Chore Time & Snow Walk Vlog

Morning Predator

Yesterday morning at a couple of minutes shy of 6 AM I was awakened by my Livestock Guardian Dog (LGD), Natsar, he was barking. Since moving to New England he doesn't bark as much as he used to. Well, he did at first, but we've managed to teach him that barking more than necessary... is not necessary. So when he barks now... we pay attention.

I jumped out of bed and ran to the window to discern where Natsar's location was. I determined he was up behind the barn barking into the forest. So I was fairly certain it had to be a predator of some sort. In my sleepy state of mind I quickly jogged my memory of what could give us the "honor" of a predator visit. It was still dark out so it was hard to see. I laid back down as Natsar had things under control and was simply barking a "boundary/territorial" bark. As I lay there I recalled that I did not remember closing the chickens up last night. Things got a little busy in the kitchen as I was preparing supper and I did not get back out as I had planned. Normally I close up the chickens at chore time (3pm-ish) but the chickens were being rebellious and were not coming in willingly. Instead of chicken wrangling I figured I'd let them have a few extra minutes of foraging until we went out to give the goats their bottle at 6PM. Well as I said, I did not go out with my daughter because I was preparing dinner, so she went alone. When I go out to the barn I have a mental checklist that I run through, and since I did not go, I didn't even think of it. Then again, right before bed I go through my mental checklist and even if it's midnight I'm like "close the chickens up" (you can ask my husband because I have sent him out to do so, I've even been looking into that remote chicken door that closes them up automatically... moving on...).

So I grabbed my flashlight and went and shone it on the chicken house door, and sure enough... I was dismayed to find the door OPEN! :( Now I was SURE we had a predator visit. Especially since now Natsar was doing his rounds to secure the property. He trotted down to the gate and was spot checking certain areas.

Later in the day I went out to do chores and decided I'd better MAKE the chickens go in at 3PM chore time to be certain everyone was safe. So I ushered them all in, even rebellious little "Sparrow" the 'lead hen.' She was NOT willing, but I didn't take no for an answer this time. They all filed into the chicken house and as I was waiting for them all to go in so I could shut the door I noticed one hen sitting quietly under the ladder. She was not acting normal in this instance as all my chickens know "the drill" and will get in line and go in, this hen was just standing quietly. I went to pick her up but she decided to go ahead and go up the ladder. I could see her really struggling to get up the ladder, she wouldn't let me grab her though. So I let her hobble inside. One more hen left, Sparrow's second in command, a hen with tufty tail feathers my daughter named "Henrietta." She finally came in, I usually dub the last chicken "Ping" like the story book. So with the last hen shut up in the hen house I went around inside the barn to check water and food levels and I decided to grab this hen that was hobbling up the ladder. I don't believe we named this particular hen. She has some other health issues I've been working to correct such as she doesn't lay an egg with a shell very often. When she does the shell is thin. She has the same food as the others, the same foraging time, etc, but she is just a little off in this department. Anyhow, I took her into the tack room and examined her more thoroughly. I discovered that she had a nasty bite taken out of her under her left wing. I treated her with Iodine and replaced her in the coop under the heat lamp. She was warm to the touch so she seemed, other than being sore, to be ok.

This morning at 6AM I was again awakened by Natsar. Same situation except for sure the chickens were locked up. Natsar was up behind the barn barking down the trail. Tomorrow morning we may get up at 5 AM and go camp out waiting for our little predator visitor.

What do I think it was? Well at first I thought it was a Coyote, but after further contemplation I am thinking we are looking at a smaller predator otherwise the chicken would have been likely carried off. I'm thinking either a

A. Fisher Cat

~or~ a

B. Red Fox

IF we find out... I will post about it.

Until then... :)

Baby Goats - Video

Terra Cotta Pots

When we left Texas, we were forced to give away a LOT of things. Amongst the things we gave away were my house plants. Replacing them has been a long time coming due to monetary means and space. Finally, enough was enough and I decided to include plants in my monthly grocery budget so I could replenish my plants over time. One of the issues I found I had was that I needed pots. The glazed and painted Terra Cotta pots at the shops were quite expensive so I decided that I needed to figure out a less expensive way to get what I wanted. After all the Terra Cotta pots we were finding weren't suited to our house decor. So, I did some research and off we went.

We found some small pots at our local craft store, but then one day by accident, I scored BIG at our local discount store. They were selling off their Spring -unpainted- Terra Cotta pots. I loaded up and took them home and we got to work. See the video to watch our progress. :) We had a lot of fun doing this and definitely plan to do more in the future!

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