Big Girl number two has had her calf: a bull. Like his mother, but at three days young, he stares at the photographer. My neighbor told me that the mom-to-be walked into a modest metal out-building, had the calf, went outside and not long thereafter the young’in followed: normal post-partum details are omitted. This happened about 6 a.m. on the
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Well, I promised to advise when one of the pregnant “big girls” next store gave birth, and she did! It was on Wednesday, the third of February’s afternoon at about four o’clock, preceded by a good luck head butt: [The all-brown faced is the mother of the moment] She then slowly left her friends and walked alone to a section of barbed wire
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Last spring my neighbor sent two of his heifers to another farm for a week of girls meeting guys. That’s no bull, but there were. Now – nine-months later – the ladies are due to give birth at any time. [A third joined the duo next door a few months ago. And by the looks of things she is also expecting, although I don’t know her delivery date.] Over
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Last Friday night began uneventfully. The fact that it was Friday the thirteenth had come to mind but only fleetingly. It was about ten p.m. and I had just finished washing dinner dishes. While starting my pre-sleep routine Ernie began barking towards the side door. Normally I would check outside to discover the source of his concern. This time I
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I opened the door to the Shack as I always have. The difference this time was that something hopped in just before me: a greyish praying mantis. Since it wasn’t green as I have come to know them I assumed it wasn’t yet mature. Being a bug lover [but there are exceptions] I had no reason to kill it so
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For two weeks I feared something untoward happened to these Gulf Coast Toads; most notably missing was one on my doorstep. As previously reported one or another has been there nocturnally since 2009. I surmised that a series of torrents blew or washed them away, despite my providing no-mow sanctuary. So seeing a littlest one there again tonight gives me
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My late afternoon visit to the garden cage was to be routine: check the plants need for water. With an ambient temperature index close to 100 degrees that was prudent to do. Something more pressing intervened: at ground level a snake had become entangled in the bird netting that is draped around the entire perimeter. It keeps the rabbits and
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** Note to visitors: There are articles about Fuzzy the toad appearing in June, July and August, 2014 editions of desktodirt. The toads in this piece are probably his offspring. How cool! ** This past Memorial Day we had the worst storm in a record-breaking six-month’s of them. In the early morning darkness the howling wind lifted the cover off my barbeque
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It was 7:23 a.m. Ernie started this adventure with has amazing eyesight. Looking through the Shack’s glass doors he became transfixed: he was focused on something outback. I couldn’t confirm the source of his alarum. Frustrated being inside the Ern squealed and ran to the side door for a better peek. There, circling the neighbor’s goat family, was a coyote! Just days before
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Encounters with turtles have started to accumulate. From a distance a couple of weeks ago I saw this mottled green thing hustling down the driveway; it resembled a wobbly football. Walking closer I realized it was a turtle. Two days ago Ernie sniffed out the same guy in the outback pondering his inability to fit his shell through the neighbors welded wire
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