plums.  It looks unsightly but the leaves cover it later in the summer.

Down on the swampy part of my field, the wild iris patch is coming back.  They have beautiful yellow flowers later in the early summer.  It's strange because there's just this one patch, but it's lovely when it's in bloom.  It's nice to see those green spears returning.  Here's a picture of the patch from my driveway.

Here they are a little more close-up!  I think if I were a duck or other water bird, I'd like to hang out in the middle of that patch to build my nest!

Some of the trees are beginning to blossom now.  These have a lovely scent.

I'm particularly pleased to see copious blossoms forming on the apple trees.  Last year there weren't any apples on most of the trees because there was a late frost and the blossoms didn't make it.  I'm hoping for a better harvest this year.  They make great treats for goats and sheep!

This is one of those interesting evergreen species that loses its needles every year.  They're starting to emerge again now.  I think it's a larch species but I'm not sure which one.  If anyone knows, I'd be delighted to find out.

Also, I've seen some tadpoles in the stream!  This picture shows the area that makes a fairly deep pool most of the time, and that's where I see tadpoles at this time of year, and fish later in the year.  The rest of the stream is shallower, rushing over rocks and making little waterfalls, but this one area stays more calm and has slower movement.  When I walk by, if the sun is in the right spot, my shadow makes all the tadpoles and little fish dart to the shady spots to hide.

So here's how it looks overall when I'm taking Jet for a walk on my field - the grass is certainly green now and the trees are starting to get a green glow as the leaves emerge.  There's still a lot of vegetation that hasn't broken bud yet, and therefore a lot of bare branches.  But, at least it's nicer to look at when it's green!  Unfortunately, the blackflies are out as well, and I had a swarm of about 20 around me on this walk.  I will have to start wearing my bug jacket when we go for walks or I will be forever scratching at bites.

In other news, the Deanne Fitzpatrick Rug Hooking store in Amherst, Nova Scotia, is now carrying 5-yard lengths of my handspun yarns for rug hookers.  It's not latch hooking - it's another kind of traditional rug hooking that is often done with strips of wool cloth, but can also be done with yarn. There are plenty of examples on her website of the types of rugs and wall hangings that are made that way.  Here are the yarns I took this past week.

And finally, here's a picture of wee Fezzik the goat, because I just love his smile.  One of these days he'll have to have a post of his own.  Signing off from spring in Nova Scotia!

A few crafty bits and pieces

I thought I'd do a little blog post on the crafty things I've been busy with lately, which admittedly isn't that much, but I suppose it's better than nothing.  My writing work has been really busy for a while so I wasn't able to do much crafting for a few weeks, well...months really.  Things have quieted down a little on the writing front, so I've had a bit of time.

I've done some sporadic sock knitting.  First, I made a pair of "Aradena" socks in the "Bite Me" colourway of merino/silk blend yarn from Cherry Tree Hill.  You'll find the pattern here if you're a member of Ravelry.  You might remember I blogged about this yarn a long time ago - it was sent to me by Isobelle Golightly's lady, when I was having a particularly rotten time.  This was my second full pair of socks.  My very first pair of socks is still just a single sock.  My second pair, made with Lion Brand Thick-and-Quick yarn, was my first complete pair.  So these are my third pair, but technically my 4th and 5th sock.

I then moved on to the "Twinners" pattern from Avalon Fiber Arts (pattern is at the bottom of this page) and I did it in Universal Classic Worsted Tapestry yarn in a self-patterning red and grey mix, which is 80% acrylic and 20% wool - durable for hard-wearing socks, and washable.  I really like the pattern.  I decided to do the back of the leg plain, instead of patterned.  Here it is on my foot...

...and here's the pattern down the front of the leg in more detail.

I still have to do the second sock for this pair.

In the meantime, I started the sock from the "Socks that Rock" club that I'm in for this year - I get a sock pattern and a selected yarn every 2 months.  This pattern is called Petrosinella and it's definitely just my colours! I love the pattern but it's relatively complex and quite fiddly.  I'm working on it....slllooowwwwly.

I finally got around to listing some of the scarves I had in stock....they're now available in my Etsy store.  I know it's not winter, but it's good to be prepared!  I had some good weather so I took photographs outside and I had them all hanging on the short fence line - the fence has no real purpose other than to be decorative, and to be a good photo prop!

I also listed some of my felted and beaded pendants.  I love taking pictures of them using natural settings, like the stones and stumps in my yard.  I feel that brings out their charm in a way that an indoor setting just can't do.

Lucky Nickel tried to help with modelling a pendant for me but it didn't really work out.

