Critter Visitors and East Brimfield Dam

Critter Visitors

 We've been so busy with mundane tasks that I have not really had an opportunity to sit down and write about what has been happening around here. So a quick glance through pictures I've taken over the past week helps to jog my memory.

We had a couple of critter visitors. We don't get to get pictures of everything we see around here, but here are two that we saw last week.

When riding with my husband to the gate this particular morning I walked over to put some items in the mail box and there was a tiny little frog tucked into the corner of one side. My daughter loves frogs and I can handle ones that are this size. Too big and they really do make me squeamish! This guy was pretty cute though, so I took him inside for my daughter to see. 

 You can really see how tiny he is in the picture below. Just a little guy, not much bigger than my daughter's fingernail.

 We have a Doe that visits us from time to time. She especially likes to eat our plants in the front yard. When we train our horses in the evenings she will come out and watch us while she browses in our upper pasture. One time my husband went up the hill to get a better picture of her and after he returned back down the hill, she soon followed and came down to investigate him. It was pretty funny. Given her behavior, I would say she is the same deer each time. Obviously she will not have any definitive marks, but she always acts in a similar, overly curious manner. My husband saw her in the way back pasture over the ridge with twin fawns. I suspected that she had some babies which is why I believe she came down to investigate my husband. She might have gotten aggressive. As sweet and beautiful as they are they can have a nasty temper when roused. A Mama deer will defend her fawn (or fawns in this case) valiantly if the need arises.

 

Necessity - the Mother of Invention

A few weeks back I decided to *finally* purchase some Cattle Panel.  We used these with much success back in Texas to build fences and pens. Well, as they say, necessity is the mother of invention and the necessity was that some of our more elderly dog pack members are needing more regular visits to the facilities (ie ... grass) and are less able to "hold it" until we get home. So when being available at home isn't an option due to appointments or field trips we needed to have a holding pen to let the dogs out while we aren't home to let them out. We have plans to build a full fence, but for now we set up some temporary fencing with the cattle panels. So I set them up and in doing so I blocked our Livestock Guardian Dog out of his usual daytime snoozing spots, under the deck. So he found a new one, in one of my garden beds. Stinker. Soon after this picture I made this spot "inconvenient" for him to lay in. Lil' stinker. :)

Natsar sure looks cozy ...

Temporary Pen

Very cute ;)

Visiting East Brimfield Dam

At least once a week we try to make it over to the park to visit with some fellow homeschool friends. The kids ride their bikes while we walk. I actually take my bike, too, but the last few times we have gone there has been "bike issues" so my bike has been on loan. So these pictures are of the first time I went around the Dam. It was so cool to find Concord Grapes growing on the banks of the water. I picked some and ate them, but while the grapes were still firm they were clearly beginning to go bad. I was so excited to see them, just growing there in "the wild." How cool is that??

"wild" Concord Grapes I picked

I also took some pictures of the dam barriers. I was amazed as to how high the river will rise! Amazing!! I hope you can see the pictures clearly enough to see the height level.

We went back to visit with my husband since he hadn't really gotten to see it. We rode the trails with our bikes and our two male Aussies. The other dogs are too old to keep up at a jog paced-bike ride. I should have taken pictures but I was more concerned with making sure the dogs stayed with me. It was a nice ride and beautiful day for it. It wasn't without hazard. A public park like this facilitates people hiking and using the trails of course. There was a pair of bully-breed dogs that dove at my guys. I was prepared for it and used my bike as a barrier. The lady walking them was struggling to control them. Good thing my guys were listening! So after we rode, we returned to the truck to grab our fishing poles and load up our bikes. We headed to a fishing spot and we... fished.

Me and Ty, well his nose anyway ;)

Ty carrying his backpack

No boat, so bank fishing for us this day

Ronen wants to "help"

So that's it for now, until next time, Yah bless!

I voted!

I hope you did too!!

