Playmates...Sort Of

I think our cat Irving has attention deficit disorder. Our other cat, Halley, tries to get him to focus on playtime, but he gets distracted easily.



She's just dying to play, but he doesn't even notice.



She finally gets him into it....



...and then he's distracted again.



Poor Halley...

The Vultures...Uh-Oh

After the vultures finished off the remains of our duck, Mrs. Howell, they settled in on the fence. My husband got this picture of them apparently watching to see who might be next.



Hmmm. If you look at the picture a little more closely...

...the second vulture from the left is actually watching the house.

I think I'm glad they were gone by the time I got home.

When the Vultures Come

Mrs. Howell, our white female duck, died last week. She was fine one day, and then all of a sudden she was floating in the pond.


We're pretty sure this fellow caused it. I probably shouldn't say how, but when I saw him at the flea market and thought how beautiful he was, I wasn't thinking about how much bigger he was than our female ducks.


Let's just say that ducks can be rough with each other this time of year. I've read that drowning of female ducks has become a bigger problem as domestic ducks get bigger and wild ducks don't, but I would have thought Mrs. Howell was big enough for it not to be a problem.

The vultures showed up for her today. Cycle of life....

Playful Goats

It was really pretty here yesterday, and the goats are starting to feel like spring. They were romping and playing all over the pasture, with Irving the cat sitting watching them. They almost ran him down a couple of times, and he never flinched.

In the scene below, Emma charged Arlene as she reared up and stomped...



...and then Arlene chased Emma out of the frame...




....leaving only a cloud of dust behind.



Today is rainy and back in the 50's. We're all so ready for spring to arrive and stay!

Burning - Scary Close

Yesterday I posted pictures of the smoke caused by a controlled burn of the large pine forest behind our house. At the same time, I got pictures of the fire by standing at our back fence line and pointing the camera through the trees. You can see how close the fire got. It's not on our property, but just barely.



I could hear it crackling.



It was in a line all along our back property line. I'm speculating that they were making a firebreak. We're not sure if it'll stop with that, or if they'll continue to burn more of the forest.



I'm confident it's well controlled, but it definitely gives me more empathy for people who have had homes (or lives) threatened by wildfire. I can't imagine looking at that and knowing it was uncontrolled and couldn't be prevented from taking my home.

Controlled Burn...We Hope

There are two hundred acres of commercial pine forest behind our home, and the owner set the part directly behind us on fire today.



We own about an acre and a half of the woods on the far side of our pond. It slopes downhill to a small stream, with a logging road on the other side of it. It looks like the fire was set in the forest along the logging road. You can see in the pictures how close that is.



From our pond-side bench, we could hear the men working on setting it. From what I've read, controlled burns are part of pine forest management. We have to trust that they know what they're doing, and I know that controlled burns are regulated, but it was scary close.



I mean, if you saw the scene below from your house, wouldn't you be concerned about how competent the people who set it might be?



A couple who lives down the road saw us outside and stopped to ask us if we knew what was going on. They were worried, of course, since it was close to their home too. Fortunately, we had seen it last year so knew it was done on purpose.

We never actually smelled the smoke. I went down to the far side of the pond, and I could see the fire and hear it crackling, but I couldn't smell it. It was really surprising, and very reassuring, since we know they'll be doing more of it, and my husband is sensitive to all types of smoke. We're wondering if they had to wait for a day when the winds were blowing away from the handful of homes in our little area. It's also supposed to rain tomorrow, so maybe that's part of how they selected the day. It would be interesting to know, and this isn't a heavily populated area, so I imagine some day we'll meet someone who knows how it works.

In the meantime, I'm just going to imagine that the people who are doing it are all highly trained professionals who have the equipment to handle it if, say, the wind should suddenly shift. I'm pretty good at deluding myself, so that's working for me so far...

Goats Like Treats

Our two goats, Arlene and Emma, get a carrot and apple as a treat every afternoon. I'm sorry to say that they're not dainty eaters.



They definitely gobble. We have to dole out the treats so that they don't try to get too much into their mouths at one time and choke.



We also have to worry about them getting their heads stuck in the fence trying to get to the food. It has happened before. My husband had to cut the fence once to get Arlene's head out.



Their pasture is greening up now, so they've got grass to eat again, and pretty soon they'll have weeds (yum). We've had a good bit of rain this year so far, though, and the ground is pretty saturated, so they have to step carefully in some places. The picture below was from a couple of days after the last rain, when the water has normally drained off.



This weekend is supposed to be our first really nice weekend of the year. I can't wait!