Operation Tire the Terrier

There was impetuous pelting

Liberated leaping

Poor Mack has seen more crate time than I like in recent days for various reasons, so I resolved to take him on a long enough walk to erase all that and tire him out. 

Tumultuous tearing

Besides, it was one of those days when I hadn't walked enough myself so I wanted to rack up some steps.

Machinery imspections

At least he is the only dog I have ever had that will stay with me without being laboriously trained to do so. Even the most loyal of the Border Collies would leave me if they thought there was a sheep to chase ...or a cow....or running water....or a bird....or some air.

Not Mack. He will run and race and rip and tear, but he always comes back. And he has this thing for closeness, as in he will ram into your legs about thirty miles an hour if he can. Kind of a drive by knee capping. 

Thus I carry my old shaker stick from cow herding, collie training days....a Mountain Dew bottle with a few stones in it electrical taped to a fiber glass stock stick. Works the nuts. He isn't afraid of it, but he knows it's there.

Found some old feed bag

 We discovered all sorts of things. Although a dog can disrupt a birding walk by disrupting the birds, they can also alert you to things you might not see otherwise. Little dog  frozen in alert pose staring down the hill in the dim light of dusk....oh, cool, a flock of turkeys slipping silently across the road headed for the roosts....I would have missed them. Thanks, Mack. Mike stood on his hind legs once peering over some weeds into the hedgerow. Twin fawns, one dark, one light, snuggled together in hiding. I would have missed them too. He had no desire to disturb them....just wanted me to know they were there.

And then there were the coyote tracks. We know we have them, but I figured on maybe just a few. Instead, between the spring behind the barn and the 30-Acre Lot the road is completely mashed down by hundreds and hundreds of canine footprints. Some of them are as big as the palm of my hand.

Took it on tour

Are they denning there? The grass is all tracked and stomped in the whole area, but that is where we saw the turkeys. Were they just partying?

Coyote tracks were this thick over the ENTIRE road!

For myself I don't worry too much, but I was a little concerned about the pup. He is a toughy, but very small.

I think I will look for a CO2 pellet pistol and holster....I know, I know, it won't kill one, but it might make it let go and leave. I already have too many things to carry to consider a long gun. Then again, maybe they have been hunted enough to leave people...and tiny, white dogs.... alone.

Anyhow, I was alert every second while walking, which isn't a bad thing to be anyhow. You never know who or what you'll meet back there.

It was a great hike. Well over 10000 steps for me and nearly10 billion for him.

Was he tired at the end? Well, maybe.....

Lamb Jam

Despite grey on grey bands in the sky, blustery winds, and chilly drizzles, some signs of spring are sneaking up on us. Just a few though. While some folks whose blogs I visit have daffodils and snow drops, magnolias even, we must content ourselves with the garlic just nosing up out of the ground and shoots of this and that peeking out from under leaves and litter.

And lambs. We have lambs, which are much enhanced by a toddler's enjoyment of same. We have a few chickies left too, and Liz has an incubator full of eggs up at the great grandparents' house.

On the bird front, Goldfinches are changing just a bit, Song Sparrows abound. The Purple Finches look like flying raspberry ice cream cones. I feel so fortunate to host at least two pairs and sometimes three. I think they nest in the blue spruces out front, although I couldn't prove it.....but that's where they hang around in the summertime. I am ready though for some spring birds, beyond blackbirds and robins, to show up. 

 I held Peggy up to the big windows and pointed out a robin to her. She liked it! "Mine," she said. 

Sounded like a plan to me, "All right, that one is yours......"

But then she said, "Pet, pet," and made stroking motions with her hands. Can't help her there.

The Moon on the Breast of the New-Fallen Snow....

"Gave a luster of midday to objects below...."

Yeah, a snapping, snarling little squall dumped a smattering of snow on us last night. Just enough to make it feel colder than it was, and it was plenty cold enough. Then the wind rattled the trees and scooped up the flakes and gave them the old who-flung.

