Some Disturbing Pictures

I am going to start out with an innocuous picture, so that the disturbing ones won't show on Facebook when I post there. 

This is one of my favorite views, I'm sorry it was so hazy when I took it yesterday. 

Those are my neighbor's ponds at the foot of my pasture... there is another in the cow pasture that runs up my northern fence line.  I love this view, but it will soon be hidden when the leaves come out.  

I did get a bid on removing the red cedars, and it is affordable... they are in my fence line.  I am saving up for that and will coordinate it with the neighbors. 

On Thursday and Friday, March 30th and 31st, we had huge winds that frankly, scared me and the dogs to death.  Zoey, especially, was affected by the atmospheric pressure and had a miserable night on Friday night.  They died down by noon on Saturday, but are back today, not as heavy as those two days.  They make it so hard to get things done outside. 

These, again, are the daffodils growing at the base of  "Oscar's Tree", on the north end of the house.  Our min pin, Oscar, is buried under this tree.  You see the box around the base has burst.  

I have never planted any but I am going to this fall... someone planted these before we moved here 18 years ago, and I want someone in the future to enjoy flowers like I do. 

Here come the disturbing pictures. 

If you have read this blog for long, you know that when Keith was dying, we were living in a big house fifteen miles from here.  I still had a flock here, and came back and forth daily while we tried to sell the house.  

I stopped in a rural area where there was a bridge over Stranger Creek, which is the biggest creek that runs through our county... I live a mile from it here. 

There were beautiful bluffs there, and I took many pictures from the bridge over the creek and posted them here. 

Here are the beautiful bluffs in May of 2016. 

On Friday, I was giving my work partner at the Ag Hall, Wayne, a ride to Tonganoxie to pick up his car from the garage.  He lives in Basehor, and to avoid some construction, I turned down Leavenworth Road to cut through to Tongie. 

We came through the farm fields and I said "Let's stop at the bridge for a minute."  I pulled onto the bridge and we got out of the car... I had taken him by there once before, but he had forgotten it. 

Here are pictures of what we found: 

That wasn't even half of it.  On both sides of the bridge there were tractor tires, a huge number of road signs WITH their poles.... furniture... and dead coyotes, that someone has been killing and dumping in the creek.  It broke my heart. 

I am actually going to go back over there with the Canon and take some more pictures and then I am going to go to the courthouse and show the pictures to the Road dept.  I have never, ever seen this beautiful place so polluted. 

It made me sick.  It is still making me sick. 

This is a wondrous place where swallows circle around you, feeding from bugs in the air in the summer.  There were two ducks on the creek, they proceeded downstream from us. 

That picture above did not show all the dead coyotes.  Shame on them. 

Shame. 

There is only one house near there, and it sits way off the road in the woods... I am sure they cannot see when someone is vandalizing at night, and would be too afraid to confront anyone. 

On a happier note, some of the seeds sent to me by my friend Iva in Zagreb have germinated, and are under a grow light in my living room, thanks to my grandson Jax who helped set everything up. 

They are doing so well! 

I still have more out in the shop that are under lights there. 

Today it is 75 and sunny, but our temperatures have been going up and down like a roller coaster.  

I put my Carhartt away, and then had to get it out again.  I am hoping that it will soon be put away for the summer. 

I am starting some chicks.  I cannot believe I am even typing that. 

I am only going to start about eight, though.  

I am trying the above heating plate for the first time, instead of a chick warming bulb. 

I am actually going to set it up today and get it warm in anticipation of the chicks moving in. 

I am also going to use a paper bedding, instead of pine shreds, which I have never done before. 

It's an adventure! 

I have been looking to see what chicks are being carried at the local farm stores, and I have found one with the best choices... as long as I am starting a few I want to get breeds I have not kept for a while.  I am overrun with red hybrid layers and am avoiding buying any of those (eggs are not the chief object, here).  