I also sheared Maggie May, the bunny.  She was overdue for a fibre harvest and I took advantage of a breezy day to do it.  The wind keeps her fluff out of my nose!  She's a very pretty rabbit - sort of chocolate brown face and pale buff all over.  I will enjoy spinning her fibre.

Most of the "good fibre" is in the aqua coloured basket - the belly fur and the not-so-nice bits (otherwise known as a bunsplosion) are scattered to the winds for the birds to use in their nests.

Maggie looks a little bit naked but I'm sure she'll appreciate her summer cut when the temperatures really start to warm up.

For the past few weeks I've been enjoying the opportunity to go to "open studio" time at Deanne Fitzpatrick's rug hooking studio in Amherst.  It allows me the opportunity to chat with fellow fibre-folk, and it also gives me "permission" to spin some yarn, which I don't always allow myself at home because I'm too distracted by all the other things around here that need to be done.

Here's some variegated Jacob fleece with copper angelina in the "Earth Day" colourway from Desert Garden Farms in Idaho.

Here's some coiled art yarn that I made with some Blue-faced Leicester fibre in the "Alice in Wonderland" themed spin-along from BeesyBee Fiber.  I loved the vibrant colours and felt that the Alice theme lent itself to a fun interpretation full of unexpected texture and a touch of craziness.  I plied it with some hot pink crochet cotton.

Here is the yarn I made from some Polwarth fibre available as part of the Split Rock Ranch spring spin-along.  This was one definitely in my colours - I love lime greens!  This is a 3-ply (Navajo-ply) yarn and I haven't decided whether I'll sell it or not because I'm really fond of it!

And finally, I also did a bit of unravelling.  I bought a 100% wool sweater from the thrift shop that was particularly thick and chunky, and I decided that instead of felting it, I'd rather re-use the yarn in another project.  So, here's the original sweater...

 ...and here's what it looks like now.

So that's all from the crafting department for me!  What have you been up to?!

Cache Discovery

Sad to report that the two buff coloured silkie chicks from the last post have died.  The black one is still fine, as is the production brown layer.  I feel really sad about the silkies.  In both cases, they were fine one evening and then dead the next morning.  So fragile, but they all had plenty of food and water, so it makes me sad when they seemed so active and healthy to lose them with no apparent reason.  Hopefully the black one will continue to be alright, because I really do like silkies and would like to have a few more in future.

Speaking of chickens, though, I had been noticing an abrupt drop in egg laying for about the past week, and thought that was strange.  I know I have a couple of potential egg-eating hens, because sometimes I find one in the nest boxes that has been eaten, as evidenced by the remainder of the shell and a gooey spot on the bedding.  Usually though, there is only one eaten egg...sometimes two.  So, I wasn't sure where the eggs were going when this sudden decrease occurred.  I did go on a walkabout to the areas where I see the hens congregate around the yard.  I peered under the wood pile and under the porch.  Hens like to lay in quiet, dark areas.  I kept checking the old dog house which I wrote about previously, but all my efforts were fruitless (eggless?)  Here are a few of my flock - Egwene in red, either Flora or Flounce on the left (two matching black hens and I never know who is who!), Mimi the cuckoo maran, and a hen from last year's hatch in the front who hasn't got an official name.

My biggest concern with a hidden cache of eggs is that eventually, a hen will decide to try to hatch them, and once a hen goes broody, she'll just sit on those eggs for 21 days, only coming off once or twice a day to grab a quick bite to eat and a drink, and to relieve herself.  If the hens had found an outdoor spot to amass their eggs, then one day I'd likely have a chicken who didn't come back to the barn at night and she'd end up as food for the raccoons or the foxes.  I looked around for shell fragments, wondering if they were laying somewhere outside and then the raccoons were eating the eggs at night, but I still wasn't finding anything.

Today, I noticed a robin fly by the barn door when I let the sheep and goats outside.  I went to take a peek to see if she was going to a nest.  My Dad made these great steps for the barn - one set for outside and another set for inside - so that the animals (and I) can easily get in and out.  This was necessary because the floor of the barn is not at the same level as the door.

Here are the steps inside the barn...

 ...and here are the matching steps outside the barn.

I went up the steps and tried to see where the robin had gone, but I couldn't see it, so I turned to come back inside.  As I went up the steps, my eyes caught a flash of white through the opening between the steps and the edge of the barn - see that little gap on the left side of the inside steps?

Would you like a closer look at that gap?

Ah yes, I know that you now see what I saw!  I came inside and peered around the bottom edge of the step, finding a little space that was just the right size for a hen on a mission.  Don't let that woolly bear caterpillar distract you from the egg!

So I lifted the steps.  OH!  Yes indeed, I had found the cache.

Indeed, there were 32 eggs in this hiding spot!

