The Homestone

Sunday, August 31, 2014

August Days on the meadow

 Haying!  Well and swiftly done.
  We have about 25 acres of hay on our 48 acre homestead.
  
Here the bales are being loaded up into the pit (high and dry) ... 40 ton this year.  The bulk of it will be fed to our neighbors cows through the winter. 
The best part of haying is always the day we can say ... "It's done!"
 And ...
The last of our youngun's are getting ready to be on their way.
 
The Evening Grosbeaks and Swallows and a family of Red Winged blackbirds are tending their young and teaching them the ropes. We'll miss them and always look forward to their return.
 
It's been a busy and productive month.  We dealt with some seriously smokey days from nearby wildfires and some beautiful late summer weather too, which came just when we needed it to get the haying done.  
Now we see Fall tiptoeing about with her paintbrush and watercolours. 
...and Life is Good.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Asters and feathers and summer skies

Its the 28th of July and the evenings are cool.  
The skies have been cloudy dropping rain here and there.  Perfect summer weather.
Asters everywhere

We've been enjoying an abundance of wildlife on the meadow lately.
A pair of Great Blue Herons.  This is the female who posed so nicely for us the other night.
 
Buckie the Beaver is behaving herself ... it is a constant dance to ensure that our 'local' beavers don't strip our land of the beautiful aspens whilst still allowing them to do what beavers do ... We have struck what I think is an amazing balance.  


A quintessential summer scene
 Baby barn swallow sunning his fluff at the kitchen window
and a female gray haired human 
Smiling.
Thanks for dropping by!

Friday, July 18, 2014

This weeks surprise!

 
Announcing a brand new meadow inhabitant. We haven’t seen marmots out here before!!  Pretty pleased to see this little guy and hope he makes it!  He sure has found himself fine accommodations; under our newly renamed cabin:  Marmot House!
 
Marmot on the meadow ~ yeah!


Saturday, June 21, 2014

The flood


Just after my last post in late May ... the water came and came and came.
We were in full flood here on the homestead and were scrambling a bit to keep our roads and bridges from washing out.  There were a few pretty exciting days. 
Living remote and off grid means we look after these kinds of things on our own... As David often says; the buck stops here.  Fortunately, our home, greenhouse and outbuildings are on higher ground so no worries there.  That made it a lot easier to enjoy the beauty of our temporary lake and all the excess water … when we weren’t scrambling with tarps and rocks and sandbags.
The poor beavers got flooded out … they had the top floor of their den for a while and then went underwater as well.  They hung about though, like us ~ waiting for the water levels to subside and then to work, looking after any damage, which for us was minimal thankfully and our long tailed buddies are doing fine as well. 

It is a natural occurrence that the hay meadows flood ~ it irrigates the hay and we’re on the migratory route of all sorts of shore birds and geese and ducks.  But it was intense this year.  Lots of flooding throughout the region so we were not alone, that’s for sure. 

Here on the meadow, the extra rain is a real blessing in most respects.  The meadows get an excellent soaking and the edges of the forest where we have lots of big old trees and old willows also got a really good drink ~ the kind of moisture they don’t often get ~ just ahead of our (blessedly short) hot summer.
Some photos
All the water you see here is normally meadow … 
In the forefront of the pic below is where our creek runs ~ it swelled it’s banks right up to the road
View from the crossing that very nearly washed out
Just lots of water…
But no complaints … I know there are lots of places and people on the planet who would give anything for this moisture.
This is the road at the south end of our place … 
 
 A small footbridge we built about 6 years ago.  It hung in alright but also very nearly travelled down the creek.
David’s ingenious answer to saving this road … he and Vince used a huge tarp and laid it across the road where the creek was washing over it, weighted it with large rocks and it worked like a charm.
and so much beauty amidst all the excitement … 
We are blessed, and ever thankful.