It’s 71 degrees outside with plenty of sun. Will and Drew are busy welding up the bucket for the big Kubota. The brackets which hooked it up had broken and we didn’t need it at the time. But, with spring comes equipment repair while waiting for the gardens to dry out enough to work in. As Drew is a welder by trade, Will can take a break and just be an advisor with the welding. But his experience keeps them on track for the fitting.
Meanwhile, I’m trying to get our seed orders pulled and packed for today so I can get more tomatoes transplanted as they’re getting very leggy due to not enough sunshine. It’s been very cloudy off and on, for weeks. But I have to work around my knees as they’re still very painful. I stand and walk back and forth for a while, then find work I can do while sitting. Then it’s back at the standing/walking. It’s what works for me, for now.
I was pretty tickled when, yesterday, Will drove the solar-powered golf cart out of the woodshed, where it had been since the last big snow was forecasted. Toward evening, I was done with all the tomatoes I could do, so Will and I took a drive out to the Wolf Garden for the first time since fall. Wow, it was snow-free and drying nicely. It won’t be long before we can get in and start working at removing the tomato cages and stakes, mowing the spent corn stalks and weeds, plus pulling the name stakes on the beans, tomatoes, and corn.
We had a weird thing happened two nights ago. Our dog, Hondo, started barking at 2:30 AM. I got up and let him out as I didn’t hear wolves howling. I was worried a fox might be trying to get into the chicken coop. He ran off barking, here and there and I finally called him to come in. I had my flashlight on the driveway and sure enough, here he came. But there was another set of shining eyes about 20 feet behind him. What the heck? I thought maybe it was Mittens, who might have sneaked out. Nope. Hondo came up to the porch and the eyes behind him stopped by the generator shed. I went inside to look for Mittens, who I eventually found. Hmmm… Well, about another half an hour later, Hondo started in barking again. I got up and let him out, this time with a stronger flashlight. He barked around and then I called him in again. And again here comes the shining eyes about 20 feet behind him! This time, I turned Hondo around and set him on the critter. The funny thing was he ran after it, but wasn’t chasing it, just running along! It dived sideways and I could see it was a Red Fox. But Hondo wasn’t really chasing it in prey mode. A little while later, Hondo came trotting up into the yard. And, yep, those eyes were still behind him, only farther away. Then they turned away from the buildings and off toward the sawmill. What the heck? Does Hondo have a fox friend? We’ll probably never know. (No, I’m not worried that it might be rabid. There’s been no rabies in our area for years.) Wilderness mysteries!
— Jackie
