“This hunting for bugs is fun, Skitter Bug!”
“Yes! Bugs and a nice fluff in the dirt, Ethel.”
“WAIT! ETHEL! WHO ARE THOSE BIRDS?”
“WOW, Skitter I don’t know!!!”
“RUN!! RUN INTO THE HOUSE, ETHEL! DANGER!!!”
ETHEL! DANGER!!!”
“No. Not danger. Just some big birds stopping by for a rest. Which I think we need to do. Rest in the dirt and the sun……………..zzzzzzzzzzzzzz”
“Oh. Nothing to worry about then. Back to looking for bugs.”
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
The Sky is falling!
THE SKY IS FALLING!
Oh, good heavens…just chill out. The sun is warm the wood is warm…nothin….zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
OH! WOW! POPCORN!
This is COOL!
Running here and there is FUN!
WAIT! I HEAR SOMETHING!
ROOSTER! MOM! ROOSTER!
RUN!
No, sweet hens. No rooster! You are safe. Very safe!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm life,
Linda
Chapter Four
Every day is just another day.
I patrol the farm constantly.
Working hard to keep Mom and Dad safe.
And those hens.
They are such silly girls; it is really hard to keep them safe.
I’ve tried.
Boomer always checked out the hen house and made sure the hens were safe so I tried to do the same thing also.
Let me tell you, it is just too hard.
I don’t think they have a brain in their heads.
So, I only go to the hen house now when they are NOT IN the hen house.
That way I can keep the hen house SAFE!
Yes, SAFE! You know there are MICE who like to live in the hen house and eat chicken food.
I make sure the mice become MY Food!
Anyway,
If Dad is outside I always,
I mean always,
Go to Dad and get Kitty pets and Kitty Rubs and Kitty Pick Up and Carries.
Sure, is nice.
After a while I make Dad let me down and I head off doing Mouse patrol.
Well, it was any day just like any other day….oh, not really, it was more any evening like any evening
WHEN
Suddenly two grey ghosts flew right past me; landing in the very Ancient Willow Tree.
I flung myself to the ground when they flew past.
Then I heard HOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO WHOOOOOOO
OWLS!
OWLS! EAT! CATS!!! I started to bolt away when one of the owls silently lifted out of the tree and headed in my direction.
I ran as fast as I could to the, now empty canal, dove under the grass hanging over the side of the now-empty canal just in the nick of time, as I felt the swoosh of feathers passing over me.
‘Are you finding anything, Myrtle?”
“Well, kinda. Let’s look over here.”
“This is extravagant..lots of weeds and leaves and stuff.
“Let’s head someplace else. I’m not finding anything.”
“Okay”
“Oh, look the loud echoing water is gone. Let’s go down there.”
“I’m done.”
“Me too.”
Knock, knock, knock
“MOM! Come out we want some luxury food.”
MOM!!! WHERE ARE YOU!?!? MOM!
“YAY! Mom is heading to the hen house with treats!”
“First one there gets all of them!”
“That’s just what you think, Myrtle.”
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
Honey Bee
Those are bugs flying in the air. All types and varieties
Sparrow in flight
The Barn Swallows left us in one huge swirling swoop
These just think they can fly. 🙂
To have one of these fly up in front of you is to startle you greatly (pheasant)
Not a feathered type of flying, but one that flies, never-the-less
And, yes, this really does fly!
ZOOM!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
Chapter Five
“MEOW!”
“MEOW!”
“MEOW!”
“MEOW, MOM/DAD I WANT IN!”
I’m done with all this waiting.
With that, Mindy stomped off the cement step, down the cement sidewalk, across the red bricks, back onto the cement sidewalk.
WAIT!!!
WAIT!
I think I need to take a little break here and …………….ummmmmmmmmmm enjoy myself for a spell.
Meanwhile—
“Henny lets go see what sitting on the cement step is all about.”
“Sounds good, wait just a minute, Penny, let me catch up with you. We will stand and peck at the door together.”
