Visitors

It was a snowy Saturday; so snowy in fact that it was hard to see the trees out back.  Into this blizzard I ventured, wrapped up in scarf and coat to feed my ducks their lunch.  Sadie Rose accompanied me, and we were soon fighting our way through the blowing flakes marveling at the thickness of the falling snow.  After I fed my ducks I decided to go for a quick walk around back and headed up the pine tree path.  It was truly beautiful and I vaguely wished I had my camera with me.  I quickly banished the thought, and decide to simply enjoy the beauty and capture it in my memory.  I was just beginning to head back up when a flutter of wings and a soft cheep-cheep attracted my attention.  Looking up I saw 3 bluebirds peering down at me through the maple branches.   That's it, I thought; I have to fetch my camera.

To my immense relief and surprise they were still there when I returned, and not only did they stay, they POSED!

Truly, the little birds seemed to like me taking pictures of them, and perched, chirped, and tilted their little heads regarding me with curiosity.  I was thrilled.

They perched on branches, bushes, and the tippy top of sumac.

The females reminded me of little English Robins.  So poofy and cute!

Sweet little couple.

I stood out in the snow for what must have been at least 30 minutes if not longer, simply captivated by the charming little creatures.

Perfectly Adorable!

I finally was driven inside by frozen fingers, and shared my find with everyone inside.  Faith made up some Bluebird food and we headed back out to set up a feeder for the little songbirds.

I was a little worried that they all would have left and I wouldn't be able to show Faith them.  But, no, sure enough there were a line of them in the maple tree.   Sitting like little fluffy balls gravely watching the proceedings.  We hope that they find our offerings, and stay around for a little while.  But even if they don't, I am so very grateful for the chance to spend a happy, snowy half hour with these dainty little feather friends.

~Chs

Harvesting The Ice

 When our pond refroze Josiah decided to harvest some of the newly formed ice.  Back in the early days this would have been done with whole communities and horse drawn wagons.  Josiah of course doesn't have access to horses (too bad..) so he used his own strong muscles and our toboggan.

First he chopped a hole with his hatchet for a starting spot.

Next, Mr. Reiche's borrowed saw came into play.

Josiah said "it cut the ice like butter!" :)

About 5 inches wide for each cut, since the ice was about 5 inches thick.

After cutting the slabs, Josiah pulled them out to chop into cubes.

Sadie Rose was very interested in the procedure, and ate every little chip of extra ice laying around.  Frozen doggie!!

Josiah "harvested" 32 ice cubes off of the pond that day.  Now we'll see just how long they last!!

~Chs

All Frozen Again

 It wasn't very long after the "meltdown" when the temperatures once again plummeted and everything froze in place. 

 But, the freeze began before "all the waters had receded off the face of the earth" and after the streams had iced over.  The water continued to decrease to it's normal state, creating a foot gap between the ice you saw, and the partial icy but still running water underneath.

If you were able to punch through the top layer and peer through, you would be rewarded with a look into what seemed like a beautiful, delicate, and almost surreal world.

 Ice structures hung from the ceiling, formed in bubbles around rocks, and magnified the beautiful sound of the rushing water.

 Walls of crystallized condensation stand here and there, creating a visual block in the long cold world.

My favorite part of this under-ice creation had to be the ice feathers.  Scattered all along the edges and some seeming to float on the water, they were simply stunning!

 Much more marvelous than I could capture on camera; I only wish you could have seen them yourself...

 God is a magnificently beautifully complex being, as I am constantly reminded of by viewing the things God imagined and spoke into being!

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 And as if ice layers weren't enough beauty a couple of days later there was another marvel of winter.

Frost coating the trees, fences, bushes..... everything!!!!

And just to make it more majestic, God paired the white outlined trees with a light mist down below and piercing blue skies above!!!

 Chicken wire + frost feathers = beautiful :)

Little love birds in a frosty tree.... then on second thought they have their backs to each other.......

Isn't it simply stunning!?!?!?!?!!

Look at all those little tiny ice crystals!  Truly amazing.

See what I mean?   

Reaching to Heaven.

We have a truly creative Father!!  Go out and take sometime to just soak in the beauty and worship Him for it.

It won't be a waste of your time... promise.

~Chs

The Meltdown

Only two days after our skating adventure everything began to change.

Snow began to sag, water droplets hung on branches, the breeze became warm... and..

ice began to melt.  Well, a little, but the ice on the pond was still very thick (4 to 5 inches thick that is), so Josiah and I took on the task of cutting the ice around the pond so that it would be free to float up when the expected flood came the next day.  We cut a total of 110 feet around the pond.  Talk about sore muscles!!

And the flood sure did come!!  My little duck families were absolutely thrilled to go swimming before breakfast, in their own pens!!

Silly Ducks!

As expected, the ice on the pond floated, creating a wonderful ice raft.  So Josiah and Faith rafted around on the ice flow, and I stayed in the more stable and less slippery canoe, sometimes joined by Sadie Rose! We had fun re-enacting both Eliza from "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (sprinting across breaking ice flows) and the Titanic (accidentally running the canoe into hidden "icebergs" thankfully it never actually sunk :)

The duckies came out on the big pond too, but they really preferred the shallow parts where they could dabble in the mud underneath.

A week before the meltdown Aunt Carmen gave us two snow tubes, since our tubes from last year had sustained fatal injuries on the sled runs, and were out of commission.  Well, before we got the chance to use the snow tubes for what they were created for, we had "the meltdown".   Not wanting to waste the wonderful gifts, we did what any creative and slightly backwoods people would do.  We used them as water tubes!!!  They floated wonderfully; the only problem being that they were almost impossible to control. :P

We squeezed as much fun as we could out of the flooding before everything froze later that week!  God truly has a sense of humor with all these fluctuations in temperature!!

~Chs

New Comer - Happy Ducks

We have a new arrival at Lily Spring Farm.  A week or so ago we received a call asking if we could provide a home for an only remaining duck, whose companions were carried off by wild animals.  We said "YES!"  of course, and so an adorable Rouen/Mallard hen came to join my ducky flock.  She came with a name, but said name was already owned by one of the family :)  So I renamed her.

Meet Rosa!  Rosa enjoyed a quick bath inside before heading out to bed with what I hoped would be her new family:  Hans and Gretel, the Buffs. 

 I was a little worried the next morning when I went to let them out, not quite sure how the other two would react to the newcomer.  Thankfully Hans and Gretel acted as if they had always known Rosa, and as Rosa does not have a shy personality, they got along just fine.

They were happy Ducks, when the next day they woke up and found they could go swimming in their pen!!!  Not exactly planned...  But you will hear more about that in "the meltdown".

~Chs