Let me tell you, the hens were NOT happy that I'd discovered their secret spot!  Here's the reaction that began when I lifted the steps.

So, I brought them all inside and cleaned them and subjected them to the float test to see if they were all fresh.  All of them passed the test with flying colours - confirming they were all very recently laid.  So, now I have an extra (almost) 4 dozen eggs to use.

Egg custard, coming right up! I'm so fond of the lovely shape of eggs, the subtle shades and colour differences, the occasional spots and speckles and the size differences.  Perfect little protein packs!


There were also a couple of interesting eggs in the batch.  I'm always intrigued by different or unusual looking eggs.  Today there was this one with a lot of extra calcium deposited on the surface.

Then there was this very unusually patterned egg.  You can see how it has a speckled surface, but the speckles disappear for about a 1/2 inch "stripe" that goes right around the egg.  I have an artist hen in my flock but I don't know who she is!

Peep peep!

Who (or what) is peeping around here?  Well, today there was a lot of peeping going on outside.  I guess the frogs have decided that spring has arrived.  I took Jet for his afternoon walk after the rain finally ceased, and the spring peeper frogs were singing the first act of Carmina Burana, or at least their version of it.  I was able to get quite close to the boggy area where they were doing their performance, and I realized that under the high-pitched peeping frenzy, there is a lower note coming from the alto voices, more akin to a duck quacking than a frog noise.  I'm not sure if I've got different species of frogs in that area, or if spring peepers make a multitude of different calls.  Jet was quite interested in the noise, but since he couldn't find the source, he lost interest quite quickly.  That was fine, but as we headed home and went up the driveway, all of a sudden, a frog jumped in front of us.  Good thing I had a tight grip on the lead, or that frog would have been history!  Jet was very exuberant in his pursuit of the frog and I had to reel him in quickly.  Of course, a full nasal investigation had to be made of the area where the frog had been.  Now he's on the scent, I think we'll be stopping to check out frog trails on a regular basis.

But that's not the peeping that I'm actually going to write about today.  I'm talking about the peeping of baby chicks.  I'd promised myself, adamantly, that I would not hatch any eggs this year because I have enough chickens and I really don't need any more.  I love incubating eggs and watching the hatching process, but at 16 hens, I have plenty of eggs to spare.  So, when I went to the feed store this week, I was amused, but firm with myself about the pens of peeping chicks.  The feed store here is nothing like the ones I used to frequent in Iowa.  There, I could choose from a wide variety of interesting breeds in a rainbow of colours.  Here, by contrast, there are 3 kinds of chicks available.  There are broilers (meat birds), white egg layers, and brown egg layers.  They don't even know the breed of the layers - they're just "commercial" I was told.  Ho hum.  So, this didn't really tempt me.  I said to the feed store guy that I would only be tempted by special breeds, like silkies.  "Oh," he said, "I have some silkie chicks over there." Dang-gummit!

The feed store proprietor hatched some chicks from his own flock of silkies, and had them in a separate location in the store.  I tried...really I tried...to ignore this whole matter, but it was just not possible.  I just had to see what colour they were, because if they were white....meh....I could do without.  But no, they were buff and black.  Oh, it was too much to resist.  Truly.  I was smitten.

In Iowa, I was able to order hatching eggs online from all kinds of small and large flock owners, giving me access to a veritable encyclopedia of breeds.  In addition, there are a wide range of hatcheries specializing in unusual breeds of chickens, including the rare breeds in need of conservation, which were of great interest to me.  Here in Canada, it's practically a chicken wasteland.  There are very few hatcheries and the existing ones don't have many breeds.  Even crazier - the one special breed actually developed in Canada, the Chantecler, is easier to find in the USA than in Canada.  There are a lot of miserable government regulations associated with chickens here in Canada that make it difficult for small farms to prosper, which may be part of the problem, but it sure doesn't help with breed conservancy and it's difficult for those of us who want to do our part but can't even find a source of birds in the area.

So, I am now the happy owner of 2 little buff silkie chicks and one black silkie chick.  Of course, this will mean that names must be chosen soon.  Here's the little black one.

Instant Cup-o-Chick!

I hope I've got at least one hen - these chicks were "straight run" (meaning unsexed) so I don't know what I've got, but I did a top secret test and I tried to pick ones that supposedly show female tendencies.

Just look at those fabulously feathered feet!

I added one solitary "breedless" brown layer chick, just to see what it turned out to look like and whether I could figure out the mystery of the breed.


She's really quite cute.

There are so many commercial brown layers - ISA browns, golden comets, cinnamon queens, and many others.  It's disappointing that there just isn't the interest here in breed specifics.

 
So, I succumbed to the silkie temptation, but I'm still not hatching any chicks this year!