Long story short: still no fox, but we had this little guy who was the nicest skunk I’ve ever met. He didn’t spray me once while I was uncovering the cage of all the hay and sticks we had hidden it with or while I was trying to open the thing. He made a mess of the cage digging up underneath it trying to get out though. Needless to say, he was very happy to be “living free and in the wild.”
Tag Archives: Wildlife
Our little visitor.
Tagged homesteading, predators, skunk, visitor, Wildlife
Snow, Turkeys, and the Great Blue Heron
I know I promised an updated picture of the “after” of the snow storm, but I think that might have to wait until later. Between locking myself out of the house yesterday and shoveling this morning, I need a few more cups of tea before I venture into the cold again. That being said, I have not been wasting any time this morning! While I’m not the greatest photographer, I have been taking plenty of shots of the wild life around here.
I’m proud to say that the turkeys are back! I know that this isn’t the best photo, but it was taken through the kitchen door window so as not to disturb them. It seems that the tom has increased his flock. This past spring there were only three hen, now there seems to be three more; a flock of seven! Here’s hoping that they stay around. This is the second day so far that they’ve come by.
When I looked out the bedroom window, after noticing the flock, I thought that there was another turkey playing in the stream. Them I noticed how long the legs were; definitely not a turkey.
Here again, the picture was taken from my window, so it’s a little fuzzy. Joe was a little worried at first as to why this youngin’ was wandering around out in the snow. The great blue at his parent’s house has never been seen during the winter. Well, after some searching, they are considered year-round birds, but some of them take off for Central America during the winter. Apparently this little guy likes the snow.
It did take him a while to get over to his fishing spot, though. The turkeys, specifically the tom, was staring him down for close to twenty minutes before he decided to scoot across the lawn instead of wading in the stream. Regardless of their differences, all eight birds are still out back enjoying the beauty of the morning. For this alone it is worth it to live and the dead-end of a road unadulterated by traffic and neighbors.
“We are asleep with compasses in our hands.” ~W.S. Merwin
Well, we decided to start a family blog sometime ago andhere it finally is. I don’t know how far we’ll go with it, or what precisely will be written in it, but we’ll see.
First off, let me state how surreal it feels to be coming up on owning our own home for a year. It didn’t really dawn on me until I recieved a form in the mail from the mortgage company asking for a renewal statement from our insurance office because of upcoming expiration date. It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long, but in other ways, it seems a bit longer. We still haven’t done as much to the house as we hoped we would, due to finances and all that. However, it’s coming along nicely.
This spring did bring the suprise of another additon to the wildlife that we’ve been expereincing around here. We ended up with a min-flock of turkeys in our yard. (One tom and two hens.)
They’ve come back a couple differnent times. Unfortunately, since Maine has a turkey hunting season, we might not see them for a while. As long as they stay safe, I’ll be happy.
Along with the current round of planting taking up our time, we’re working on finishing up the back shed, beginning to take a front shed down, adopting a dog, and temporarily taking care of a stray cat that really would rather be in our house than in the front yard. (If anyone wants a cat, let me know!)
Things have been moving along work wise as well. The school year’s ending, which means I’m once more on the prowl for a full-time teaching position instead of an hourly educational technician spot. Joe on the other hand was just offered a wonderful position, but I’ll let him tell that story later on if he wants. Or, if he decides to let me be the maine updater, I might just explain it all a bit more in my next post.
Well, I know this is a bit of a short post, but there’s so much that needs doing now that the weather’s warm enough. I’m hoping to at least update in here once a week, but we’ll see.