When I finish this post, I am going to go out and get the chick feeder and chick water and bring them in and clean them thoroughly. 

Coco the black cat has been sleeping in the big hen house with Wanda for the last week, and she is sleeping in the brooder pen where I will be keeping the chicks, so she is going to find it off limits.  They have to stay in this pen, because, my friends.... Just because I did not see a snake yet today, they are out there! 

This is my beautiful hospice foster, Buddy.  Buddy is entering into his final weeks, I'm afraid.  He is having pain from his hips and is now on two pain meds twice a day, but, alarmingly, he is having trouble getting up and down the stairs.  There are only three short steps up from the yard, but I watched him last night, it was all he could do to get those hind legs under him.  I hoped we would have until June, but I don't think it is going to happen. 

Here he is waiting for me while I did chores last night... if I let him through, which he loves, he has to lay down and rest before he can make it back to the house. 

His friend Bob the Porch Cat is with him there... Bob, Mama, Bullseye... they all adore Buddy and want to be with him. 

I go out and check on him frequently now when I let him out... IF he even wants to go out. 

He sleeps, mostly. 

I cannot tell you what a blessing it has been to have him.  Yes, he can be a pain, blocking the kitchen or hallway with that big body... and the crate in my kitchen... well... I have to laugh, it has been there almost nine months now.  

He accepted everyone and they all accepted him, except maybe Molly Cat, who has had some reservations all along.  

He ignored the chickens, and he loves men, when my sons and grandson are here, he is in heaven. 

I know he'll be waiting for me one day. 

Zoey and Bullseye shared the crate this morning. 

I took these from my back door through the window last night. 

That's my north fence line. 

Ten days ago, my neighbors across the road saw a bobcat cross their driveway one morning, and walk across their front pasture to the pond. 

Last Sunday, I was laying in bed and looked out to see what I thought was a vulture by the comm tower across the road from me... it was a bald eagle. 

Friends, you just don't know where the heck they will strike! 

I try to keep an eye on everyone, and my days of letting the chickens wander in the pasture are long gone. 

These guys are back, too.... but I am not seeing the huge numbers I used to see.  There are these two and one that is going in and out of the shop at night. 

Those fat coyotes have been having a good winter. 

I try to live and let live... that has always been my philosophy.  

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter, and I'll keep you informed about what is going on with the creek situation. 

PS 

It's 4/2/23 and I can hear someone out on their mower on my road! 

I think it's Troy or Kathy next door, I'm going to go look.... it's about time to roll mine out! 

Bleak February Days

It's the 26th, and the second month of the year is almost over. 

I have some catching up to do. 

Bob, formerly known as Alien. 

He adores both Zoey and Buddy.  I mean ADORES. 

Mama is the same way, I don't know what it is... Mama will run clear across the property if we are out at 3 AM in the cold to rub up against her buddy Buddy. 

He has let me pet him twice, once on the head and once along the back.  Yesterday, he came in the kitchen for about thirty seconds, then went back out.  You see the straw... he is sleeping in the dog house on the porch to the left of the door.  I just put more straw in it five minutes ago, we are expecting rain tonight.  I would bring him in if he would come. 

Look who was back one night this week.  Friends, that is a healthy coyote, I mean healthy.  He has not been starving this winter.  I was clear up on the deck, and as I advanced with the camera, he turned around and trotted off.  

I will tell you one thing I am no longer seeing here... rabbits.  The cats have run them all off. 

These little guys take their lives in their hands with the cats out there, and I regret this, because I love squirrels. 

The coyote above was taken the seventeenth... this one was this week.  I watched it go back and forth across the pasture about six times, I don't know what was worrying it.  You see it looking into Troy and Kathy's pasture... I know Kathy pours out leftovers just like I do.  Something must have been worrying it.  Now that I look at it again, it could be a pregnant mother. 

Here is a picture taken by the porch cam of a rather large raccoon on the porch (I forgot to bring the bowl in) and Bob is sleeping in the Bob House. 

