A fawn, a fiddle, and an old ....

The Husband captured a pic of this little cutie right outside the back fence today. Luckily the dogs were not paying attention. There's yet another really good reason for that fence. You are safer out there, little one, than you would be inside the fence with the killer Cyrus! Don't let your mama give you any ideas about jumping over.

Saturday evening was another great jam session in the R&T garage (I know, it's awfully pretty for a garage.) Miss Rachel, the fiddler, took some time off from her real job as a doctor in Boston to come back and play some tunes in Coop!

And then there's that Woody sleeping on his best dog bed ever. The old man is doing very well, almost 4 months into his predicted 6 months to live. It's hot and sticky up here the last couple of days, so he, and the rest of us, aren't quite as energetic as we should be. Trust me though, he is still up to his normal craziness and not showing any signs of slowing down.

 

Wine and sun

We have some good news, but I don't want to start the celebration until it's official. In the meantime, I started a private celebration with a glass of wine in the backyard. Woody celebrated by singing with the birds while the sun was going down. I will post the video version of his song on Facebook. Videos on here are always disappointingly small.

Franklin and Annie's parents are home and Annie survived our extra care very well. I just found out she is about 15YO, which is pretty darn good for a goat. We are going back for a visit tomorrow just to make sure she doesn't forget us.

Franklin and Annie and The Panther

While Drs J and T are in Cape May for the week, we are caring for Annie the goat who needs a little extra TLC—some milking, an injection every day, and some special love from The Husband. Annie has her own husband by her side at all times, Franklin the rescued donkey. He can't do the TLC part, so we are helping out.

The shortest route to Franklin and Annie's house is up Panther Mountain Road. It is a seasonal gravel road winding up and down a not so big mountain. Panther Mountain is across the road from us, behind the horse farm, on the other side of the lake.

When we first moved up here we heard rumors that it was named for a panther that escaped from a circus train. As regular travelers up the mountain this week, we found the real story, or at least the settled upon real story: it was named after a Native American man who lived on the hill and called himself The Panther. Even the sign calls this a hill, not a mountain, but by South Jersey standards, it's pretty darn big.

Bug post

This is not a blog post but a bug post. For the sake of a good title, these will all be bugs, whether they really are or not.

I don't know why that pretty butterfly died behind the picture frame on the back porch wall. I was reluctant to pull the frame away to see what was going on, but now that it has been a few days, I guess it is not going to fly away.

About the same time as the butterfly, this pretty little moth also lost its life on the back porch.

Yesterday, I found these unidentified caterpillars devouring a few leaves on a young mountain ash that was just starting to look like a real tree. I am questioning the DEC as to what they are and how worried I should be.

The last creepy crawly, which I identified only because of a Facebook post I had seen the day before, is a cicada killer wasp. Biggest wasp I have ever seen! He or she also met their demise on the back porch, probably due to a bite by the WoodMan. He likes to eat the bugs he can reach on the screen. He probably got the moth too.

Camera hogs

I have been trying the trail camera in different locations to see what I can catch. Recently it was out by the chicken coop where the nighttime photos showed a raccoon that was the likely killer, but there was also a fox out there.

During the day about a third of the 135 photos were of the young rooster taking selfies. The camera was out there for a few days in a few different spots, and every time he found it and posed. Silly rooster!

The latest camera location was out in the back field with the new trees. This new poser is a doe with a notched ear. She is possibly the mother of the twin kids I have seen speeding down the paths, but I didn't get a pic of the 3 of them together.

Recently I have been reading the manual and discovering all the mostly useless new things I can do with the new iPhone. Useless but somehow inspirational for those arty farty types. So, to keep up with the other camera hogs, here is my selfie from down by the river, the river that is one of the many backgrounds you can choose.

Also a Woody shot in Portrait mode. He wasn't posing, just taking a nap, so not a hog at all.

Sittin' time and critter wars

I got those 2 new chairs just in time for sitting outside and watching the perfect sunsets with a glass of wine and the birds singing all around me. We had a week or so of rain, and then a week or so of beautiful weather, and then we're supposed to have a high of 46° on Friday just in time for Memorial Day weekend. You never know what you're getting up here, so live for the moment. I am required to take advantage of all the nice days! 

