Michigan

[wanaBfarmer]

Quote:
Yep, rabbits scream, but to freak you out further so do wild cats. Bobcats have a blood curdling scream that sounds eerily like a woman. And they do it without being attacked.

I would be interested in hearing how everyone's gardens are growing. Mine has just started really taking off, it's pretty late compared to other years.

Sounds about right. Everything is 2-4 weeks behind on average this year. It was a very abnormal spring. Even though we didn't necessarily have a lot of late frosts, the unseasonably cold and wet weather postponed planting of most crops and stunted others. This goes for everyone from backyard gardeners to major, well-seasoned farmers. The nice thing is most stuff seems to be "catching up" as well as possible so, barring unforeseen disaster, it should still be an okay harvest year.

We started eating fresh the end of may. Rhubarb, radishes, green onions and lettuce first and then strawberries and peas came ripe. Beets and carrots followed not too long after, and then the swiss chard and in the past couple weeks the green beans came into production. Ripe here right now are peas, green beans, swiss chard, third succession of radishes, lettuce, carrots, and beets. Spring peas are wrapping up. I'll pull one bed out today and rework for fall planting, another bed will be ready to be pulled by next week. The rest of the beets will be harvested today as well and those beds reworked for fall planting, too. Most of the spring lettuce has bolted, but some is still growing well. I suspect this next week in the 90s will be the end of that. Cukes, Zukes, Summer squashes, tomatoes and peppers are all working on their fruits now and will start coming ripe soon. Cauliflower heads are growing nicely and I'll start tying off cabbages next week, probably. Onions are heading up nicely enough considering the neglect that particular garden has suffered this year. And the leeks are looking good over there too. The row of winter squashes and pumpkins look nice as do the melons. I expect they'll start setting fruit soon.

The fall crop of potatoes are curing on the deck as I type and will go in later today if I can manage it and then the rest of the fall planting will begin as well. Let see if I can manage to remember what all we're putting in for fall... broccoli, turnips, spinach, more beets and cabbage, more peas, more lettuce, another succession of carrots, more radishes, those potatoes I mentioned... that's all my brain will give me at the moment. I'm now drawing a blank.

GEE thanks.. I have never seen a bobcat around, but who know. I guess last month somone spotted a small black bear over by Pewamo. So who knows what is lurking around in the woods by my house

 

[wanaBfarmer]

Quote:
We had a neighbor dog barking alot in the night, which made my dogs bark alot. I was up alot in the night as well WannaBfarmer, fearing something was lurking and trying to mess with my chickens. NOT ON MY WATCH!! heeheehhee

That is the worst. I hate when the dogs randomly bark in the middle of the night. Especially when they growl. They sleep inside the house in our room so that freaks me out. It is even worse when they growl and you know they can hear or smell somthing, but you didn't hear a sound. Then I spend the whole night thinking I am seeing things moving around and making my DH get up to check on imaginary sounds I am hearing all night. Nothing better than being so freaked out that your mind starts playing tricks on you.

 

[Olive Hill]

Quote:
Hehehe! You're WELCOME! LOL!

I'm not far from you. There are plenty of bobcats out there. They're just good at not being seen. I'm even closer to the black bear in Pewamo and yes, they're out there, too. We're just north and a little east. When we built our house a few years ago -- well, several years now I guess. How time flies! -- there was a LOT of bare mud and you wouldn't believe the tracks. New ones every night. Big old bear paws. It was very neat. I loved going out in the morning and finding the new tracks. If you don't bother them, they don't bother you. Personally, I like them being around. Now, cougars... those make me nervous.

 

[ChicwannaB]

Quote:
We had a neighbor dog barking alot in the night, which made my dogs bark alot. I was up alot in the night as well WannaBfarmer, fearing something was lurking and trying to mess with my chickens. NOT ON MY WATCH!! heeheehhee

That is the worst. I hate when the dogs randomly bark in the middle of the night. Especially when they growl. They sleep inside the house in our room so that freaks me out. It is even worse when they growl and you know they can hear or smell somthing, but you didn't hear a sound. Then I spend the whole night thinking I am seeing things moving around and making my DH get up to check on imaginary sounds I am hearing all night. Nothing better than being so freaked out that your mind starts playing tricks on you.

