Wowzers, 2016 is going out with a bang tonight! We have had heavy snow since later in the afternoon and evening, and here at 9:30 pm we are at nearly 7". Add that to what we still had on the ground, and in some spots we must be up to a foot of snow now. Too bad, I was just starting to enjoy the green patches that were reappearing, and so were the chickens. Ramona the sheep got herself out to the hay field today where there was a decent patch of exposed grass out in the middle, and had herself a good fresh meal. We are just about at the end of our fourth week of wintery weather, I think we have had snow on the ground in spots that whole time. Not a common thing for us.
Our walk this afternoon
Our house is straight ahead
From the livingroom window, with reflection of the Christmas tree lights.
At our neighbours about 6pm
I wandered down to the road about 11pm
Our 'retro' icicle lights, every third icicle isn't working
Will have to try and shake the hedge off in the morning
But the Pampas Grass at the corner of the house is beyond help
Happy New Year to you and yours from all of us at Wyndson Farm.
Christmas has come and gone once again. And you know, it's only another 360 days until the next Christmas!! Bet you can't wait!
We had a nice time with our immediate family. We had to do a bit of sharing, so all of us weren't together until after mid afternoon. Just in time to squeeze our Christmas photo shoot in before we lost all the light. We definitely had a white Christmas, but snow levels were quite variable in Abbotsford, so for many people it would have been a bit of a stretch to use the adjective 'white'. I think things evened out on Boxing Day though. We sat in our neighbour's living room, in front of the fireplace, and watched the most beautiful snow come down all afternoon. Unfortunately it turned to rain later in the evening, and once again became a soggy mess. Meredith got her car stuck in our driveway, but didn't want to drive home on the snowy roads anyway, so ended up spending the night.
So here's the Brandsons, the 2016 version.
We are down one doggy member this Christmas, but have gained a couple more. Left to right.
Meredith, David and his girlfriend Melissa, Larry, and your's truly.
Four-footed members are Shy on the left (Melissa's dog), puppy Tucker (David's Christmas present from Melissa), Jake and Luna.
David has been in England the last six months, doing an internship with Rolls Royce in Chichester. He has decided not to return to England after Christmas. He left Rolls Royce on good terms, being told he was the best intern ever in his department. He will be back at university for his last semester in January.
Jake found Christmas exhausting. Some new toys and they all had SQUEAKERS!!
Little Tucker found Christmas exhausting too!
On Christmas Eve he arrived in Santa's sleigh an airplane from the North Pole the cold Cariboo. Melissa got David to the airport, totally unsuspecting. At the last minute she handed him a little package that contained a collar and a leash! The rest is history as they say. Tucker is mostly Australian Shepherd, with a little Border Collie thrown in for variety. He is three months old.
(Just in case you are wondering, David has been wanting a dog for quite a while)
And Tucker is a little cutie! Nothing phases him, or at least no more than a second or two.
B*itchy Luna gets after him sometimes, but he bounces right back and tells her what he thinks, yap yap yap!
He offered to help her out and uncover her soccer ball
Shy is the only one to play with him so far, and she is very good with him.
Tucker and gang are visiting Oliver for a few days.
It's so peaceful here again ;-)
Larry and I got all the chicken coops cleaned out this afternoon. Between the snow, wet slush and short days and long nights, the chicken coops get messy really quickly. It's an ongoing job. I'm really looking forward to some snow melting so that they can get out and about more. Looking at the forecast, that doesn't seem like it's going to happen in a hurry.
On Friday we got an unexpected snowfall. The temperatures were above freezing, and rain was in the forecast, but instead it snowed. This morning (Saturday) it was all very pretty.
The sun just coming up
It started out mostly cloudy
The sky was starting to break up to the south. Looking over our hay field to the neighbours.
To the east there was blue sky. This is our old riding ring and the horse shelter back there. Luna abandoned her ball and she and Jake took off on a hot scent.
Jake
More blue sky to the east, and Luna.
There's a trail through there somewhere.
We'll let the Yeti go first.
Loving that blue sky!
It froze overnight, so the snow was not heavy and wet.
Looking across the back hayfield. See the fog bank hanging back there. Glen Valley and the Fraser River are to the north of us. We get the fog rising up from there sometimes.
Makes me think of a Bev Doolittle painting.
