My Mustangs.: Coyote update and an old post.

The post below is what I was working on when the dreaded coyote/wolf/dog beast attacked my flock. Ironically I had just taken the pictures of the birds enjoying the last of the nice weather when all hell broke loose.

The keen observer will notice that our hero rooster, Jet Lag is missing some tail feathers even before he bravley tangled with the beast that very day. The week before we returned home after dark to discover the rooster and a hen not in the hen house. This was the first time he'd never come home to roost and to our dismay the ground was covered with feathers. He returned with the hen the next morning and I suspect there had been some kind of altercation with a predator. I would say that the old boy does a very good job of protecting his girls.

Since I went postal and shot in the general direction of the coyote/wolf/dog beastie I had a few more scares. One afternoon I was looking out the kitchen door when I saw two regular coyotes running towards the house. I lobbed out a couple of fire crackers out and they scarpered right quick.

The next day I saw a coyote on the lawn and I yelled at him. He reluctantly slinked off kind of like a stray dog would. I quickly put a couple of bullets in my gun and even though he was gone, I fired a warning shot. A little while later in almost the same spot, I saw his pal. They were both coming in the direction of the hen house. This time things were different...I had a bullet in my gun.

I carefully got my gun...the Airedales were jumping up and down with excitement because they love gun fire. Leaving the dogs indoors, I spotted the coyote right under Foxsun's apple tree. He was nonchalantly walking along like he owned the place till he felt that bullet zing passed his head and then he took off at warp speed. I have never seen anything move that fast and we have seen no coyotes since, lol.

Brad asked me if I wanted bigger bullets and I told him I didn't want to kill him but put the fear of my ruger in him.

I think the coyotes are showing up here because the neighbours are weaning hundred's of calves and playing loud music 24/7 to calm or entertain them and the coyotes have come this way for some peace and quiet.....then the poor things get shot at.

As promised the post from a month ago when it was still warm and sunny:

October 14th 2010

I was going to write about the horses but I just had to sneak in another blog about my garden.

Yesterday everything looked and smelled so lovely I was a bit sad about it all until next Spring so I snapped a few pics. I woke up this morning to our first light frost so I was glad I took the pictures yesterday.

I brought in my potted tomatoes, Gardenia, Jasmine and the China Doll tree which had enjoyed being outside all summer. I took down the curtains and set up some grow lights to keep the tomatoes going as long as possible. Tommy Two Tone had fun knocking down the little tomatoes and chasing them. It's a regular jungle in my kitchen now.

The plants on the rock wall filled in and grew over the side.

I know I was shooting into the sun but I wanted to capture the Sweet Alyssum which smelled lovely. I hate weeding, as you can see from the weed in the foreground, but I put in lots of plants like Sweet Alyssum and I find it kind of hides the weeds.

The plants filled in around our waterfall rock. I have put in several miniature roses for next year. It is very messy in this pic because I had just planted lots of hyacinths under the annual petunias and my chickens wanted to see what I was doing and tried to scratch up the bulbs. My two little mallard ducks follow me around when I'm outside as well as Henrietta so no worms are safe around here.

This rose is called The Fairy. It fades in the hot summer sun to almost white.

Old Max was trying to distract me by looking extra cute.

One of the oak trees was loaded with acorns. I think we really need a pig to eat them.

The Golden Elderberry bush, which is a beautiful yellow/green in the summer sun, produced tons of elderberries that the birds just love. I noticed the birds have already eaten all the big red berries off the Washington Thorn.