my DH used to work alot of third or graveyard shifts, sometimes he'd work a 2nd AND a 3rd so I was home alot. He's retired now, but I had to MAKE myself face my fears sometimes. I have 5 terriers in the house and 2 labs outside and the place is flooded with mercury lights but I'd still go out and have a look around, not WITHOUT the shotgun tho, and often laid the .357 on the end table beside me and put it under my pillow when I finally went to bed at night.
We had a wierdo pull in here one day in a van with some sob story about being out of gas and money. Hubby wasn't home at the time and I was out on the NW corner of the yard tilling in the garden. Scared the poops outta me so bad I spent the next several days IN the house with curtains pulled and doors locked freaking out. After that he insisted we go out and get our CCW permits and I now carry when I'm out doing my genealogy work, poking around in graveyards all alone. You can get very engrossed in what you're doing and not hear people walk up behind you on grass. An old, I mean OLD lady was held up at gun point by 2 men in a cemetery only 6 miles from my house. Tho it's illegal to discharge a firearm in a cemetery don't think I'd lose my life over respecting a gravestone. I can always replace a gravestone. I get very mad about the random destruction that goes on in cemeteries. I do alot of volunteer photography for find-a-grave.com and have memorialized alot of my family members as I find them.
I love living in the country but my neighbors aren't gonna come a running when I holler for help so I protect myself.

 

[wanaBfarmer]

Quote:
Hehehe! You're WELCOME! LOL!

I'm not far from you. There are plenty of bobcats out there. They're just good at not being seen. I'm even closer to the black bear in Pewamo and yes, they're out there, too. We're just north and a little east. When we built our house a few years ago -- well, several years now I guess. How time flies! -- there was a LOT of bare mud and you wouldn't believe the tracks. New ones every night. Big old bear paws. It was very neat. I loved going out in the morning and finding the new tracks. If you don't bother them, they don't bother you. Personally, I like them being around. Now, cougars... those make me nervous.

I guess I don't really mind the thought of them being out there. I just don't want to walk outside one evening and find a bear or bobcat in my yard lol. I am such a sucker for animals though, that I would probally be like aww what a cute bear. It makes me happy to know they are around and making a comeback to our areas. I get killing an animal if it is going after your livestock and whatnot, but I hate when I hear about people shooting bears and such just to say they shot one. It's the same with the wolves in the U.P. Like you said if you don't bother them, they wont bother you. Usually most encounters happen because of peoples interference. Leaving trash out at campsites or even your own yard (in some areas) just draws wild animals in who are simply looking for food. Then people treat them like they are some foreign invader out to get them when they are just trying to survive.

BAH now that I have done my ranting for the moment lol.

 

[wanaBfarmer]

OH... I guess the one day of nice weather had my brain all freaked out. Thanks to all of you who answerd my questions about my scaredy (sp?) chickens. I am pretty new to this stuff, so I just want to raise them right and happy

 

[Stacykins]

Gosh, I wish it wasn't raining right now. My little cousin (I use 'little delicately 'cause he is 18 now) is here to visit and rain put a damper on the plans to go kayaking today.

A huge bonus though is that he LOVES my turkeys so much. Chickens are no big deal since his older sister has a flock of hens, but he was stunned how tame the turkeys were and how my special one will sit on my arm or shoulder like a 'falcon turkey'. I gave his sis a pair of turkeys too, but since they are going to be eaten, she hasn't made friends with them, and thus they are skittish. Mine are complete opposites. He definitely wants some poults or peachicks of his own to be pets rather than food birds. And here I was thinkin' my Brinsea 'bator was done incubating for the year! If he can get me the eggs I'll incubate them for him

 

[Opa]

WanaBfarmer, one of the scariest sounds you might occasionally hear is a big boar coon growling.

 

[wanaBfarmer]

Quote:
LOL you are all just full of encouraging animals sounds for me to hear. I am such a wuss. I won't go out after dark if I hear a noise if my life depends on it. My poor DH has to do all the checking. He is especially thrilled when there was absolutly nothing to be found.

 

[babigyrl22]

Quote:
LOL you are all just full of encouraging animals sounds for me to hear. I am such a wuss. I won't go out after dark if I hear a noise if my life depends on it. My poor DH has to do all the checking. He is especially thrilled when there was absolutly nothing to be found.

LOL...try getting stared down and huffed at by a buck in your own yard.

I backed up slowly to the front door and let my dogs out after them.

Now, a couple of bichons just make up a racket bit my mangy rescue set off on a menacing chase....that is until she hit the invsible fence line.

It was a very short chase but terribly exciting!