The big guys are back

For most of the year the deer population around here is made up of mostly does, fawns and yearlings. Groups of them, sometimes fairly large (20 or so) wander through the neighborhood grazing, playing, resting in the shade, and trying to keep one step ahead of the coyotes.

But the whole atmosphere changes each Fall when the big bucks go into rut. They invade the neighborhood and it's a time when we have to be more careful around the deer. The does will defend their babies... (as Cody found out last summer when he decided to chase a fawn and I had to save him from being trampled by the baby's mother!)... but as long as you leave the fawns alone the does are very sweet and passive.

The big bucks are something else again...

For one thing, they are HUGE... the older ones are much bigger than the does, and they get a look in their eyes that is challenging. They strut around the neighborhood as though they are on the top of the food chain, and the rest of us had better watch out!

There has been a larger than normal group of big bucks roaming the neighborhood this year...

They are beautiful, but I won't mind too much when they move on... it's a little scary to have them wandering around the front yard.

saying good-bye

Cubby our "foster" donkey leaves tomorrow to go back to Longhopes. I watched him playing with Tucker this afternoon and felt a little sad...  He hasn't always been the easiest little guy to be around... even if you don't count the time he decided to exit the stall before I'd opened the stall door... launching all 600 lbs of so of his weight right through the door. (It was my fault... I was feeding Tucker bits of apple while training him, while Cubby was stuck in the stall. But who knew Cubby loved apples enough to rip a stall door off it's hinges to get to them?!)

Say what you will, Cubby's got a ton of personality, and we're going to miss him.

This afternoon he played for a long time with a bucket he'd found, picking it up by the handle  with his mouth and swinging it back and forth... Then he and Tucker played with his favorite toy... a stick. I've never seen an equine that played with sticks as much as Cubby does. He pulls then off the scrub oak that the goats killed years ago, and I find them all over the pasture... Today he and Tucker walked around holding on to opposite ends of the same stick. It's so funny to watch them when they play like that... It looks like they've somehow yoked themselves together.

I took some good-bye pictures this afternoon...

Here's my favorite.

I love his eyes... intelligent, and yet so soft.

Good-bye Cubby.... I hope you find a wonderful forever home very soon.

The day seemed...

... to end abruptly. It went from sunny afternoon, to cold and dark, in the blink of an eye.

M and I were in the classroom doing school this afternoon and outside the sun was shining and the air was warm enough to be comfortable.

As M worked the wind started to pick up and I watched low, fast moving, dark clouds streaming in from the north...  quickly covering the slow moving lighter clouds that had been in the sky.

For awhile the pasture was in sun, while at the same time the barn (in the same pasture) was shaded by the heavy dark clouds. It looked strange and the animals moved closer to the barn.

As the thick blanket of clouds blocked out the sun we slipped, almost immediately, from day into evening....

The wind was so fierce that it kicked up dust devils in the paddock, and it picked up and flung away to the south anything light enough for it to carry.

Within minutes of the first clouds pushing in from the north, the only sun left was just a thin line on the southern horizon.

Ten minutes later that same horizon was shrouded in a low lying cloud.

Then the snow started, fast and wild, the wind blowing it sideways... the tiny flakes hitting hard enough to sound like sand against the house.

Murphy and the donkeys hid in the barn...

...and I said a quick prayer that the old cottonwood on the north side of the house would be strong enough to stand up to the wind.

And then it was over... the only evidence of the storm's passing was the need to turn the lights on early because the house had gotten so dark... and a new light dusting of snow.

*~*daybook*~*

FOR TODAY

November 15, 2010

Outside my window... dark, cold, with a light frosting of snow still lingering in the shadows and low spots.

I am thinking... about M's previous pdoc and whether or not I should try to contact her.

I am thankful for... life, friends, family, home.

From the learning rooms... M seems to be settling down again during school time... hopefully that trend will continue.

From the kitchen... I did the month's shopping yesterday, including what we'll need for Thanksgiving dinner. It's good to have that done...

I am wearing... Levis, black sweater, wool socks, crocs

I am creating... doing a bit of knitting, plucking a little on the guitar and banjo... same old same old.

