Yesterday the snow fell on and off for the whole day. But it did not have any kind of real resolve, It was just there. A half hearted affair. Showers, flurries nothing much.
So I cycled through my list.
Getting the collars on the Dutchies so they could learn Phase Two of the milking routine: being tethered to the feeding station for some munching. Elsie is still the more apprehensive of the two. Lady A is very calm. But both of them came in one door, paused for the feed, received their milking collars without too much fuss then walked out the other door. They are doing well. 
I am checking for any signs that Poppy is going to come into heat though she is not due for another week or so. 
She will be bred on her next heat. That will be interesting. I have never AIed a pig before but I have a mentor. She will teach me. 
I am working on clearing out the North pen in the barn – also known as the Black Hole of Calcutta, (though it is draft free) this is the pen I like to keep clean in case some silly cow decided to give birth before the fields clean up.
I will clean it out and close it up just in case. Though it is frozen solid which makes for a decent work out!
As an aside my bedroom as a teenager was called the Black Hole Of Calcutta too (for obvious reasons!)
Yesterday evening as the Cadet and I were doing the chores she gasped and pointed upwards. There hovering above us in the evening light was a brilliant Godot-like pure white Owl. He was huge. Right there between these two trees. High up. Caught in a shaft of evening light like an angel. His wings were outstretched as he flew into these trees but seeing us he must have turned. So he looked straight at us and we were right underneath him. I know I saw it. The Cadet saw it too. But all my reading tells me that they should not be down this way. They are Arctic owls. 
His belly and under his wings were pure white and he definitely was an owl. In my memory he hung there watching us for long enough for my eyes to swoop over him taking in every detail. Yet it must have been parts of a second. Then he was in the trees. These trees are old Dutch Elms, they are hollow. The White Owl is migratory he may have a resting place in there.
I stepped backwards into the barn to grab the camera but of course he was gone when I turned back.
But you know how I am with owls. They have strong magic in my life. My hands were clasped like a Madonna’s prayer in front of my face.
I went here and reported seeing him. Just in case this is something someone should know. But you know how your mind takes photos too? I can still see him. Large as life. Pure white and terrible.
I adore these little piggies.
And this big one – all snuggled up. 
Looking at me out of the corner of her eye.
Last night the eggs in the incubator were turned for the last time. They are due to start hatching on Sunday. We cannot count the chicks yet of course. These eggs were laid in the freezing cold with juvenile roosters. It is a long shot. But I have chick starter feed and today I will prepare the brooder. Nothing like a little bit of optimism.
Winter is hanging on. Not budging yet. 
There is work to be done. Best I get out there and do it!
Have a lovely day.
Your friend on the farmy
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
68 responses to “Turns”
My father told me when I was 12, “No man will ever marry you with a room like that.” So I married to incredibly neat men. Bill mellowed with me, and we became clean but messy!
And this newly fledgled Ruru filmed in a bushy garden in Wellington. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw5IkwmGTPU&feature=share
I have been hearing Ruru call more here in Porirua this summer. These are good signs of plentiful food and a safer environment. Owls seem to be touching our lives at the moment….
I love, love the picture of the pigs just showing their noses. Great eye my friend :-).
Now there is a sight I would love to see – an angel in the sky – A Snowy Owl. We had a better day today, but the temperatures are due to drop with a forecast of snow, but not until after a wet and stormy weekend. You know what they say about March weather : In like a lion and out like a lamb. Fingers crossed it works that way this year.
Absolutely majestic…I can just imagine that extraordinary moment with that magnificent owl, with those brilliant lemon eyes searing through the winter blear. Gorgeous! I have always longed to meet a snowy owl (and a great grey owl). Well, I’d really like to meet every single species on the planet! 😉
What a fantastic moment for you! They certainly are ethereal. I don’t know if you watch PBS Nature from time to time but if you have not seen it, here is a lovely episode on Snowies, including some astounding footage of snowy owlets swimming after their mum: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/magic-of-the-snowy-owl-full-episode/7963/ and here is one from a couple weeks ago that has some hauntingly beautiful slow-motion shots of a back-lit barn owl gliding in the rusty rays of sunset: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/owl-power-full-episode/11636/
What a wonderful post. I adore the piggies as well! And the snow is so beautiful. Wonderful images. So happy to have come warbling onto your blog, having discovered it via Frog Pond Farm. Jubilant cheers,
Smiling Toad
Welcome! yes I found myself watching the skies intensely today but he has gone. I don’t have a TV so thank you for the links! I shall pop over later tonight and have a look.. and thank you for the comment.. wonderful.. c
Haha I love PBS Nature and watch new episodes online whenever I have time. Hope you enjoy them. Cheers!
smiling toad
I am very grateful.. I am so low tech i am practically horizontal.. so i really AM grateful.. c
I am very low-tech, too! I much prefer being out in nature or reading and often even neglect my blog, which is the techiest thing I do! 😉 That and watching PBS online and downloading far too many old-timey radio show podcasts! Cheers!!
Autumn Jade
Remember being scared of owls as a small kid: Hated the sound they made and those eyes staring at you’!! Changed my mind eons ago – they are magical!! White owl: not surprised with the two past winters you have had – arctic vortexes surely have brought down more than loads of snow . . . keeping fingers crossed for lots of cheeps in the next few days . . . love the photo of the Cadet!!
We have had snowy owls wintering in this area for the last couple of years. Seems there are more sightings all the time. The Horicon marsh is not too far west of us, we keep meaning to go take a look see there if it would just warm up a tad. They are seeing quite a few snowys there.
Equus, Her Majesty Fanny is a adorable little goat but I’m not telling her she has another fan, she’s much too full of herself already! (Just ask Percy).
I love that goat.. ‘course I love Percy too being Tima’s cousin and all!
Oh Celi, owls are my FAVORITE raptors! I’ve been blessed with capturing 3 different Barred Owls here in my town on my camera (one of the photos got published in our local online news station!) and then I’ve seen the magical Barn Owl fly past our river property at the Oregon Coast right at eye level while we were sitting on our dock at dusk. I have printed out Barn Owl Box plans for my husband to build us a box to install in one of the many tall trees there on our property this summer. You never know, we might get a family! I am so happy for your magical Snowy Owl moment. ❤
I have seen a white owl only once in my life. We were in France, driving through a particularly rolling, hilly, country. No barns or people in sight. Just fields and woods and that gentle rolling rolling. And all of sudden, I looked up at a tree looming next to the road and my eyes snapped (why they went there, I don’t know) to a white shape up in the crotch of a big branch. And looking at me in that Mona Lisa way as we rolled slowly past was an owl, so still, so sculptural. If not for his color he would have seemed a part of the tree. You feel as if they are magically pulling your eyes toward them, hence the snap. You look at them because there’s some need for that contact. That recognition. “I see you.” Mutual. Wordless. It’s a very spiritual sensation.
Magical, magical birds…..
I remember as a very small child (I was about 5 years old but it’s such a strong memory) of my grandad wrapping me up and taking me for a walk in the country at night to see an owl – and we did….magical!
Spotting any owl is wonderful but seeing an arctic owl is really quite special. They aren’t supposed to come this far South. I’m glad you had a witness with you, though I’m sure everyone would believe you. Years ago, I saw an eagle flying over the shoreline in Michigan. Everyone said I was seeing things, that eagles aren’t in those parts. A week later, in the local paper, there were photos of the young eagle that had spent a few days in the area. Ha!
[…] nod to Cecilia Gunther (The Kitchen Garden) who recently had an unsettling close encounter with an owl. Perhaps hers was just an owl recognizing a kindred […]