Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

On past the Raccoon Latrine, further to the back of the field is a log I use to do my stair stepping exercises.   But I think it is someone's home...perhaps a chipmunk.  Whoever it is seems to love walnuts.  Take a look: See all the black stuff scattered around? That is gibbled up walnut hulls. Let's get closer... Yep.  And there is his front door. Looks like a fairly cozy place to overwinter.  I bet it's packed with leaves and dried grasses.  And very likely there is a large store of seeds and nuts in there  Somewhere back in the most fanciful part of my mind, I expect to be standing there one day and see a large chipmunk pop out and invite me in for tea with black walnut scones and cream...a la Narnia.  And maybe the raccoon will amble over to join us, with a loaf of persimmon bread and a cup of cream.   That would be fun. Then Bella comes loping back by, and I remember I have dishes or laundry calling my name.  So I head back to the house for another prosaic day of chore

 The other evening we took a walk a bit later than usual and found this... It looks like a relatively young coon.  At least he isn't very big. Fortunately I saw him before Bella did and managed to get her back on the leash.  He went up the tree nearest to him, but he could have taken off into the brush and woods and then I'd have had to be waiting for the dog til after dark, because I don't want to go plundering through the uneven woods and deep fall leaves in pursuit.   After Bella was on the leash I took her over to the tree and let her sniff around and look him over.  I don't know for sure if this is the very coon who made the latrine I blogged about a couple of days ago, but it could be.  Who knows? 🧐 

 Occasionally I cover gross things on this blog because, well, because in the country we just have to deal with gross things occasionally, you know.  Nature and the wildlife around here are endlessly fascinating to me, even the gross parts. Back in California where I grew up we were in a very rural area and dealt with marauding raccoons off and on, especially in the corn patch and the orchard during the summer.  They were just a nuisance I grew up with. I do have a very random but distinct memory of my knowledge of raccoons from when I was in 6th grade. For an art project we were assigned to do a painting.  It must have been in spring, because for some reason I chose to do a painting of a raccoon eating an ear of corn in the corn patch.  Haha..  One boy thought that was the dumbest thing ever. He laughed at me and said, "Raccoons don't eat corn!"  Ha! The joke was on him! The teacher, Mr Peterson, knew better from bitter experience I suppose, and corrected the kid.  For s

Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only geek who records this stuff.  Maybe, maybe not.  But I still like recording the symmetrical numbers, or the ones that catch my fancy.  I guess I might have more to add for the year, but I am going to delete these off my camera roll at least. January 11, 2024 June 20, 2024 September 11, 2024, September 18, 2024 October 9, 2024 November 6, 2024 November 7, 2024

 The last day or so we've been blessed with over 2 inches of rain; most came overnight.  But prior to that we were in drought mode. So much so that the area where Gary bulldozed turned into this dust bowl. It was so dusty in fact that, as you can see, there were so many tracks in it I just had to take pictures. Deer Dog Opossum Coon? Does anyone see anything else?   Well, in looking at them again I don't see any of Bella's prints.   I'm sure now that there are tracks in the mud.  And for that we are so grateful. It has been warm the past week and what with the rain now the grass is growing back again.  This is good because it means we, and other folks around here, can put off feeding hay for a while longer.  Though I know some people already had started feeding hay.

 Last week I went with Gary on another well job.  This time it was to our neighbor-across-the-river.  Mary G. is in her 70s, lives alone, though her boyfriend, as it were, lives just around the corner from her a ways.  He is in his 80s.  But Mary had back surgery here a couple of weeks ago, so while she can maneuver around, she has to be very careful.   She has chickens and Guinea fowl, and they need water.  But her outside water source in the well house below is/was a spigot underneath the tank there as you can see below.  You can't really tell in the pic, but that door is rather narrow. So she wanted Gary to install an outside spigot so she would be able to water her flock by herself instead of calling on Carl, or other neighbors to help her.  So off we went. This pic is where he is cutting back an elderberry bush.   Things were going along swimmingly until he went to remove the old spigot so he could install the fittings to attach the new hose to get it from the tank to the spig