As I look back on January, it was a full month. The first four days were spent quarantining since we needed to get Sophia off to Thailand for a semester-long study abroad program. She had to have a negative COVID test to board the international flight going from San Francisco to Doha (Qatar) to Bangkok, and then another one from Bangkok to Chaing Mai. The quarantining paid off: she had two negative tests!
So, on January 1st, instead of our usual out-to-eat-Chinese-meal to celebrate the start of the New Year, we made food at home to enjoy. Nothing was from scratch...all frozen food that was prepared...yet it was surprisingly good.
On the 4th, we said "goodbye" to Sophia at the airport at about 7:20 a.m. Sophia was eager and excited to go on her trip. Although we are excited for her, it will be a long 117 days until she returns.
I was seeing a lot of cardinals at the beginning of the month - especially around the anniversary of my dad's death (January 5, 2012 - 10 years this year).
The female cardinals were close by the males.
Also saw, for the first time, a purple finch! They are rather big birds - much bigger than I thought.
The purple finch isn't nearly as big as the male pheasants that are running around the front yard. Their feathers are so brilliant and beautiful!
The weather that produces frost isn't something I enjoy. Yet, I do like the delicate frost crystals on the glass.
We celebrated Olivia's 19th birthday on the 18th. Hard to believe she's already 19 and that next year she'll be in her 20s. Time goes by way too fast.
We've had so many different types of cake with Sophia's birthday only 20 days before Olivia's birthday. She chose brownies - triple chocolate - with 19 candles.
There were so many candles on the cake that they couldn't be blown out in one breath.
Towards the end of the month, Olivia played two pieces while I recorded them, for the music scholarship application. It would be nice if she received that. It's a four-year scholarship offered through the college.
On the 22nd, I led a session at the Lions MidWinter Convention for making shoe kits for Sole Hope. Each grouping represents a pair of shoes for a toddler. The shoe kits are shipped to Uganda where a seamstress and cobbler sewing them and then attach them to a sole made from a used tire. On the top, they are fastened by elastic. They're a cut pair of shoes - made from blue jeans that would have either been thrown away here in the United States.
The children receive a free pair of shoes because they had jiggers (microscopic insects that burrow into one's skin and lay eggs. The eggs can grow thousands of times their size). The jiggers are first removed by using a sharp razor and cutting hundreds - if not thousands - of times into the feet to remove the eggs. Jiggers are so painful that kids stop playing and going to school, and adults stop working and being able to provide for their families. It's a good project. I'm glad we were able to make 16 shoe kits for children. It will change their lives.
Olivia and I went on a nature walk around the farm to see if we could spot any tracks. In the west pasture, where the horses used to be, we could only rabbit and pheasant tracks.
As we were walking near the little forest area, we spotted a hawk flying above us.
We saw deer beds near the evergreen trees in the little forest.
There is a grove of trees near the west side of the property. They provide a nice shelter for small wildlife and a windbreak for larger animals.
Winding our way back to the house, we came across a set of tracks that looks like rabbit tracks. However, there is something dragging - maybe a leg that had been injured? We do have a rabbit that is living on our farm who has a bad back leg - either injured or crippled. Maybe it was that one.
Towards the end of the month, I saw an American Chipping Sparrow. I like its little brown cap.
The squirrels have been eating the corn I put out for them. I like their cute little paws.
I saw a female dark-eyed junco. The males are a dark black whereas the females are gray.
A nuthatch was waiting its turn for the suet.
On Friday, January 28th, we went to Stillwater to see the large ice sculptures. People from all over the world came to Stillwater, Minnesota, to create large-scale designs from snow. They were really impressive.
They were all at least 7-8 feet tall.
All were very impressive in terms of what can be done with snow.
On the final weekend of January, Olivia and I taught at a 4-H Winter Workshop Day. One of the classes I taught related to food. The girls made French toast in the shape of hearts (for an early-Valentine's Day meal), and covered it with powdered sugar. They also could top the French toast with strawberry butter which was really good.
They also made fruit skewers with three types of fruit (watermelon, cantaloupe, and pineapple) cut into the small heart shapes. The fruit could be dipped into a yogurt fruit dip.
During the second class session, Olivia taught about photography - one of the things she loves doing. The youth had a lot of questions for her which she enjoyed answering.
The final class was one I taught about making birdfeeders. It was an idea I saw on Pinterest that was supposed to be affordable and use natural materials. It ended up being rather expensive because of the grapevine wreaths (either $6 or close to $10 per wreath depending on the size). The splatter guards - which are under the grapevine wreaths - were two for $8.88. Twine, suet, and birdseed were the only other things I needed to purchase. (Thankfully, 4-H reimburses me.)
What was free was the selection of native plant materials and pine cones for embellishing the grapevine wreaths. I collected these items from the trees and shrubs around our farm. There also was a suet-covered pinecone hanging from the center of the birdfeeder.
This is the last 4-H Winter Workshop that I'll be doing since Olivia will be in college next January. This marked the end of more than a decade of either participating and/or teaching at this annual event.
