Today’s Civic Holiday in Ontario, so I’m taking it easy (thanks for understanding). Be cool, dudes.
Category Archives: Animals
Uncovering a favourite perch
So you have a spot like this in your yard, right? Somewhere that you just let things go a little bit?
My pledge this year is to not worry about the yard and focus only on the vegetable garden. But this clump of overgrowth at the edge of the south lawn finally got to me. My inner Edward Scissorhands came out (along with a pair of clippers, since I don’t actually have blades on my hands).
Who knew there was a dead curlicue bush, a mostly dead catalpa, a huge flowerpot and two stone benches hidden in there? (Well, we did, since we’ve seen them before… and put some of them there during our previous yard clean-up episodes).
The bush and the tree froze to death last winter. The big flowerpot is a gift from previous owners that I haven’t bothered to get rid of yet. The benches? Well, the benches belong to Ralph.
While she didn’t express gratitude (are cats capable of gratitude?), I think she appreciated our work.
The benches allow her to ascend to the perfect height for convenient scratching.
But most importantly, the benches allow her to assume a superior height over her brother.
So our landscaping meets with the cat’s approval, if not the dog’s. Now to convince Matt to get out his chainsaw and deal with those dead trees…
Do you have an overgrown spot at your house? Does anyone else’s animals “help” with the yard work? What furniture belongs to furry friends? Who’s the boss, your cat or your dog? (I think I know the answer to the last one… in my experience that relationship only goes one way).
Gotcha Day 2
Tomorrow is the second anniversary of when Baxter came to live with us. Since he joined our family, I’ve become a complete dog person–as demonstrated by the number of dog blogs in my reader.
One of the blogs I enjoy in particular is Oh Melvin and Yo Jake (what Tracey and Jake went through with Melvin–and are still going through–is amazing and heartbreaking, and I can’t even think of it when I think about Baxter). But anyways, Tracey has a tradition of writing a letter to her dogs on the anniversary of their gotcha days. I love that idea, so I’ve copied it for Baxter.
Dear Baxter,
It’s been two years since you came to live with us, and the novelty still hasn’t worn off. Sure I don’t love it when the alarm goes off at 5:45am (and I know you don’t either), but I do love our morning walks together. We see so many corners of the farm when everything is still quiet. We sometimes see the deer eating their breakfast in the back field. I get to see you finding all the new sniffs and enjoying the morning. Starting the day with you is pretty special.
You’ve done so well this year as you’ve learned about off-leash hiking. I am very proud of you, to see you walk without the long line dragging behind you. I admit, I still get a little nervous, but I know you’re working hard at remembering to stay with me.
Getting to know our hiking group has given you a chance to spread your unique brand of love and wiggles around. It makes me happy to see how much everyone loves you. And I’m happy too to see how much you love hiking. Watching you dart to the car and hearing you urge me to go faster as we’re driving to meet the group are part of the fun.
You’ve learned so much about staying close when we’re working outside, being calm when you say hi to Ralph, hitting Grandma and Grandpa up for treats. We’re going to keep working on coming when you’re called and that little people are okay–they’re weird because they’re as tall as you and they’re very grabby, but you’re a very gentle boy and you can teach them how to be polite to doggies.
Matt and I both love coming home to you every night. You give us such good wiggles and tell us all about your day. Watching your tail go around in circles never gets old.
Happy second gotcha day, bud. We’re so happy that you’re part of our family.
Love,
Julia
Stop and smell the flowers
I had a different post in mind for today. But the project for that post is not done. So instead you get a reminder from Ralph to stop and smell the peonies.
Apparently, I’ve been doing a bit too much of that, hence no project for you today.
I hope that you have a great weekend. Make like Ralph, and take some time to relax!
Too close for comfort
Baxter here, y’all. Last Monday was an exciting day. It was Victoria Day, so Matt and Julia and me were all home together. (I dunno who Victoria is. I don’t think she’s from Kentucky.)
The best part of the day was when Julia and I went for our afternoon walk. It was sunny and sniffy. We were walking across the field behind the driveshed. There was lump in the field. I always investigate the bumps, the longest grass, the tallest weeds (and usually pee on them too). I was going to check out the lump, but Julia called me back. I went. (I’m getting very good at not wearing my leash.)
I was almost beside Julia when I saw that she was looking at the lump too. I took another look, and I saw what she saw. The lump had ears, and eyes, and a nose.