Alive and Well

On a tad-bit more serious note, I had a wonderful chat with an old friend from Texas this morning. We were talking about many things, but one thing I remembered during our conversation was to tell her how there is still a Holy Remnant in Massachusetts and in New England. The media would like us all to believe that liberals and Democrats hold the consensus here, but nothing could be further from the truth. We are reminded with small refreshing tokens all around the area such as the following plaque:

We found this large carving of the Ten Commandments while sight-seeing at the Wachusett Mountains. With this said, rest-assured that there are plenty of pagan, lawless people up in our area. I'm sure if you take a step back and look at your area you will probably find the same sort of things that I see here. For me a walk in downtown Boston did not look too far removed from a walk in downtown Austin, TX or at the Riverwalk in San Antonio, TX, etc. The bottom-line is that we as believers need to be intercessors and continue to pray for those that are lost. I will do my part, will you do yours?

Maritza Kelley

Pony escape, new Tack Room digs and a Coyote visitor

Sunday began business as usual. Well we did sleep in which we don't normally do, but we were tired. We ended up being called away to Shelton, CT on the whole of Saturday/Shabbat for us. We sat at Jason's work place and watched the storms roll through while he did some maintenance work there. Shabbat work hours are not the norm, but in "Babylon" it is sometimes a necessary evil. Jason was exhausted, missing his usual Shabbat rest so we slept in a little on Sunday morning. I was obliged to catch a few extra winks with him. :)

We finally rolled out of bed and we shoved off to go fishing once again. We headed out to pick up some things at Walmart and amongst our getting we picked up a trolling motor. We had so much trouble rowing around and around the bodies of water that Jason felt we would all be happier with some "help." We headed to Little Pond and on our way we overshot our turn and ended up near a yard sale I had seen the previous weekend. They had some items I was extremely interested in and I asked Jason to stop last week but he was not inclined to. This time, I spied the same items and asked him to PLEASE stop so I could at least see what they were asking. They made me an offer I couldn't refuse and the total package would cost me $10! Awesome!! I told them we'd have to pick it up on the way back from the pond and they obligingly pulled the items out and set them aside. So off we went to Little Pond again,
we launched our boat, with motor attached and glided with ease over to the lily pads where we fished last time with great success. Only... we forgot our anchor! Doh! The current was strong and we were struggling to stay in one place of course. The water was flowing to a small stream and we were getting pulled out towards the mouth of the stream. Every few minutes we were using the motor to drive us back out of the lily pads so we could be at the edge of them, not in the middle of them. So plan "B" was to head out more towards the center of the Pond and if we drifted it would be fine because it would take us a lot longer to end up in the lily pads. Just as we set up in the middle of the pond another boater sped out with a person on a water ski. Our small quiet fishing trip was turning into a tumultuous, bumpy ride. We bounced up and down in the wake of the speed boat. They flew by once, then turned and flew by several more times. We were trying to keep our bow pointed into the waves so it wouldn't bounce us and capsize us. Everytime we got settled in to fish, they would buzz by. It was getting irritating so we headed back to shore, loaded up our boat and were going to head to another body of water. We went to get cash right quick so we could grab those yard sale items and then we headed back toward the house. The plan was "drop off the yard sale stuff and then go to East Brimfield Lake." By the time we were almost home we realized that this was not going to work out time-wise. We still had stuff to do at the house and our little "sleep-in" in the early morning put us off schedule. So when we got home and unloaded, we simply stayed home and got to work knocking out chores and our to-do-lists.

My to-do list, after chores, included cleaning and re-organizing the tack room. The yard sale finds I had found would go in the tack room with my new arrangements. I was very excited! Here are some pictures of the CLEANED up tack room with the new furniture!

 

The table (with the Saddle Pads) was one of the Yard Sale finds! :)

Yard Sale find Baker's Rack! Awesome! I'm going to get some plants for it soon!

Sign in desk - I already had this for a few months but found it for FREE!

I hung the curtain a few months back but I'm not sure I posted a picture, so here you go! I bought this back in TX.

So as I was downstairs working in the tack room, Jason was upstairs organizing his shop and putting away fishing gear. When he went upstairs he saw a strange sight...