What you can't see in this picture is Teenie is sleeping on a heated pad on the chair to the right of the chest... Teenie has been run out of the shop by Mama. 

We are expecting 50 mile and hour winds and a storm tonight so I am hoping she finds shelter in the garage, though there IS another little house on the porch... the one to the right of Bob's house. (and it is heated, Coco still uses it during the day). As a total aside, my grandson was with me working out here yesterday, and we went into the old hen house to put something away.  Coco, (the black cat) who lives in there with the chickens, was sitting in a dark corner, staring straight at us.  She scared Jax to death... he did not want to go in farther than the door.  I told him she was watching him only because she didn't know him... but he was hesitant to go in still.  She did not move at all while we were in there, and that scared him even more! 

This is why we can't have nice things in the barn. 

And this... .

And this.  

You know, I never smell skunks in the barn in the morning! 

This, however, is the bowl after I emptied it and before I wiped it out and re-filled it... see all the pawprints? 

My grandson and I strarted buying planting media yesterday, and then got home and realized all the porch planters are still frozen solid.  I don't know what I was thinking! 

(We actually bought potting soil for the deck planters) 

I think poor old Ferdie is going to be next... he is no longer roosting and sleeps in this corner of the hen house every night now. 

Wanda has it good. And that's actually Buddy, Ferdie's son... and he is no longer roosting either, they have both lost toes in the cold.  He sleeps under the roosts.  

Pipsqueak sleeps under the light with Wanda. 

My best boy, Jester.  The American Gentleman, for sure. 

I recently had a health scare, these last two weeks. 

My first thought was 

Who is going to take care of all of my animals? 

I had about ten days to really think about this... and  I am unsure where it is leading me. 

I'm not ready to stop, I realized that. 

Missed a Week!

Missed a week, how about that?  

Things are humming along here in Northeast Kansas, Leavenworth County. 

I got up this morning to this: 

Oh, yes, it's beautiful and it actually was not too cold out!  

See the platform feeder in the second picture?  No one could get to any feed, so 

I put boots on and trekked out there and cleaned both feeders off and filled them. 

I cleaned off the hanging feeders, too... and put the small feeder down on the ground.  I filled both water bowls. 

I did not take pictures but within a few minutes, there were many birds out there eating.  I especially like watching the finches on the two hanging feeders closer to the house.  

I am satisfied with how I am feeding this year, and the seed you see on the ground in some of the pictures is seed that fell from the feeders.  In past years, I have spent hundreds of dollars on wild bird feed... I can no longer afford that. 

I feed a mix from Sam's Club that is 99% black oil sunflower, with a tiny bit of peanuts mixed in... and a tiny bit of filler "parakeet feed", as I call it.  Everyone eats it.  One bag lasts about nine days. 

The finches get sunflower hearts into which I mix dried mealworms.  I feed (sparingly) some dried mealworms in the platform feeder you see above, daily.  One five pound bag of mealworms is now 50.00 at Tractor Supply... so I made this months last an entire month.  

I love watching the birds on the more permanent feeder that Keith built years ago. 

My ragamuffin farm girl, Zoey.  This girl LOVES to do chores with me. 

She knows the minute I start to get the bucket ready in the afternoon... her head comes up and she is ready to go!  If Buddy feels up to it, he comes with her. 

They are such good friends. 

The Big Moose went to the doctor on Tuesday and had blood run, got his nails trimmed, and got weighed.  114.4 pounds!  The doctor did not say anything but the techs and I talked when I picked him up, and he is on a diet to lose ten pounds to give his aching joints a rest.  He is taking Gabapentin daily now for his arthritic old joints.  He remains a hospice foster for Bonner Animal Rescue, and I cannot say enough good about this group. 

Zoey and Fritzi came to me through them. 

Three weeks ago, I was out at 3 AM with Zoey and Buddy. 

All of the sudden, I was surrounded by coyote howls, some that sounded as if they were in the yard with me, and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. 

