🥶❄️ COLD -10 degrees

Hello to all, 

I woke up this morning to -10 degrees. Checked my chickens and they are doing just fine, the little birds around us eating each day are showing up and we filled their feeders, I know they need to eat to live in this crazy weather we are having this year. 

We seem to have about 1 and 1/2 feet of snow on the gazebo right now.

We do now need to put up the Christmas stuff as I call it. Just putting it off. 

Hope all are keeping warm.

Love and Prayers, 

 Margo

Doves taking a bath

Hello to all, 

I wanted to find something that would let my doves take a bath. I looked the web over and found this item. I will say I am not being paid to show this product. I paid for it and hoped that it would work. I did show it to the doves. They looked interested so I added some warm water and turned on the "spray" of water. They loved it. In fact, if it was larger, it would work just fine. I am in the hope that it will encourage my African parrot to jump in and take a bath. It would be so much better for him than just a spray of water for a bath. 

I can't upload a video here, but the link below will take you to my YouTube channel and you can watch the doves take a bath. Any bird would love to jump in and have some fun. 

My doves bathing and having fun

                                 

I do recommend that you watch how much water you add, you only need enough to get the pump-to-pump water with no problems. I also use just warm temp for water, not cold. 

My YouTube Channel link - - (@Alaska Tundrakid)

https://www.youtube.com/@alaskatundrakid

Drop by and have some fun watching my doves taking a bath. There will be more videos coming now that I have got the first one uploaded. Just learning how to work all the whistles and bells. 

Love and Prayers, 

 Margo

Snow? - I thought we left AK!

Hello to all, 

This is the most snow I have seen in West Virginia since we moved here. We moved here back in 2019. We have seen a little snow here and there but nothing like this. I do understand that more is on the way after this storm is over. I do love how pretty everything is after a good wet snowfall. But now when one has to get out and go somewhere. 

Here is a link to watch Vince's plowing snow video. 

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18S4rpx4qz/ 

Here are some pics of snow around us in the yard. 

Update: The next day or so we had a couple of lovely neighbors plow out our driveway twice.

Vince plowing snow in W.V. 2025

Our front yard-Jan. 2025

Love and Prayers, 

 Margo

Crown of Thorns

Hello to all, 

This is a picture of my crown of thorns that was sold to me as an ORANGE flowering plant. Although it is very pretty, it is not orange. The flower behind the red with blotches is a yellow flower with red blotches. It is truly "weird" in color. I love it, but I have noticed also that it is a grafted plant. Nothing was said in the info about the plant that it was grafted. 

My ORANGE flowering Crown of Thorns?

I will contact the company I bought this from because, contrary to what I was told, it is not "orange" flowering.

Love and Prayers,

 Margo

P.S. Update: Jan. 09, 2025

Contacted the company and they said it was "mislabeled" and they would be sending me another "orange" Crown of Thorns. Very nice of them. 

My Yellow and Purple Orchids

Hello to all, 

I bought yellow and purple orchids last summer. When they finished flowering, I thought I would never see them flower again well, I was wrong, now in November they both put on buds. Then in December, the buds got larger and now at the end of December, it has started to flower, the yellow one. Then today now in January the purple has one flower opening. I am so happy to see them bloom again. I know nothing about orchards, so to have them flower again is wonderful. 

Update pic of my purple orchid

A few days later than the other pic.

My yellow orchid

My purple orchid just opening

I wish they had a lovely smell to go with all the colors.

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Happy New Year's Visitor

Happy New Year 

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day for this new year, wishing everyone a wonderful happy new year. 

Here is a pic of our visitor this new year.

Happy New Year Possum

Today was a New Year's start with old friends; we caught another possum who dropped by to say "hi." 

 

This afternoon it is snowing for the new year, and they say that "cold" is coming after about one week of super warm weather. The ground is turning white as I type this message. 

I have healed from my dump down the hill while riding on my trike. Bones did heal many months ago, but the neck is still a problem, just have to wait until it all heals. Still have places that are numb on the body, but at least they don't hurt. 

We are doing just fine and so are Kricket, Truffles, Frosty, the doves, and chickens. We are down to 3 hens now and they are on strike, not laying for the winter so far. We will be adding more hens this spring. Not a bunch perhaps 3 or 4. 

Oh yes, almost forgot the wild cat we are still feeding 2 years after someone dumped him off out in the woods. Some people!

Love and Prayers,

 Margo

Merry Christmas to all

Dear friends, 

We are wishing everyone a wonderful Merry Christmas. 

We are doing just fine, enjoying the Holidays and having fun decorating the outdoors this year. 

We hired a person to help us out this fall on cleanup. He did a wonderful job. Vince was right out there helping him also. Earlier we had several large trees removed and then this fall we had bushes removed and the roots dug out. We have "opened" up the place to where air can circulate around the home better and we can see out all around the place. Feels so much nicer, can't wait for spring when all the bulbs will be up, and we can enjoy them this year. 

Vince has hung lovely blue, and white icicle lights this year on the upper deck. He has hung lights around the gazebo this year and inside the gazebo, we now have a large angle and two deer's all of which light up and shimmer in the dark. 

We have put our golden angel given to us by Vince's brother way back in 2011 on the upper deck on the railing. She also lights up. Our yard for the first time looks so nice. 

I can't wait for spring and summer; we have eliminated all the hard work of trimming and cleaning up "stuff," which will make summer and fall yet to come much easier for us to take care of. 

In all we have done, we have not scared away the stray cat or all the birds that come to eat at our home. 

Christmas 2024

Love and Prayers, 

 Margo

🦃 HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL

Hello everyone, 

We are having a wonderful time here on our side of the mountain on Thanksgiving. Hoping all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving also. We are very thankful for many many things around our home. We thank God each and every day for all he has given us. 

Our three chickens are going to have a wonderful lot of extra goodies also. We will be adding more chickens this spring because our old gals are taking the winter off, no eggs. I hate buying eggs in a store, they never taste the same. 

The poor stray cat has come around after a whole year of not trusting us to at least hang around more and more. We now have a heated dog crate for him, and on these cold nights, he stays in there. Also, on rainy and snowy days, he is close by. He even sniffed my hand the other day, which means his head was only 2 inches from my hand. That is a first for him. He also disappeared for about 2 days a few days ago, when he did show up, he was limping very bad on a front foot. We could see no blood and of course, he would not let us get close to him and never "touch" him. So, there was nothing we could do except wait to see how he did as the days went by. Now he has only a slight limp on that front leg. So, he is getting better thank goodness. We think he either tangled with another loose cat that came around or a wild animal tried to get him. He is becoming more relaxed with us now.

Now that we have the whole property trimmed up and looking open and nice. We are hanging lights from the upper deck now and we will add some around the gazebo this year. We also will be adding our deer and Nita's deer around the yard along with our angel. 

We had our first snow about 2 inches very wet. Later it turned to rain, and all was gone. That was about one week ago. Now the lights (blue & white) icicles will look lovely with snow. 

Wishing all a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Love and Prayers, 

 Margo