Vintage Home and Farm

Loki, the rescue kitten, has joined us here at Vintage Home and Farm. He's the sweetest little guy, very curious, and into everything. At night and in the early morning, he tears around the house, bouncing off the walls and trying to coax our other cats, Grey Guy and Tipper, to play with him. Then in the middle of the day, he disappears, and we find him fast asleep on one of our beds. Below are a few photos of him snuggled up today in our daughter's bed.

We went for a nature walk the other day, one that we've taken many times. It takes us past our neighbor's cow field, up over the old railroad bridge, along Morse Creek, and out to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. While it was a cold, cloudy day, it had finally stopped raining and the crisp air felt wonderful after being cooped up in the house. We stopped to admire a small waterfall that tumbles down the saturated hillside and follows our path. I loved the bubbling sound of the water trickling downhill. If you look closely, you can see signs that spring isn't too far away. We stopped to take note that the osoberry trees (also known as Indian plum) were forming leaf buds along their stems. The vibrant green ferns stood out in an otherwise drab winter landscape.  I found myself admiring the forms of the barren alder, maple, cottonwood, and oaks that grow in this area. Some grow closely together, while others lean over, stretching their limbs at odd angles, perhaps reaching toward t

As you know from an earlier article I wrote about our duck troubles, we have too many male ducks. There are two ducks in particular who are bad-boy ducks. As my husband says, they really love the ladies. But there's too much loving going on, what with them giving attention to the female ducks as well as the chickens. In the absence of any female birds, the boy ducks mate with each other. Big Duck and Poof are the most amorous of the boy ducks, and after separating the three males from the rest of the flock, they turned their attention to the other male duck, Cheese. Poor Cheese. He was getting so much attention that he was limping around. So, we had two rehome the two bad boys. We're happy to announce that Poof and Big Duck have moved to a farm in Onalaska, about three hours away. The couple who took them has a farm where they raise Khaki Campbell ducks. They had put an ad on Craigslist looking for some new male ducks for their flock, and since Poof and Big Duck are Khakhi Camp