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.