Hi Everyone,

Good Lord we just realized it was February 23rd and we had not done a newsletter, sorry. We have been very busy up here is not so white Vermont though, and a little under the weather as well. The good new is that Pete got to go see a visiting Snowy Owl the other day and got these incredible pictures of her. It was cold, so I didn't go since I am still recovering, but he said it was amazing, I hope to see her myself soon if she stays around.
We had some disturbing bird news this week too. It seems the Redpolls in VT and New England are dyeing in increasing numbers due to salmonella poisoning. So we were instructed to remove our feeders for 2 weeks so they will find some place else to eat for a while. We learned this on our visit to VINS where we took a little Goldfinch with a broken wing. So it's sad not to see the birds for a while, but it was sadder looking at the little dead ones on the ground.
We are seeing tons of mink and otter up here, as well as the ducks and goose of course. Unfortunately it has been so freakishly warm and without snow, that a lot of them think it is spring and are about 6 weeks ahead in their patterns. We hope we don't suddenly have a severe winter, but we feel pretty safe about that.
Business news - We decided not to raise prices that much and take the hit and hope silver comes down on our next order. It was just too outrageous to think of raising the prices by what we would have to, so we raised what we had to and were able to keep a lot of them the same, and the increase is quite palatable. Thanks for your support on this, we appreciate your business!!
Have a great rest of Feb. And we will try and keep you updated a little more regularly, but someone needs to slow down time a little!!
All the best,
Carol, Pete & Stella