There was a Pony, peaking in through the partly opened barn bay-door on the 2nd floor. If you enlarge the picture you will see the fence. He managed to knock a board down and he got down on his knees and squeezed out of the pasture fence. The horses have grazed most of the pasture and they are looking for more lush grazing. The area outside the pasture is available but it is not fully fenced so we haven't been letting them out this way for that reason, naturally. We have plans to wrap the trees with electric tape and let them have more browsing. Also, we do have another pasture that they can go graze in that is fenced, but there is a problem that causes two issues. It is the new septic tank that was installed prior to us moving here. It has a pipe that sticks up and the Pony thinks it's the perfect height to get that pesky itch he can't reach in other ways. So when we let him in that pasture, we are constantly having to reset the pipe which really can't be good for the septic system. Our solution is, we just don't let them in this pasture. The other problem is that the septic tanks makes a big hill and makes the fence in that area shorter. Some of the horses, you would think, wouldn't mess with that, but I would NOT put it past these guys. They have surprised me before, much like the above picture. Goat-like antics of crawling under a fence board. Silly pony. Thankfully he didn't decide to head down the forest path AND the back barn door was closed so he could not end up somewhere else. Like on our back deck where he could possibly injure himself. So we fed the horses and later when we deposited the pony back to the upper pasture where he would spend the night, Jason and I walked the fence line and walked up to an opening in the pasture that makes me feel uncomfortable. It is by our neighbor's house that sits up behind us on the hill. They are on the same plane as the upper pasture. There is an old fence there but a portion of it is open and it has an electric fence running across the opening. Knowing my guys, with the history of fencing rolling/testing, etc it makes me feel uncomfortable to have it "open" like that. So I have two new cattle panels that would fit perfectly across the opening to give us an added sense of security. When we went up to measure that opening we took three of our dogs with us. Natsar, our livestock guardian, and our two Aussie boys, Ty and Ronen. We walked up and surveyed the rest of the pasture to see the state. There is still grazing but not much, the grass is grazed down nice and trim. There is still grass outside the pen, but still not tons of substance.

After all was completed, we wrapped up and headed to bed. We were all sleeping sweetly and then Alayna came rushing into our bedroom and said that the neighbor dog, a little terrier-miniature pinscher mix, was in our yard and barking at our Livestock Guardian dog, Natsar. Jason jumped up and grabbed a flashlight and ran out the door headed towards the barn. Meanwhile, I was upstairs and went over to the window to see what was going on. Then I heard the "yip-yip-yow" sound. It sounded strange and I recognized it to not be a "small dog" from across the street, but a bigger, unknown dog. I strained to look out the small bathroom window and I could see Natsar walking around on the ground level of the barn. He was checking in with our female Aussie, Ocean. Not satisfied with not being able to see more, I then rushed to our upstairs patio doors and stepped out on the deck. I strained to look down near the barn and then I noticed something watching me up on the hill. I tried to make out the figures. Initially it looked like three deer grazing. I strained to see in the dark, with my sleepy eyes. When running out to the deck I glanced at the clock, it was 3 AM. Just then, Jason exited the house one level down from me. He shined the flashlight out into the field, up the hill and those three figures were suddenly clear to see.

In the foreground stood a COYOTE and about 75-100 ft behind him stood our horses, observing the coyote. The coyote, which was now disturbed at our flashlight expose', was looking towards the barn and standing where he could clearly see the house AND the barn. I believe he was probably "inviting" Natsar out. Sometimes Coyotes will send out a decoy. They will lure a dog out and then the rest of the pack will jump on the dog and kill or injure it. This "may" be what this coyote was up to. So when the flashlight shone on him, I got a good look at him. He looked pretty much like our coyotes do back in TX. He was on the bigger side, but not enormously large as I had been told. He was probably around 55 lbs. (If you haven't already read it, check out my previous blog post.) The disturbed Coyote trotted off into the darkness and everyone settled back down, including us. We were tucked back in bed, but it took a little bit to drift back off to sleep. I'm sure the Coyote was also looking for our barn kitties hidden through out the brush, among other items on his agenda. I'm thankful that was the extent of it for this night.