I came downstairs in the middle of the night and it was bright enough to throw sharp shadows from the trees and through the banister in the front hall. 

It caused me to remember a couple of words from another Christmas classic........

"Bah humbug!"

On Dancer and Prancer, on Dunder and Blixem....
only there were an even dozen there this morning, not just eight
Kind of like spare tires right?
Only spare deers.

Happy Birthday

To this guy. You can always count on him....and we have a lot of fun too. Thanks for the road trip yesterday and for getting the wood up for me so we will be warm for a couple weeks. And for all that other  stuff too numerous to list as well.

Hope you have a great day even if you do have to work in a different state.

Love you,

Your mama.....

Interlude

The NYC crew is only home for a few hours this weekend, but the best will be made of the interlude.

Last night, after supper, Alan and I took the "new" Durango on its baptismal birding run. We went first to the pond up by Lykers Road and then to the Rural Grove State Forest, where there are both another small pond and a number of vernal pools.

At Lykers we saw a low-swooping Red-tailed Hawk, which barely missed dragging his talons through the water, so low did he fly.

A pair of Canada Geese, not much concerned about our arrival, plus a pair of Hooded Mergansers sailing among the cattails. I was watching the latter when the male spread his glowing crest, just so the light of the setting sun shone right through it. Wow. You can't make that stuff up.

As we drove to Rural Grove the sun continued a long, slow, decline from the day, turning the still-naked horizons amazing shades of peach and clear, crystal, orange. There was little moisture in the cold, sharp air, and the views were stunning.

Even more stunning were the things we found, just as we entered the state lands. Someone had evidently been butchering and there were three of these things sticking up from the ground like macabre sentinels guarding the gates. 

Undaunted, we proceeded anyhow, and found Mallards, the remains of someone's wild bonfire night, and peepers singing the siren song of spring. They were all around us but not a single wood frog chuckled from the wooded puddles. Might have been too cold as temperatures dropped into the teens very rapidly.

Anyhow, it was a fine interval between work and worry, and I thank Alan for thinking of it and for taking me out there. Now the new car knows the way to at least a couple of our birdy hotspots......

Highlights

Smiling for Grandma's camera

In between doctors and insurance companies, real life goes on. A few bright moments from our week on the farm. 

In her cow-cow jammies

Playing Favorites

In no particular order, these are my four favorite songs..... This is subject to change, although I am fairly loyal. The top one has been on the list since we were still milking cows, as has the bottom one. 

Boolavogue, by the High Kings

The Island, by Skippinish. Peggy loves this one too and asks to sit on my lap and have me play it almost every day. 

Sounds of Silence, by Disturbed. Unlikely I know, but I seem to have to listen to it at least once a day.

And Spring Dance, by our good friend Robert Dennis. I don't have a link for you, but it is about the happiest song I know...cheers me up every time I hear it.

What are your favorites? Seriously, I would really like to know. Could be I will find a new favorite. Thanks

And this one is just a little bonus, because I am so fond of all of you. 

Saving Miss Daisy

You can imagine how things are around here. The phone rings almost continuously, mostly with people who want stuff from us, and none of them talk to the others, so duplication is the word of the day. And there are doctor visits, and the boss isn't driving yet. He is doing better though, thanks. 

Thank God for Liz being willing to drive him and for Alan finding us a good car so we are not stranded. I am comforted that it is another Durango. Say what you will about your gas guzzling SUVs. The old green one was a great car and served every purpose we chose it for. The new one is fancier, but it shares the same useful features plus more.....

Becky has done a lot of walking to and from work...we are both looking for greater fitness so there is an upside to that. Although I worry....she has to pass some pretty unsavory places....

Anyhow, to add to all the fun we came home yesterday to find Daisy with her nictitating membranes up across her eyes.