And by the time we were done, the fog bank had rolled back over us. No more sunshine for us today.
I'd like to wish every one of my readers a very Merry Christmas. Thanks for hanging in there through the blogging dry times.
Well winter is still sticking with us. It has been quite cold, at least compared to our usual temperatures. Looks like next week we will get some more snow and then a warm spell and it will probably turn into an awful slushy mess.
Yesterday morning we were heading out for our bush walk. Jake looked really uncomfortable, like he was hurting. When he stopped his back legs were trembling. I had an idea, so ran back to the house and scrounged up a few booties. Calli used to use them on her back feet, which dragged a bit, when she was still able to get around on her own.
Hence the pink boots. Not that Jake cared, but they did the job. I had done a very good job of clipping all the extra hair from the bottom of his feet, because he is older now and 'worries' about the slippery laminate floor. The lack of hair helped him in the house, but made for cold feet outside.
This picture is on our afternoon walk, that we take most days.
A mile walk around the block that starts at the bottom of our driveway. It wasn't quite as dark as it looks here, but I wanted to get the pretty sky. It was downhill here and a bit icy. I think Larry is probably slipping a bit right in front of our eyes! And Luna, she is way off, that dark spot in the ditch, above and to the left of Jake.
This after noon we went down to the dyke. This is about 3:15, and the sun is just about to drop behind the hill. The days are depressingly short. That's Larry walking with the dogs on the lower trail. We had dropped down there to get past other people with dogs. A fellow stopped to warn us about a large dead smelly salmon further along, that a few dogs had already rolled in. Yuk! That is not a smell you want in your car.
Jake and Luna ran ahead to the swimming hole. They THINK they want to fetch something out of the water, but really they wouldn't. In the photo above where the creek is wider, you can see the ice on it.
The sun disappeared fast and it started to get cold very quickly. The scenery was lovely though. Looking across the blueberry field. Just after this photo, an eagle flew into one of those tall trees, to join another that was already there.
See those two black dots in the tree on the right?
We also saw a couple of herons, one flying and one standing in the water, brrr. There was a seagull on the creek that kept sticking it's head under and pulling pieces of dead salmon off the bottom. At least that is what I think it was doing. There were two coyotes on the other side of the creek further along. Last week I was walking down there with a friend, and saw one of those same coyotes. It was quite distinctive, being a darker colour and a good size (maybe a coydog?) and last week it did a lot of the classic coyote barking.
Last week.....Staring and barking back at the coyote....Luna, Breeze, Jake and Lexi.
We haven't had much of a winter for a few years. We usually get a few frozen spells, but it feels like it's been a while since we had much in the way of snow.
Our snow started on Monday of last week. Not much, but enough to make things interesting. Or maybe frustrating, in Luna's mind. How on earth is a girl supposed to play soccer with all that wet heavy white stuff sticking to the ball?
We had some cold sunny days, and then last weekend we got more snow. I think this was from Saturday morning. By Saturday afternoon we had about 6 inches, and then it started to rain.
We got a bit of freezing rain, and there were quite a few smaller branches that came down. Thankfully on Sunday morning when we were heading to farmer's market, the weather was just cold and cloudy, and the roads were good.
Sunday night we got some more snow. So back up to 4 or 5 inches. Today the sky started to clear, and we had some lovely blue skies and sunshine. There are some pretty impressive icicles at the front of the house. Drifting snow filled the eaves troughs, and then the just above freezing temperatures and the warm air from the attic created by the heat from the chimney caused some melting.
Yesterday's walk through our bush was beautiful, but I hadn't taken a camera. It wasn't quite as pretty this morning as some of the snow had fallen off the branches, but still nice enough! There was a frozen crust under the surface of the snow, and I don't think Jake liked it because he stuck pretty close.
Lots of rabbit and bird tracks. Funny, I don't remember ever seeing any rabbits out there.
Jake has made his own route to get up the hill from the creek. The cattle in the Fall made a mess of the trail here.
Looking across our back hay field at the old horse shed. Look at that sky!!
Down through the old riding ring. Did I ever mention that at one time we had four horses?
Looking south across the other hayfield, and the our neighbour's pasture.
Some of the hens hanging out with Ramona in her leanto on the side of the chicken coop.
The hens aren't impressed with this weather, but they know how to warm up their feet.