I’ll show you what it looked like (sorta). Her head was low to the ground between her paws and her ears pointed straight up. (And her furs were grey and brown just like the dirt. That’s why we couldn’t see her at first.)
It was the doggie that Matt and Julia never let me meet: coyote!
I wasn’t going to miss my chance this time.
I heard Julia land on the dirt as she tried to tackle me, but I was speedy. The coyote was speedy too. She stayed just in front of me all the way across the field, down the hill and into the marsh. I’m not going to tell what happened in the marsh. Julia said she called me, but I didn’t hear her. I was just trying to meet coyote.
Eventually, I realized coyote didn’t want to meet me, and I remembered I’m supposed to stay close to Julia. But I couldn’t find Julia. I left the marsh, but she wasn’t in the field. I went back to the house, and the door opened when I got there. Matt and Julia were both there. Matt was holding my leash and wearing his tall boots and long pants even though it was really hot out, and he’d been wearing shorts before.
I gave them lots of smiles and wiggles, but I couldn’t help dancing too, so they saw that my legs and feets (and other parts too) had some black marsh mud on them. (Okay, there was lots of black mud.) They weren’t as happy as me. Julia grabbed my collar and gave me a couple of hard shakes. Then Matt took my collar and clipped me to my long line.
We could see the field behind the driveshed, and we saw my coyote come back. She climbed over the top of the hill and walked to the tree line. Matt went out to the field, but Julia stayed with me. She went and got the hose and washed off the mud. I usually don’t like the hose, but I was so hot from running that the water felt good. Plus I was still pretty excited.
I stayed outside for awhile to dry off, but I didn’t see the coyote anymore on Victoria Day. We’ve seen her pretty much everyday since then. But I haven’t gotten to introduce myself again.
Addition from Julia: We officially have coyotes. I was very excited a month ago when I first saw the coyote, as I hadn’t seen one on our property before. But now they (yes, we’re up to two coyotes) have become regulars, and it’s a little less exciting–Baxter’s opinion notwithstanding.
I’m a live and let live kind of woman, but I’m not sure the coyotes share my philosophy.
Their confidence and comfort grows quickly. So far they seem to be mostly curious. One followed–just followed, not stalked or hunted–Bax and I on our walk on Friday morning. When he got too close, I shouted at him, and he ran away.
Our biggest concern is Ralph. We can keep Baxter on leash, but we can’t lock Ralph up in the barn. She’s a pretty savvy girl, and she sticks very close to the barn, but the fact that a coyote was sitting on the driveway the other night–and that Ralph likes to hang out on the barn ramp in the middle of the night–isn’t a comfort. Plus, when two coyotes were cavorting in the field, her reaction was to roll on her back and ask for scratches (from us, not from the coyotes).
Argh. I wish coyotes were vegetarians.
Woman vs. tarp
Baxter here with a garden update for y’all.
At least that’s what Julia says we’re making. It doesn’t look like any garden I’ve seen before.
Two weekends ago, Julia lit the “garden” on fire. I used to love that spot of the field. The long grass was super, super sniffy. But now it’s gone. And I got to say, I didn’t love the fire. First, it was very, very big. I thought it was going to reach out and singe my furs. I’m a short-haired fellow. I don’t have many furs to spare. Second, I got all tangled up in the hose which was not very comfortable. And third, smoke makes me sneeze.
I went into the garden to check it out last Saturday. It’s not as sniffy as it used to be. But it didn’t make me sneeze either. I rolled around a bit ’cause that’s what I used to like to do in the long grass. It felt different, but it was okay.
Julia was not very happy after I rolled, and she decided to cover up all the ash.
She and Matt got out the World’s Biggest Tarp. Matt probably should have stayed with her in the garden ’cause it took her a long time to get that tarp unfolded. I dunno what’s so difficult. She’s got thumbs!
Even though she used the World’s Biggest Tarp, it still wasn’t big enough for the garden. Then she decided to use the big roll of carpet she found beside the garden. It wasn’t frozen anymore–I walked all over it and sniffed to make sure–but she still had a really hard time moving it.
Julia vs. the carpet was more interesting than Julia vs. the tarp, but she didn’t make a video of that one. I was sunbathing, but I opened my eyes every so often to watch.
I got up when she went to get Wiley. I keep an eye on that tractor. It took them a couple of tries, but they finally got the carpet into the front end loader. Then Wiley carried the carpet around the fence and dumped it in the garden. He’s pretty helpful even though he doesn’t have thumbs either.
