These Days Fly By!

Lots of work going on in the garden these past few days! Mikey has been finishing up the last of the tilling, and removing large rocks from the garden. I have been raking all the soil into raised beds, I've been pruning trees, clearing dead brush, and weeding. Its hard work, and it seems we only do an hour or two of work a day, but it is slowly getting done! The garden and yard look better and better everyday! Trees are starting to bloom, dandelions are popping up everywhere (eeek!), and the grass is going to need a cut soon.

By the end of this week, my cold loving veggies are going to be planted. Those include: Potatoes, Rutabagas (early crop), Carrots, Onions, Radishes, Beets, Garlic, and Horseradish (got a couple pieces of wild horseradish from the farm). These veggies can withstand a frost or two, and the carrots will be covered with plastic so that they stay warm and protected because they have such a long germination period. I'll have to find a specific spot for the horseradish so that we can till it all up after we have picked it all at the end of the season - it's super invasive if you don't.

We've had some great moist weather, with lots of overcast so that the sun doesn't dry up all the rain. I'v already seen some bees, wasps, caterpillars, and big spiders out and about - along with mosquito's... Time to stock up on Eco-Friendly bug spray! Speaking of bugs, there have also been a lot of birds! Some birds that have come back from their winter migration (that I have actually SEEN) are:

Canada Goose

Snow Goose

American Crow

Black Billed Magpie

Mountain Blue Bird

American Robin

Red-Winged Blackbird

Of course there are more, but these are the only ones I've seen since spring time, and have been able to identify. Some that I have seen over winter are:

Blue Jay

Black Capped Chickadee

Boreal Chickadee

Common Raven

Common Redpoll

There will be more to come and go once the season and weather changes. It's exciting for me to try and keep track of the birds that visit because I never really found it interesting before. When you live in the city during the winter, all you see are Crows, Seagulls, Pigeons (doves), and Magpies. They go through your trash and wake you up early in the morning, and then you start to think of them as a bother.

During the winter in the country, you see the small Chickadees come and eat the seeds from spent flowers and trees, I never even knew Redpolls existed, Blue Jays are everywhere, there were even woodpeckers - but there are so many different kinds, that I didn't get a chance to distinguish what kind actually visited. our yard has a few bird feeders, so its exciting to see who comes and visits in the winter, and then find out who comes by in the spring, etc, etc.

Wow, I can hardly believe its already May! In about a month we are having our house warming, and I feel that there is still so much to do in preparation for the party (especially painting). I guess time really does fly by when you're having fun!

Strange Weekend

Honestly - the garage sale has NOT been a very good success, but I blame it on the horribly cold weather, and high winds! We definitely had more people, and a few more purchases compared to yesterday, but definitely not the same kind of "business" as the garage sales we have had at the farm. Tomahawk doesnt get as much drive by business as we did at the farm. Being right along Highway 16 AND 16a, we would make $600 easily in one weekend! So far, I don't think we've even made $100!!

After Mikey got home with Jolene (the Impala), he was called out to 2 fires during the rest of the day. That's a total of 7 fire calls in the last 6 days I believe. (Hopefully his fire cheque will be nice enough to cover any "loss" from the garage sale - heating the garage, lighting the garage, eating take out all weekend....)

When I walked the dog tonight before retiring for the evening, Colt and I saw 7 white tailed Deer running through the back field (the same one in the pics below, with the snow, then sunset). They looked so pretty, and ran far enough until all you could see was a little white dot swinging back and forth, as their bodies blended into the drab backdrop. *sigh* Wildlife is AWESOME!