Out With The Old, In With The New

 Here I sit... in front of a roaring fire, 

with a hot cup of chai tea (with whipped cream!) beside me (happy as I could possibly be).

The tree is down and the fireplace mantle has a new wintry arrangement.

It's the last day of 2022, and I am sitting here thinking back on all that made up this year on the farm. 

  We sadly said goodbye to our sweet sheepy girl Hope, and the last of the fainting goats.  Happily, my precious pig, MaryAnn, made it through a health crisis. 

 Every day that she greets me with her happy "hello" grunts, I am reminded of just how lucky we are to still have her with us.  With a farm full of aging animals, I understand what the future holds.  I have made peace with that inevitability.  And though we mourn the loss of our beloved furry friends, when it happens - we celebrate the lives they lived and the love they added to the farm.  

 

We spent the end of our year doing what the dogs (and, I suppose, me, as well) love most - exploring the woods.  We walked down our road, followed by Bobby Cat, who loves to go with us on adventures, and the dogs.

And while I enjoy the exercise that walking gives, I mostly enjoy exploring the the little things that too often go un-noticed... the tiny miraculous life that exists all around us, even in the wintertime.

We walked to the stream. 

 All of the intricate ice sculptures of the previous week were gone.  Where there was once an undulating curtain of ice, water rushed over a tiny waterfall once again.

It amazes me how the earth takes care of re-absorbing that which dies.  How fungi, moss, and lichens move in to consume what has fallen, is nothing short of miraculous.

I saw this particular tree leaning over the stream and couldn't help but notice how covered it was in fungi.

Thousands of fungi - hard at work - feeding off the skeletal remains.  With time, it will fall to the ground to be absorbed back into the earth that had nourished it in its lifetime.

One of my favorite ecosystems to explore is the tree trunk left behind when a tree is felled.  We stopped to investigate this particular stump and found all sorts of life breaking down its structure and consuming its remains.

  It's in these obscure places that you can find a vibrance of color and texture so uncommon at this time of year... moss, lichen, fungi, all working side by side.

 Greens of all shades - the color that I miss most during winter - can be found in this small ecosystem.

I noticed a tiny red dot, no bigger than a pin point, and zoomed in on it.

What brilliant  color in the midst of a somewhat monochromatic season.  This fungi is a lichen known as British soldier lichen (Caledonia cristatella)

Within inches of this lichen was some orange jelly fungus.  

All of these colors momentarily transported me back to the hues of summer.  The world is anything but monochromatic right now - you just have to look in the right places... the most obscure of places!

All around us, at a time when much of our countryside lies dormant, fungi are continuing their work of breaking down and consuming dead trees.  

I marveled at this still life scene: shelf fungus, with moss growing on top of it - wrapped around the hairy vine of poison ivy that had climbed this dead tree.

I end 2022, grateful to have spent this last year here on the farm surrounded by the beauty and wonder of nature.  It is my hope that 2023 brings more of the same.  I look forward to sharing the beauty of this life with you in the coming months.  It is my hope that you'll find something of interest or inspiration here with us in the coming year!

Happy New Year, Friend!

******************************

This past year was spent in the company of our two pups... Annie (now 8) and Chester (now 5).  We have given some consideration to adding another rescue dog to our clan.  I am hoping that at some point this year we will find a good match for our family. 

I also wanted to give you a little peek into one of our routines.  You might remember that Chester had a tumor in his nose that was removed this year.  The biopsy showed that he has Discoid Lupus.  We are giving him low-dose steroids every couple of days to keep this at bay.  I wanted to show you how submissive he is when it's time for his medicine.  Jack buries the tiny pill in a wad of peanut butter and puts it inside his cheek.  Chester makes the whole thing so dramatic by being as submissive as he can possible be.

Silly boy!

And before I forget, I was asked how it is that our hens lay eggs all winter long.  It might have something to do with the heat lamps that we use to extend their daylight hours a few extra hours in the evenings and mornings (and also to help keep their houses a bit warmer on the coldest days.)