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January 25, 2012

Part #18: Winter Fun

It's been such a different kind of topsy-turvy winter for us here in Nova Scotia.
We've had such a warm weather winter, that we still don't have snow that has stayed.
There have been a few dumps of snow, including a nice winter wonderland covering just in time for Christmas, but none of it has lasted with the spring like temperatures we've also received.

The most memorable storm was called a 'weather bomb'. It rolled through fast, with very powerful winds and rain, and left us a full rainbow.

These are fox tracks that Brad found along the paths around the homesite. It checked out every corner where it thought it might find a rodent for dinner.

We're pretty sure a squirrel lives here because his midden (food storage) was just across (below) from the home.

The day after these were taken the snow was gone again.

These probably are coyote tracks, though unless you see the animal you can't know for sure. The other options would be a linx or bobcat.

I found it interesting that these same coyote tracks come up a steep cliff along the stream (you can see the icicles hanging on the cliff across the stream). It makes me wonder if there is a den down the cliff, as we can see many good small caves & holes in the rocks across the way, and assume our side of the stream has them too.

I have no idea who lives here, but it is such a wonderful location with the rock overhanging the doorway.

You can read further updates on my Facebook page and on Twitter.

Benita Skinner
Victoriana Quilt Designs

Have a comment?
Let me know!

~~~

December 8, 2011

Part #17: Sharing the Season

My husband and I have been adjusting to the change of season.
We had a oddly spring-like November and December with warm temperatures, except for one record early snowfall the third week in November.
When walking to the mail box, the snow went up to the top of my boot!
We enjoyed the first track of the season...a rabbit, with wide back feet.
And also noticed this snow had a lovely blue glow, below the surface.

A few days after the snowfall, Brad followed large 'melty' tracks that crossed the path - wondering if they were a man's tracks. But he soon realized that they led in and under places that a man wouldn't walk...but unlike me, he is reluctant say they were bear tracks.

With the daylight getting so short, as we get nearer to the winter solstice (plus the extra clouds that are part of the autumn season), we are struggling more than we had in the summertime, with having enough electricity.
We find ourselves planning what we'll 'do' depending on the weather.
A sunny day requires different chores (roasting coffee beans, ironing, etc.) than a cloudy day...and if it's really raining, planning to have enough sticks & wood and doing something indoors.

I'm including this picture of our woodstove with some pots on it, as Brad is cooking this way more often, now that we have less electricity to use.

On our recent explorations, we've been looking for birch trees with Chaga mushrooms growing out of them.
Brad, who is a huge fan of herbal medicine, has discovered that these Chaga mushrooms have powerful antioxidant, along with other medicinal properties.

We've been lucky to find about a dozen, so far, and are now drinking a tea of it daily.

We also found this interesting tree, with a different kind of mushrooms encircling and growing right up to the top.

While going for a water run, and an exploration walk one afternoon, we heard a bunch of coyotes yelping and howling, further into the forest from where we were looking at some trees.
In general, we aren't afraid of coyotes, but we know enough to be on our guard against a pack of them.
We couldn't see them, but we sure heard them having fun making their calls.
When we continued up the path with the cart Brad uses to haul the water (when there isn't snow), they suddenly got all quiet, which means they were close enough to hear us, too.
We've heard them in the distance several times since then, having a howling party.
It was a surprise to us that there was more than one coyote, as we've only seen the single tracks last winter....perhaps it's a family.

I've finished the pair of 'Easy Peasy Eco-friendly Knitted Tube Socks' that I was making for Brad last month.
You will find the recipe here...Happy Knitting!

I hope you have a Wonderful Holiday Season, and find some of your own nature to enjoy!

You can read further updates on my Facebook page and on Twitter.

Benita Skinner
Victoriana Quilt Designs

~~~

November 15, 2011

Part #16: Ready for Winter

As the first frost is on the ground, I've been hearing the 'ting' of the metal hardware cloth that Brad has put around the house to keep the critters from getting back under the house, or in the walls.

It's just for a minute, which makes me think whoever is checking...skunk or squirrel...they are ever hopeful for getting back in!

Getting this job done has freed up a whole bunch of logs that I used to secure the house last year!

This is one of the stacks of wood we have ready for this winter.

We're pleased with the progress we've made this first year.

This picture shows you a few of the garden beds in the foreground and the 'compost cabin' in the background, that Brad built.
He added a roof to the compost area so it collects rainwater, which we use for our baths/showers and the laundry...and watering the garden when there was no rain.

