Well Anika has done it again (my 3 year old daughter), she has shocked me with her fearless nature. On Sunday Tina and I arranged a ski day at our local ski hill (Mount Kirby), with friends and family. Then a nice dinner party afterwards back at our house. It was great fun! Thanks to everyone who brought food and beverage and put energy into helping to prepare and cleanup. Well back to the shocking surprise. Anika has learned how to ski this winter on her own, with very little help from her sisters, Tina and I. If she falls we will help her up, and we give her praise and encouragement when it is required. Well just after lunch I thought I would challenge her a little more, and show off a little for her uncle Jim who joined us for a couple of runs. So, I showed her this little side trail through some trees with a little jump at the end. I thought it would take a bit of negotiating to get her to pursue the little side trail but all it took was one demonstration and she was convinced that she could do it, and she did again and again and again. It was awesome!
Well the temperature has dropped well below comfortable these passed couple of days, but the sun is shinning bright and there is warmth in the forecast. I went down to our outdoor furnace (our only heat source currently) last night to load it up for the night. Fairly routine chore around here. Just after opening the door something kind of flew towards me then landed a few feet away. I turned the light on and say a little bird perched up on a piece of fire wood. It was the tiniest little bird. Being that it felt like -1000 and 12 o'clock pm I thought it a little strange and thought I would bring it up to the house a see if it was hurt or just stunned or just give it a warm place to perch for the night. Thought that the kids would get a kick out of seeing this tiny little bird as well, which they did. We have a little bamboo cage that my Nan gave to us at some point that made a suitable spot for it to perch for the night. It turned out to be a red-breasted nuthatch. Well it was in perfect health, as far as we could tell and this morning over breakfast we let it out the kitchen window back to were it belonged.
Kind of a neat experience for the kids. We will be doing the same for Frances, our pet eft (adolescent newt) once the spring has sprung. Frances was found on our front door step on frosty November morning, the kids figured he wanted to come in were it was warmer, so we located our old fish tank and made a terrarium out of it. Frances is doing well and probably wont experience another winter quite like this one. The kids take it for walks and feed it flys and ants and some pellet stuff, dead miel worms I think. Still can't figure out quite how a 2.5" eft climbed two 8" vertical steps to get to our front door. Well that is the cool thing about living with nature, it keeps you wondering how!
Well the temperature has dropped well below comfortable these passed couple of days, but the sun is shinning bright and there is warmth in the forecast. I went down to our outdoor furnace (our only heat source currently) last night to load it up for the night. Fairly routine chore around here. Just after opening the door something kind of flew towards me then landed a few feet away. I turned the light on and say a little bird perched up on a piece of fire wood. It was the tiniest little bird. Being that it felt like -1000 and 12 o'clock pm I thought it a little strange and thought I would bring it up to the house a see if it was hurt or just stunned or just give it a warm place to perch for the night. Thought that the kids would get a kick out of seeing this tiny little bird as well, which they did. We have a little bamboo cage that my Nan gave to us at some point that made a suitable spot for it to perch for the night. It turned out to be a red-breasted nuthatch. Well it was in perfect health, as far as we could tell and this morning over breakfast we let it out the kitchen window back to were it belonged.
Kind of a neat experience for the kids. We will be doing the same for Frances, our pet eft (adolescent newt) once the spring has sprung. Frances was found on our front door step on frosty November morning, the kids figured he wanted to come in were it was warmer, so we located our old fish tank and made a terrarium out of it. Frances is doing well and probably wont experience another winter quite like this one. The kids take it for walks and feed it flys and ants and some pellet stuff, dead miel worms I think. Still can't figure out quite how a 2.5" eft climbed two 8" vertical steps to get to our front door. Well that is the cool thing about living with nature, it keeps you wondering how!
So you are wondering about the Canine with the 5 pounds of deer flesh. No it is not our pet dog. It is a wolf as far as we can identify. I say that without confidence because we are not sure at the present. It could be a cross between coyote and bush wolf or Gray wolf. It has a female mate that isn't quite as bold that I have spotted as well. I have a feeling that they have a den not far from our house, but this is all speculation at this point. The reason it has the deer flesh is that it is retrieving what rightfully belongs to it. Our dog Rupert has found a kill sight about 1000 feet from our front door and has been smuggling remains throughout the day and night to claim for his own. There has not been any physical conflict between Rupert and the wolf yet, just a lot of psychological stuff. This has been going on for around 2 weeks now. Rupert has claimed the deers skull this morning and has allowed Willow (our other dog) to have it as her own.
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