What wanders into the yard...is anybody's guess

Having grown up in an old farm house with huge windows...it was easy to be drawn to look outside when passing by...mainly because it was anybody's guess as to what you might see.

This farm house I live in now...while not such the large windows...it still amazes me what you can spot...you just never know what you're going to see.

This particular day...two of the cutest baby coonies wandered through.  Yes, yes...I know. I'm fully aware that baby raccoons grow up to be big raccoons and often wreak havoc on a chicken flock...but somehow this was different.  These two looked dehydrated and a little lost.  One was much smaller than the other...and it took some doing to manage to get some food in his belly.

The term "cooned-up" comes to mind...when I approached them both with a can of open tuna...the littlest guys' first response was most likely what mom had taught him...coon up (he turned sideways and arched his back like a cat and poofed his tail) and climb!  Although not so fast...he did manage to climb up into the nearby crab-apple tree.  His climbing skills were amazing...paws like velcro to the tree bark.  I was concerned that he might stuggle to get down...pfffft, silly me. He came down like a champ, just like he went up.  Well taught by mom!!

Anyhow, he did finally manage to sniff his way to the tuna can I left on the ground nearby. I didn't want to try and touch or pick up either of these guys...as my intent was simply to hydrate them a bit, give them some energy with no worries that they'd stick around.  (They seemed very intent upon moving on...like they were looking for something.  Probably mom. She was no where to be found so I'm guessing she had been killed on the road or some such.

The larger of the two climbed a nearby tree and watched while chattering to his little brother.  I left them both in the backyard...hoping that they would simply move on...which it seems they did.  I never saw them again.

For as often as I've had to shoot adult raccoons messing around in the chicken barn, somehow this little act of kindness made me feel just a tad bit better.  As if the universe sent these two across my path so I could "pay-it-forward" in some way.  No idea if it did any good at all...but at least the little guy got a belly full.

Yet another way that nature shows me...life is truly one moment at a time...if we choose to pay attention.  Never know what might wander through your yard.

And let the wild things remain wild. 

Vacation....Tennessee style!

Finally!  After nearly 2 years...we made it back to our favorite stomping grounds....Chattanooga, TN.  This trip was specifically engineered around attending the 2016, 4 Bridges Art Festival...as a personal favorite of mine...not to mention was my birthday week.

We usually take our two toy fox terriers (which is always a hoot) to romp around in the woods with us (they make great tick magnets).  Chris and Pieces are sporting a smile in the photo below.  This time we purposely chose places to hike that would be least likely to have ticks crawling around. (That worked out real well...only one tick this trip.)

We also visited some of our other mutual-favorite places in the "nooga" such as McKay's Used Books, The North Chatt Cat (which is now the Pub), various shops and galleries on Frazier Ave and a few new one's on Main Street.

Thrilled to have AMAZING weather...we stomped around North Chickamauga creek which is an amazing outdoor extravaganza of mountain stream meets mountain trails.  Dodi...pictured here with me above...especially loves swimming but he didn't seem too crazy with the numbing cold temps of the fresh mountain water here. 

Seems like we were both especially drawn to water this trip. Most of what we spent our time doing involved the Tennessee River one way or another.  Here's the TN river above in front of the TVA Raccoon Mountain complex. Both dogs did play around in the water here some...and we just soaked in the beauty of the place...one moment at a time.

No vacation experience is complete without some wings and beer so naturally we visited Buffalo Wild Wings in Downtown Chattanooga.  We enjoyed sitting on the patio while watching the Grackles and Sparrows sweep in and grab the bits of fries on the ground.  Probably could have fed them by hand if we wanted to.

And then there was the actual birth date!  Here I am above enjoying a birthday morning campfire...in the still of the morning.  Doesn't get much better than that!

Stay tuned...always more adventures to come!

Spring turkey aerobics..

Well, it's that time of year again...where any available wild turkey tom comes to visit.  Who then visits over a period of days...and challenges our tom through the fence in an effort to court our female turkey.  It's quite entertaining to watch.

