Soup, wind, snow, and critters

 February 8, 2026

Early this morning, around 4:30ish, the half moon hanging in the southern sky, was shining its light through the frieze of icicles hanging along the edge of the verandah roof. Gravity is making the glacier of snow on the roof slide ever so slowly down off of the roof, and its edge has melted a bit on sunny days, so looking out the window one can see the moonlight shining through the icicles, a glinting crystal filigree against the darkness. 

When it is this cold, (-27 C -17F), we like to pop downstairs and feed the fire once during the night. That is enough to keep a good bed of glowing red coals in the stove. The house is banked up well with snow, but we really detest going down into the crawl space below decks to un-thaw pipes, so it is well worth the little jaunt down the stairs to feed the fire.

Today was a good day to get a pot of Split Pea and Ham Pork Hock soup going. The veg and herbs are all out of my garden, except the split peas and celery. When celery was in season, I froze a lot, so I'd always have it for soup making throughout the winter.

The aroma of the soup simmering on the wood stove, greeted us when we returned from our morning snowshoe around the perimeter.  We are certainly having a wonderful, more traditional winter. This week has been pretty consistently cold, with random snowy days, and others of blue skies and sunshine. 

Friday was a snowy-blowy day, and particularly at night, the wind buffeted the house, it's banshee-like screams across the edge of the slightly open bedroom window, had me crawling out of my warm nest to shut and lock the window in order to have peace. One could still feel and hear the wind gusts hitting the house. 

The aftermath of that was a still, crisp and sunny day, and a lot of digging out, particularly where the wind had drifted the snow. Thankfully, Nellie Belle has her transmission back in place, her wheel back on, and is in service, the big blower making short work of the driveway. 

Some of my daily welcoming committee...how many can you count?

What is this Blue Jay doing??....snow bathing?

One of the resident ravens has snagged a piece of chicken skin off of the 'treat rock' snowbank, and is just getting airborne. 

A dusk-light picture of Foxy checking out the 'treat rock'.

                           

Suddenly, one realizes that it is still daylight well past 5 PM. It is getting to crunch time to get the garden plans finalized and seed orders sent. 

Lost whistle, spinning homework, and critters.....

 February 1, 2026

This past week has had temperatures consistently cold, with some skiffs of new snow falling, and some bright, blue-sky days. I know there are a lot of folk who do not enjoy winter, but I love, love, love it! There is so much beauty in a white landscape, even at night with that full Snow Moon shining bluish-white light across the snow. The days are getting longer, the sun is higher in the sky, and today we are half way between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. 

Cold mornings are a good time for whole grain banana pancakes on the cast iron griddle. It's a good way to use up those bananas that get past their best.

Recently, our kettle lost it's whistle, so we splurged and bought a new Paderno one. It is nice and hefty, feeling almost like it is double-walled. 

I am currently attending spinning classes. We started with learning how to use a drop spindle, making these rough looking singles,

then moved on to spinning on a wheel, which I find much easier.

This week's homework was to spin two bobbins so we can learn to ply them at our next class.
 

It is breeding season for the canids, and often on our hikes we get a strong whiff of fox. Here is Foxy investigating the 'treat rock'.

The wolves and coyotes have been travelling through, and it is easy to distinguish their tracks from the fox, as their tracks are bigger, they detour many times to lift their leg on any protruding thing sticking up out of the snow, and they don't use our trails much. 

A fox tends to just carry on, more or less in a straight line. Our local foxes consistently use our snowshoe trails. We surmise that it is more energy efficient for them to use the trails, instead of plunging through the deepening snow. 

Some smaller critter was out and about...a mouse, hopping along,  dragging it's tail behind.

The usual winter birds are here, an Hairy woodpecker and 

a White-breasted Nuthatch took a time-out in front of Bird Cam.

So tomorrow the rodent weather prognosticator does his thing. I know what I'm hoping for!

Soap, eggs and Aurora Borealis....

 January 25, 2026

Saturday morning, -33C (-27F), couldn't resist doing this....throwing a cup of hot water into the air....and watching it immediately sublimate.

The smoke from the chimney, drifting off to the east, heralding a lovely warm, cozy indoor space, the sun just cracking the treeline to the southeast.

I love a crisp, cold morning and could not wait to get dressed in outside layers and head out to breath deeply of that fresh, fresh air. My chickadees mobbed me. I noticed that they had tiny frosted eyebrows, their breath blowing back from their nostrils was freezing into strips across the black feathers above their eyes, like tiny old men with bushy eyebrows. They also were sitting on my hand with their breast feathers fluffing down around their little legs and feet. It is amazing that such tiny balls of fluff can weather the cold temperatures, but apparently like hummingbirds, they go into a torpor overnight, their body temperatures lowering to conserve energy.

Thankfully there was no wind, so our morning snowshoe around the perimeter of our property was very enjoyable, although there was no fresh sign of any creature, big or small, moving about.

This morning is warmer, only -26C (-15F), and the sky is not clear. We are expecting more snow, starting this afternoon.

One night earlier in the week, we were out on the back step watching the northern lights. At first there was just a greenish band across the horizon,

then as we watched, streaks of light started wavering up, and then the red colour appeared.

It has been a while since we have actually seen the Aurora. It seems that every time one was forecast, the skies would be clouded over. 

A friend has been supplying me with lovely brown eggs. She spoils her chickens with a warm mash she preps every morning for them, and she says that some of the birds almost immerse their heads in the treat.

Over the last two springs, my craft group has made soap on our last meeting before the summer break. After doing it in a group, I felt confident to try it on my own. I asked a friend who hunts and butchers her own deer if she'd save me the tallow. It took a couple of sessions of cooking the bits and bobs of fatty meat with some water in the bottom of a big stainless steel pot over the BBQ side burner, and straining it to remove the meat particles. Foxy and the Blue Jays sure enjoyed that treat! Each time, I let the fat solidify, then repeated the procedure, finally straining it through cheesecloth. I ended up with a lovely 'plate' of venison tallow.

I have made one batch of soap, and have enough remaining for another. A couple of silicone bread pans picked up at the thrift store make perfect soap moulds.

Just a short video of my Dees on a warmer day.