It still took Julia a long time to lay the carpet all out, but eventually it was spread out in the garden. Even though the carpet was wet and dirty and buggy and had plants growing in it, it was nicer to lay on than the pokey dry weeds.
Julia wasn’t any happier when I laid on the carpet than she was when I rolled in the ash. After my afternoon walk with Matt, he took me from the front door right into the bathtub. That was not my favourite part of the weekend. Honestly, what’s the matter with a few smudges on my furs!
The carpet and the World’s Biggest Tarp and two other little tarps still aren’t enough to cover the whole garden. Plus, some of them blew around in the wind, and we had to spread them out again the other day.
I think we’re going to be working in the “garden” for awhile yet. Hopefully it starts to look like a garden soon.
Watch out rabbits
Ralph is a top-notch barn cat, but she’s become a bit… soft.
This winter, as soon as HRH deemed the temperature too cold and the snow too deep, she retreated to the barn and refused to venture outside.
As a result of her hibernation, we had our first rabbits this spring. Two of them living behind the barn.
The snow is now mostly gone, so Ralph is outside again and the rabbits are also gone. She hasn’t gotten that soft.
But then last weekend the snow returned. It fell all night from Saturday into Easter Sunday.
HRH poked her head out of the barn.
She looked to the left and the right.
She paused for a moment to consider.
And she retreated back into the barn.
Oh, Ralphie. You’re such a tough barn cat.
At least the Easter bunny was safe.
Horsing around
Hello! Thanks for your patience while I took a little break last week.
It was a good vacation, but a busy one. I was away from the farm 7 out of the 9 days. Honestly, that’s not my favourite way to spend a vacation, but I did manage to squeeze in a little project time.
We finally made an itty-bitty bit of progress on the master bedroom (yes, that makeover still lives), and I came to some decisions about the garden. You’ll hear more about both of these in upcoming posts.
For today, though, I wanted to share one of the fun reasons I left the farm last week.
We went to, guess what, another farm to go horseback riding. Today’s post isn’t about the ride itself as much as it is about the great pictures (trust me, you’ll want to make it all the way to the very end).
Here are our two steeds: Indy on the left and Clyde on the right.
Indy was mine and Clyde was Matt’s.
Our guide was Adrienne (the person, not the horse).
Here’s a view I don’t usually have during my hikes.
Matt and Clyde had a special bond. He (Clyde, not Matt) keeps his mouth open a bit because he likes to have his bottom lip tickled. You’ll notice his (Clyde’s, not Matt’s) tongue is sticking out in the photo below.
And then Matt found just the right spot.
Clyde certainly knows how to smile for the camera.
And there’s your funny Monday. You’re welcome. Hope you have a great day.
Owl
Like so many of you this winter, we’ve had a few incredibly cold days over the last little while. The nights have been even worse. Last Friday, shortly after the post about the birds that have been visiting our feeder was published, I saw a new bird for the first time–a little owl.
Unfortunately, the sighting was a sad one. The cold had been too much for this little guy. He was dead.
He was a beautiful, fascinating creature–his multi-toned feathers, his pointy ears, his curved beak. I wish I’d been able to see him alive. I’ve heard owls around the farm, but I’ve never seen one.
I was surprised how small he was. His feathers were so fluffy that they deceived me into thinking he was much bigger than I realized. However, under his feathers, he was truly a very little guy. No wonder the cold was too much for him.
Birds of the farm
Our bird feeder has been very busy this winter. Chickadees are still our most frequent visitors, but our flock has diversified quite a bit.
I spent some time hanging out the dining room window with my camera, trying to get some (not very good) pictures of our birds. It turned out that I was just in time for the Great Backyard Bird Count. The count happens over four days every February, and the goal is to collect data on wild birds to get an idea of where and how many birds there are.
Here’s a few snapshots of our little flock:
Male cardinal
Female cardinal
Blue jays
I think this fellow might be a junco
Woodpecker. I think this is a red-bellied woodpecker, but we also have a pure black and white one that visits every so often.
Woodpecker facing off with the male cardinal
For some reason, there’s an understanding among the birds that the feeder is a one bird at a time operation. The woodpecker is our most skittish bird, but he swooped in while the cardinal was still in the feeder. I swear I heard the cardinal hiss at woodie as he hopped to the roof of the feeder.
Do you have a bird feeder at your house? Who are the members of your flock? Anyone know whether I’m correct in my identification of the junco and woodpecker?
Home on 129 Acres 