While last winter did not strike me as having the lowest temperature-it certainly gets top consideration for longest lasting.
Winter began in November and is not willing to let go yet. We had 6 inches of snow a couple of weeks ago-frost still in the ground, and half the pond still has a floating layer of slushy ice.
Usually when the ice goes, it goes. But we have had consistly cold temperatures-and on any day hoping to get a poke at 60F, we have had stiff winds out of the Northeast. Northeast, with Canada a stone's throw away, is bad enough, but the frozen pond lies to our Northeast, acting like a giant refridgerator on those promising sunny days with 40 mph wind gusts.
I coudn't wait to rake out my perennial beds-two days later they were full of leaves again-from the woods, I suppose-and empty flower pots and seedling trays scattered about the borders as well. Once the last few chickens go to the chhicken version of the afterlife, I am going to convert their coop to a garden shed so I won't be chasing tools and containers all over the yard.
The robins came back, and the snow made them miserable. They flew from the staghorn sumacs to the edges of the stream, making the banks look like a flock of wild turkeys had gone through. Maybe they had, but I haven't seen them since my neighbor's son and boyfriend starting blasting them morning and night when their highbush blueberries were ripe late last summer.
I got a pretty big kick watching the flock headed by Mom and daughter crossing the lawn with their -highest count 18-juvenile turkeys. They would go down to the stream to drink and head back to the blueberry patch and meadow every afternoon. Usually I have a tom or two and a couple hens this time of year, but I haven't seen them, either.
I guess that particular hen is no more-I watched her with her little ones as young as day old through the summer last year. They used to roost in my big hemlocks. The first time she wnet to roost wiht them she was too high for them and they couldn't get up. WHat a racket of distress those little turkeys made! Momma finally had to get down and find an easier place for them to reach.
As they grew, they would all climb the bank next to the house, which, if they flew straight out, would gain them about twenty feet up in the trees without too much effort. They they would fly from tree to tree getting higher as they went.
They didn't bother any of my garden-I was worried about the ripening pumpkins, but they left them alone. I put the last pumpkin on the lawn last fall and said, "this is for the deer" and believe it or not, one morning there were deer prints-sometime in January- where a doe and yearling had come out of the woods and pawed the frozen pumpkin out of the snow and ate it over a period of several nights.
Deer also apparently love evening primose crowns. I let some self sow in the garden-the bees like it, and I find the yellow flowers and stalks interesting-but apparenty the deer relish it, as well. That was fine with me-I have plenty and it self sows readily.
Winter began in November and is not willing to let go yet. We had 6 inches of snow a couple of weeks ago-frost still in the ground, and half the pond still has a floating layer of slushy ice.
Usually when the ice goes, it goes. But we have had consistly cold temperatures-and on any day hoping to get a poke at 60F, we have had stiff winds out of the Northeast. Northeast, with Canada a stone's throw away, is bad enough, but the frozen pond lies to our Northeast, acting like a giant refridgerator on those promising sunny days with 40 mph wind gusts.
I coudn't wait to rake out my perennial beds-two days later they were full of leaves again-from the woods, I suppose-and empty flower pots and seedling trays scattered about the borders as well. Once the last few chickens go to the chhicken version of the afterlife, I am going to convert their coop to a garden shed so I won't be chasing tools and containers all over the yard.
The robins came back, and the snow made them miserable. They flew from the staghorn sumacs to the edges of the stream, making the banks look like a flock of wild turkeys had gone through. Maybe they had, but I haven't seen them since my neighbor's son and boyfriend starting blasting them morning and night when their highbush blueberries were ripe late last summer.
I got a pretty big kick watching the flock headed by Mom and daughter crossing the lawn with their -highest count 18-juvenile turkeys. They would go down to the stream to drink and head back to the blueberry patch and meadow every afternoon. Usually I have a tom or two and a couple hens this time of year, but I haven't seen them, either.
I guess that particular hen is no more-I watched her with her little ones as young as day old through the summer last year. They used to roost in my big hemlocks. The first time she wnet to roost wiht them she was too high for them and they couldn't get up. WHat a racket of distress those little turkeys made! Momma finally had to get down and find an easier place for them to reach.
As they grew, they would all climb the bank next to the house, which, if they flew straight out, would gain them about twenty feet up in the trees without too much effort. They they would fly from tree to tree getting higher as they went.
They didn't bother any of my garden-I was worried about the ripening pumpkins, but they left them alone. I put the last pumpkin on the lawn last fall and said, "this is for the deer" and believe it or not, one morning there were deer prints-sometime in January- where a doe and yearling had come out of the woods and pawed the frozen pumpkin out of the snow and ate it over a period of several nights.
Deer also apparently love evening primose crowns. I let some self sow in the garden-the bees like it, and I find the yellow flowers and stalks interesting-but apparenty the deer relish it, as well. That was fine with me-I have plenty and it self sows readily.
