Eagle Cam

I think that it is absolutely amazing some of the 24 hour cameras.  I'm not sure why but I turned the Eagle Camera on my second monitor for a short time today when I wasn't using it.  One of the parents was sitting on the nest.  I'm not sure if it was the mother or the father. These are from the Decorah, Iowa Eagle Camera at http://explore.org/live-cams/player/decorah-eagles-north-nest

Parent 1

Something caught the corner of my eye.  The parent had stepped away revealing 2 young chicks and one egg that looked like it was partially hatched.

Eagle chicks

Feeding time was interesting.  The parent would pick apart a small piece of fish meat.  Holding it carefully in it's own beak the baby would take it out of the parents mouth.  There were many times that the baby dropped the food or had too large of a piece of food to swallow.

Feeding time ... baby Eagle

The second parent came onto the nest for a short time both adults were at the nest together.  Then they switched places.

Mom and Dad Eagle

They weren't there together for too long when parent 1 flew away.  Parent 2 fed the chicks before settling back down to keep them warm.

Parent 2

Again, I am going to encourage you to go to live Eagle cam at  http://explore.org/live-cams/player/decorah-eagles-north-nest.  At times they even zoom in and out so that you can have a clearer view of the chicks or full nest depending on what is happening at the time..

Look what is starting to hatch

Sorry it is poorly lit in the barn and I only had my cell phone with me.  These pictures are not the best.

There are at least 4 nests around the barn. You can't tell but this mama duck has about 6 more eggs tucked into her nest. We weren't sure if any of the eggs would hatch because they weren't very good about sitting on the nests during the first few weeks.

During the colder weather a month ago the nests were open for large periods of time. I guess that doesn't matter as much as we humans think it does.

Spring bud update

Oh what a pleasure to see the buds taking shape. I was walking around with my cell phone and checking out the buds.  It is challenging with a normal camera to get the focus to land on the small bud.  It is even more challenging with a cell phone.  So sorry that the bud is out of focus.  But you can see they are greening up and getting closer to opening.  

Lilac Bud

As I walked around the garden, I noticed that the rhubarb is starting to peak through.  I wanted to do a happy dance!  It's not that I eat huge amounts of rhubarb.  In fact, I usually give my sister a HUGE bouquet of rhubarb for mother's day.  LOL  But honestly, it's SPRINGTIME!

Rhubarb

Hello sweet Blue Bird

This bird was sitting on the wire that goes over our front yard. It went from there to the top of the fence before flying away.  During that time, I put the chip back into the camera, changed lenses and let the dogs in while Dale did his best to track the flight of the bird. Then I spotted the bird on top of the blue bird house by the driveway. 

Blue Bird in flight

Everyone else gets excited about seeing the first Robin of the year. Then they seem to stop there. That doesn't describe me!  Look! My first Blue Bird of 2017!

Blue Bird

.....and aren't you excited?  Two posts in one day.  

12 hours of God's Amazing views

There is nothing more amazing to see than the colors and sights that God has created in our world and the solar system beyond.  It was a mostly clear day.  Just a few clouds to add drama to the sky.

Sunset  3/27/2017

 I charged the battery after taking sunset pictures with the automatic time interval feature.  The battery wasn't fully charged but a little bit before 10 PM, I replaced it into the camera and headed out to take a test shot.

Aurora  3/27/2017

 I didn't need to take a test shot.  I could see them dancing across the Northern skies.  I had to move quickly to capture some shots.

Aurora  3/27/2017

 I had problems with the traffic driving by.  They were really annoying me!  Not only did they ruin the photos but the lights on bright made it necessary for my eyes to readjust. The lights were done dancing by about 10:20 PM.  I brought the camera back in and allowed the battery to charge.  I took it out an our later.  They were dancing but not as high and without any pillars.

Aurora  3/27/2017

 Then as I woke up in the morning, the sunrise promised a simple beauty.  I might need to take a nap during the day if there is going to be so much beauty to see at night.

Sunrise 3/28/2017

What did I see?

I have been watching carefully and Sunday I was able to catch my first glimpse.

Tulips

The picture above is the first tulips.  In the picture below is another spring bulb. I get so excited when I see the flowers in the garden starting to peek through. 

Spring Bulbs

Isn't watching the seasons change SO fun?!?!?!  I  don't really have a favorite season but I do love the change in seasons.

5.25 more ounces spun

Someday I will have enough yarn spun to make my winter coat. I really like the brown/beige tweed that the spinning is creating.

5.25 ounces

The smaller skein of yarn is 1.85 ounces and was rolled off when I was visiting dad at the nursing home during his recovery. He wanted to practice spinning while he was recovering.

3.4 oz & 1.85 oz

The larger skein is 3.4 ounces.  I attempt to get the amounts as close together as possible and at the same time as large as possible.  There is hope that I might have enough some day to create a winter coat/shawl.

