Sheep and coyotes

We visited Wolfe Isl. in 2015. We found no owls on our last trip, so we've given up. Then, with COVID, we just didn't want to do the drive. It's all very exciting, owl watching!

We visited Amherst Island a few years later. Amherst Isl. sights 5 – where they were building a wind farm.

Topsy Farms began in 1972 as a commune. They are located on Amherst Island. They have all sorts of activities. You can shop there or online for blankets, bedding, yarn, sheepskins,  or handmade items.

Topsy Farms are celebrating their world, and work on being natural and organic. We stopped going, having visited in 2018 and prior to see the snowy owls. What I found was that there were near to 100 birders attacking the island, and they weren't respecting the owls or other birders. 

I showed this Tweet earlier this month, and there were questions. 

I like Topsy Farms!

 

This is what they wrote in further posts:

The coyotes learn that a zap on the nose from the electric fence means stay away.  Since they protect their territory, they defend it against the new coyotes each year. But if we kill the coyotes they can’t learn and we are always teaching the lessons to different coyotes.

 Instead of killing coyotes that had established their territory next to their farm, they are educating them by enforcing the sheep’s territory bounded with a three-strand electric fence marked by urine and human hair (from a salon), and protected by guardian dogs.

They are famous for their wool blankets.

Topsy Farms

 We have a sheepskin blanket I bought JB one year. It is a chocolate brown. The cats like it, too.

Topsy Farm Sheep from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Amherst Isl. sights 5

We usually pop in to Topsy Farm, on the island. They are kind people. They keep people informed as to farm events! They are kind to the birders, who crawl all over the island on weekends. There can be as many an 100 birders on this little island. Some are awful.
They are wonderful on social media.

Our Wool Shed is open 7 days a week all year. Reminder to folks ice fishing and to birders that our customers have access to a warm toilet in winter. Heads, hands, feet, bums, backs -we've got you covered. Then a roast or chops for supper after.#woolsho… https://t.co/qjPQaSDOR2 pic.twitter.com/Osq6iwtasI

— Topsy Farms (@TopsyFarms) January 23, 2018

Leading the sheep to better windshelter and feed with our grain 'snacker'. … https://t.co/J8hN20h79Q pic.twitter.com/uPiOlwdg5g

— Topsy Farms (@TopsyFarms) January 21, 2018

It's such a lovely island. It's interesting comparing photos from summer: Kingston Trip – Part 5: Amherst Island. Like Wolfe Island, which we've visited before, they are constructing a wind farm, which I'll show in a later post. It was frosty day.
Amherst Island a lovely island, many farms, birds, fields, sheep!
The island was popular after the 1776 Rebellion. People began farming. Irish colonial settlers began taking it over around 1822.
The winter population goes from 400 to 1000 in summer.



SE Ontario has had a big melt. Some of the roads were impassable last week when my friend went birding. It's very flat.  This week they were OK.


Deer and cows and sheep, as well as coyotes when the water freezes!


Some park and go ice fishing


Aren't they beautiful? Topsy Farm runs an amazing business, with grass-fed, sustainable, Canadian wool products.
Topsy Farm Sheep from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We had a party!

The kids came over for my birthday, on the 26th! Grampa had a surprise in the basement, he took us down in the dark. There was treasure...


We had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Everyone had a hand in it.
So many candles, I needed helpers!

Josee adores our Hooper. He loved the company after being shy for about 5 minutes.


After lunch, three of us went for walkies in the snow. Izzy wore her hat from Topsy Farm.


We found 8 deer beds!


This requires explanation... I kneeled on the chair, leaned forward to better view the birds, and the chair flattened right out. Caitlin and I laughed so hard...

Lovely scarves from Topsy Farms! We took a trip there: Amherst Island, Topsy Farms, where we bought these presents.