Since this occurrence I was reminded of an incident about a week or so back. Again, it was about 3 AM and Jason and I were fast asleep. We had our windows open so we could have some cool night air blowing through. Suddenly we heard a shrill dog cry, immediately followed by gruff and pointedly aggressive barks. Jason and I both catapulted out of bed and ran to the windows. Jason ran out on the patio and I ran to the bathroom window. Natsar was very upset and distraught. Jason went down and checked on Natsar, there wasn't anything obvious going on. Natsar voluntarily went inside the barn, he had been laying on the corner of the barn near the chicken yard. The chickens were in the coop, sleeping, well the Rooster was crowing due to the commotion but the hens were quiet.

So, Jason and I discussed the scenario and we figured that something, probably a coyote, might have come up and maybe took a nip at Natsar. Maybe something like the scenario in this video, except Natsar was more than likely sleeping. At the end of the following comical video, the dog gets a good nip from the coyote. The coyote, seeing that he won't easily get the dog's bone, then trots off and goes elsewhere.

We added a game cam to a location that would watch this area so if the coyote comes down again like we believe he did, we should capture him in photos. Also, another confirmation to our assumption on the Coyote Scenario is that a few days after this incident we found coyote scat behind the barn. So, now we have seen one of our resident coyotes, in person. What to do next? We'll see, stay tuned...

Of Roosters, Chickens and the creatures that like to eat them...

Yesterday I sadly closed up my hen house with one less chicken. We have been allowing the chickens to stay out until sunset when they will choose to put themselves up voluntarily. We had decided this was best because soon, very soon, there will be unfavorable weather conditions out of doors. We are allowing the horses extended grazing hours and we are allowing the chickens extended "browsing" hours. This has been working out well, although I admit, I worry about their decisions sometimes. Although, we do have a VERY protective Rooster that runs this little harem of chickens.

Jack with his harem of hens

So protective that we had been contemplating what might 'need' to be done about him as he has come after both myself and my daughter as a bluff. No damage, yet, but also he does not have his full spurs yet and I would hate to get struck by a set of full-grown Rooster spurs. My approach has been to simply educate him that coming after us is "not wise." So far so good, but every once in a while he'll take a "cheap shot." Back in Texas we had several roosters. The ones we allowed to run with our 30+ hens were a Barred Rock Rooster and a Barred Rock Rooster/Americauna cross.  They were both stellar roosters. When these two were getting older we added to Americauna Roosters (my breed of choice). They all did their job, and did it well and we only had a few losses over a 3 year period in a fairly hostile environment. We ran the gamut of chicken predators. You name it, we pretty much had it: Coyotes, Skunks, Opossums, Raccoons and Hawks. Here in Massachusetts we have the same list of predators PLUS we add to that list Fisher Cats (in my opinion they are like a miniature Wolverine), Bears (not as bad of an issue in general, they pretty much stay away from people for the most part), and there may be more (Pine Martens, etc?) but this is a bucket list, so I can get on with my story.

So the day-before-yesterday, I found a pile of 'Wilderness Creature Scat.' My assessment is that it is probably from a Coyote. We had one so-brazen-one (I do believe I mentioned it in a blog from last Spring) that came a left some Scat on top of a pile of horse manure I hadn't taken up the hill (to the Great Manure Pile) yet. Also I had seen one on the level, the 2nd level of the barn, but down towards the path closer to our outdoor arena.

So, when I saw this, I knew it was not one of my dogs, although just as big as my 90 lb, Italian Maremma's, poo. So that is a big Coyote. Seeing the size of the deer and other animals around here, it isn't too surprising. I have yet to see a local Coyote with my own eyes. The Coyotes back in Texas were roughly the size of my Aussies. My male Aussies weigh-in at 50 lbs and my female Aussies at 44 lbs, some of the stats on Coyotes that are recorded say they are 60 lbs. I believe this may be an accumulative average of Coyotes. Judging by the size of the Scat in the picture below, the Coyote seems a bit larger. If you are squeamish, look away now as I have posted a picture of Critter poo (Scat) below.

You may be saying, "...that doesn't look that big,...) well, having had dogs for a very long time, and having had some more dominant dogs that mark territory with not only urine, but also feces, I would say that the creature squeezed out just a representation of itself. A "calling card" if you will, so it did not completely eliminate it's bowels here, it only left a message here to my resident canines telling them that they'd better watch out because they are infringing on it's territory by being here. Not good, but I feel we are in pretty good... paws.