I am going... to call the pediatrician today and figure out how to get all the metabolic testing done that M's pdoc wants. The pdoc wrote all the orders on one script, so I'm guessing I'll have to have it all done at the same place...

I am reading... I've almost finished There Eyes Were Watching God, and I'm also reading a dog training book I found at the library the other day.

I am hoping... to get some energy back soon.

I am hearing... a quiet house... just the burble of the boiler in the basement, and the tick of the clock.

Around the house... no house projects right now, and the gardens are frozen for the winter, so not much going on.

One of my favorite things... growing herbs on the kitchen window sill. I love growing things I can eat. I bought a little container herb garden yesterday... and it just looks happy sitting there in the sunny window.

A few plans for the rest of the week...metabolic testing for M, M's regular blood work, therapeutic riding, bowling, field trip, and possibly EK meeting with homeschool group, dog training class, evening class on Wills... It's a busy week, I hope the weather cooperates.

A picture I'm sharing..

Two pictures this time that I took right after the last snow.

The kitchen garden fence, with the snow balanced so delicately on each strand of wire...

... and a deer I found trying to graze in the front yard.

She left pretty quickly when she saw me....

Visit Peggy's blog for more about The Simple Woman's Daybook

One of *those* days...

Dinner was in the oven and I was trying to quickly pick up around the house, while I mentally made a list of the things I'd planned to do today... but hadn't gotten done.

Realizing my list was not making me feel one bit better, but only making me feel more stressed and hurried, I shifted gears and started mentally making a list of things I had gotten done. The list started great... but deteriorated quickly.

Here's my list:

`

`1. got dinner made

2. got a little school done

3. fed the animals

4. got a shower taken

5. brushed my teeth

6. got my hair combed

7. got the toilet flushed (the kids sometimes forget)

(yes, I was getting THAT desperate to think of things I'd gotten done today)

`

`Hmm... it was definitely one of those days.

Playing hooky

R''s yearly review for DD services was yesterday, and once it was over and our service coordinator left, we should have headed right into the classroom to get school done.

But the warmth of the sun was so inviting, and the forecast for today is for a high in the low 40's (compared with yesterday's high in the 60's at least) and possibly some snow.

So, since it was likely to be the last warm day for awhile, we decided to play hooky instead and spend the beautiful afternoon exploring a walking trail near our house (we'll have plenty of time for school when it's cold and snowy out!). We've driven past this trail countless times (it's just over the hill from us) but this was the first time we actually took the time to follow it to see where it went.

A little side trail off the main trail... there were lots of these... probably made by deer.

The view from the trail. The area the trail runs through is a funny mix of natural prairie surrounded by huge expensive homes (McMansions).  The sky was just a brilliant blue...

I love the old cottonwood trees. I love the shapes their branches make, the huge trunks, and wondering about their history... What the land looked like, what was going on here, when they were just saplings.

~

After walking about a mile we found this little old building. It looked like it was made from old stone and bricks mixed with some kind of cement or plaster.

There was old balled up barbed wire and broken fence posts outside and, not far away, what looks like an old livestock chute...  M was hoping the little building was the one-room schoolhouse that used to be out here. Apparently it was just a 1/2 mile or so from our house, but many years ago, shortly after it closed, someone moved it and no one knows quite where it is now...   There are a couple of scary/sad blizzard stories connected to that lost schoolhouse and M's wondered for years what might have become of it. I had to tell him that no, this wasn't the "lost" schoolhouse... but we'll keep looking.

Another half mile or so brought us to a neighborhood and this nice little park... where R showed us that she can still hang by her knees (and M stressed... sure she would fall!).

On the way back home... R on the trail, heading toward the little stone house... with the big houses that surround this area lining the hill above it.

colors of autumn

Not long ago Leigh (Five Acres and a Dream), wrote about the beautiful colors of October on her acreage.

Well, October is over,  and it's been so dry here that most of our acreage is yellow/brown...

... but I have been loving the colors on the smoke tree this year.

It's right outside the kitchen window, and during the Fall it's beauty just seems to brighten the whole kitchen.

I like it so much I keep a "bouquet" of it's leaves on the table.

The leaves are starting to curl now, and I'm guessing it won't be long before it's bare...

... which make me appreciate it all the more during these last few days of autumn.