Darn it. I knew something was up with her the past few days, but she wasn't showing any major symptoms and we are......dealing.....all the time....with stuff....

However, we have been down this road before. The little fool will every now and then decide not to drink. At all. I used to mix her canned food with so much water she had to practically suck it up with a straw, but she hasn't needed that in months.

Back to the drawing board I guess. Liz and I talked about it and she really has no excuse. I wash the doggy water bowl and fill it every day....and so does she....so it gets two good cleanings a day.

Anyhow, she ran out for some Gatorade and I syringed it into the little stinker's mouth about 20 ccs at a rip. Within an hour she was up and running. I mixed her night food with another half a cup and this morning she is back to her old self.

What a weird little dog. I think if we didn't intervene with the Gatorade she would just lie down and die.

Anyhow, hopefully she will continue to recover. Meanwhile, a very happy birthday to the boss's brother, who has one today. 

And top o' the morning to you all. Hope you got your green on.

Yessir, yessir

Bearded Belgian D'Anver Bantams

Three bags full....well, really, one bag, but there is lots left over. 

I love these little birds

The kids had a friend stop by yesterday to shear the ram and ewe they are keeping and to take the other one over to today's sale. 

They also brought home a bum lamb that another friend gave them. I am most glad that it is not me who has to traipse to the barn so many times a day with a bottle of milk. I have been there, done that, and enjoyed it too, but I am still glad it's not me doing it.

Klondike and Echo

Varmints got most of the lovely little chickies the kids were raising, so today was bird moving day. Now the remaining chicks and one hen are in the coop the boss, Alan, and Jade built last winter. We had one like it back in my chicken days and they benefited from the mistakes we made and have an even better one now. I used mine for 20 years or more.

The big Cochins are now in the small free-standing coop right outside the back door. Matt gave it to us a few years back. I love having them out there where I can hear them and see them from the kitchen. The coop is too cold in the winter, but it does them well in summer.

Enough wool for an ostrich nest with some left over....
if ostriches built nests from wool that is

Anyhow, no one has any use for the wool from the sheep, so I grabbed some to put in a mesh bag for bird nesting amterial. I am going to ask Liz to save me a bit in the barn too, so it stays dry so I can put more out later, when the nesting season really gets going. The chickadees are already picking at it!

Winners All

Yup, Candy Crush, before her hair is even brushed in the morning

There were no real losers in the Great Chipmunk Wars.....not, however, because I didn't try.

Liz just walked through the dining room and noticed that one of the birds on a bag of cracked corn that our nice bird seed man gave me last month was moving. Since it was just a printed birdie there was something wrong with that picture.

The next thing I knew she was hollering, "I got the chipmunk, I got the chipmunk," as she hurried through the kitchen in her stocking feet, with the top of the bag squeezed tightly shut. It was rustling wildly though.

She was just going to turn the little monster out on the step, but I wanted it a little farther from the house. I had shoes on so.......Daisy was still markedly uninterested, so Liz suggested I take it up to Ren's run to let her have a go.

Yes, I am just exactly that much of a meanie. Alas, although Ren was game the munk was faster, and so it is now outdoors under the horse barn. 

I would imagine even as you are reading this that it is showing off its big fat belly and bragging to the other chippies about the great restaurant it found. I just hope it turned off its GPS......I can just hear the Garmin lady now......"Proceed due north toward the big white house. Turn right and race across the driveway. Watch out for that hawk.....three hops ahead and turn left at the cement step. Turn left. Turn left.....recalculating......"

I'll bet there are a million sunflower seeds under the hutch, but I'll be darned if I'll move it again.

Tamias Redux

Why, yes, there is still a chipmunk in the dining room.....despite efforts by much of the family that would have made a good reality show if there had been anyone here to film it.

We moved the hutch. The hutch is large and has glass thingies on top of it, which are (very) rarely dusted or moved. They are now dusted. They are now moved. 

Not unlike honey badger, chipmunk don't care.

