Jiggy Piggy

Our piglets arrived and are making themselves comfortable in their new home.  They are both girls, and so far, they have no names.  We are up for suggestions!  Take a peek at them enjoying the morning air.  The pink one does the pig jig which is a riot to watch!

Oh, What A Beautiful Morning!

This is the sight that greeted me as I headed out this morning to feed Gambino

Enough said.

The Chimney Sweep

"Wood is the fuel that warms  you twice", goes an old New England expression: "once when chopping and once when burning".

We heat our farmhouse with two woodstoves and wood we harvest from the property.  Last year, we upgraded our woodsplitter and saved many hours this past spring getting ourselves ready for the winter cold.  People are amazed at the amount of wood we put up each year, but we never want to find ourselves short.  The photo above is but one of many stacked piles of wood...it will be gone, no doubt, by Christmas.  Our house is rarely below 72 degrees on any given day, something I sure like.  Let it snow!  Let the power go out!  I can still cook and stay warm during the worst storms Mother Nature can dish out.  Ever had pancakes cooked on an iron griddle heated by the woodstove?  Or enjoyed slow cooked venison stew done solely on the woodstove?   You'll never be cold or hungry in this house!

On the downside, our resident chimney sweep has to crawl out our second floor window, straddle the peaks of the house (which include very sharp lightning rods!) in order to clear out any and all creosote residue.  This chore was checked off the "honey-do" list the other day. 

No, Virginia, this is not Santa Claus.

Sometimes I wonder why we simply can't hire someone to clean out the chimneys...from the looks of it, I think our stubborn chimney sweep sometimes wonders the same thing.  But as the saying goes, if you want something done right, do it yourself.  This job is done.  Right?

Our chimneys are all set for the winter ahead thanks to our beloved sweep.  Believe it or not, we've experienced 41 degree mornings already.  Ah, the joys of living in "Coldbrook"! 

The Honeybees

THE HONEYBEES

We lost our bees this past spring due to a visit from the neighborhood bear.  It was a small bear, but nonetheless, it knocked over our hives and we had to restock.

As you can see the bees are very active once the sun warms the morning air.  You can really see them in the shadows of the trees around the hives.

We decided to take a peek to see what was happening inside the hives.  The smell of honey was so strong we figured we better check it out before another bear visitor decides to have his way with our honey.  I enlisted our friend Danny to assist and run the smoker.  We didn't get stung, but the photographer got a little too close and ended up with a couple of mad bees on his back! 

If you've never seen the inside of a hive it is pretty interesting.  The amount of bees crammed into those supers is amazing.  Even Gambino hangs around to watch.

Here are our photos of the hive check.  Enjoy!

The Jolly Horse

Poor Gambino has found himself on a diet.  Apparently I've been feeding him too much.  Waaaay too much.  To keep him occupied whilst he's Jenny Craig-ing we tried a horse toy.  We've tried this toy before, it's called the Jolly Ball , but Scout commandeered the first one.
From the look of it, Gambino is happy with his new ball.  Hopefully it will keep him busy and not thinking about food while he regains his svelte Hanoverian physique!
For those of you who don't know about fly masks....(I was one of you not long ago)....yes, they CAN see through the mask.  Gambino loves his mask as it keeps the flies out of his eyes.  While sporting it he's referred to as the Mastodon.
You can watch him play with his jolly ball...not too exciting, but you can consider it a "family" video.