Country life

I still consider where we live as "country".  Development has encroached on the highway(s) around us.

Gone are the bucolic pastures I relished passing on my evening drives home from work in the city.
Cows, long horns, horses and an occasional donkey grazed along the drive home.  A calming drive after the hectic office and city traffic.

We are so blessed to live where we do.  All be it, it has its share of problems with strays, unfenced dogs, kids strolling through our property, or riding their 4 wheelers as far into the property as they dare.

Kids grow up and go away, traffic through our quiet neighborhood becomes too much and too fast sometimes................................. Neighbor dogs barking at the least movement............................Neighbors cranking up their mowers or trimmers too early in the day. Neighbor's boom boxes or other noise makers. We have an acre of land so they are not "that" close.

Venting aside.  We have the best of living country wise in that mornings can be entertaining or upsetting any day of the week.  Always a variety. Since having the quails on our property, using our water dish, eating our bird feed, we have become aware of just how many critters we do have here.

We always shook our heads at the destruction of said unidentified critters. Until we had a mama and future babies.  They nest on the ground and are so vulnerable.  The spot she chose was pretty safe in some ways. Until the eggs hatched.
With that introduction, comes a new source of "entertainment".  We purchased a catch and release animal trap. We have caught, opossum, skunk, raccoon, and this morning a house cat.  It didn't have a collar and mewed pathetically when we move to the cage to release it.  The other critters would attack fingers if they could, this cat cowered and was out the door of the cage before it was all the way open.

The raccoon has not returned, the opossum has not returned that we know of. The skunks still let us know they are around with scent.  Mostly, these animals dig holes everywhere, looking for insects.  Having sunflower seed on the ground makes food easier to find.

Looking out the window on a chilly morning, we can watch birds, squirrels and even the blasted rabbits eating seeds on the ground.  If you have feeders and are dedicated to provide water and food for the birds, you have to accept the mess they scatter.

Oh, yes, we have very welcome visitors as well.  Be sure to click on picture for larger view.

 “Gardening is akin to writing stories. No experience could have taught me more about grief or flowers, about achieving survival by going, your fingers in the ground, the limit of physical exhaustion.”
― Eudora Welty