A mink and a mending knee

Little Roo showing off for Happy and Hoppy, two sisters who are inseparable. Hoppy bounces along rather than walking like a normal Happy chicken.

Little Roo in front looking a whole lot like his papa, Big Roo.

I was all set to write a post called RIP Big Roo. Yesterday we had something attack one of our hens (2 piles of black feathers in the driveway) and a dead rooster with his own pile of feathers, on the other edge of the property. This morning when I went out to check on the poor bloody hen, there was Big Roo in the coop with her and several other hens hiding out on an otherwise nice day.

It was poor Little Roo who lost his life. I am sure he came running to protect his ladies as he does that every time I walk the dogs anywhere near any of the chickens. He will come half flying, half running from wherever he is to move them out of danger.

He was the first rooster here to ever have a real cock-a-doodle-do as his call. Big Roo only gets as far as the doodle. Rest in peace, little guy.

Some questioning of neighbors moving into the house at the end of our driveway point to a mink as the culprit. They saw one in the driveway a couple days ago, and when I mentioned that to the Hub, he thinks he saw it recently as well. I will try to live trap and move it to a new home, but hear they are not so easy to catch, and not a pleasant job if you do succeed.

Not looking forward to it.

I think he moved in when I stopped walking the dogs. When I injured my knee almost 3 weeks ago, I stopped walking them out there around the yard. I think it really helps to keep the predators from getting too close to my free-ranging chickens. A danger to let them roam like that, but I still prefer that to keeping them penned in.

The knee is on the mend. Saw the ortho doc yesterday and we are coming up with a plan of action, but for now it is just brace and RICE: Rest Ice Compress Elevate. But I might have to ignore the plan and get back to walking the guard pooches. I think I can be careful enough...

Ye Olde Fartney in her new big fence

I hurt my knee while walking Woody last week, not his fault at all. In fact, he pulled out of his collar when I hollered, and happily came bounding back through the field by the time I got back to the house. If that had been Cyrus, there would have been a chicken massacre on his way back. Thank you, Woody.

I am very happy with the fence we put in last fall. I have done no dog walking at all since Friday the 12th, and the boys are quickly learning to hang out with me in the yard.

Cyrus is getting much better at coexisting with the chickens even when they are inches away on the other side of the fence. And Woody is getting older (like Old Fart-knee) and seems happy to not be walking out there when it is hot and sunny and sometimes even humid.

Being an invalid, I have had more time to work on the gardens inside the fence, and the wildflowers are doing a good job of filling in the rest. Most of my free time is just sitting out there enjoying life.

An MRI tomorrow should give me an idea as to whether it is anything other than just an old knee. Doncha love when that's the diagnosis? You are old.

EAGLES and 2 subtle messages

So I was sitting outside this morning enjoying a beautiful day with some amazing clouds, watching 2 eagles and a turkey vulture flying off in the distance. The eagles disappeared into the clouds for awhile, and then I was distracted by Cyrus chasing our chickens on the other side of the fence. When I returned to drinking my tea in one of my recently refurbished, trash-picked comfy chairs, I couldn't find the eagles right away, although the vulture was still roughly in the same spot.

Then I heard one of them call over on the opposite side of the house. Now a third eagle and what I think was a red-tailed hawk were all up there together soaring through the sky. The hawk is too small to see in the photos, but the sun was shining through his feathers so I have a pretty good idea that's what it was.

This is my very subtle way of putting it out there that I need a better camera. My little old iPhone just can't handle all this excitement. If anyone has a used digital SLR with a good telephoto lens, let's talk! As long as it takes better pics than these, it is good enough.

And finally, my other not so subtle hint is to my builder. He replaced the rotting trim everywhere but on this side of the house. I need him to come back and fix this ugly stuff, and maybe build my little patio while he is here.

Jim: are you listening?

Evening visitor and more flowers

The columbines are hard to photograph because of the way they face down, but they were not the stars of last night's show—we had a hummingbird stop by for a columbine cocktail. He was here last year as well, sounding like a big buzzing bee out there going from one flower to another. I don't have a hummingbird feeder, and I am pretty sure I don't need one.

My large purple irises apparently survived Woody's tromping. The first one opened yesterday, and there is one more stalk behind it. The little yellow flowers down below are Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla mollis). I bought one little plant at a Heritage Plant Sale at The Farmers' Museum a few years ago, and it seems very happy here.

These and the pink bleeding hearts are so far the only flowers that aren't purple in this year's little garden. I do expect the bright orange Calendula will return soon to fill in the gaps.

Dragons and flowers

I think we have finally gotten past the threat of snow, and gone pretty quickly into hot and humid—definitely preferable to snow in June.

I saw 3 dragonflies on my beagle walk today. A pair like this one, and a larger different one, all on the same steps as we were coming back in the house. I only ever see dragonflies when I have a dog on a leash who wants to investigate the funny little critters. Someday, maybe, I will get a good photo.

My William Guinness columbines have finally opened. I brought some seed with me from NJ, and now have promised some seeds to my friends back in NJ. But I can't get the seeds until the flowers are done looking pretty in with my chives. Once they take hold they grow pretty easily.

And I just dug up some of the black-eyed susans, also from NJ, to share with my neighbors up here. They too grow like a weed, but look so much better than most of the weeds we have.

When I'm 64

I had a great birthday present on Sunday—The Husband spotted a very tiny spotted fawn in the backyard. Further inspection showed there were 2 of them, looking like they had just been born.