Becky went upstairs and retrieved her giant black cat, Demon. Demon is such that I was wishing I could use him to dust as opposed to old towels and Clorox wipes. He is fluffy. He is foofy. And large. He is not particularly interested in chipmunks.

Alan stuffed him under the old green desk, whence he emerged indignant, covered with cobwebs and dust, and sans chipmunk. The chippie simply scurried into the front hall, repository for every object that no one has a place for....for two families....it is not tidy.

Thankfully he later returned to the dining room, where at least there is some hope of someday catching him.

While I was sitting here early yesterday morning he knocked over a bag, which knocked over the baby doggy gate, setting Mack into paroxysms of barking. He hates that gate.

Later he sat on the other side of it cheekily staring at Liz as she drank her coffee.

When, after a day of finding and assisting in the installation of a new washer so we can stop paying off the national debt at the laundromat, I was sitting in my Sunday chair, he ran right up to my feet.

Then he ran right under my footstool. While my feet were on it.

There is talk of glue boards and other trap setups, but we must be safe with a toddler in the house. The air gets a bit blue at times.....I used to like chipmunks.

I Wonder Where the Chipmunk Sleeps

Not the ones outdoors They sleep in the hay bales along the foundation, resting up so they can steal sunflower seeds off the bird feeders.

No, I mean the house chipmunk. I was sitting here at the computer early this afternoon, after a morning of general aggravation. Suddenly Daisy hopped up from where she was sleeping by my feet and darted into the dining room. 

I caught just a glimpse of her target.

Something small and dark and scuttle-y.

My first thought was rat. Or mouse. Or something else from the order rodential (class mammalia wouldn't you know.)

It ran into the living room and under the dozens of giant plants I keep there. Daisy was hot on its heels. We moved this and shifted that and cleaned up other clutter, but could only catch tiny glimpses of it. Just enough to know that Tamias Striatus had come to call.

Better than a rat anyhow.

Daisy finally got tired and lost interest. Soon Ralph saw it in the dining room. Good choice. Couple hundred pounds of dog and cat food there. Sunflower seeds. Peanuts. Cracked corn and millet. Yeah, practically perfect.

Daisy is a stinker. It was RIGHT THERE, but when she was done she was done.

We called in Mack. Jack Russell terrier. Born and bred to chase rodents right?

No go; he found and ate two stale potato chips by my chair, ran off with a fair ribbon someone was using as a bookmark, and then widdled on the rug from excitement. What a dog.

And so....I wonder where it is right now....where is it sleeping, waiting to make my life miserable on the morrow when we will need to hunt it down? I wish I knew. I wish it knew that it is supposed to live in deciduous woodlands and not our house. I used to like chipmunks. 

Class Mammalia

I was grumpy this morning, stumping up to the stove. I went along with Liz yesterday on a trip to the auction barn and to meet a couple of chicken and hatching egg customers....she needed a Peggy watcher.... and for some reason it plumb wore me out. 

And then I was greeted, right at the stove, by one of my favorite critters. It appears that the Carolina Wrens are setting up housekeeping in the eaves of the horse barn, right next to the stove. It was fun to watch them noodling around in there and to listen to their friendly chatter.

Geese are still at it by the legions and all the other birds as well. On the trip yesterday, besides the sweet pair of people, we saw two Red-tailed Hawks sheltering side-by-side on a tree branch, only inches between them. They were gently touching beaks as they sat there in the rain....such devotion in such simple creatures.

Mammals are much in evidence as well. The yard is like a 101 level course in what lives here.

Something took a cottontail on the path from the house to the stove last night, right in front of the dog yard. There was nothing left but a thin smear of fluffy fur, from the old chicken house to the Winesap apple tree. I wonder what it was.....I am not particularly possessive of the bunnies....there are many....but if it was a canid it was closer to house, pets, and hens than it needed to be.

