Friday at Last

I hate winter.  All the water dishes are froze like a rock now, and it sure doesn’t take very long for that to happen either.  Thank goodness the poultry waters have heated bases and goats have heated buckets, so they are easily taken care of.  But the bunnies… that’s another issue.

While banging out frozen dishes last night, about 9:00 pm I think, Sasha started barking.  Not that THAT is anything usual.  But, when Toby follows suite, you know something is up.  I hurried out the North-east end of the barn to see Toby and Sasha chasing three coyotes off across the field.  I’m not sure how close they were to the barn when Sasha encountered them.  (Yes, it was dark, but there is snow on the ground and you can see fairly well even when it’s dark).  The coyotes sauntered towards the woods, stopping occasionally to see if the dogs really meant business or not.  They must have kept slinking back towards the barn, because the dogs would errupt into barking once in awhile.  Neat to see the coyotoes, but kinda of scarey at the same time… how close do they really get to the barn?  Do they actually ever come into the barn?  I’m not worried about them attacking us, but worried about the animals.

Snapping a few pictures today…

GBF’s Charlemagne (GC GBF’s Caden x Cox’s 3J224).  He is 5-months old today.

GBF's Charlemange

Then, GBF’s Caldera (GBF’s Tobias x L&R Cookie).   She is a normal, but I think she is very nice for a normal.  Breeding her to L&R Emerson today.  She has such a clean coat and big head!

GBF's Caldera.

GBF’s Baron (ELS Elden x GBF’s Bridgette) is due today.  (Her dam is also sired by Elden.)   She’s been pulling a little fur this morning, but nothing at last check.   I bred her to Pistol Pete (ELS Elden x ELS Lucy) this time.  A ‘little bit’ of line breeding going on there.  We’ll see how it turns out.

Another Visitor & Fader Update

Well, well, well.  I was out in the rabbitry this afternoon.  It was all very quiet.  All of sudden, all holy you-know-what broke out.  The chickens outside went absolutely berserk as did the turkeys.  I turned to head out the East end of the barn and chickens were literally flying into the barn from outside.  I ran out, expecting to find that Sasha had gotten off her zip-line and was chasing them.  But, no!

It was another coyote!  AND he was trying to get one of the turkeys.  Major mistake on his part as those bad-boys don’t go down without a fight.  I yelled and Mr. Coyote only managed a feather before he lumbered out to the bean field.  I was yelling at the top of my lungs for Toby, who must have been down in the orchard as long as it took him to get up to me.  We followed the coyotes path.  I could see him watching us from the fence row.  He would go a little ways, and then turn to look at us.

Hum… he must be getting tired of his rodent diet and is looking to diversify.  That would not be a good thing!

Little Fader Bunny:

“Little Bit” seems to be doing fine.  He is still living in my bathroom for the time being.  He is SO small.  I weighed him tonight and he only weighs 4 ounces at 4.5 weeks of age.   He was tearing all over the place today – getting feisty!  I gave him a follow up shot of Pen-G and Ivermectin on Sunday.  I got worried because it loosened his stool up for a day, but he seems to have recovered OK.

Backyard Visitor

It was about 2:15 pm yesterday afternoon, when our dog Sasha started barking like a crazed maniac.  That is not unusual for Sasha though!  So, I went over to the slider that looks out to the backyard to see what on earth was tormenting her.  We have two squirrels that absolutely drive her insane.  I was thinking the squirrel was probably out there on the patio toying with her.  I was looking all over the patio and up into the maple tree – no squirrel.  I was telling Sasha to relax when my eyes looked further out into the backyard.

About half way between the back of the house and the bean field, about 50 ft maybe, was a beautiful young coyote.  Just standing there.  We have a lot of them around here, but you don’t see them very often.   His coat was in beautiful condition.  He looked like he had just been groomed actually.  And he was in good physical condition – not skinny.

My first thought was “where’s the camera” and decided it would take too long to find it.  My second thought was, “don’t even think this is a good place to hang out”.  So, I called Toby, opened the door and told him to “go get it”.  Well, dear Toby didn’t see the coyote and just went sniffing around the patio.  The wind must have been blowing the wrong direction, because usually Toby is on task about these things.  The coyote though, definitely heard me and took off.  Toby eventually wondered out into the yard and caught the scent and followed it out into the field a ways before I called him back.

Now, don’t think I let Toby out to attack and hurt the coyote because that is not the case.  I have gone out before with Toby and found an old Coyote playing “King on the Mountain” on top of our manure/compost pile (think of all the yummy stuff for a coyote to dine on!)  That time I told Toby to ‘get it’ and Toby took after it.  There was one instant of contact and Mr. Coyote sauntered off.  I don’t want Toby to hurt them, or get hurt himself.  I just don’t want them that close to my barn and rabbits!

Stan had noticed that all the pears that had dropped on the ground under the pear tree in the back yard were gone.  So, maybe Mr. Young Coyote has been coming for lunch.  Coyotes will eat pretty much anything.

Anyway, he was very beautiful.  Maybe he was a young male from a litter that had finally been kicked out.  Young males have to find their own territory, which can be difficult now that there are so many coyotes around here.  If an older coyote finds an intruding coyote in his area, there will be a terrible fight.

I must be different in that I don’t mind ‘sharing’ a few of my chickens (they free range) throughout the year with the wild animals.  I mean, they were here first!  I DO get irritated though, when the wild animals get a little too hoggish and start taking more than what I consider their ‘fair share’.  So, then we lock the chickens up for a while, until the offender figures out the free lunch is over.  This happened about 6 weeks ago or so.