Spinning on my Sweetheart Wheel

Spring cleaning

Spring cleaning on the farm can mean something totally different. This week Dale and I have been trimming up a few trees. Normally we let the brush dry for 6 to 12 months.

Start the burn

But the owners before had a base pile of brush that was at least 18 months old.so we activated the burning permit and Dale took the torch out to start the fire.

Controlled burn

Only a small portion actually took off and burned.  We were able to move the loose branches onto the area that was burning. It took longer but we accomplished our goal.  

That's a lot of ash

Towards the end of the night I chose to take pictures with a variety of settings on my cell phone. With a flash the fire looks almost out.

More  like "orange and blue" hot

But when I turned off the flash, the fiery furry of the flames roared with the heat that made me think of molten lava.

Okay, Red-hot

Lambs?

Hopefully in about four to six weeks my two little ewes  are going to have lambs. Cocoa and Creamer are the two ewes in the background. Gizem is my beautiful sheep standing up front.

Gizem, Creamer and Cocoa

It has been estimated that the ewes are due just after Easter.  I was afraid that they would be due in January or February.  I got lucky!

Creamer & Cocoa

Dear deer

This morning chores took 5 minutes longer than normal. I walked outside and saw several deer in the hay field past the open field. I went back inside to get my camera

4 Deer

The area where they are standing is just up the bank from a river. The farmer doesn't do anything with the grass that grows there. So there is still plenty of grass and long hay for them to eat.

deer

There's a couple things that surprised me. For one the buck still has its horns. Normally they shed those in late January or early February. The other thing is that the three does are still hanging around him. Normally they've separated by now, so the does can have their fawns.

deer

My curious critters

The donkeys had their hooves trimmed and cleaned today. You've heard "curiosity kills the cat"? Well, Donny was very curious about what was being done to Danny aka Bones.

Curious Donny

Norman and Ethan were plenty curious too.  After they checked out the tool box, they came over to watch the work being done.

Norman and Ethan are curious too

On the corner, that's Buddy with his horns down. He is trying to break Donny and Danny out.  Ethan was pretty curious about that too!

Breakout?

The ending glow of the day

Sunset 3/20/2017

After work today we worked on taking down a few trees that were hanging over the hay field.  The weather was perfect but the evening was short.

Sunset 3/20/2017

 

Sunset 3/20/2017

Sunset 3/20/2017

Help on the farm

Saturday Isaac stayed at the farm while I went in to St. Cloud. By the time I arrived back home, it was a beautiful day!  The animals were all out in the pasture. 

Isaac pets Gizem while Buddy watches

When I walked in, they all rushed over to say hello.  I wanted to take a picture but they were too close. I turned on my panoramic feature and held the phone vertical as I moved it from right to left. 

Moooooo!

It makes a pretty good closeup wide angle shot.  I walked around the pasture and took an actual wide angle shot.  Did you notice two of the sheep are missing?  They are staying penned up most of the time until I figure out if they are going to have lambs.

Hello people

Isaac stays for the most part to take care of the dogs.  Sonjia sits in front of us demanding a massage. Once she is satisfied that she has had enough of a massage, she lays down and traps you in the chair.  

Isaac & Sonjia

She has Dale and I trained.  She decided last Saturday that it was time to train Isaac.

Frustrating!

It seems like if it's not one thing it's another. Today I went to work on my home laptop computer and the spacebar isn't functioning.

I found a solution but it's tedious. I turned on the on-screen keyboard and I go between typing on my keyboard and using the on-screen for the keys that aren't working. I will need to go through my office and find my old keyboards. Hopefully one of them will work with the laptop.

Easter Tree update

I have been watching my Easter tree blooming with excitement! There are two things that make the winter shorter: an Easter tree and pre-starting the plants for the garden.

Easter Tree

The branch that I chose looks like it is flowering out. It will be interesting to see how it makes it. It gives hope for the future and a reason to smile in this season between cold and warm.

Flowers?

Follow the path

I walked into the pasture to feed the donkeys and male sheep. We had a small amount of snow the other day.  I was surprised that the animals had created paths.  They had one path from the water trough and another path from the 2nd barn to the main barn.

Follow the path 

Neither path is a direct path.  To me that describes our daily life as well.  God has a plan for our lives. But that plan is rarely a straight path from point A to point B.

Barn to barn

God Bless America!

I was picking up some documents from my printer this morning when I glanced out the window and saw an eagle in the tree line on the west side of the property. This is one of those times said I'm glad I have a flexible schedule. Enjoy the photos!

It takes my heart away to see our majestic National bird!  It gives me hope in the future as this bird was once on the endangered animals list and they have made a recovery. 

This was where a vehicle drove by. It ended my photo opportunity but it yielded some fabulous photos!