Peck, peck, peck
Peck, peck, peck
“This is dumb, Penny. I have better things to do.”
“HAHAHAHAHA” I bayed at those silly hens.
“There is no one home.” Chuckling to myself I took off to do a little checking around.
I looked over here and sniffed out the news. Nothing.
Then I went down the road a spell,
Humm, Raccoons. In the night. Late.
Then I walked back to the lawn…nothing passed through here late last night, or early this morning, or after lunch.
“Hey, Mindy! Do you want to do something like anything…
I mean SOMETHING? This is BORING without Mom and Dad.”
BAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
HOWLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
“COME ON MINDY! MOM AND DAD ARE HOME!”
Mom started wondering what happened with the coyote…
no longer has she seen signs of coyote in the yard
or on the game camera she put on the little trail the coyote seemed to be using crossing the long, long lane and through the lawn to get to where my dog houses were.
SO…. Mom and I took down the game camera and hopped on the four-wheeler.
Off we went way over where the equipment is stored on the other side of the farm. Where I jumped off and searched the ground thoroughly for news.
Humm.
Yep…coyotes.
Now, Mom doesn’t know if one of these coyotes is THE coyote coming onto the yard, but at least there are no longer signs of coyote on the grass or the road or around any of the buildings; it just might be safe to say the coyote has moved on and joined a pack.
At least that is what Mom and I want to think.
Boomer
Mom and I are very tired of winter…Very.
I want to go out and about checking on my friends out on the farm. Although, Mom keeps telling me ‘no more running around and staying gone, Boomer’.
I don’t get why she tells me that I know where I am and what I’m doing.
So…
Mom and I wander around where the mud is starting to dry out, which isn’t very far. And Mom takes photos…mostly of birds.
Not much going on. Pretty much housebound.
Sigh!
Boomer
Well, it seems like I need to do some catching up. Well, not me, but you. Well not you catching me up, but me catching you up.
It’s still terribly dry here.
And the wind blows every day, —- still.
The deer are enjoying the corn.
They like corn just like Mom and Dad.
The coyotes eat the corn also. There isn’t anything a coyote won’t eat —-just say’n.
The Barn Swallows are doing a real good job of keeping the mosquitoes gone. They are on another batch of little kids so they eat lots of flying bugs. Mom and Dad and Mindy and I think that is a VERY GOOD THING!
The very busy raccoons are coming into the yard all the time. They robbed Mom’s tomato patch the other night and had a huge feast.
So, Mom covered up the watermelon hoping to protect the three which are left. (One was eaten and Mom said it wasn’t even ripe.)
Freddy Fox comes to see me every so often. He is shy and won’t come around if Mom is out on a walk with me…but I see him and give him tag wags.
The other night we almost ran into a skunk. Mom was extremely careful. She called me back to her and made me walk with her into the cornfield where we hid—and Mom took a photo.
That tail went up, up and more up, but nothing came out. Which was a very good thing. Mom and I were extremely nervous we were going to get sprayed.
But I guess the big news is Ethie and Dottie don’t live here anymore. Ethie’s real parents came and got her. They also took Dottie because Ethie and Dottie were BFF’s now and would have been sad without each other.
Then Mom was sad about not having Ethie and Dottie. She kept saying that the yard seems empty without chickens. This went on for several days.
My oldest sister (the one who has my cousin Etta) came up and gave mom TWO young hens.
Little Bit One and Two. They do everything together. If one turns left the other one does too. If one runs down the road the other one is right with them. Mom says they must have been twins. (Can chickens have twin eggs? It’s a wonder all eggs look the same to me.)
Anyway, Mom is happy again…two hens to scratch and run in her yard. I have two hens who like to take naps close to me…and Mindy has two hens who like to chase her.
Mindy is not very happy about that!!!!
Oh! Have to go!…………….
It’s UPS TRUCK TIME!
Boomer
Life on a Colorado Farm 