This year's wild tom visitor we have already named "TJ" for "Tom Junior" as he's been hanging around for about a week now.  My GOODNESS look how BIG he is!  (TJ is the one on the right in the photo above and our Tom is on the left.) Sugar Pea (our female) doesn't seem to be all that interested in TJ.  Time will tell I suppose.

Guess we shall see what happens.  In the mean time, we don't dare open the fence for the males to get a chance to fight one another. We're betting that our tom would likely be injured at best and possibly even fatally at worst.  So they can just do the turkey tom aerobics through the fence...until one of them decides enough is enough.

So goes the adventures of random wildlife showing up in our backyard.

Stay tuned for more adventures!


*******UPDATE*******
Well, Sugar pea disappeared with I assume to be the wild male tom for about a week. She has since returned and we no longer get visits from the male tom. So...time did tell.  We are glad sugar pea returned. We like her here.

Chicken celebrities!!!

It's happened!!!  Our chickens are totally legit now!

I opened up the May/June issue of Chicken Magazine today to find our photo published!!

Hokey Toe is a STAR!! (she's the brown hen on the right and the only hen still living from when this photo was taken. The three barred rocks at the top we gave away because they were mean bullies, the black hen in the center disappeared one day [we so miss her...the only hen we've had that hatched multiple groups of chicks], hokey toe is on the right...note she has short toes because just after we got her from a neighboring farm she had frostbite on her toes and Amelia is in the front...who unfortunately also disappeared one day)

THANK YOU Chicken Magazine!

Although the image of our girls wasn't selected as the winner to receive one of those super COOL nite-guard devices...still fabulous to see our birds published nonetheless!

I probably should write the nite-guard company and explain to them that only one of the six birds shown in this photo is still living...therefore...we NEED your device.

Anyhow, what FUN to enter and be one of this months' 7 finalists!

Next up....to enter the "rooster of the year" and "hen of the year" photo contest!

Free rent! Tenants wanted.

   

   

   

 

 

 

I've been inspired by the season.  The SONGBIRDS are back!!!

Red-Winged black birds, Robins (of course), blue birds, blue jays (these guys stuck around all winter) and the vultures to name a few.  Haven't seen the little wrens yet....but we're ready for their arrival!

So....I decided to make preparations for their baby hatching needs...and build birdhouses.  And what FUN it is to build birdhouses.

First I started with tweaking the birdhouses we already had that were in various forms of dis-array.  And now I'm started to design and build my own from scratch.

I absolutely love designing new things with re-purposed and various found objects.  Currently my rainproof roofing material comes from re-purposing colorful beer and energy drink and tea cans. 

Have many many more ideas in the works.  Eventually these birdhouses will be for sale...but for now...they are being put through my outdoor birdhouse lab tests for user friendliness and functionality and such.

Unfortunately, I don't have any tenants at present.  Excited to see just who might come to roost!

Stay tuned as I'll be posting updates as to if any of these houses prove to assist any bird birthings.

free rent

I've recently been bitten by the bug to build my own little bird houses.  I've traced out a ton of ideas...and have lots of old barn wood to work with. 

But I started first with re-working some old bird houses we already had laying around in need of repair or a face-lift.  Who knew how fun it is to build bird houses!!  Definitely have many many more in my future to create...so far I've completed four. Free rent for any songbird seeking a place to raise their young!

The photo of this bird house here shows my attempt at a graffiti type look...not really sure if birds will mind sharing the same space like this...but time will tell.

And....furthermore....I NOW have an excellent reason to buy some of those bright crazy-colored spray paints that Lowe's offers.  I think bird houses are supposed to be brightly colored...but...my jury is still out on that.

Yeah!!

TWO years in a row! Way to go Bell!

Super proud of Isabella (Bell)! She is Chris' 16 year old who recently created these two paintings.

Second year in a row now Bell received an award for her art entry into the annual Black Swamp Art Association's high school art competition!  Last year it was for a 3d ceramic piece. (click here if you want to see last year's entry) This year it was for her two abstracted acrylic paintings on vinyl records for which she received the award for "Outstanding entry in mixed media.".

Congratulations Bell!! We are proud of you! and We think you're pretty outstanding too!