Homestead and Folly

Winter Wonderland This past weekend we were invited to stay at an out of season Bed and Breakfast, working farm, in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, about an hour and a half from the city of Halifax. We got a late start on our journey and so the last part of the drive was in complete darkness. We were told to stop at "the big red store, you will know it when you see it" in order to meet up with our hosts, so they could guide us the rest of the way and so we wouldn't get lost. This big red store was straight out of another time. Think general store from Little House on the Prairie and you will get the idea.  We climbed the wide, wooden steps, approached the wood and glass door, the gentle glow of light and looked in and saw a young woman standing at a long stretch of counter. We went in and as we opened the door a string of bells jingled brightly, signalling our arrival. The wide, wood planked floors creaked under our feet and I immediately saw a wall of bright coloured ...

Male Bunnies enjoying their new home Watching the females raise their tiny baby animals is very satisfying and great entertainment. I could watch them all day, tumbling and learning. There comes a time when the babies begin to separate from their mother. Chicks wander further and further away from the protective watch of their mother, at first staying within a leap from her protective wing, then within eye sight until finally, there they stand on their own. Bunnies start to mate their own mother. Time to separate them. The three roosters called Thomson, Thomson and Thomson (my eight year old is a big Tin Tin fan) are now almost fully grown and are wreaking havoc in the coop mounting anything in sight and in fact quite brutally helping each other out. One day I watched as one of these feathered youngsters held down a hen's head to the ground using his beak to clutch her head feathers while his brothers both tried to mount her at the same time. I was worried they may in...

Bunnies munching away on some precious exposed grass The weather, as in many places in North America has been cold. Wait, that is an understatement. It is often cold in winter here but it has been -20 many days lately and very snowy. Last night we had a heavy rainfall and the temperature went up to 4 degrees melting the snow and exposing grass. Today I chipped off the ice around the rabbit tractors and moved them which was very difficult but so exciting. It was exciting for two reasons. The first is having been frozen in place for weeks the bunnies have been forced to poop in the same outdoor corner of their pen. Bunnies in general are pretty tidy creatures and prefer to keep their poop in one place, away from where they sleep. It has been accumulating so I was happy to move their pen and give them a fresh, clean toilet. The second reason is there was green grass left frozen under the snow and the bunnies haven't seen that in months. Finally,  greens. some old...

Chickens are often described as flightless, certainly true as they get older and heavier. Well one day I saw my full grown rooster fly. It was a lovely, bright, sunny mid summer day and my mother and I were outside doing some gardening and enjoying the day when my mom said "The chickens are by the road". Somehow they had sneaked through the bushes and were scratching the gravel on the shoulder of the road. We live on a secondary highway with a speed limit of 80 km/hr. It is especially busy in the summer as cottage goers descend and construction gets busy. I swung into action calling the birds and shaking some food and while most of the flock came back into the safety of my yard, the rooster stayed to protect the remaining bird. We went around and tried to shoo him back into the yard but it seemed like the closer we got to him, the farther he went. I almost got around the other side of him but a car came and scared him across the road and down the steep bank over hanging...