I always enjoy your photos -- loved the perspective on the elevator cage! You take such interesting trips!
Hope you have plenty of time because this is going to be a LONG post.
Since losing Drew, I have been super vigilant about everyone's safety. Despite the recent cold, I have been keeping a living room window slightly open so I can hear any outdoor commotion. I'm fairly sure the geese would sound an alarm if a coyote was in the "birds" part of the yard.
One got too close Tuesday, though. I was walking to the garage and spotted a coyote up by my veggie garden on the other side of the house. It was game-on time -- with a definite advantage to the coyote. She ran past the barn and into a freshly turned-up field. Because it had snowed and melted (two days of warmer weather!), the rich, black dirt had formed sopping wet clumps. The muddy chunks both tripped me and tried to grab my short boots right off my feet. (I have tall Mucks but didn't put them on just to go to the garage.)
She easily made it through the barbed wire fence. My hoodie got snagged twice and I ended up on my knees in the mud. As usual, it was a game of stop-and-start with the coyote pausing and looking back to see how close I was, then sprinting off again before finally heading away.
As I looked back at my own property, I panicked that she wasn't working alone. Coyotes are very smart and often use a "decoy" so the rest of the pack can zero in on prey. I ran as fast as I possibly could and locked up everybody.
Although the coyote showed up in the middle of the day, most often, I've seen them at dusk or dawn, heard them in the middle of the night. I am, as I said, leaving a window slightly open and sitting in the living room to read so I can hear any kerfuffle outdoors.
I can keep the poultry locked up, but not the ruminants. A single coyote isn't a real threat to my sheep and goats, but a pack could kill them all. Not exactly relaxing.
Yesterday, I started reading "Rival Queens; The Betrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots," a book I picked up at Hampton Court Palace when we were in England in June. I'm sure I gushed to you about going to Westminster Abbey and seeing the double tomb of Mary and her cousin, Elizabeth I. It was my one "wish list" location in London.
Last night, I watched a PBS show I had DVR'ed explaining how codebreakers in three countries deciphered some "lost" letters and found they were written by Mary as she tried to escape from her long imprisonment and eventual beheading. The codes Mary used were intricate and very clever. No wonder it's taken hundreds of years to break them. When they started, the codebreakers had no idea who had authored the letters, but apparently Mary began using coded letters when she was just a child.
I know you worry about me slipping on ice, but falling in mud was my bigger problem this week
. I don't run electricity to the coops because of a near tragedy a few years back when one of the cord plugs fell into a melting puddle and started some hay smoldering.
George, since you asked, is a major mix of breeds, some Dalmatian, yes, but mostly pit bull breeds. He mostly resembles a pit but with longer hair in a lovely mix of white and chocolate brown, with some small spots on his legs and ears. He hasn't had his ears cropped nor his tail docked, as have many pits. So his cutest expression is when he looks up with those big, sightless eyes, pricks his ears and tilts his head just so.
It is supposed to be warm -- maybe 60 degrees!! -- for the next few days, so I need to get outside and cut back foliage on perennials today. A neighbor has been leaving leftover field pumpkins for my critters; today, those should thaw out enough for everyone to snack on.
Did you get a break in the weather so you could hang the rest of your tarps?
Hope you have plenty of time because this is going to be a LONG post.
Since losing Drew, I have been super vigilant about everyone's safety. Despite the recent cold, I have been keeping a living room window slightly open so I can hear any outdoor commotion. I'm fairly sure the geese would sound an alarm if a coyote was in the "birds" part of the yard.
One got too close Tuesday, though. I was walking to the garage and spotted a coyote up by my veggie garden on the other side of the house. It was game-on time -- with a definite advantage to the coyote. She ran past the barn and into a freshly turned-up field. Because it had snowed and melted (two days of warmer weather!), the rich, black dirt had formed sopping wet clumps. The muddy chunks both tripped me and tried to grab my short boots right off my feet. (I have tall Mucks but didn't put them on just to go to the garage.)
She easily made it through the barbed wire fence. My hoodie got snagged twice and I ended up on my knees in the mud. As usual, it was a game of stop-and-start with the coyote pausing and looking back to see how close I was, then sprinting off again before finally heading away.
As I looked back at my own property, I panicked that she wasn't working alone. Coyotes are very smart and often use a "decoy" so the rest of the pack can zero in on prey. I ran as fast as I possibly could and locked up everybody.
Although the coyote showed up in the middle of the day, most often, I've seen them at dusk or dawn, heard them in the middle of the night. I am, as I said, leaving a window slightly open and sitting in the living room to read so I can hear any kerfuffle outdoors.
I can keep the poultry locked up, but not the ruminants. A single coyote isn't a real threat to my sheep and goats, but a pack could kill them all. Not exactly relaxing.
Yesterday, I started reading "Rival Queens; The Betrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots," a book I picked up at Hampton Court Palace when we were in England in June. I'm sure I gushed to you about going to Westminster Abbey and seeing the double tomb of Mary and her cousin, Elizabeth I. It was my one "wish list" location in London.
Last night, I watched a PBS show I had DVR'ed explaining how codebreakers in three countries deciphered some "lost" letters and found they were written by Mary as she tried to escape from her long imprisonment and eventual beheading. The codes Mary used were intricate and very clever. No wonder it's taken hundreds of years to break them. When they started, the codebreakers had no idea who had authored the letters, but apparently Mary began using coded letters when she was just a child.
I know you worry about me slipping on ice, but falling in mud was my bigger problem this week
. I don't run electricity to the coops because of a near tragedy a few years back when one of the cord plugs fell into a melting puddle and started some hay smoldering.George, since you asked, is a major mix of breeds, some Dalmatian, yes, but mostly pit bull breeds. He mostly resembles a pit but with longer hair in a lovely mix of white and chocolate brown, with some small spots on his legs and ears. He hasn't had his ears cropped nor his tail docked, as have many pits. So his cutest expression is when he looks up with those big, sightless eyes, pricks his ears and tilts his head just so.
It is supposed to be warm -- maybe 60 degrees!! -- for the next few days, so I need to get outside and cut back foliage on perennials today. A neighbor has been leaving leftover field pumpkins for my critters; today, those should thaw out enough for everyone to snack on.
Did you get a break in the weather so you could hang the rest of your tarps?
I'm glad you were able to get them all safely locked up in time! 
and I got a ship date (today)! I leave April 14! 
