Armistice Day WW1 ~ Poppy Day.

This is my maternal grandfather, Albert James Peters, in January 1916 when he was recuperating at a military hospital in Egypt after action in Gallipoli. He was a Welshman who fought with the Royal Irish Fusiliers 1914 to 1918 ~ World War One ~ The Great War ~ The War to End All Wars. "He served with honour", won many medals and was Honourably Discharged in December 1918.


He didn't like to talk about the war, he saw some horrific things in the four years he spent fighting in that terrible war. He was a wonderful granpa and passed away in 1975. As a little girl I went on lovely walks exploring the local woods and countryside with him and his dog Rover.

This is me, my mum, Granpa and Rover back when we were both pups.


Granpa took good care of me. I remember when I would fall and scrape my knees he would wrap them up in big bandages WW1 style, lol.

Here he is making sure my draws didn't fall down when I went swimming.





My dad's mother's three brothers all fought in the First World War. Here are two of them, Harry and Jesse with their mother, Elizabeth.

Harry William Hulatt. Private, 1/5th Bedfordshire Regiment. He was mobilised with the Territorial’s in August 1914, and completing his training in the following year was drafted to France, where he took part in much severe fighting in the Somme and Arras sectors. He died gloriously on the field of Battle at Ypres Belgium on the 19th August 1917 (age 21) and was entitled to the 1914-15 Star and the General Service and Victory Medals. “His life for his Country, his soul to God”.

(War grave information of). Pte. Harry William Hulatt 32130 (3162), 6th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment. Killed in action 19th Aug 1917. Voormezeele Cemetery, XV. Row D. Grave 15. No 3 Extension/Enclosure, Ypres, Belgium.


Jesse Richard Hulatt. Private, 4th Bedfordshire Regiment. Volunteering in 1915, he was drafted overseas in the following year. During his service on the Western Front, he took part in many important engagements, including the Battle of the Somme, Bullecourt, Arras and Cambrai, and was wounded twice and gassed in action. He was demobilised in January 1920, and holds the General Service and Victory Medals.

Frederick Walter Hulatt. Rifleman K.R.R.C. He joined in February 1918, after a period of training he was engaged at various stations on important duties. After hostilities ceased he proceeded to Germany with the Army of Occupation and served on the Rhine at Cologne until his demobilisation in June 1920.
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Jesse Richard Hulatt, died 17th November 1924 (age 27)
Frederick Walter Hulatt, died 21st March 1936 (age 35)

In Flanders Fields.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

The Menace from above.

It was a beautifully calm 60 degrees today. We've only had light frosts so the trees are looking lovely in their Autumn glory and the grass is still growing and very green. That's my English oak on the left and the birch on the right. I'm loving this weather!

I haven't been blogging because for some reason when I'm not doing well health wise I hate to write. I think if I was to blog it would end up nothing but me complaining about my ailments, lol. I'm controlling pain and fatigue better now and so I will try to catch up.

Attack of the Air Heads.

A few Sundays ago Brad had just come in from fixing fence and walking the cows up to the circle and so we were having a relaxing afternoon at home. The 'circle' is our center pivot irrigation system that is about a mile away from the house. Shortly after getting in Brad was surprised to see the cows were already back. I looked out and sure enough they were not only home again but running around in a panic. Wildairo was running in circles in the corral where Brad had put him so the cows could go out without him preventing them. None of them settled down and when I saw Dandylyons running I knew something was very wrong because she's old and hasn't ran for a few years.

I went outside and I immediately saw what was terrorizing everybody. Coming towards us, up the draw and at a low altitude, was a hot air balloon. It had chased the cattle all the way home. Then I remembered Echo was alone in the horse pasture directly in the path of this thing! Brad and I jumped in the Jeep and raced over to his pasture. There were two 'chase' vehicles there. One was parked in the drive and it's occupants seemed to be trying to calm Echo. Echo was in a low earth orbit (high headed panic) but staying in the part of the pasture where the people were. I was scared to death because we have an inner fence that's electric but some parts of the pasture there's an outer fence of barbed wire. Normally he can't get near it but if he blew through the electric fence he could get into the barbed wire. Around here there's miles of barbed wire because it's cattle country. I wasn't worried about Wildairo because he was in a very secure corral.

I called Echo once and he came, not at a trot or a canter, but a flat out gallop. Boy was he glad to see us. We took him into the pen and made an Echo sandwich of him as that balloon was directly over us. I could see right up in to the inside of the balloon as they turned up the burners to gain some altitude. Echo watched that thing with great big eyes as we calmed him with our arms over his neck. I gave those airheads a piece of my mind and my language was as colorful as that balloon.

Because they were so low they must have launched it near town which is about a mile and a half from where we were. More than likely they used our field like they did years ago...without informing us. They were floating towards our neighbour's who has over a thousand calves they're weaning. They have loudspeakers blasting music 24/7 to calm the calves and here was this huge low altitude balloon coming towards them!!! Luckily they started to drift north before they got to them. What the hell were these idiots thinking? If they had launched the balloon just north of the town they could have floated 50 miles before they saw any livestock.