Don't be fooled by his sleepy appearance. He has had a long night and daytime is naptime for our Livestock Guardian Dog, Natsar. He is our "first warning" system, he will alert us to any unwanted traffic around the farm, both human and animal. Although I have done a search to find out the stats on our local Coyotes up here in Massachusetts and found what I consider to be a disturbing trend: Wolves that are being released into the wild for the breeding programs near the Great Lakes are found to be hybridizing with Coyotes and are spreading throughout the United States. Some have been found in Virginia and now have been spotted all over New England, including Massachusetts as I said. I found some reference pictures to illustrate the differences between wolves and coyotes.

Those who know me more personally would remember that I used to work at The Wild Animal Orphanage in San Antonio, TX in my youth. We had two different varieties of Wolf and we had a male Coyote. The Gray Wolf (most common) and the Timber Wolf (more rare) also the wolves known to give rise to the names of "Buffalo Wolf" and when alone these much larger wolves were called a "Loafer Wolf." They are much larger than the Gray Wolves standing almost a head taller. They are uncannily and intimidatingly LARGE. This wild dog in the first photo here does appear to be a cross between a Gray Wolf (smaller) and a Coyote. The article (I will post a link at the bottom of this blog post) I read said that studies have been conducted and it has been verified that these crosses are truly occurring and that it is believed that, again, they are spreading. Very interesting...

Possible Wolf x Coyote cross

Coyotes are known to kill domestic dogs, and also will breed with them.

Coyote at Yosemite

Pack of Gray Wolves

As I said above, at the Wild Animal Orphanage we also had a Coyote. His name was Wiley. He had been raised from a cub and was familiar with humans, but he was not comfortable with humans over all. The lady that raised him used to come in and visit with him and he would give her an honorary pack greeting with little yips and tail wags, etc. It was very sweet. Once she left he would resume shy coyote behavior and would slink around his enclosure and hide in his dogloo and behind his dogloo. Coyotes are very intelligent, as are wolves. Coyotes do tend to be more shy which is why they have been successful at surviving so long throughout history. They have been known to lure domestic dogs away and kill them. In difficult times, they have also been known to petition domestic dogs to breed them so that their lines can continue. Another reason why they have continued to be successful despite excessive persecution by hunters, farmers and ranchers. Contrary to popular understanding they always run in PACKS of at least 2 (male and female) to MANY more. When they "pack up" their behavior is much like a Wolf Pack. They howl and regroup to go on a big hunt. They also howl to establish territories. Generally they are respectable in their hunting and for the most part will restrict their hunting to wilderness creatures and wilderness produce; berries, in TX they are known to eat Mesquite seed pods, etc, they are very resourceful and opportunistic, again which is why they are so successful. Once, a long time ago, we lived in Louisiana. We lived on a Nature Reserve on the back of Barksdale AFB. We had a community out there and everyone had their pets, naturally. Well there was a Coy-dog that lived out there on the Nature Reserve. He had a mate and we would regularly see him. He was beautiful, he had a long, flowy coat. I named him "Salon Selectives Coyote" because as we would pass him in our vehicle his hair would blow like the old Salon Selectives commercials (some of you may remember). He was an awesome and faithful hunter. We would regularly see him on the shoulders of the road with a freshly caught rabbit clenched in his jaws.

Well one day we passed by and saw him laying down, he was dead. I was so sad, I knew it was him because I recognized his flowing fur. Not long after this incident we noticed a change on our usual evening walks. There was a trail that connected our two neighborhoods out in the Nature Reserve. It was paved with asphalt and we walked it regularly with our dogs. On the trail we would see coyote scat with fur that was "wilderness creature brown."