There were some from across the road to the west (26 wooded acres) and some from the foot of my pasture to the east, and some on the north in Spehar's pasture that wraps me.  I came in, shaken. 

Because of the skunk dying by my hen house, I have removed the feeder that was in the pasture. 

So there is no more of this going on. One came up two or three times after the feeder was pulled, but I have not seen any in day or dusk for those three weeks, but friends, they are still around. 

A few days after hearing those howls so very close.... I was on the porch of the big hen house one morning and thought "What am I hearing?"... I live 2/10s of a mile from a state highway, and the traffic does not stop until early morning hours... over that traffic, I could hear coyotes calling each other in broad daylight.  In all my seventeen years here, I have never heard that!  

So, fast forward to Friday night.  I got out of the recliner at ten to take Zoey out.  If I don't, we end up at an outlandish hour, rain or not.  I carried her over the deck, put her down... and the most chilling howls came from Troy's pasture, and near his pond, which is about 300 feet behind his house.  I cannot see past my yard light, but I could sure hear them.  For once, Zoey got scared... and in the middle of the horrible chorus.... there was a single scream that ended.  Zoey ran for the door, and I always have her on a leash after dusk.... I ran with her.  I picked her up again and carried her down on the east side, and she did finally squat and then stood at attention, no tail wags, and stared down into the pasture.  The coyotes had moved away after the scream, to the east.  

This is my Teenie girl, who hangs out on the porch of the big hen house. 

I have not seen her since Friday afternoon, when I took these pictures. I am praying so hard the scream I heard was not from her. 

She has not been there all day today, and I have checked all my cameras.  There is another cat, Alien, who looks like her... I have seen him.  

I have seen Diamond Lil, the most elusive of all the ferals. 

Not Teenie.  

I had her spayed at Leavenworth Animal Welfare Society and I am just hoping she is all right. 

Wanda is still living in the big hen house.  Coco, the black cat, now sleeps in the old hen house, and I lock her up there every night.  I sleep so much better knowing that they are safe. 

Both can go in and out during the day. 

The Silkie rooster and hen are spending the day inside today, their outdoor pen was full of snow.  It has melted somewhat and I let the bigger birds out, but I am keeping them in until morning.  I have to carry them in and out twice a day.  

You all know that eggs have become very high at the grocery.  One reason is that avian flu has hit the US hard, with 50 million birds lost last year.  IF you have one bird test positive, from what I understand, the entire flock must be culled.  

It has come within two counties of me.  

I feel somewhat protected as I no longer have a little pond here.  There are three ponds east of me, and one across the road to the west.  I have seen geese land on the three to the east.  I understand ducks are more likely carriers of it, but I feel like the likelihood of a wild duck landing here is very slim. 

Here is the difference it has made in practical terms.  Chicks have gone sky high. 

People are buying chicks who have no idea of the smell, the noise, the constant care that must be given to keep them warm enough, fed, and watered and keep their cage or container clean to prevent disease.  The farm stores sell flimsy shelters for chickens that are designed really to hold only two full size chickens at adulthood... and cannot withstand an attack from predators. 

If you want to buy full size hens, good luck... it's a seller's market, and the prices have gone sky high. 

We have not had a flock at the National Agricultural Center for three years because of covid.  We would like to put one there again this year, and I have begun putting out feelers.  We want only six or eight birds, but to find adults, I am going to have to pay over 100.00 for them.  I may have to settle for some aged hens in order to get any, and the alternative is that I start chicks and all the work that entails.

So... we shall see. 

My oldsters this week... this coop used to have thirty birds in it, it now 

has six, plus the two silkies in their pen. 

(One hen was in the rafters) 

The rooster on the floor has lost enough toes that he can no longer roost. 

I still have seven younger girls and Doug, the Silkie rooster in the little hen house, 

and Singleton the white rooster and one older Ameracauna hen in the old hen house.  She laid four green eggs the week before Christmas and I have not seen another egg out of her! 