Then as I stood at the sink filling dog dishes a mini-bear gallumphed across the lawn from the sheep pen garden to the old hen house foundation. You could tell it has been an easy winter, because it was still fat enough to ripple and flow like water as it made plans to attack the leafy vegetables and eat all the beets. Marmota Monax, a great big woodchuck, already out and about. Yippie skippy. I suppose I should be glad that it's not a real bear.

There is a small brown mouse under the arbor eating bird seed.

The chipmunks are back. 

Alas. 

I have so enjoyed NOT having them on the bird feeders.  Hibernation is one of the few aspects of winter that I like. At least they are smaller than grey squirrels.

We have had deer all winter....they never went south to the yards, but just stayed here on the farm. Not too many of them, but there have been tracks all along. I imagine we will soon have them on the lawn again. They are beautiful, except for the ticks and the garden eating part.

It is nice out though.

 I am sure there will be more cold weather, as is always the case, but the birds and animals are ready for their annual fresh start.

Thus I am not allowed to be grumpy, no matter how sleepy the morning finds me. Suck it up, buttercup, spring is here.

Heart

Saw the sweetest thing today. A man in rustic barn clothes much like we wear most of the time, holding the hand of a tiny, very elderly lady....she barely reached his shoulder, and was stooped and bent with the weight of her years....as he helped her up the steps into their barn. She was dressed in clean work clothes too......

It moved me. I nearly cried as we drove past. How beautiful.

No Woodcock

If we had one I wouldn't be able to hear him over the cardinal chorus, the Carolina Wren, and the chicken clucking of the Red-Bellied Woodpecker anyhow. But I keep listening.

There is a warm spring rain, so light that when I went up to the stove, I didn't really get wet, but I could smell its soft goodness and feel it if I turned up my face.

Caring for the stove. So easy. There is split wood right up next to it. I walk right up in the weather, which has been extraordinary, listen to the birds, thousands, and love being out. There are so many geese down along the river they are like a waving curtain when they get up to fly.

Then I open the door. Carefully, because that is the right way to open a boiler. Let the hot gasses escape before I fling it wide and fling in wood. Ten pieces or so mornings. The same at night. The men split them big enough to hold a fire for eight or  ten hours if I put in a goodly pile, yet small enough that if I am careful I can toss them. You were right, Alan, I am getting biceps. I have always been willing to do this job, but there was never wood....

We all, except the boss, who is housebound for obvious reasons, took the baby up to the horse pond yesterday. So sweet to watch this little flower bloom. She is all farm girl, striding along in her boots, chattering about the trains across the river, "Choo-choo train, choo-choo train!"

And the geese. We were looking at a big skein waving in, but she stomped her boot and pointed straight up, not off at the horizon where we were watching. (Oh, yeah, she has a temper.) "Goose! Goose! Goose!" Sure enough there was a pair right over our heads that we hadn't seen. She knows.

We are doing okay and thank you, every one of you, for the phone calls, visits, and kind words here. By noon I will probably be snarling at insurance companies and their ilk, but for now, peace and plenty. Plenty of firewood, plenty of good food, plenty of good people, and plenty of cardinals, enough for any feast of comfort. 

When only grandma's hand will do

Two Birthday

Princess Thistledown

In and among all the other excitement was Peggy's second birthday. She understands the whole present thing now and is a strong advocate of cake. In fact, she has been promised cake for breakfast this morning.

Even Uncle Alan liked it and he's no fan of cake

There is one piece left.....it is even tastier than it looks....and she earned it more or less. Story about THAT in the comments.

Anyhow, thanks to her other grandpeeps, her mommy and daddy, and her aunts and uncles on all sides of the family, she is well supplied with Paw Patrol stuff and toy horses and a new bike helmet and all. 

She got to experience the library in all its glory yesterday...went right to the shelves and started checking out all the books with animals...."Cow-cow. Pig, pig, pig. Cow-cow."

She knows what she likes!