Wow. What a difference a week makes. Just last Friday I noted winter was over…and we had eight inches of snow a few days later. It’s mostly all gone now, but I ‘m REALLY glad I’m a slacker and hadn’t planted anything in the garden yet.
Ugh. But even Very Excellent Husband Don says this was the LAST one of the year!
I miss Sophia very much. I’ve been scatter-brained and unable to concentrate all week. But life must go on, so I’ve thrown myself into all sorts of different projects that mostly require action rather than thought. I’ve gotten a lot done!
The excitement of the week has been birds, birds, birds. We have a huge magpie nest in our yard and apparently the babies fledged yesterday. I discovered this because Keela was in the yard and the parents were going NUTS NUTS NUTS trying to get her away from the baby. They were dive bombing her and screeching. Oh my, they were screeching!
It is a huge nest!
I found the baby. Keela was close to it, but not going after it. The dog is comfortable around birds, I guess.
Little baby on the ground.
The baby wasn’t in the same place when we went out for morning feeding, but must have been hiding in the grass or low limbs of one of the trees in the far back. Mom and Dad Magpie were again freaking out. Keela looked very confused as she did her regular rounds, dodging the birds as they tried to make her as miserable as possible. She seemed to be thinking, “What’s wrong with you guys? I do this every day and all of a sudden you’ve got a problem?”
It happened again later in the day and I found they had not one, but two youngsters working hard to make their way in the world. They were on low branches in a tree, with the parents up above keeping watch.
Mom and Dad keeping an eye on the baby in the bottom left corner.
Little one, you’ve got a couple of attentive parents above you!
This little one is the older sibling. The tail is much longer than the baby! (But much shorter than mom and dad’s!)
It was nice to see a new baby around. It was sweet to see the parents being so protective.
And…speaking of good parenting and babies…
Keep your fingers crossed for my hen, Rapunzel. She’s been broody for a couple of weeks and I finally went out to a farm and got some fertilized eggs for her. It was the day after Sophia died. It felt right. We picked up four eggs from a farm woman who I could have talked to for hours. She was the real deal and I was in awe. We came home and I tucked them underneath Rapunzel right before the snowstorm hit.
Nothing but possibilities!
Unfortunately, Rapunzel’s gotten confused twice and hopped into the wrong nesting box after one of her broody hen eat/drink/poop/leg stretch sessions. I think I caught her mistake and got her back into the right box quick enough. Hopefully.
She is one focused hen. You go, girl!
Fingers crossed all goes well. If so, we should have babies around the first of June! Yippee!
(Shared at Little House Friday, From The Farm Hop, Old Fashioned Friday, HomeAcre Hop, Down Home Hop, Backyard Farming Connection, Maple Hill Hop, Tuesdays With A Twist, Homestead Barn Hop, Clever Chicks Hop, Homesteaders Hop, Simple Saturdays and Farmgirl Friday)
Well thank goodness you didn’t plant before now, snow this late seems crazy. I’m excited to see how your eggs go, fingers crossed for some babies! Happy Monday Friend.
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Yes! We love them babies! So far, so good 🙂
I do not miss the snow! Thanks for sharing at the homeacre homesteading blog hop! Feel free to stop by (www.PintSizeFarm.com) and submit again this week 🙂
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