There is not much that is more "Canadian" then spending the morning ice skating on a frozen lake. Grandpa worked tirelessly to clear a gorgeous skating rink for the boys. Today, it was finally sunny enough to brave the frigid temperatures in order to try it out. While Ian and I shovelled last night's dusting of snow off the ice, Grandpa and the boys laced up their skates and they were off!
It was Seamus' first skate!
Liam's skating lessons are paying off.
Grandpa and Liam are on a break away!
As with most activities, Liam and Seamus' attention span lasted about 5 minutes.
Evidence that my toddlers are still a bit too young to appreciate how lucky they are to have a beautiful outdoor skating rink in the great white North.
How to keep a two year old interested in skating - add a dump truck!
In addition to ice skating, we have been busy filling our holidays with many other outdoor adventures.
Mountain climbing.
Ice fishing.
Shovel rides.
Wild life surveillance (aka feeding the deer).
The best thing about spending our mornings outside (aside from the fresh air, exercise, and family bonding) is that the boys have wonderfully long afternoon naps. Ahhh....peace and quiet at last.
As delicious as farm fresh eggs are, I must report that we have been getting very few of them lately.
By few, I mean we get one measly egg per day. One. It is normal for egg production to decrease in the winter but this seems ridiculous. We have over two dozen hens! Or so I thought. I have begun to wonder if we have a rooster living a clandestine life as a hen.
Our rooster Beemster.
A hen.
Mystery chicken. A rooster gallivanting as a hen?
Our mystery bird does not crow and what might be its leg spurs are very small. It is also very skittish and shows no interest in consorting with the ladies. However, its large combs sure make it look like a rooster.
Given that our hens are getting older and the new chicks we will get in the spring will not begin to lay until November 2018, I have been looking forward to getting a few guaranteed eggs from the three chicks hatched by our broody hen this past summer. If one of these chicks turns out to be a freeloading rooster, it will not help augment my egg production. Though in fairness, my two dozen hens who continue to eat a ton and lay very little are not helping egg production right now either. If laying does not pick up as spring approaches, it might be time to think about making some chicken soup. One egg a day is just sad.
As the Christmas celebrations come to a close and we prepare to welcome the new year, I am happy to report that most of my holiday baking has been devoured. All that is left of my date squares, ginger molasses cookies, peanut butter balls, Rice Krispie squares, and butter tarts are crumbs.
A very satisfying end to a wonderfully festive holiday season.
We are not having much luck catching many rays outside lately. It is so cold, Liam turned into a snowman!
I was worried that my hens and ducks might be on their way to experiencing a similar fate. They are receiving no natural rays of any kind as they refuse to venture outside their coop. I am still supplementing their day light in the mornings but this week I decided that it was time to get their heat lamp up and running.
A broken heat lamp is no good to anyone but with a pair of pliers and some elbow grease...voila!
My hens are now basking in the infrared rays of their new heat lamp.
I heat the coop during the really cold days mostly because I have a soft heart and I do not want my birds to be freezing. I figure that if I am cold, they are cold. Their combs are especially sensitive to very cold temperatures and can turn from red to black (permanently) if they get frostbitten.
I use a red coloured heat lamp not to mess up the hens' sleep patterns when it is left on at night; chickens do not perceive red light as daylight.
I also scatter scratch feed on the coop floor on the really cold nights to get the chickens to come down from their roosts and get moving. Eating scratch helps the hens to generate body heat, warming both the coop and the individual birds as their bodies make energy from the additional calories.
Hopefully these precautions will save my hens from the unfortunate fate of becoming chicken snowmen as these outrageously cold temperatures persist for the next week or so.
The boys always enjoy a trip to visit the Cedar Acres Farm turkeys.
Every since they were really little, our boys have been in love with turkeys. In this video, a very small Seamus is playing with his favourite outdoor toy - Ian's turkey decoy.
Uncle Kyle's turkeys are always a crowd pleaser. Perhaps this is because my "crowd" is made up of two turkey-loving toddlers.
The boys love to sing to the turkeys.
They love to follow them around.
Liam is trying to pet this massive tom. The tom is not particularly interested in Liam's affections.
And most of all, Liam and Seamus are thrilled that Uncle Kyle will catch a turkey for them to pet.
Turkey love.
"Catch" is a bit of a misnomer. This hen was in no hurry to get off Uncle Kyle's knee. Talk about some love for your farmer.
In contrast to Liam and Seamus, I am more interested in the cows.