I found this web site that had tips for hot air balloon people.

It seems they are very aware of the danger to horses and cattle and I think they should make a better effort to avoid them. I suppose if they did manage kill Echo they'd only be out $125! I'd hate to be riding and see a low altitude balloon coming at me! Some horses might be impossible to hang on to if you dismounted. I find it safer to stay on a frightened horse so if he does bolt you can at least steer him away from danger until he's under control again. Poor Dandylyons spent a few days by herself sitting down a lot recovering from the ordeal.

These selfish people were having a peaceful and tranquil float-about while down below them, on the ground they are creating chaos. At least I managed to have a good cuss at them. The only good thing was that I found out that Echo now considers humans his protectors!

The Horror Continues.

Sunday another horrible thing happened....and this one was really out of the blue. Last night I was going to catch up and write about it but I didn't because I had taken two of my meds that I usually don't take at the same time and got pretty sick.

About 1 am, after crawling back from deaths door, I thought I'd take little Blondie outside for a walk to get some fresh air before turning in for the night. At the door I noticed the motion detector light was on outside. This is no biggie because bats and moths can set it off, but I always peak outside anyway. I saw the culprits, a herd of deer in the drive way and there were some little ones with them. I waited for them to walk away a bit and saw a big doe walk up to the duck run to look at the ducks. lol, it must be like a visit to the zoo for them.

After they disappeared into the dark I opened the door to let Blondie out with the intention of taking her around to the other side of the house so as not to spook the deer. Well the little bugger must have seen them through the French doors and she took off like a barking rocket in their general direction. All hell broke loose. The others must have bolted in the direction they were going but the big doe ran my way doing that hopping thing they do that's really cute. Blondie went to chase her. Suddenly the doe stopped, spun around and attacked Blondie who started yelping immediately! All the time I was trying to get to Blondie and shouting her name.

The doe was trying to stomp Blondie under her hooves and Blondie was yelping in a blood curdling way like dogs do when they think they are getting murdered. Blondie managed to get away and run around the wheel barrow and under the garden bench and the deer was still trying to get her! I'm almost on top of the deer and still shouting when she decides to back off. She goes between my Jeep and the hedge and stands in the shadow of the cherry tree making these odd vocal sounds. I couldn't see her but could hear her in the dark just the other side of the new flower bed with the waterfall rock.

I wasn't sure if she was going to attack again and there I stood in the middle of the driveway, under the yard light. I went in to the 'bring it on' fighting position and waited for her to attack me but I heard her climbing up the bluff, probably really intimated, lol. I've never seen anything like it! Blondie had got between her and her fawn and she wasn't taking it.

I found Blondie hiding the other side of the rock wall...totally unharmed. The next morning I showed Brad the deep gouges the doe made in the hard ground at the end off the drive way, he was amazed at how ferocious the attack was.

The next episode will be about the horror that came out of the blue last Sunday and terrorized all the cattle and horses.

Animal lover goes postal on the local wildlife

This afternoon it was lovely warm sunny and I was in my office putting the finishing touches on my latest blog and listening to some music when I heard something odd outside. I turned the music off and listened..it sounded like a dog whining to be let in. I went to the French doors and all three dogs were inside content and not whining. I went outside and was greeted by the most frightening sight. On the lawn was a strange looking huge coyote and he was trying to get something under the shrub by the rock wall. I had Bobby with me and I screamed "Coyote Coyote"! She knows what one is but she turned her attention to the bluff where it's more natural to see coyotes.

This beast was maybe 30 feet from me yet he didn't react as a coyote would to my screams. He didn't seem all that afraid of me! He did move to the meadow and I gave chase while I screamed like a banshee to keep him moving, which he was reluctant to go till Bobby spotted him and started barking. For the first time for many years, I ran (fake ankle). All I knew was my chickens and the two ducks were in the garden somewhere and he was after them.

At the other end of the lawn, under Foxsun's apple tree was Jet Lag our rooster, all alone, which was strange. I really went nuts then because the beast had to run near Jet Lag to get to the cottonwoods where he was heading.

Bobby stopped when she got to the end of the lawn because she's not a risk taker. She barked at him and he stood by the cottonwoods looking at her. I walked back to check my birds and to my horror this is what I saw;


I didn't go close to see who the victim was. I knew there were not red hen feathers so I thought it must be dear old Max or one of my two darling mallard ducks. I went around to the kitchen door and got my gun and a handful of bullets.

Brad showed up as I was loading. He'd seen the beast with me in pursuit. I told him, "there's been a killing" and he loaded my gun for me. I went off to revenge my pets and Brad went off to study the remains and look for more victims.

The beast wasn't under the cottonwoods any more but then I saw him right on the top of the bluff looking at me. I stood in my two hand stance, went squinty eyed and shot him! Brad materialized pretty fast when he heard that. "I dropped the bastard" I told him. He told me there's no way I could have got him at that distance with a .22. I said, "Well he ain't looking at me any more". Brad said the boom made him run off. The Beast Lives!