Well, soon after Salon Selectives Coyote died, the color of the fur in the scat changed. We began to see orange, black, white, and every other color you would see a cat or dog in. We began to see signs go up in our neighborhood saying "Lost Cat," "Lost Dog - needs medication" (the coyotes had a crazy night that night!) and the like. I warned my neighbors as they were letting their cats out "business as usual." They had no idea of the danger lurking in the woods. Long story short, many pets were taken and killed or nearly killed. My neighbors lost a cat they were cat sitting and one of their cats was nearly killed. I found him on death's door with his clavicles crushed and he was severely dehydrated from blood loss. We rushed him to the vet and they were able to save him after extensive surgeries. He looked like "franken-kitty" for a while. Anyway, my point is that when there is an upset in the pack structure (ie, the dominant male- Salon Selectives Coyote - died, the dynamics of the wild coyote pack changed, they had a good provider in their male and with him gone, they needed to eat). One night we saw the coyotes packing up to go on a hunt. There was a large number of them. We were more than a little concerned by what we saw and we turned and went home. This is when I decided to research what I saw and found out that this is common. The female was probably left with mouths to feed and had to go with the easiest source of food, domestic pets. Crazy days!

  So back to my chickens, well as I finished doing chores and came in the house I happened to notice my chickens standing near their chicken pen. They were calm one minute and the next minute they were pinned to the shadows and the rooster was making a funny squawk. I went out to see what he was so upset about and I see the source of his concern up in a tree by our "moat." A juvenile Red-Tailed hawk. He was watching and making the chickens feel very uncomfortable. I decided it would be best to put the chickens in their house early, to be on the safe side. As I ushered them up into their chicken house I did a head count and one hen was missing. As I shut the door I contemplated where the last hen could be. I went back and began searching. Sometimes the hens will get separated for various reasons. It is usually short lived and then they regroup. So I looked around at all the usual places, but I did not find her. She is a our darkest red hen, a red sex-linked hen. I came inside and had already started preparing dinner so I had to stay in but I sent my daughter out with Ronen, our best "hunting" dog, to go look for the hen.

Ronen, going "hen-hunting"

I gave specific instructions and she went off to try to find the lost hen. Even for feathers, signs of a struggle or whatever the case may be. Sometimes hawks will catch prey and eat it on the ground if it's too heavy to carry off. Then they'll guard it from up high and return and eat it as they feel the need. So I told her to be thorough. The feathers are messy when plucked so I knew she would find something if there was something to be found. She went all the way around the barn, to the upper level and all around. Still she found nothing. Everything seemed normal so she eventually returned. The horses were relaxed and everything was fine, so it seemed.

So we committed the situation to prayer and I told Abba, "well if the chicken needed to be someone's lunch I understand." We left it at that.

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Job 1:21

The next morning I went out to the barn and did my chores as usual. I was struggling with whether or not I should let the chickens out and I felt that "I should." So I went to let them out and they practically fell down the ladder, they were so excited to come out. There have been a lot of grasshoppers out lately, I'm certain they were dreaming of tasty grasshoppers. I prayed that Abba would keep them safe. I counted 4 chickens come out of the chicken coop. Jack-the Rooster and 3 hens. So I knew the last hen was in the hen house probably laying an egg. A few moments later she emerged and came down the ladder. I was refilling their water so I went and hung their water container up and I heard a hen, still in the chicken house. Confused, I looked down at the hen at my feet and I knew Jack had already escorted the other hens to the front yard so I went inside the barn to investigate what I heard, or thought I heard. Guess WHAT?!?!? That little dark-red hen was up on top of the stall divider!! :) I was soooo elated! I did not think I would see this hen again and if it was Abba's will, I was ok with that, but here she was! What a SURPRISE! I thanked Abba and helped this hen down. She was having trouble trying to figure out how to get back down off the stall divider. I pet her, hugged her and put her in the hen house. I guess she had a scary night because when I went back about 30 minutes later, she was STILL in there. Silly girl.

I am a HAPPY girl today! I'm breathing a sigh of relief, now hopefully these silly girls can STAY out of trouble. I'm thankful that she's still here and she's fine. I'm thankful for a feisty Rooster and a safe place for them to roost even if they don't make it into the chicken house. :) Thank you Abba!

Reference:

 For more info on Coyote-Wolf Hybridization see the following article: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/11/111107-hybrids-coyotes-wolf-virginia-dna-animals-science/