My sister pointed out to me that she was still waiting to see the blog post where Alex picked our tree.
Last Saturday we drove to Wintergreen Christmas Tree Farm near Lafayette, New Jersey to cut our tree. I’m glad I had printed out the directions since it was like following a trail of bread crumbs to get there. It was a beautiful drive through countryside we had never been to before.
We parked and walked up to the barn to get a saw and a tree cart. How nice of them to provide nice, sharp hand saws and a cart to collect your tree with! They sold about four different kinds of trees, but we had driven by the kind we wanted: Fraser firs. Of course they were the furtherest ones away from the parking area!
Row upon row of nearly perfect trees! Which one to choose? I wanted to just close my eyes, spin around and point to one but I am sort of a perfectionist when it comes to trees. We were looking for one that wasn’t too big around at the bottom since we don’t have much space for it to fit into between the fireplace and the entertainment center.
Here I am, saw in hand taking a look around.
And then Alex said, “Dad, let’s take this one!”
Although I joked with the man at the barn about bringing my dog along to find the right tree and “mark” it, he kept his leg on the ground! Lots of other people who were coming in after us had also brought their dogs with them.
Trees were being tied to tops of cars at a fast pace.
By the time we left it was getting very crowded and people were having to wait for other people to bring back tree carts. We got there just at the right time I think.
The tree fits perfectly into its spot in the corner and it’s a very pretty tree. All in all, a nice way to spend the better part of a day.
Living in the country as we do we see a variety of wildlife. We have possums, squirrels, chipmunks, deer, turkeys, and the occasional bear. Poor bears. They are being hunted once again this year. It’s too sad to even talk about.
A few weeks ago I looked out the window and saw a beautiful buck deer standing up by the top of our driveway, his rack of antlers held proudly. With a flick of his tail he was off up into our neighbor Kim’s yard. I see a small band of about five or six deer pretty often just outside the fenced part of our yard in the woods. The dogs just lie on the deck and watch them.
Lately we’ve had a mangy looking fox hanging around. I first saw him sitting in our driveway grooming himself like a cat. He looked up from his ritual and saw me watching him through the window. It was weird making direct eye contact with a fox. I went to grab the camera as quietly as I could but he ran off. Here’s the shot I got of him then.
Then the other day he was back again to take advantage of the bird seed and stale bread I had thrown out at the bird feeding area in the front yard for the squirrels (so they’ll leave my bird feeder and suet feeder in the back yard alone!). I think he must have mange although I have never seen it to identify it in a wild animal. He is scary looking! I do admire his black legs though. The rest is pretty darned ugly.
I’ve seen him down the road at neighbor Luke’s house too. A few years back I remember seeing another scroungy looking fox and I have to wonder if it’s the same one?
Another visitor to our yard and woods behind the house has been the pileated woodpecker. Every time I run for the camera he spooks and flies off to a different tree farther away. Do you remember when I was able to get photos of him a few years back? Follow this link to see them. We can hear him sometimes and don’t see him. When he flies he looks like no other bird: big black wings with a white streak. You don’t even notice his head until he lands. Twice in the past week I have caught him out of the corner of my eye in flight. He’s elusive that’s for sure.
I haven’t seen any cardinals for a long time. I wonder where they go? We are overrun with titmice, chickadees and white-breasted nuthatches. We have a few juncos now too and yesterday we saw a rosy finch.
The woodpeckers seem to really be taking off this year in numbers as well. We have downy woodpeckers and a red-bellied woodpecker that have always been visitors. But this year we also have the downy’s bigger cousin, the hairy woodpecker too. Here he is:
He looks just like a downy only considerably bigger.
Yesterday I looked out at the suet feeder and something about the bird on it didn’t look quite right to me. At first glance I thought it was a downy woodpecker, but it had a dark chest, not a white one. Hmmm. I got out the binoculars and saw that it had a red spot under the chin as well as one on top of its head. The markings around the eye were different too. Off to get the bird identification book! I am proud to present our very first Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker!
The light was not good since it was late in the afternoon but I think the shot is decent enough to see the bird fairly well. I hope he comes back!
We didn’t have any acorns from the oaks this year. It’s odd, but I guess they do have years when they don’t produce. Maybe that has something to do with the increase of woodpecker activity? Maybe they produce more sap when they don’t produce acorns?
I like having all my back and front yard buddies around. Well, maybe not so much that fox ...
It returns every year right about this time: the Snow Grinch. Me. For me it’s hard to get in the “Christmas spirit” without a little help from the weather. In previous years here for the most part we didn’t get snow until after Christmas, but a few years we did get a little and it was so wonderful! I guess I don’t mind so much if it doesn’t snow, but at least it could be cold and feel like Christmas. This year the weather has been very mild, and as far as I’m concerned it hasn’t snowed yet. I am not counting the rare October snowfall because I wasn’t here to see it! So, I am still waiting. And hoping. For snow.
Our predicted snow of 2-3 inches didn’t happen—just a smattering on the grass and the pool cover. We did, however, get just over three inches of RAIN in 24 hours. That’s a lot of water! Especially when our ground is still soggy from all the other moisture we’ve had. I drove up over the mountain yesterday to a farm store to buy wreaths and they had just enough elevation difference there to get about 2 inches of wet snow. It was lovely to see even if it wasn’t in my yard.
In my heart I know that snow does not make Christmas Christmas. But it would be nice. Last year it didn’t snow before Christmas either except for a slight skiff, then on the day after Christmas we got that blizzard, remember? From then on we didn’t see the ground until late March! So, you just never know.
Tomorrow we are going to cut our tree at a tree farm and it’s supposed to be chilly (in the high 30’s) so maybe that will help kick start my holiday mood!
There is also not much to take photos of this time of year, so I included two sky shots I took last week.
Those three words sum up the weather for the past few days. It’s so dark that I turned on the Christmas lights outside during the day! Yesterday was damp, but warm. I still started a fire in the wood stove though to take the chill off. Today is colder, rainy and still damp. But, it would seem that it might change tonight to SNOW. We’ll have to see, but even an inch would be good right about now.
We don’t have our tree yet. This Saturday we are going to a Christmas tree farm to cut one. The lights are up outside and the wreaths hung above the windows, so the outside of the house looks festive. Now I just have to work on the inside. Christmas always sneaks up on me and I am never ready. Please can we insert another month in-between Thanksgiving and Christmas? Please?
I know this is a boring entry but whenever I don’t blog my sister (love ya sis!) thinks something happened to me.
This morning’s sunrise off our back deck. I know that “red sky in morning is a sailor’s warning” but what about orange and purple?