I've begun another pair of easy peasy knitted tube socks for Brad.
I knit them out of undyed wool.
When he gets a hole I repair it with scraps of the same wool, weaving across the hole in two directions (I place a small glass in the sock to mend over).
Doing this makes his socks last a long time...but the best part is, when he finally wants to be done with an older pair, he can compost them...because they are completely natural :)
[I'll share my sock instructions with you next month, as part of the Handwork section of the site.]

We've also enjoyed a bunch of walks through different parts of the forest. The weather here in Nova Scotia has been glorious!

You can read further updates on my Facebook page and on Twitter.

Benita Skinner
Victoriana Quilt Designs

~~~

October 19, 2011

Part #15: Fall Returns

The fall colours are sure on their way, and every windy day we loose the leaves off of some of the early colour changers.

The view from my desk gave me this early burst of colour to enjoy!

Living here is allowing me to further my love of knowing the animals that are around, and finding evidence of them, even if we don't see them.

~At this time of year the paths through the long grass, where the animals walk regularly are quite evident.

~On a visit to the special apple tree that Brad found in the forest, we found all the ground apples and most of the ones of the tree were gone, and a large 'deposit' was left behind.
We'll have to go back earlier next year to collect the apples, as we discovered from the few we were able to bring home, that they are the yummiest apples growing here.
We recently found a fourth very large apple tree in a thick corner of the forest...with no apples this year.
Brad is making it his mission to help it along by removing some of the trees that are encroaching on it.

~I found the biggest animal den yet, in the forest around our home.
I look forward to the snow, when we will be able to go back and see the tracks, to identify who lives there.
It's plenty big to be a fox den.
...And speaking of which, we think we spotted a small fox up the road, one day when we went to get our mail.
He was too far away to say for sure, but the shape and how he walked gave us good clues.
[We have lots of experience with foxes from our northern British Columbia years, including one coming within 3 feet of me, while I was outside hand sewing, before it turned to go in a different direction. We weren't scared of each other, and it was a very memorable moment for me!]

I had a little adventure by my self this past month.
Brad had to be away for a few days, and I was so looking forward to sewing and designing endlessly.
That's far from what happened.
The very day he left was the first of a bunch of very cloudy days, with not much wind, which meant from the start I couldn't iron my fabrics, as that would take too much of my stored electricity.
As the days went by it got worse, and the power level I had was getting so low, the system would need to be charged or I would be without electricity.
I can't remember if I've mentioned this, but I don't run the generator we have...I don't want to, and the rare times we have needed it last winter, Brad was able to take care of that...And it's why this became the adventure it did...
I ended up having to turn the system off and going most of a day without electricity.
Eating cold meals, and keeping entertained by drawing some new designs, reading most of a book by candlelight, and running out the battery on my itouch playing solitaire.

The day Brad returned, the sun came out and charged the whole system!
Now you know why we love sunny days so much :)

The entire experience was a good reminder to me just how far we've come in the year we've lived here.

I've got a picture of our 30 foot waterfall for you, because I'm too chicken to go close enough to the edge to view it, so my hero took this picture to allow me to see it, too.

The nights are getting colder and our woodstove is on almost daily now, even if it's just for a few hours.
Brad likes to cook on the woodstove, if he can, to conserve our electricity and we're pleased he had great success with pasta recently...which is a staple around here.

Thanks for the continued emails of encouragement.
I love and treasure all of them!!

(((big hugs)))

You can read further updates on my Facebook page and on Twitter.

Benita Skinner
Victoriana Quilt Designs

~~~

September 21, 2011

Part #14: Exploring Fun!

The season is about to change and the nights around here are already turning darker, earlier, with a crispness in the air.

A few weeks ago, when we had a lovely warm day, Brad & I took another walk to the Bay of Fundy...to go exploring those caves that called to us last time.

First we sat for a few minutes when we arrived, to enjoy some iced tea, when we spotted a black head coming out of the water not far off shore - and then realized, after thinking about what that had to be, that it must be a seal. We didn't know the Bay of Fundy had seals!
He disappeared and after quite a while reappeared further down the coast.

The 'beach' we had to walk across is all rocks...of all sizes, which was interesting to walk through, but was worth it as we got closer, because there were tide pools to look into and barnacles everywhere...making all the rocks look polka-dotty!

There was also this dead crab.

We laughed when we got to the other side of the beach, as the caves turned into this...

