RACOONS and BEARS

Hey everybody !! Just a quick note today because Cheri is coming to the Farm !! And Michael. We will see if we can't turn him into country boy before he leaves. I just found out that he has NEVER been fishing !! Well hold on to your britches, can we fish or what ? Do you think he will worm his own hook ? We'll let you know.

So, the other morning we saw the swan feeders had been 'tampered' with . Humm? we looked for evidence and found what we thought might have been the rascal. there was a nice pile of Bear scat, ( poop) next to the one feeder...we removed that feeder and put it away so as not to encourage a return visit. But we kept the feeder in the small pond in front of the house. Anyway, last night I had a 'feeling' , and I always listen to my 'feelings', anyway I got up at 3am and looked out the dormer windows. Sure enough, Daisy was going crazy! swimming back and forth with her wings up..I got the spotlight we have just for these occasions and there were two eyes shinning up from the feeder. Dudley got up also,and we determined that it was a raccoon IN the feeder, he would eat a little, and then,pop his head up and look around and go back down to eat and pop his head up...cute, but not a good thing. So, Dudley has devised a way to lock the lid on so that that can't happen again. But first we had to retrieve the lid that was floating at the end of the pond...out come the waders and he finally got it. What a boat load of trouble these swans are ! whose idea was it to have swans anyway ? I plead the fifth.

So the bear is wandering around , but it seems he did not eat the swan food, the raccoon did. The camera will go up this week so we can get a shot of him hopefully. Did I tell you that a dead coyote was at the end of our driveway ? so they are here, we just have not seen them alive or even heard them howling.

We have eaten our first tomato! of course there is nothing like a fresh really ripe tomato., is there. The cucumbers are still producing and the lettuce abundant. We didn't have good luck with beans, maybe next year. Pears and grapes in a month. Brian do you want grape juice ?

Well, folks, I know all of you are busy, and I miss getting together more often. I hope you look forward to my blog, as you can see, our lives here on the farm are filled with the unexpected excitement and the mundane. everyday is different from the other. But I like surprises !! Love Sandi

PS We will clip swan wings on Monday..poor Michael..