Weekend Roundup: L and M

I didn't do my usual blog last week and I'm pretty late doing it this weekend, too.  Just very busy and I haven't been taking many pictures at all.  I feel like there isn't much of interest to photograph - just more ice, snow, ice, snow, rinse and repeat...

I'll do the prompts for last week and this week together.

Starts with L
My goat is named Lucky Nickel. I've told the story before, but for newer readers, I'll tell it again.  Her mom was having a lot of trouble during the birth and I had to call the vet.  The first baby was too big to come out, and the vet was unable to save it - in fact, it had to be decapitated to remove it from the mother, which was very distressing.  It took a long time, and the vet, Dr. Nicholson, had said that any other babies would likely be dead because of the difficulties.  He then pulled out the second baby - a doe who lay on the straw looking dead, but then suddenly coughed and we realized she was alive.  So, she was lucky to be alive, and also lucky that Dr. Nicholson was there, so she became Lucky Nickel (also a bit of a play on lucky penny).  Lucky Nickel's mom died shortly after the birth, which was really sad, so LN was raised in the house on bottles, and was spoiled to bits, which is probably why she remains a spoiled, bratty goat to this day!  On April 19th, she will be 8 years old.

Starts with M
This is a picture of my chicken, Maple.  She is a cross between a Swedish Flower and an Isbar, both fairly uncommon breeds of chicken.  She's just about reaching laying age. 

Maple is often found with her friend, Star, who is an Isbar-Icelandic cross hen.

And here's Marble, who is a Maran crossbred hen, having some melon for a snack.

Long
I've been trying to get out for some walks lately, since the weather is slightly less frigid and the snow and ice on the road is not as dangerous for walking.  This is a view back down the road having walked up the long hill that is part of my 1-hour walk circuit, and I'm about to head down the other side.  I do this part at the beginning of the walk because it is the harder part and I don't want to do the climb at the end.

You can see there is still a fair amount of snow here, and our house is surrounded by woods (and thus shade) so the snow in our yard is still over a foot deep throughout.  The fields in this picture get full sun all day on sunny days but they have a way to go before they will be clear of snow.  It is always a LONG winter here.

Middle
Back to Lucky Nickel for a moment - you can see that her horns have grown long enough that they now meet in the middle - just at the tips.  This can be troublesome in a young animal if the horns rub against each other too much, but since Lucky Nickel is older, her horns only grow a tiny bit each year, so this won't be a problem for her.

Favourites (2 of them, one for each week)
Our rabbits spend a lot of time in mutual grooming sessions.  Here's Epinette patting Pippin on the head, which she sometimes does during grooming. 

Here's my second favourite photo for this week - our cat, Mitten (bonus M) on the middle shelf of my cookbook shelf unit.  He seems to like this spot!

Friday's Hunt v 4.19

It's time for Friday's Hunt again.  The prompts from Eden Hills for this weekend are:  Starts with S, Metal and Mineral.

Starts with S
Shawl starts with S.  I recently finished knitting this shawl and I love it!  It is called the Stay Put Wrap, and it's designed to sit on the shoulders without slipping off.  It does that job really well because of its shape. 

The yarns I used are Fleece and Harmony Signature Yarn in Spruce (100% wool) and Good Karma Farm 60% wool/40% alpaca yarn in "Mamma Mia" (which was a variegated turquoise and purple colourway).

Fleece and Harmony yarns are locally milled at a small mill in PEI, and you can visit the sheep while you're there!  I really enjoyed working with their wool - it is a sturdy yarn with good twist.  The Good Karma Farm yarn is milled in Belfast, Maine, and I also visited there and got to pet the sheep and alpacas on my visit.  I do enjoy using yarns from small, well-cared-for flocks.  This little shawl will be a nice extra layer for my shoulders in the home office on chilly days.

Metal
On my parents' previous visit in October, my Dad and I worked on a little project to help stop the raccoon from stealing my birdseed.  We made some raccoon baffles for my feeder poles.  I can now report that the baffles are a great success and I have had no more raccoon incidents with the feeder ending up on the ground, or the suet being decimated in one night.  The raccoon can no longer climb the poles because it can't get its paws around the slippery surface of the stove pipe sections.

The baffles are made with metal stove pipe sections, metal pipe hanger or strapping (also called iron hanger strip), and metal mesh (also called hardware cloth).

We made cuts in the top of the stove pipe sections to allow for the metal flaps to be folded down, as you can see in the picture above.  Then we cut circles from the metal mesh that would be the same circumference as the stove pipe.  The bent flaps of metal on the stove pipe hold the mesh in place. 

We cut sections of the pipe hanging strap and used bolts to tighten it around the pole.  We also used a pipe clamp and then a few layers of electrical tape wrapped around the pole just below the strap to keep the strap firmly in place so it cannot slide down the pole.  Then we bent the strapping into a shape that would allow the metal mesh to rest upon it.  You can see the hanger strip under the mesh.  The pipe section is centred, but not attached at the bottom in any way, so it's not stable if the raccoon tries to climb it.  If I lived somewhere that snakes in birdhouses were a problem, this baffle would also work for that purpose.  Fortunately, I don't have to deal with snakes!

One must be careful to put the pipe on the bird feeder pole before getting the hanger strap in place.  We learned this the hard way!  It was a fun project for my Dad and I to work on together, and it has worked exactly as intended.

Mineral
As I mentioned in an earlier post this week, I have a chicken in my flock who is supposed to be a maran, although I'm not sure what kind of maran she is.  She doesn't fit the usual colours for the various maran breeds.  Because of her interesting colour variation, I have decided to name her "Marble."  Here you can see her wing - its appearance reminds me of marble.

Here is a picture of polished brown marble - see the similarity? Marble is a type of metamorphic rock.  Metamorphic rocks are rocks that have been modified by heat and pressure.  Marble forms when limestone is subjected to heat and pressure, and the calcite in the limestone recrystallizes to form interlocking calcite crystals.  Marble can also contain other minerals like clay, mica, quartz, pyrite, graphite, and iron oxides.  Marble that contains more minerals is more colourful, while white marble is almost entirely limestone with few impurities.

Marble (the chicken) is developing an interesting set of adult feathers.  Her chest has a lot of light fawn and brown tones.  Her legs and feet display the expected feathering for a maran.

Her wings and tail are darker with more grey and even some barred feathers, more like a cuckoo maran.  She was hatched from an egg from a farm that breeds blue birchen marans, but she doesn't look right for one of those either.  Maybe she's a mistake cross and that's why her egg was included as an extra for the person who originally bought the eggs.  She's so unusual - I think Marble is a good name for her.