Country Birds vs City Birds

Funny thing about life, it just keeps barreling forward whether you get everything done that you want to or not! Life has been keeping me busy, and we’ve met some challenges, but we are still really loving our new home.

Recently we were hit with heavy snow, as I mentioned, and part of living off the beaten path, means clearing that path so you can make it to work the next day, or even the mail box, in our case! It also means that time others might get to spend indoors, is spent outside shoveling, since we lack modern conveniences like a plow or snow blower.

Even though the work was slow and tedious, thankfully the snow was light and fluffy, and the fresh air, and beautiful view made the work pleasant and move quickly.

While the company was also enjoyable, since hubby and I were shoveling together, the highlight of the day was spotting a hawk that not only have hubby and I never seen in MI before, despite having lived here our entire lives, we also had no idea what kind of hawk it was.

After some research with a friend, hubby was able to discover that it is a Rough Legged Hawk. It had us baffled, because it was quite large, but we could tell by it’s markings it wasn’t a bald eagle, even though we thought it was close in size. It turns out it has a 5 foot wingspan, and only migrates to Michigan in the winter! These are the type of things, that while this life might not be for everyone, it’s why we love it.

I was driving to “town” (13 miles away) the other day and thought to myself, it’s so different out here; near the city if you see birds, you typically see doves, blue jays, pigeons and crows. Near our home, a good number of the birds I see are hawks of all different varieties, but there are also cardinals, chickadees, blue birds and even a few finches…and it’s not even spring yet!

Thanks for reading!

Hockey, Hiking, and Heartache

Things have been busy around the homestead lately with lots of learning along the way. I’m not sure if I’ve already mentioned it, but we know how to work our damper a little better now, so the fireplace has done a much better job of helping to heat the house.

Hubby had Sunday off and for the first time in what feels like a very long time we were all home together with NOTHING we had to do. We did have plans to go to a friends for the super bowl in the evening but we had the whole day to ourselves. I decided we should go out for a walk through our woods since we hadn’t don’t that yet. I figured we would play in the snow and gather a little more firewood. I also told my 7 year old daughter that we would clear off a patch of the pond so she could try out her new ice skates.

The pond feels HUGE when you are out in the middle of it. With all of us working together, we were able to clear an area pretty quickly. Hubby gathered his worn-with-love hockey sticks from the covered carport that serves as our shed right now, and I grabbed a puck from the house. We had a nice family game of hockey. The ice princess-in-training even did really well on her skates! All the kids received money for Christmas from one of their grandmother’s, and ice princess was adamant that she use it on skates, even though, at the time, we had not even moved in yet!

After our game we grabbed some sleds to pull the saw and hatchet on, as well as the small kids, and we though we might pull wood back on them as well (that didn’t pan out how hubby anticipated.). We had a nice walk to the back of our property and found that we have several clearings and not quite as much woods as we thought. We did find a large number of young trees though, and I was really excited to find a few birch trees among them! The highlight of the walk though was definitely discovering what is probably the oldest tree on our property. Standing regal and majestic, even when void of leaves, my best guess is that it’s some type of oak. Through some creative tree-hugging we were able to estimate that the trunk is approximately 15 feet in circumference and that the tree is likely to be between 100-150 years old. The tree is truly behemoth for this little corner of our world, and while I’m sure it would not quite rival any red woods or sequoia’s, it is still a wondrous site to behold. I didn’t have my phone with me, but I will be sure to get a picture of it to share.

When we were done marveling at nature, we went on the hunt for felled trees and found several suitable for firewood that were also easy enough to handle. We were able to get several large pieces cut, then we decided to head inside for some lunch and to warm up a bit.

The snow had been falling slowly, but steadily all day…a sign of the impending, forecasted “snowpocolypse.” It was also a somber reminder that our beloved pups had run off only the day before and had not yet returned. Even though it was a lovely day, and we headed to our friends that evening as planned, it just wasn’t the same without them hanging out in the snow with us.

The drive home was slow and a bit treacherous at times thanks to about half of our total snowfall already being on the ground. Thankfully hubby can handle a vehicle well and we have four wheel drive, so we arrived safely and got the kids tucked into bed.

As my head hit the pillow, my mind wandered to thoughts of my fur babies; where they might be, and prayers that they weren’t caught outside in the 14+ inches of snow we received.

Thanks for stopping by!