the excitement is never ending

"Green acres is the place to be.
Farm livin' is the life for me.
Land spreadin' out so far and wide.
Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside."

looking for excitement - little do they know what's coming

We walked a field over from our farm looking at a fence line today (a wild wet day with driving rain, hail and wicked winds). The fence line is in pretty good shape. That wasn't the excitement.

Suddenly the big dogs lost their collective minds - they were just ahead of us so Big T ran up to see what they had cornered - he thought raccoon, I thought deer -injured or dead.  We were both wrong

not our actual coyote - ours had every hair on it's body raised in defense too ...

I did not think of pulling my phone out to take picture in the heat of the moment

A coyote had a foot caught in the same fence we were inspecting. The coyote couldn't concentrate on freeing itself with 2 large dogs yelling hysterically at it. Luckily both Sally and Sampson broke away for a minute giving the coyote time to RUN away. I caught Sally but Sampson took off after the coyote for a good 90 seconds or so. Sally is usually easy to hold even when in HIGH drive mode. Not today. She was frantic to join Big T and Sampson. She pulled me over twice. Thank heavens Thea was at home due to the foul weather as she would certainly have been right in the thick of things. Brody stood with me quietly waiting for the big dogs to come back to reality.

Why did we finally see a coyote?
We have a few best guesses - the coyotes are often closer then we suspect and the lousy weather was loud enough to prevent the coyote realizing how close we were. We were in a spot that probably hasn't seen a human in many many years. The coyote probably would have gotten completely away unnoticed, even with those two factors, except for the caught toe. Those three things factored into making the excitement today.


Everyone is OK. And this is a story for all time (ranking right up there with the time Big T was bicycling along and a coyote jumped into the road to assess if he was prey or predator. Luckily the coyote decided predator that time too and took off. Two close encounters is enough for me!

lovely wind up summer walk at Vareharri Farm yesterday ...

We had a lovely walk - started with tidying up the path to the pond field ... to think in the fall of 2008 you couldn't see this was a lane way!

 Sally loves running in the field

So does Sampson ...

Big T takes a little break ...

The barns are really starting to collapse entirely

both big and small ...

Two boys sharing a moment ...

Brody is happy just to be with us ...

on a walk or at the schoolhouse

our lovely weather vane - so fitting ...

hot delightful daze ...

It's that time of year - when a stolen moment or hour is still work - just work we want to do. Headed to the farm today to cut some trails and cut out some bush on a fence line (also collected fresh for the rabbits- but that's an every day activity!).

 Sampson got to hit the pond and wallow - then roll in the dry dry grass. He thought it was great.

Big T carefully rigged up his helmet so he wouldn't lose it. It ended up under the blades of the mower. VERY glad his head wasn''t in it.

Sally was very very hot but very very happy!

green acres is the place to be?

farm living is the life for me?

well yes yes it is but there are days ...

and days ....

I was busy picking gross pre- maggoty things off an oak tree (as well as a couple of the larval things too) when a car slowed right down - I looked up to see why and Sally was in the road .. our dogs don't leave the property anymore - we have it pretty well fenced and well gated and even a horse walking slowly by doesn't entice them to leave so I suspected it was something "special" that had called Sally out

I was right - something had gotten hit by a car .. and was in literally pieces across the road - by the time I got to the road Sally had consumed any identifying pieces - leaving me to suspect a rabbit - as I don't see ground hogs around here much. GAG.

I had to pick up the remaining bits and fling them away into the bushes as I really don't think Sally's allergies need much raw rabbit nor do I want any of the dogs on the road.

YECK

a lovely lovely day

hard to believe that this time last March we couldn't see our fences for snow drifts - today we were out ALL DAY.

• pulling thatched grass
• poking garlic cloves back under the soil
• raking up old apples and tossing them into compost
• clearing the pond path some more
  
  
• sitting by the pond
• finding old bird nests
  
  
• throwing sticks for Sally and Hank
• cutting the last of the long logs from firewooding expeditions in the fall
• filling the indoor wood pile
• clipping Brody (very badly)
  

what a lovely way to spend the first day of a week of holidays...

let sleeping dogs lie?

Dear Hank - after how long of leaping up every time I touched my camera or phone finally had to give in and try the bed. It must have been comfy as he actually slept through the photo shoot! Then he stretched out - right across both beds ... too cute. Apparently chewing the stick (see crumbs on bed) was much harder work than he anticipated!



The Queen of catching a nap - curled up on her coat here and wearing her tee shirt .. and I don't dress dogs I swear to it ... but Thea is currently wearing a tee when the weather is below zero - she didn't get much chance to grow a coat this fall and shivers wildly when nude!



Sally sleeping in the chihuahua bed :)



Dozing ... usually as restful as she gets



Brody sleeping in the bed he kicked Sally out of ...

I guess I'll let them lie with it being Sunday and all ... Lord knows I could sleep a month if I could turn my brain off for a bit...lucky dogs