Softhearted

 These little guys can devastate a garden, but we keep most of them out with our welded wire fence. Susan runs the little ones out every morning by taking Vinnie to the garden with her. We seem to have an abundance of rabbits this year, and I think it is because we have a big brush pile on the edge of the yard. We need to burn it and have a wienie roast, but I don't want to kill rabbits by burning them. I think we can bust the pile up with the loader on the tractor, and run the rabbits out, then burn a section at a time.

We hear out barred owls out in the timber, but they haven't been hanging around the yard so far this summer. I have found the remains of rabbits disassembled by our owls, but not lately.  Evidently they are finding enough to eat in the woods. We haven't seen any coyotes lately around the yard. Today I think I heard a fawn being killed by a coyote on the other side of the pond. It had been bleating for its mother, then I heard three dying bleats, like you would blow on a varmint call to bring in predators. Prey animals mustn't give themselves away.

The past few winters I have worked on the raccoon population at the farm, and although we still have too many coons, this year for the first time ever we have pileated woodpeckers nesting in the woods at the farm. That is pretty neat. Life is the best gig going, but it is never a sure thing.