Brad told me that the feathers were Jet Lags which really confused me because I saw him alive by the apple tree. He convinced me there were no gruesome body parts in the pile of feathers and to look for myself. Sure enough they were the roosters feathers.


The ducks came out of hiding all ducky and healthy. Jet Lag ran into the hen house and sat on the perch looking a bit shocky and thread bare. Max was in the house having a snooze.

We did some crime scene investigating. Close to Jet Lags feathers were a clump of red hen feathers.


There were more hen feathers going up the steps under my office window. This is what must have happened; the brazen beast grabbed a hen and Jet Lag came to her rescue like he did when Blondie chased a hen that time. He distracted the beast long enough for the chicken to run away up the steps and he went one on one with the beast loosing many feathers in the process. Somehow he ended up the other side of the house and lawn under the apple tree. The beast was trying to get the hen who was hiding under a shrub when I came on the scene.

It's a mystery how Jet Lag ended up where he did because whenever there's a scare like a hawk, the birds all hide under the shrubs near the house...he had to run across a wide open stretch of lawn to get where I saw him! Also it's the other side of the garden from the hen house and he doesn't go there normally.

I called the hens and Jet Lag came out and did the cockle doodle doo which must have sounded the 'call clear' because all the hens came out of hiding...everyone accounted for. Our rooster, Jet Lag is a hero!

There was something very fishy about the strange looking coyote. For a start he wasn't as nervous like a regular coyote. Our coyotes around here are not like the more suburban ones, they are very shy and have a lot of natural prey to eat so they don't bother us. This beast was a different color than a coyote, he looked more grey also he appeared not as long and maybe taller. I might be wrong about his size because I'm used to seeing them in their natural setting and not on my lawn. Brad said he looked darker to him as well. He had the same bushy tail. We are wondering if he was a wolf or a wolf coyote cross. I know they do interbreed.

We cannot have him hanging about in the garden snacking on our pets and so Brad is going to bring the big guns out to surprise him with. I love coyotes and love to watch them in the wild but there's something not right with this fella.

Here's a re-enactment. I'm holding the camera in this picture, but when I turned killer I had both hands on the gun.


Apparently my six shooter is next to useless for revenge killing at long distances.


When I went in for the night I was hurting very bad but had a wonderful feeling of exhilaration from my little run.

The Big Escape.

Last week we brought the cattle in to wean the calves.

Wildairo made a nuisance of himself because he thinks if anyone is going to do any cattle sorting it's going to be him.


He was banging on the gate and shouting out orders.

The calves were bought by our neighbor and we kept just one, Tinker-Bell. I got out my brushes and gave Dandylyons a good grooming.


Dandylyons was pleased to see our neighbor and I was pleased that he has, after almost 20 years, stopped telling us to sell her. He's a serious cattle rancher and doesn't understand the pet cow concept.

Dandylyons's back was thick with dirt because she likes to kick dirt over her back to intimidate the other cows.


That night Wildairo did some cow sorting and in the dark I could hear the sound of his hooves galloping and his angry shouts. Brad went out with the spotlight and said Wildairo was keeping them in a tight bunch and not letting them go out very far. He's a bad tempered control freak. They settled down once Wildairo found Dandylyons and held the poor old girl hostage.

The next day Brad had to leave for a last minute meeting out of town. I was having one of my bad days..well I don't seem to have good days health wise any more. I decided to do something I rarely do during the day, take to my bed. I was going up the stairs when I saw a sight that almost made me faint...COWS EVERYWHERE THEY SHOULDN'T BE. There had been a massive break out.

I called Brad and all I could manage to say was, "Cows out...come home". He was three hours away and in the middle of a meeting. He said he'd start for home right away but in the mean time it was all up to me. It suddenly occurred to me not only were the cows desperately looking for their lost calves but Wildairo was with them! OMG!

I went over to the pasture and found the gate by the trough off it's hinges and lying on it's side. I had a quick look around at the hoof prints going over the gate and they all looked like cattle prints to me. So hoping Wildairo was still in the pasture somewhere, I lifted the heavy metal gate and tied it back up with baling twine.

Some of the cows had wandered down the draw to eat, some were cleaning up some hay bales near the equipment and four were walking down the road towards the county road like cows on a mission and mooing intently.

After securing the gate they knocked down, I chased the ones around the tractors in through another gate. The four cows heading towards the road were still in search of their calves and so I yelled as loud as I could, "Come Boss Come Boss". They stopped, turned around and started trotting towards me still mooing. They know when they get called they are about to get something good..here's Levin a few weeks ago helping me weed my garden.


And so they thought I was going to take them to their calves and followed me into a corral. They gathered around me with faces full of eager anticipation and I felt so horrible. I think pretty quick on my feet sometimes and so I told them their calves were in their belly's. They seemed happy with that.

The cows down the draw were as happy as clams in the alfalfa and all I did was hook up some wire and they thought they were behind electric fence. All was secured till Brad came home.

Silly Wildairo was so busy keeping Dandylyons to himself and away from the other cows he missed his big chance to escape!