The past year for me has been horrific; and it has followed four stressful and emotion-wracking years. So, I guess you could say that those previous four years culminated in the horror of the past 12 months. Because of this I've probably posted some lame stuff and some "personal growth" stuff that's not very interesting. I've also backed off a lot just because of this very thing. But spring is here again, and I feel that this next 12 months will be the best I've had in years. I certainly hope so. I've had enough family problems and stress to last me another decade. Actually, this past decade has been harder than the decade before that.
For a while I was blogging almost daily on Yahoo 360, but that just sort of petered out. There I blogged a lot about the seasonal changes going on in the woods behind my house, with pictures. Maybe I'll get back to that. In fact, I do have an exciting (to me) natural development going on in my front "yard" (about an acre in size) right now.

Besides the new animal burrow, I saw a deer as I was opening up the chicken house this morning at about 6 a.m. (I was late.) It was just on the other side of the poultry yard fence in the woods browsing. What a way to start the morning!
This past week the hawks have come back. They seem to come in about three year cycles. I hypothesize that they have a rotating feeding range. They've been soaring over my woods and watching my chickens, who have not been happy about their return. Yesterday, as I was driving down County Hwy 160, a red tailed hawk flew right in front of the car! I almost hit it, since it was so focused on something across the road it didn't see my car coming until it was about six feet from crashing into my windshield in spite of me applying the brakes and trying not to wander into the oncoming traffic or go into the ditch to the right. It veered off just in time. What a sight!
More good news: after about six months of no eggs at all from my aging chickens, I found TWO EGGS yesterday evening when I locked up the chickens! I'm so happy about that! Now my grandson can have "real eggs," sans antibiotics, sans growth hormones, for his breakfast again. I've "placed an order" to a local breeder for six more pullets this spring/early summer, so if my current old girls go back to laying, even just a few of them, on a regular or even semi-regular basis, I'll have eggs again by next fall! No more insipid store-bought eggs! Yay!
Well - I find your comments on the seasonal changes interesting, and I'm very excited to hear about the burrow! What, indeed, could be nesting down there? Fox kits are delightful to watch, dunno about little armadillos - they come as identical quadruplets, don't they? Groundhogs are just overfed rats (or underfed beavers), but the young do have a certain charm. If you can get pics, that would get great!
ReplyDeleteOoooh, I agree, what's in the burrow? How awesome.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yum, fresh eggs!
We have caves in the sandstone mountain top on our property. I have seen quail delicately spill out of the smaller caves in the morning and flit down the hill, bobcats and coyote sleep in the big cave and was amazed to see a young mountain lion next to the cave one evening. Gofers and moles have such an extensive network of underground tunnels that every once in awhile as we are standing in the yard talking, one of our feet sink into an underground mini-cavern. It is warm and breezy today after weeks of rain and I just love being outside weeding and bird-watching! Thanks for your blog Suzanne. I love facing spring and Lent with you!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI have found that people come to visit my blog when I visit others' and leave comments on them.
Also, if you read another person's blog and find an article interesting, link to it on your own blog.
:o)
Thanks, Phillipa. I have noticed that on other blogs, and I have on a couple of my blogs put links to other blogs I've read. I'll keep that in mind.
ReplyDeleteKay, you have such a beautiful place to live in your mountains. So many wild creatures to surprise you and keep you company! Thank you for your comment. You painted a wonderfully lovely word-picture.
ReplyDelete