October is winding down. The swirl of leaves and sunshine is behind us, as are days in the sun seventies. Nights now involve lighting a fire to keep the farmhouse comfortable and soon the same will need to be tended in the morning. The midday fire keeping - the all-day flame - that is when winter truly is here. Climate reports seem to suggest a mild winter in the northeast and I would very much appreciate that. A winter without 4 feet of snow in one storm or frozen pipes woul

Bittersweet news - I decided to release Agnes back to the wild this week. As most of you know, Agnes seemed very comfortable around me right from being trapped. While adjusting her new anklets, myself and another falconer were able to look Agnes over more thoroughly and could see that she most likely had been rehabbed for a leg injury that was close to the body & hard to see. While she’s fully healed it doesn’t make sense to work with a bird that has had recovered from an inj

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Yesterday morning started with a dense fog all over the valley. Our little mountain homestead was above most of it, but still the clouds moved through our pasture and forests - making home feel a little more magical. Had I walked out into the woods and saw a unicorn curled up among the yellow locust leaves I wouldn't even be surprised. I would apologize for disturbing her and warn her about the bow hunting going on all around me, though! Fall is pure magic. It's a time of hus

I know I just wrote a post about how I am accepting the fact I am doing less hobbies and "fun" things as the pandemic and state of the world ramps towards uncertainty. I meant it, too. And my plan was to try and trap a bird a few more times before accepting that this was another thing that would slip into the backstage area of my life as I focused more on other things. Then, along came Agnes. I trapped Agnes Amaranth Eastwood, a juvenile female red tail hawk this past weekend

I have been out and about on the backroads (the majority of roads out here are back roads) looking for this winter's hunting partner. I am hoping for a kestrel or a red tail, and either would be lovely, but so far no luck. I would have already had a bird by this time, most seasons in the past. But I didn't even start trapping until around Mabon and rides out to do nothing but look for birds have been pretty sparse compared to the past. I started really get down on myself abou

I never work with canvas, but Shannon grabbed some watercolor canvases last time we were in an art supply store. They sat around, unused, for a few weeks until I recently had the desire to create an Autumn moment in the forest. The kind we see in the morning light that also felt like that amazing show we just finished, Over the Garden Wall. So I created this sketch of two antlered foxes sitting in a grove of light, and the viewer is watching through a thick bit of brush. It i

Mornings are never boring around here. Today, sometime around 6AM, I heard Faith (the neighbor's German shepherd) barking loudly. It could mean a coyote or fox was trotting through their property - or it could mean a very large black beast named Merlin was. You guessed it. Merlin. He tests the fence all fall. Winter is coming and if he can sneak out to feast on apples and richer grasses who can blame him? But with hunting season here and the general necessity to keep livesto

Yesterday I woke up alone to the sound of rain. Friday was right beside me on the floor, on her dog bed, snuggled deeply into extra quilts and blankets. Her nest was right beside the cozy double bed Shannon and I share. Gibson was asleep on his own bed, on his back with his paws in the air. It wasn’t even light out yet and I felt motivated to get up. I knew chores in the rain would be a strong wake up call, more so than any mug of coffee, so I got up and got dressed. I like m

With October being both my favorite month of the year and my favorite time on the farm; I’ll be writing longer blogs simply going through my day here at Cold Antler Farm. The kind of posts that start with getting out of bed and end with a hot mug at night by the wood stove. Today, however, I don’t have one in me. But I do have this in me! October is here! It’s the finest month of the year! I am enjoying watching Over the Garden Wall for the first time right now and I can’t re