However, the boys are immune to the cows' cuteness - they are all about the turkeys. We even brought a turkey, the frozen kind, home as a Christmas gift. Frozen turkeys are not so good for petting, unless you want to get Salmonella poisoning and end up in the Children's Hospital on Boxing Day. Wait....we have already done that and have no desire for a repeat. This unfortunate turkey-related experience led to the adoption of one very important farm rule: it does not matter how much you love them, no petting turkeys without feathers.
After another overnight snowfall, I spent another morning shoveling. Unlike yesterday, at least my pathways to the barn were still visible.
My view from the garage door this morning.
The sheep also worked on reestablishing their curvy pathways in the paddock. Did you know they follow each other in a line? Even in the summer, they wear a footpath into the meadow.
The sheep's main path.
Our mice, crows, and rabbits also worked on their pathways today. I am not sure where they were all headed but to be out in this weather it must have been somewhere important.
Each time I shovel, my paths get a bit wider. Soon it will look like the 401 in my yard.
Sandy the deer has been in our deep freeze for a while now. Yet, this is not the only place I bump into her. Our oven and fridge are two other likely places to find Sandy loitering. That makes sense, right?
Well, how about our laundry tub?
Yes, that is her pelt. In my laundry tub.
Or our front entrance way?
And most surprising of all - on our kitchen table.
I could not understand why the boys told me that they had opened their Advent calendars on the floor in the living room until I came downstairs and saw Sandy occupying the entire kitchen table.
Thank goodness, she has now taken up residence in Ian's office -
Ian curing Sandy's pelt while watching a movie.
- hopefully permanently. I did not sign up to live with a deer.
Our sickly goldfish named Extra Fox has been on the way out for a while. After confining herself to hospice care in a crevice in the wood decoration, Extra Fox has finally moved on to the fishy afterlife. Ian had a heck of a time flushing her soft decomposing fish corpse out of the crevice. Ew.
RIP Extra Fox. You were a lovely pet goldfish.
Today we took the boys to adopt a new goldfish to fill the void in our tank left by Extra Fox's departure. On the way to the pet store, Liam decided that we would name the new fish: Another Extra Fox. After much debate, Ian and I convinced him that a new fish should have a brand new name. We agreed to call our new addition Doc. Liam picked him out. He was enthralled by his telescoping eyes.
Doc.
However, as soon as we put Doc into the aquarium Axe took issue with him. Axe chased Doc around sucking on his bulbous eyes. We left it for a few minutes but when Axe did not stop harassing Doc we put him in time out.
Fishy time out.
Unfortunately, this did not seem to have the desire effect. As soon as Axe was gone, Goldie and Nixie Nox started chasing Doc to suck on his eyeballs.
I fed them as a distraction and turned off their aquarium light to reduce visibility but I think Doc is either going to have to learn to stand his ground or become adept at hiding. Sadly, I do not think he will fit into Extra Fox's old crevice. Though, this may be for the best as it might still reek of decomposing fish remains.
We have "hunted" our Christmas tree; though, it is less wild than in previous years. Yes, I admit it, we bought it from the old man in the Best Buy parking lot. A -15 degrees Celcius day with toddlers who hate the cold, does not make for good tree hunting conditions. We chose a tree in about 4 minutes - a speed record I hope not to have to repeat in future years.
Our tree is trimmed.
For all intents and purposes, the tree-related work should now be done. However, it is taking all of my energy to keep the grimy fingers of a few specific rascals off of the decorations.
Instead of focusing my energy on blocking Liam and Seamus' urges to touch the ornaments, today I tried working with them by having the boys make their own decorations. We worked on making popcorn garlands. A snack, a craft, and a diversion - the trifecta.
The thing with toddler crafts is that we always get to about here...
...when I hear, "Mama, I'm bored of this. Can you finish mine?"
I would characterize the garlands as a moderate success. On the up-side there were no complaints of hunger. On the down-side, it was very messy.
On the up-side, the "schnauz-uums" were more than happy to clean the floor for us. See below for a video of Charlotte and Emily vacuuming the floor with their snouts. A time saver for sure!
Not only is our delicious honey for sale in their tasting room...
See it there? Middle left.
...but we got to sample beer made with our honey! How exciting. You really feel like you are moving up in the world when your farm's produce is being used to make something as delicious as craft beer.
It is a spiced ale that is called Midwinter Warmer. The brewers describe it as a "beautiful auburn ale [that] has notes of citrus and cinnamon on the nose. You taste sweet citrus and dark bread, followed by cinnamon and ginger with a mild heat". Best of all it was made with several jars of our very own honey! Divine.
Seamus was fascinated by the goings on in the brewery. Are we surprised? He is his father's son. Now he is torn between wanting to be a dump truck driver, a mail delivery man, or a brewer when he grows up.