The waterfall was beautiful and made us realize that the brook that runs through our property must run into the ocean, just like this one.

We sat and had a snack of fresh fruit, near this waterfall, and again spotted a black head coming out of the water, which had to have been a different seal.
It also didn't last long, but we decided they were coming up to eat what they found.

On the way back to the trail that would take us up to the road, Brad spotted a grey head looking at us.
This one was different than the black heads...larger.
We stopped, looked at each other for a minute, and Brad got this picture, before it went back under water.

Once home, we checked to see what kind of seals these where...and the black headed ones are Harbour Seals, and the larger one was a Grey Seal (adults weigh over 700 pounds!).

I mentioned within the last post that the porcupine was eating some of our trees...and I had Brad take a picture of a few of them, all within a few feet, on either side of the trail to the brook.

We identified one of our owls...the Barred Owl, and I'm still not tired of listening to it make it's call.

I had a few lovely afternoons sitting outside to hand sew, and listening to the forest.
Mostly grasshoppers eating, bees buzzing from flower to flower, and Chickadees-a-deeing.
Plus an occasional interesting sound that I can't identify :)

We did prepare for Hurricane Irene, putting things away that might 'fly around' in the strong winds, and turning the wind turbine off.
It was a tropical storm as it went over Nova Scotia and we first had some heavy rain, and then high winds and higher gusts for a day.
We walked to the end of our laneway to peek at the bay, and see the high tide surge they called for....which was really an excuse to walk in the wind.

Over a few evenings we heard some 'chewing' around the front of the house.
Looking into it from the outside we found a mouse hole chewed through the front window frame.
Brad lightly plugged it up. Then had to re-open it at night because the mouse was stuck inside trying to chew back out. He then sealed it back up after waiting a half hour.
Early in the morning I heard something again, so shining the flashlight out the window (I'm not as brave as Brad, and couldn't go outside to deal with it) I saw the mouse trying to chew his way back in.
I banged a few times before it noticed me, and he ran down the side of the house.
And then in daylight Brad fixed it to make sure it stays away.
Winning these little battles is so rewarding...hehe.

And finally, I thought you might like to see one of our favourite finds in the forest.
It's a wondrous, spongy mossy area, with a path that winds through.

Along the way there are some of my favourite 'animal dens' I have pictures of.

I hope you get to enjoy a little nature where you live!

You can read further updates on my Facebook page and on Twitter.

Benita Skinner
Victoriana Quilt Designs

~~~

August 22, 2011

Part #13: Summer Bounty

There's a glorious smell this warm summer morning, accented with a few bats flying around for a final snack before they go to sleep for the day, and the hooting of an owl saying good night.
It's now a few weeks away from my arrival here a year ago.
As we continue to settle in I look forward to experiencing the repeat round of seasons, with our second year!

Here's what I have to report this post...

Exploring our forest one afternoon we found a rosebush that had the darkest fushia pink flowers we have seen from a wild rose.

We also noticed on this walk that there are quite a few trees being visited by porcupines, as we can see the evidence of their eating.
We must have a healthy population of them here, though we have only ever seen the one.

We had a large 'scat' deposit close to our raspberry bushes, and we disagree as to what animal left that there.
I think it was a bear (we have seen their deposits in northern BC) and though this wasn't the largest amount we've seen, I think it was too large for a raccoon or skunk, which is what my husband thinks it was from.

One afternoon I watched a Monarch frantically flitting about our yard, from one flower patch to the other, desperately searching for milkweed, which they need to lay their eggs, as it's the only source of food for their young.
The plan now is to plant some for future Monarchs that travel through!

We are pleased with the large amount of bees that visit our yard, happy to have the plants to keep them healthy & fed...and to know they will be there when our food crops need them!

It's the season of yummy foods...
~We have a few blackberry bushes that are bursting with large delicious berries...A great daily snack on our way back from getting the mail.

~The beans and tomatoes from Brad's beds have survived the critter who has been digging them up and we've already tasted some purple beans.
~The strawberry & raspberry plants weren't as lucky, plus something ate the only large strawberry produced.
~The local farmers market has made up the difference, with a good amount of organic fresh produce to enjoy....plus chocolate croissants....Yum!

I hope you get to enjoy the locally grown goodness where you live! :)

You can read further updates on my Facebook page and on Twitter.

Benita Skinner
Victoriana Quilt Designs

~~~

~ Part #1 to Part #12 ~

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