A Funny Guy

 

 What is it?

Anyone who spent any time with my dad knows the answer to this one...  a porcupine egg.  Dad said he sold them as such at some tourist trap near the Dinosaur National Monument when he was young.  I never knew which of his stories to believe.  He was full of corny jokes.  Whenever we would pass a cemetery, he would say, "people are just dying to get in there".  Or "a train just passed by" and when you asked how he knew, the response was always "because it left its' tracks".

Yellow Brick Road

The time has come to lay out the yellow brick road again this year.  The ice in the driveway has melted and frozen so many time it is smooth and slippery.  The straw helps a lot.  I keep hoping it will suddenly melt off, but no luck so far.  It was 12 degrees this morning.  UGGH!  It means more chopping the ice of the water for the animals, more cold mornings doing chores. And to top it off, the wind has been blowing.

 

 

 

Big Foot

Boyd walked the dogs without me the other day and came across some mighty big tracks in the snow.  Whatever it was had come down the hill from the pasture, gone around the pond and headed out to the river.  I arrived home just as they returned from the walk.  He knows how freaked out I am about mountain lions, so he tells me about the tracks.  I insist we investigate and I took along my point and shoot camera. 

 

  

  

You can see the big one towards the top of this photo and compare it to the other tracks which belong to my dogs.  I had to look up mountain lion tracks on the internet.  These aren't cat tracks and we guess it must have been the malamute that lives down the road.   When I lived in Willard, we always had cougar sightings.  I saw one driving home one evening, my friends had one on their front porch, the neighbor had one in his barn on the same night I had a sheep carcass drying in my apple tree (science lesson).  I used to lock my goats in their pen at night just so I could sleep.   Since I have moved here, I haven't worried as much.  However, one night I couldn't sleep for fear of a mountain lion getting the dogs and goats.  So, I went out at 2:30 a.m., moved the dogs to the chicken coop and fenced my goats in their shelter.  It wasn't easy to do in the dark let me tell you.  Boyd didn't even know I was gone.  What does that say about our relationship?

The Rescue

Stay off the ice!  She has been told that many, many times, but she didn't listen.  Jasmine wandered down a very steep bank and on to the ice before we knew it.  And, of course, she fell through.  When Boyd found her she was clawing at the ice trying to pull herself out.  She had managed to get herself stuck even though she had open water behind her.  I called and called trying to get her to turn, but the bottom half of her was stuck.  Not only was she stuck, but the bank to get down to her was about 12 feet high and incredibly steep.  I grabbed on to weeds and saplings and worked my way down.  A tree with a branch in the water made it easier to walk out into the river.  I held on to an overhanging limb, stepped onto the ice which broke immediately and grabbed my dog by her collar.  Once she was free, she swam back to the bank.  Surprisingly, that part of the river was only knee deep.  I thought for sure I was going to be in past my waist.  Boyd had to lift my dog out because the bank was so steep she couldn't climb it.  Then my poor husband had to grab onto the front of my insulated coveralls and drag me up the bank.  I sloshed all the way back up to the house and Jasmine acted like nothing serious had even happened.  It would have been better to have a camera, but I didn't and I wasn't in any condition to return to the spot.  Maybe when the ice has totally melted, I will get a picture of the steep bank and the very convenient tree. 

 

Proof that she can swim. 

How could you not save her life with a look like that?

Birds of a Feather

We have all kinds of birds on the farm including many, many hawks or falcons.  This one was swooping low over the pasture this afternoon.  It reminded me of the time we came home to find an injured falcon on the lane.  I tried to catch him, but he had enough strength to run into the tall hay.  I tell myself he recovered just fine.

 

  

This is the time of year when the bald eagles are around.  They love to sit in the trees along the river.

This pigeon stayed around the farm for a few days.  We wondered if it was a runaway homing pigeon.

Of course, we have pheasants, less now that the neighbors don't raise them.  They are loud and bossy.  One winter, a certain rooster crowed at me every morning when I went out to do chores.  The other day Jasmine spooked out a rooster.  She doesn't do that when it is hunting season, which is just fine with me.

 

  

  

We have an abundance of magpies.  This poor fellow actually has a fox behind him.  That brown blob behind him hung around the farm for quite a while one year.  Sorry about the grainy photo.  I took it from very far away and had to crop it significantly.  Once a magpie seemed to either play with or harrass Gilligan.  It followed the cat everywhere.  I never got a good shot, but it was entertaining.

