All posts by ruthsoaper

More Fun

Reflections

Today’s weather was a repeat of yesterday, but when my husband went to the farm with the kids dogs I stayed at the house to get some chores done. The sunshine was so inviting I slipped on my flip flops and stepped out on the deck to see if it was as warm as it looked. It was pleasant enough that I decided to finish clearing the snow from the deck, any excuse to spend a few minutes in the sunshine. As I moved the heavy, wet snow with the shovel it formed chunks, “packing snow” I thought, “great for making snowmen.”

I haven’t made a snowman in years decades, but I just couldn’t let this snow go to waste.

I piled the snow on the table in a snowman-like shape, but when I added the pebbles for the eyes and a nose I realized I created a snowdog.

When my husband got home I introduced him to our snowdog. Then he joined in the fun.

“I gave him a tail,” he announced. (No wonder he didn’t realize it was a dog.)

It’s said there is a first time for everything and whether that’s true or not, this is certainly the first time I have ever made a snowman or snowdog while wearing flip flops. LOL!

Thanks for visiting.

When was the last time you made a snowman?

Fun In the Snow and Sun

Reflections

In the aftermath of last night’s winter storm, that dumped between 6 and 8 inches of heavy, wet snow on us, the sun came out and temperatures warmed to around 40 degrees F. It was too nice to stay inside all day, so I ventured to the farm with my husband and the kids dogs for a little fun in the sun.

The chickens, who hate walking in snow, couldn’t resist being in the sunshine either.

They stayed mostly on the path that my husband shoveled for them.

and were happy to find some grass to peck in.

Ruby’s idea of fun is always playing ball,

and Ranger always has fun sniffing.

My fun was riding the 4 wheeler,

and taking some pictures of this glorious day.

Thanks for visiting.

Monthly Inspiration

Inspiration, Reflections

Hello and welcome! I’m having a hard time believing it’s March already, but all of my sources, (phone, computer, wall calendar) assure me that today is March 1st.

So, without further ado our monthly inspiration.

From my 2023 wall calendar.

This morning when I saw the cardinals on the calendar I was reminded of a post I wrote in 2016. Since I have a lot of new followers since that time I will share the link to that post here. I really do think it’s worth reading.

Thanks for visiting.

This Makes Me Smile

Flowers, Planting, Reflections

Last year we waited too long and in April when my husband made a phone call to the greenhouse where he worked in 2019, to see if they had pansies for sale, they told him they were all sold out. He wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

He called them yesterday morning but only got the answering machine. He left a message asking when they would have pansies for sale and received a call back in the afternoon. They had pansies ready, and we could come out and pick some up.

I wish I would have taken my camera along. The green house was enormous and filled with pansies. There were pansies in round pots, pansies in square pots and pansies in flats. There were sections that had flats of all yellow pansies, and all purple, and all red, and all orange, and all white and there were sections that had flats of mixed colors. It was a sight to behold. We selected two flats of mixed colors. Each flat had 18 pansies in it.

We went back to the farm where my husband brought out some flowerpots and opened a bag of potting soil.

I put three flowers in each pot and ended up with 12 pots. You only see 10 in the picture because I took one to my next-door neighbor and the other on would not fit on this table.

Pansies thrive in cooler temperatures, between 40 and 60F but can survive temperatures well below freezing as long as the soil does not freeze. I am eager to put them outside to adorn the flower bed beside our deck but have decided to keep them indoors for a while, at least until after the ice storm that is due to arrive tomorrow.

Getting my hands in the dirt and potting up these cheery flowers certainly made me smile. I hope this picture makes you smile too. 🙂

Thanks for visiting.

A Walk at the Farm

Reflections, The Farm

With temperatures near or at 50 degrees Tuesday I decided it was a good day to get out to the farm for a couple of hours. I grabbed my camera as I headed out with my husband and the kids dogs.

These first three photos were taken two weeks ago as our biggest snowstorm of the season (so far) blanketed our world with 7 inches of snow.

That snow was mostly melted by Tuesday. Looking at our forecast for the next week it seems as if Woody the Woodchuck, Puxatony Phil’s Michigan counterpart, was correct when she predicted an early Spring.

When we arrived at the farm I noticed most of the chickens just inside the barn. Since it was nice outside, I thought this a bit odd until I realized that they were dust bathing. The ground outside was still frozen so the limestone floor of the barn was their best option for dusting themselves.

Ranger went right to work. His mission – to find a bunny.

While Ruby found a ball (or two).

My husband has had several winter projects that he’s worked on at the farm this winter.

The first one is building up our firewood supply. Some of the trees he harvested were on our property while other were dead trees that had fallen on neighbors’ properties. Not everyone in our area burns firewood so fallen trees are often left to rot. Several of the neighbors were happy to let my husband come in and remove the dead trees.

These oak logs on the trailer were from a live tree that was cut by the power company. Again, these neighbors were happy to have my husband remove the logs from their yard. These logs will need to season for a year or more before they are ready to burn.

He has built some piles of tree branches in the woods. These piles serve as wildlife habitat and eventually we might cut some of the dead sticks to use as kindling when we start our fires.

While some of the branches in those piles are from trees he cut down some are from another project. He spent hours picking up fallen branches in the woods. For most of the winter there was no snow on the ground so it was possible for him to go into the woods and pick up fallen branches and sticks – something that I’ve always thought should be done but has never been a priority.

This makes walking through the woods so much easier.

The third project that he spent a lot of time on and I greatly appreciate is mulching the trails.

In previous years this trail was either flooded over or muck and mud this time of year and we just avoided that area until things dried up.

The electric company has had crews trimming trees in our area for the last few months. My husband stopped and asked the workmen if they would drop off some of the mulch at the farm. I think we ended up having 4 or 5 loads of free mulch delivered. One time my husband let the crew park one of their large trucks at the farm for the weekend in exchange for the mulch. It was a win-win.

If it wasn’t for the free mulch the trail through the woods would remain impassable for several months.

While Ranger was still off looking for bunnies,

Ruby spent most of her time hanging out with my husband and I, bringing us a ball and then retrieving it once one of us threw it.

The garden looks so barren and the warm weather has us itchin’ to grow things.

Since we generally don’t start planting in the ground until May it’s even a bit soon to start seeds indoors.

The pond level is extremely low. The 7-inch snowfall brought it up some, but we need a lot more precipitation to bring it up to where it should be.

We did get some of that much needed rain yesterday.

Despite the warmer temperature we didn’t see any bee activity.

That is a bit disheartening, but we are not totally sure that the bees didn’t make it yet.

Little birds like to hang out near the chicken yard where there tends to be food available.

They normally scatter when we approach but I was able to get a couple pictures using my zoom.

The one squirrel nest that we have on our property is nestled in this tree high above the chicken yard. I’m not certain if anyone is home.

Ruby is a master a retrieving the ball but sometimes she doesn’t like to give it up. LOL!

I had to shoo the chickens out of the barn so my husband could put the tractor in.

They seemed very happy when they discovered green grass in front of the barn.

Spotting these green shoots emerging from the ground made me happy.

Daffodils! 🙂 I think this is the earliest I have ever seen them coming up.

Also, in the foreground of this picture are some Iris shoots beginning to sprout up.

I’m fairly certain winter weather will return before spring is here to stay, but if Woody’s prediction is correct, I would be one happy camper gardener.

Thanks for joining me> i hope you enjoyed our walk. Are you seeing signs of spring in your area?