We added a young rooster to the flock when he got kicked out of Cooperstown for being too noisy. I had him in quarantine outside the coop after he decided he was man enough to take on Big Roo. He was safely enclosed in a fence, but something still got to him enough to yank a few tail feathers.

No more quarantine. He has been behaving in the yard and the coop ever since.

Then we lost one of our black hens a couple days ago. Just feathers left in the chicken yard. Put up the trail camera and caught the raccoon first, and then the fox 2 hours later, right outside the coop door.

I am not sure I like having a trail camera. I think I am better off not knowing what's out there, especially because there's not too much we can do about it. All critters have to eat. I just wish they wouldn't eat my chickens.

Weeds and ravioli and neighbors

Early spring is mostly all yellow flowers here, daffodils and dandelions. I love both. I went back to pick up the trail camera today and found this carpet of blue with 2 lonely dandies and some goldenrod poking through. I think they are forget me nots, but didn't look it up yet.

Trail camera was again a whole lot of nothing. I aimed it toward what was left of the beaver dam, and I think I actually caught the beaver in a couple of the nighttime pics, but it is too hard to see. I will try a different location. Haven't had much luck lately with the camera, but I know for sure the coyotes are out there because I hear them crooning every night.

The purple plate special was butternut squash ravioli with sausage and spinach. The cheese on top was from one of my failed goat cheddars. They always come out hard as a rock, but they make excellent grated cheese. So much nicer than that Italian stuff that comes in plastic...

And then there's the WoodMan begging for some soft goat cheese from his favorite neighbor Don on the Hill. Don lives in that house on the hill (between the beer and his right ear). Woody and Cyrus and I used to go up there all the time for a romp, but Cyrus had become too adept at killing critters of all sorts, and Woody had very much improved his skills at hunting for really old dead stuff and bringing it back to share with Don.

That's Gracie the brown girl in the front. Don borrows her from his buddy while he's at work since his dog Bandit passed away.

Woody is nowhere near passing away, by the way. He probably doesn't have a whole lot of time left, but he is definitely back to his normal crazy self.

Blue skies o'er the Flat

Black chair with blue sky.

Black dog with blue eye.

Young man with old man.

Porch with trippy shadows.

Slow spring

The men in this house are much better at taking naps than me, the only female. Woody fell asleep while sitting on the sofa watching the birds with me. He didn't seem to care that there is a nesting pair of bluebirds in the new bird house. First bluebirds I have ever seen here!

And just today the orioles showed up in the apple trees that are just about to open their blossoms.

Spring has been slow in coming. We had a few warm days in April, but May has been chilly and mostly rainy. We are still getting temps in the 30°s at night, and tonight there are a few of those darn little snowflakes sneaking back into the weather report.

Rain's little boy kid has been very entertaining as the latest spring addition to the farm. He is tiny compared to our usual kids, and he has those funny Nubian ears that add to the cuteness! The Husband is pretty cute too, even though I am technically not allowed to post his picture on here...

Rain and rain

Rain and Snow are 2 of the young females born last spring. They kidded a few months after the older does, choosing to give birth in warmer weather. Sadly, Snow's 2 kids died in a rough birth. Rain did not even appear to be pregnant, but maybe that's because she only had one small kid in there. Surprise kids are always welcome.

The new chairs out by the firepit are not going to be used anytime soon. Far too much chilly weather with rain in the forecast for the next 10 days. Must be spring.

OLD and news

Even though that big birthday is more than a month away, I am proud to say that this OLD lady successfully enrolled in Medicare to start on Saturday. 

I felt old for the first time when I hit 60. Now that I am on Medicare, I feel really OLD!

There are several news at the newspaper where I work: new editor, new publisher, new owners. With a generous gift from Jim, previous owner of all those titles, I bought 2 new Adirondack chairs. Now we just have to hope that the snow is finally gone. 

And the last pic is the best pink moon shot I could get. Another new: one of those little white goats gave us a new kid yesterday!