This was my egg take yesterday.  I used to get dozens a day. 

It is 2:19 and the sun has just come out!  So good to see it! 

We have been told we are going to get more snow on Wednesday. 

(It disappeared almost as soon as it appeared!) 

Zoey on Duty. 

This is how Molly and I spent most of the morning in the recliner, after chores. 

She has her head tucked under my sweatshirt. 

My favorite food truck was here this week! 

They are back, in Basehor, (five miles) on Saturday the 28th. 

It gives me something to look forward to.  

Things could be worse. 

At least this family had each other. 

I remember when my kids were little we lived in a drafty old house, and 

I would huddle on the furnace grate in the dining room and read in the evenings. 

There are a lot of people who romanticize how "life on the farm" was fifty, sixty and seventy years ago... too often it was like that picture above. 

Mama says take care of each other, and we will see you soon! 

 

My Bad

Longtime readers of this blog will remember that we always left a fortex feeder in the pasture for the wild things.  

Skunk, fox, possums, raccoons, and sometimes, coyotes. 

We had animals of our own at the time, we just liked to watch the wildings, and yes, this goes against everything that animal rehabbers will tell you to do. 

We always saw it as a supplement for winter feed. 

I think it was wrong, now. 

But I also think it kept some of the animals alive. 

There is a particularly beautiful fox in the pasture in 2014. 

That was a very hard winter, but that fox is in good flesh. 

Recently, I have been watching a feral cat in the pasture.  It is large, and I am guessing it is a male. 

The only male here is Bullseye, and everyone besides Bully is all spayed and Bully is neutered. 

This cat has been coming to a feeder in the pasture where I leave garbage and 

cheap cat food. 

You can barely see him in this picture eating in front of the camera in the pasture. 

He is in the middle.  He is very elusive, but I will tell you something... 

I believe he it was HE who ran out of my garage yesterday when I went to collect the feed bowl at chore time.  I put away all feed bowls in the evening. 

In this first picture, Molly has seen the coyotes coming, and quickly leaves the pasture. 

Bullseye freezes... I think this is from hubris, not fright. 

 

These were taken by the pasture cam. 

This is the view from the porch. 

Note where foolish Bullseye is at this point. 

I went down there thirty seconds later, shooed the coyote off, 

and dumped what was left in the pan.  I am putting only cat food in it now, 

and I can tell you that a coyote came last night, ate for a minute, and then left most of the bowl. 

Any chicken carcasses (rotisserie) or other garbage is being put over the north fence line into the tree line of the now-empty pasture to my north.  

Saturday morning, I woke to find one of my three pasture gates standing open... I am sure I had not hooked it tightly and I am guessing a possum or raccoon came under it and pushed it open, but it worried me.  Coyotes can easily jump the fence, though... but an open gate would be so much easier. 

I lock all chickens up tightly at night, and the cats can get away. 

It's my dogs I worry about. 

Zoey never goes out without a leash on, even at 4 PM. 

Jester and Buddy are watched like hawks. 

If you make that big, you will see a coyote standing beyond the pasture gate, with Buddy oblivious to him.  I will say that it would never have happened with Lilly Ann, who made it her to business to never allow anything like that to happen here.  Zoey is also one to run at a predator like that. 

So...

no more feeding in the pasture, to protect those here. 

I will continue to put some cat food out for the feral for a few weeks, until I can be sure he has found the food here in the outbuildings and can get enough to eat there. 

I took this last night. 

He was just waiting for me to finish chores so he could come up and get some cat food. 

He didn't much like it! 

One last thing... no foxes come now.  Our area is too built up, I think.  I have seen skunks (after not seeing them for a long time), possums, raccoons, and the same three coyotes.  Crows come during the day.  I am putting a camera back out in the yard tonight to make sure nothing is jumping the fence! 

Have a peaceful Thanksgiving, everyone!