Starstruck in Southbridge: 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.