We also celebrated with a great takeout order from Alex's World Bistro: vegetable samosas and Vietnamese steamed dumplings for the appetizers, Irish bangers and mash for Hub's dinner, pulled pork fajitas for mine. Eating our way around Alex's world. Very tasty, although it loses something (including heat) when you eat at home.

I take these pics of the dogs on a leash when people are texting me and expecting a reply. I am not a good multi-tasker, can't walk with a dog and text at the same time. I thought this was a very cute Cyrus pose, even if a bit blurry.

Big sky season is back. Nearly every evening we are rewarded with a beautiful sunset. Staying home is not bad at all when this is home.

A garden, another bird, and a sky on fire

I had this brilliant idea that I would fence off a little vegetable garden in the corner of the new big fence. Cutting off the corner would make it easier for Hub to mow back there, the inside fence would keep the dogs and other critters out, and I would have easy access to my garlic, tomatoes and rhubarb. It was a brilliant idea until I discovered that this one little corner must be an old stream bed. Planting the garlic was not a big deal, or else I forgot how hard it was because I planted them in the fall. The rhubarb was easy as well because it was just 2 small bits transplanted from somewhere else.

But the tomatoes... It took me almost 6 hours to dig up just the bit where the 6 Brandywine tomatoes are in the ground. The soil itself is not bad, but there are so many rocks compacted tightly in that soil that I could not get the big shovel more than an inch or 2 in the ground. The big shovel worked well for digging up the sod and weeds, but I had to sit and do the real digging with the little yellow-handled shovel which has sawtooth edges. All those rocks in the pic came from just in the tomato patch. And they do not include the large rocks that I added to the fire pit.

Note to self: Check out the soil condition before you go putting up fences.

Since May has been a birding month here on the blog, I saw my first Indigo Bunting yesterday morning in one of the blooming apple trees. Then I saw him again this morning. I thought it was going to be my first bluebird sighting—I hear there are a lot of them up here but I have never seen one. My first little blue bunting was just as exciting.

Last night's sky featured a flaming sun. It is burning much brighter in the photo than it really was, but still a beautiful night until the storm clouds rolled in. Thunderstorms on and off today, watering my Brandywines and rocks.

On the porch

Monkey, one of our 2 indoor-only cats, escaped lockdown last night to join me and the dogs outside. The Husband likes to leave the doors open when it is nice outside (not all that often) and somehow he believes that the Monkey won't want to escape. I knew it would happen soon enough, but I am not especially worried with our now-fenced backyard.

Even so, Husband, I am outing you on my blog. Monkey did not make it any further than the steps when Cyrus ran him back inside, but you are on record. Every time this happens, I am going to post a photo of you. Only really handsome photos of you, and I might even take them down when you catch me, but this is your warning.

Might I also mention that I was already in a foul mood because said dogs had just wreaked havoc on my irises to the left of the stairs. About half of the flower stalks were broken off. Woody managed to sneak in there, and when I hollered at him to get out, Cyrus thought it would be great fun to chase him back and forth inside that little iron fence.

There are not enough angry-face emojis to express my displeasure.

The creek and the birds

I was having too much fun birdwatching on a fine spring Saturday, so I did not get to the creek test until Sunday. It was a fine spring Sunday as well, and the creek passed its test yet again. It is much more pleasant to wade in the creek when the water temperature is 62° as compared to my previous tests. I am still trying to find out what these numbers actually mean...

Only yellow flowers are brave enough to bloom up here right now. Daffodils, dandelions, and these little yellow flowers down by the creek—marsh marigolds.

The Big Day Bird Count officially started at noon on Saturday. I was disappointed when I signed up that there were very few birds in sight. Then, at about 1:45, the eagle flew over and I knew it was going to be a good day.

I am still a novice when it comes to identification, but the species I could easily ID were: house finch, goldfinch, red wing blackbird, robin, pigeon, starling, crow, black capped chickadee, turkey vulture, eastern kingbird, barn swallow, tree swallow, 1 downy and 1 hairy woodpecker, and a pair of mallards. The trickier ones were the sparrows. There are multiple versions here. I think the ones I saw on Saturday were a swamp sparrow, and a vesper or savannah sparrow.

The other tough one was a green heron, but that was before the official count, and the sun was behind him so I couldn't really tell.

I do know the eagle, but he or she is always tough to photograph!

Little Roo, a bird count, and a stream test

Little Roo is now almost as big as the big guy, his daddy. The only way I can tell them apart is that Little has black tail feathers where Big does not. It wasn't obvious until Roberta gave me this pic that our chicken coop/old milking shed is in serious need of another paint job. What it really needs is a total rehab, but we are hoping it can stand a few more years before we have to sink some money into it.

Busy day today. Not only am I participating in the Big Day Bird Count sponsored by the Delaware/Otsego Audubon Society, but also doing our monthly stream testing. It is supposed to remain sunny for the afternoon, and it's in the 60°s, so it should be a good day for both adventures.

Saturday, May 16 is this year’s Big Day for DOAS.

The Big Day is a group effort in which birders, working alone, in pairs, or in small groups, can maintain social distance and adopt infection-avoidance procedures while enjoying the outdoors. We will try to locate as many bird species as we can in a single fun day on Saturday May 16. 

Goat reported for not keeping her distance

Little Rainbow, whose name might have to change to Little Richie, stopped by The Freeman's Journal Office today to wish Thom a fond farewell. There is photographic evidence here that she did not stay the required six feet from anyone.

No calls were made to the authorities. No arrests were made.

She is the one who was born with a crooked neck and needed to be bottle fed.

Her neck straightened out just fine, and she is eating her hay and feed and is ready to be weaned, but she still LOVES her bottle feedings!

Ask Thom how fast that went empty.