  

These two owls spent a couple of days in the pine trees right by the carport.  They would hoot back and forth and make a huge ruckus.  

  

This tom had quite a few hens in his harem.  They came out like clockwork every morning and evening the whole time Boyd planted safflower last year.  They lived in the trees along the river. 

This flock of swans made their home along the Bear River.  I took this picture from the South Farm looking west.  I snapped it the morning of the day my dad died.  The irony of it all is that you can see this location from where he is buried in the cemetery.

This group of pelicans spent a good part of last summer right across the river from our farm.  I find pelicans fascinating.  It is a rush to be standing underneath them when they take off and fly right over your head.  The sound of their wings beating the air is awe-inspiring.

  

  

We don't seem to lack when it comes to geese.  One year they took up residence in our hay field just off the house.  We let Buddy do his thing and try to herd them.  I couldn't believe how close they let him get.

I can't resist saying that this blog was "for the birds".   Sounds like something my dad would say.

Signs of Spring

Hey, have you noticed I haven't been whining as much about the weather?  That's because it has been beautiful lately.  Even the snowy morning drives to work are cleared up by lunchtime and the skies are blue by my drive home.  I went in search of signs of spring today and it didn't take long to find them. 

 

The birds have been heralding the coming of spring loud and clear for more than a week now.  Jasmine has been busy chasing them all over the farm.  We even have a flock of partridges. Maybe one day I will have my camera at the ready when they are out.

 

Every spring Boyd digs a channel for the water to flow away from the dog run.  Melting snow is a welcome sign of spring.

 

 

Even the goats are ready for the snow to leave.  They are always scratching their backs on the limbs, but now they are leaving behind clumps of fur.  It must be warming up if they are leaving behind their fur coats.

 

 

And at last, the beginnings of green, green grass!!!!!

Buddy, the Border Collie

 

This is Buddy, a great dog.

  He thinks he is in charge of the six goats on the farm. 

 

He is incredibly agile and pounces just like a fox when he is hunting mice.

Once, however, while trying to do a spinning 180 backwards twist in the air he landed in the barbed-wire fence.  The result was an emergency trip to the vet's on a Sunday afternoon. 

 

Thirteen stitches and a lovely pink shirt later, he was good to go.  The stitches were supposed to stay in for two weeks.  By the end of the two weeks, there were only two stitches left, he had chewed out the other eleven.  We used a collar, clothing, even industrial strength duct tape to stop him, but he is one persistent dog.

The Sun Tunnels

These are the sun tunnels located in the middle of nowhere, Box Elder County.  I am hoping to channel some of their sun energy by posting about them today.  Here is some info I found off the internet.  They really are quite interesting.

The Sun Tunnels, by Nancy Holt, are deliberately and strategically placed on the grounds of the ancient Lake Bonneville. The Sun Tunnels are a pleasant surprise in the middle of Western Box Elder County. 

Completed in 1976, the Sculpture consists of four concrete tunnels that are laid out on the desert floor in an open X configuration, 86 feet long on the diagonal. Each tunnel is 18 feet long and has an outside diameter of 9 feet, 2.5 inches and an inside diameter of 8 feet. The tunnels are aligned with each other and with the angles of the rising and setting of the sun on the days of the solstice, around June 21^st and December 21^st. On these days the sun is seen on the horizon centered through the tunnels. 

 

The Cat

Gilligan gets to come in the house on occasion. We might let him come in more often if he didn't make himself so much at home.   I was relaxing on the couch when I guess he decided I had plenty of pillow to share.   He also enjoys walking across your shoulders and putting his paws on your head.  He is a good cat.  Boyd calls him the grief counselor.  He seems to show up to offer you his attention just when you need it.

Winter Blues

It is still winter.  I am having a really hard time waiting patiently for Spring this year.  I have lived in Utah all but two of my 43 years.  I should be used to the cold, frozen world, but I am really hating it this season for some reason.  Even my husband commented on how frozen the river has been this year.  Usually there is a little more open water.  It doesn't seem any colder or snowier than any other winter, but something is going on.  We have even had sunshine and no inside recesses lately.  So, in an effort to cheer myself up I found some photos of beautiful winter blues.