Jul 2007

Nov 2, 2006.... Day of the Dead...Dia de los Muertos

In Mexico there is a special day to acknowledge the spirits of the dead....These creatures are related. The bone on the left is a hip bone from a Saaneen milk goat who was eaten by a coyote or coyotes on our farm. Over our forty acres you can find an abundance of evidence of wildlife from cow skeletons to smaller mammals.

The coyote (3 legged remains) were drug up from creekbed by one of the dogs. As a science project my son Sky eventually reassembled the skeleton. We first put the dehydrated skin and bones into a barrel, punched holes in the bottom for the fire ants to come and go...they ate well for a couple of weeks...we took the remaining bones and put them in bleach and water to sterilize and clean them and then took the hundred or so bones and laid them out on a table. We had visited the anthropologists at the Balcones Research center in Austin to see how they assembled their ancient found bones. Sky started with two vertebrae and worked out from there....There were so many tiny feet bones remaining, they were left out of the final reconstruction......See the blue ribbon.

We've recently lost 5 peacocks to the coyotes and the occasional chicken.

Nov 3, 2006.... Milkweed...The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good....Milkweed attracts many beautiful butterflies and my favorite the monach (not shown) stops by on it's migration to and from Mexico a couple of times a year. It takes the monarchs a few generations to get from Mexico to the northern US and somehow they manage to get back and forth and know where to stop on the way for a free meal. There are many other butterflies who join them for the months the milkweed is blooming.

The Bad and the Ugly...Milkweed is poisonous and even the goats avoid it. The birds who eat the monarchs find them distasteful as well and avoid them. The viceroy butterflies utilize trickery to avoid the birds. The viceroys look like monarchs and birds avoid them too even though the viceroys would be a great snack for a bird.

Nov 5, 2006.... Goldenrod....The Majestic Wildflower....

Nov 7, 2006.... Maximilian Sunflower...loved by Bumble bees

The maximalian sunflower loves dark rich soil. Ours is the blackland farmland east of Austin. They grow prolifically up to 10 feet tall and have multiple flowers on each stalk. The bumblebee to the right is spreading pollin from one flower to the next as it sucks nectar from each plant. The pollen is taken back to the bee hive which may be underground or a bored nest into a log or tree. I've been chased by a swarm of bumblebees while excaping by foot after shredding over them with a tractor...I've also found them living in a 4" x 4" roof beam in my open air shop.

This perennial stand renews itself in a section of the 100'x100' chicken yard. A red tailed hawk has killed 4 or 5 hens in the past two weeks.

Nov 13, 2006.... Catch and Release

We are definitely on the bunny trail. We have an abundance of cotton tail rabbits and an occasional long earred jack rabbit. The Catch.....This bunny was caught by our hunting cat named George, an outdoor/indoor variety found as a kitten on the side of the road. The Release.....George was proudly showing off his trophy bunny when we stepped in and swooped it up. We released it a short time later. When the hawks bore of chicken meat they often alternate their diets with a plump bunny.

Nov 20, 2006.... The Best Nest

Birds come in all sizes as do their bird nests. The photo on the right demonsrates some of the varied construction materials used in nest building. This nest fell from a low mesquite tree. Perhaps a cat or other creature helped in it's fall. The nest includes plastic sheet, string from a feed sack and bits of stems and grass. We are the only creatures that create materials that are harmful to our environment. Maybe we are learning.