Goodness, this month seems to be flying by.
Anyway, I wanted to show what those pesty deer do to the corn—
Yep! They eat the silks off and the tip of the corn. It’s so yummy for the deer’s tummy.
Ruins the corn…it won’t continue to develop. Sigh
And those delightfully cute, but so damaging raccoons and
Skunks—
They like to tear the stalks down and THEN eat the corn!
Critters. Gotta love ’em, but sure don’t like some of their dining habits.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
The reality of a dog’s life…a farm dog’s life, that is—is we work at night.
There is much we have to do:
First I go with Mom and Dad to change the water one last time before bed.
Then, when they are inside watch television, I’m outside so I can check out all the places the fox have been. We have a lot of fox. A group of fox is called a skulk, beats me why they call a group a skulk. (Mom assures me this a fact. Weird)
Mom always asks me to come in to spend the night; I go in and try to rest. BUT there is so much going on out outside I head back out. When I’m tired I can always bed down in one of the dog houses.
I’m really always on guard…well, let me clarify I don’t really guard, I sniff out and then I either give chase or I holler for Mom or Dad.
But why holler for Mom or Dad for the common night creatures: fox, owls, cats (Sam and Monkey), mice, deer ….ugh … skunk…those sorts of every day critters that share the farm with us.
Now I do holler when the coyotes come around…so does Mom!
Shudder, shiver…I sure don’t like coyotes!
Mom and I go for a walk around mid-night. After which I usually come in and crash for a spell.
Then come morning…well, you see, I have to get back out there and see if anything came through while I slept.
As my grandpa would say— I’m a very busy feller!
Boomer
Well, the skunks are awake. We’ve been warm enough that the skunks have come out of their semi-hibernation. One o’clock in the wee morning, really nighttime, our farm was inundated with skunk perfume.
Gag!
Terry thought the dogs must have stirred one up; not our dogs as they were sleeping inside.
I got worried about the poultry so the dogs and I headed out to see if everyone was fast asleep and safe! They were. I have Night Guard lights on the house, but one never knows what a hungry critter will risk.
The poultry house is extremely safe, locked door, cement floors, wooden walls — still I like to make sure those things that are in our keeping are secure.
They were.
The smell was horrid…lasted until morning when the air shifted as the day warmed up.
That evening, when I was gathering firewood for the night, a string of birds (I couldn’t tell if they were Canada Geese or the Sandhill Cranes) lifted up from a field about a mile from us….very swiftly they flew closer and closer to our farm, forming their v, on their way to some other corn field for the night.
These birds sure do make winter bearable. I love watching them as the stream across the frozen heavens, calling loudly to one another—gather up, gather up, we are heading over there, come fly with us….come fly.
The sounds fade as they get further away. I then load my wood and head back to the house. The winter shades of pink, lavender and shadowy blue fading into dusk.
Your farm friend,
Linda
Nothing new here…still cold; and I do mean C.O.L.D.
Mom has put a heat lamp in the chicken house (red, because if you don’t put red in the chickens will peck on each other…Chickens are NOT very smart! Mom says that isn’t true, she says she thinks chickens are like people and treat each other just like groups of people treat each other.) She also hooked up the electric water heater for the chicken water tank. Dad has the cow water from freezing. The only thing that freezes now is our water dish, but Mom keeps a really close eye on it.
It’s so cold now that we sleep in the house….YIPEEE!!! Hoo Ray!!
I like sleeping in the house, so does Boomer.
Mom has to keep a really close eye on us there, because we get lazy and don’t want to go outside and ‘do our duty’. We’ve both been ‘trained’ but who likes to have bodily fluids freeze as it leaves your body?
Boomer said I exaggerated but when you’re advanced in age, that’s what it feels like. Frozen….well you know what I mean.
It’s really nice having Mom home. This is the first time in my whole life that I’ve lived here that Mom has been home all day long. (She goes to town sometimes, but that isn’t very long. Before she would leave before day break and get back after dark…she was gone a long, long time.)
The day warms up pretty slow. Last night the cold air was around 8* and just before the sun came up it was 6*, but the day will warm up. It got up to 40* yesterday afternoon.
Something we all do now that Mom is home ALL THE TIME is go for a walk. We walk all over the farm, she says it’s good for me…keeps my bones working. We go slow, Mom and I, Boomer runs all over the place clear up there and clear over there, back to where Mom and are. Sometimes Mom walks a little too fast for me, but she is always waits for me to catch-up.
There are lots of things to see and smell so it takes me awhile.
The coyotes are back! Mom got a little weird out because we were walking through the equipment storage area when two coyotes ran right by us. She said she guess it is so cold they are hunting in the day time.
Boomer and I have met Freddy Fox…he is new to the farm. So we have lots of critters visiting us…raccoons, skunks, coyotes, and foxes…so Mom bought a solar critter light to protect the chicken house and pen.
But one of the very best part of winter, besides getting to be in the house all most all the time…sleeping in the mud room, hanging by the fireplace…
Is…
HUNTING MICE!
It’s ever so much fun!
Fuzzy
A Momma and her two babies ran right in front of the pick-up. As they scurried across the road and over into the field I was able to get out my camera.
Pretty cool.
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 