Thursday, March 24, 2011

Spring?

Possibly, might, be here...

Yesterday, while in the back with the girls, the male ring-necked pheasant made an appearance, and I heard him "gobble gobble"-ing throughout the afternoon.

And today, just after I brought the girls in, I saw a crow in our backyard, picking around at the dead grass and weeds. Didn't know exactly what he was looking for, it was strange to see him hanging around there. Then another crow came, and showed the first one how it was done - they gathered large beakfulls of the longer straw-like remains of the grass - and you know why!! I was so excited! If crows are starting to build and pad-out nests, SPRING really might be here! Hurray!

That's why it's nice to leave a little bit of wilderness in your backyard if you can - a close-mowed all-grass lawn can't provide the variety of food and nesting materials that "weeds" like clover and long wheat-like grasses can.

Forgive the quality, it was taken through our triple-glazed window. :)

Monday, March 21, 2011

Buy Local and the Family Farm

I've been training full time for a new job, haven't had time to write unfortunately!

Saw this nice article in the Herald this a.m. talking about one farm's journey from local provider of beef, to raising cattle to be finished and butchered far away, to coming back full circle and providing fresh anti-biotic free meat to the new local farmer's market. It's a good story, and one I hope will be repeated more and more as time goes by.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1234215.html