Some New Year's Ponderings

Well it's that time again. Time for thinking about the New Year and the one that's passing. I've decided that things can be categorized under three headings.


The Good
My family, especially Mr. Tommy. The animals, both domesticated and wild that fill my life with joy and amaze me everyday, My friends, my health, the watershed, my house and garden, my art, my car, my job. Actually, the list is endless.

The Bad
We're having a real winter, snow, ice, freezing temperatures, the whole nine yards. The deer who have never had to deal with this, are starving. I've seen behaviors I never thought I'd see.  I haven't been blogging about this; because, quite frankly, I thought it was too upsetting. I'm feeding them more and it's helping somewhat. I've gone to a number of different sites and asked for advice and the only unhelpful thing I've learned, is that starvation is nature's way of keeping the deer population down. One pius jerk actually told me that. This is same person who was ranting a month ago about the horrible hunters. I don't know, but to me a clean shot is better than slow starvation. I have to confess, I actually told him that. I guess one of my New Year's resolutions should be to keep my big mouth shut.
 
The Ugly
I'm a clutterer. Yes, I'm a clutterer and it's driving me crazy. It's not so bad that I need to call Clean House and have the whole crew over to lecture me about my mayhem and foolishness, but I am living with clutter and it's going to go. I bought a book called, "Clean Your Clutter in One Week." One week! maybe one year is more realistic. But I am going to tackle this problem in one season, this one. You guys are going to keep me honest, because I'm going to report every Sunday how I'm doing. Starting with this one.

Anyway, Happy New Year. We're having a blue full moon tonight and if you think about it, go outside later on, look up and make a wish. And my sincere hope is that all of your new year's wishes come true.

Holiday Grumblings

Have you ever noticed that you are constantly making tradeoffs throughout the holiday season.  I'm going to this party, so I'm not doing something else that has to be done anyway. I'm running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, shopping, wrapping and decorating, so I'm not keeping up with the friends I did not see at the parties mentioned above. Gee that bit sounded like a work related memo.

The big trade off for me is feed the deer, who are extremely hungry or see Kitt, the most patient forgiving horse in the world.  So guess who loses.  The weather isn't helping things, either.  Apparently, we have a window of opportunity today.  It's sunny, so I'm going to be doing all the errands I didn't do yesterday, and won't be able to do next week, because we have a party every night. Grumble, gripe, whine, complain. 

I am so ready for January, when I can sit, work on my needlepoint, read some books, I've been meaning to, catch up with friends and maybe, weather permitting, actually get to spend some time with my horse.

Peace on Earth

May the joy and peace of the season be with you and your family now and throught the year.

OMG It's a Monster!!

Well, like I said in the previous post, we had a blizzard. There's a good two feet of snow out there. So I waded out to feed the deer, who as you might expect were waiting for me. It was so funny.  I was wearing my white down jacket and a hat.  To say the least, I was covered in snow. Pixie and Charlotte stared at me like they couldn't believe what they were seeing.  And then, in unison they jumped, did a fast turn and ran away.  And I do mean ran away.  They were out of there and didn't come back for at least 45 minutes.  I guess it was the hat.  :)

We're Having a Blizzard

We have about 18 inches of snow and it's going to keep on snowing until tomorrow morning. I'm going to try and go out and feed everybody a little later on.  I don't know if the deer can even get here, but I'm going to put out some food just in case.

When I was looking out my kitchen window, I saw a robin and I find that troubling.  I wonder why it didn't leave with the others earlier this fall. Oh well maybe he's the bird that has taken up housekeeping in my robin house.  I'll wade through  the snow when I go out to feed the deer and leave something especially for him.

Anyway, peace and love to all of you.

Ye Old Stink Eye

Who knew a couple of whitetail deer could make you feel guilty. It's the holiday season and I've been a bit late putting out the snacks, parties and all of that stuff. So when I got home yesterday and went outside to trot out the food, Charlotte and Pixie were waiting for me and they were not happy.   Talk about the stink eye followed by the "just where have you been, missy?" look, followed by the hiss and the tail flick.   They told me.

They were of course not too done in by the huge indignity of my transgression, not to come trotting back two minutes later for their treats.

Girls, really now.  I heard you, but it is the holiday season, so some slack should be cut.

His Name is Harmony Jack

I invite all of you reading this to go to flikr and check out the Horsewhispers photostream in order to understand the power of love.  I've name him Harmony in honor of the special relationship between a person who would not give up on a foal who should have died. This stag is always there for the fawns, always. I've named him Jack, because it's a nice, masculine name.

Hey there Carl, this bud's for you!!!

This Handsome Guy Needs a Name

This handsome guy needs a name. I seem to have no trouble naming the girls, but I'm drawing a blank with him. If you look closely at the picture, you can see he's had a rough go of it, lately, but during the summer, whenever one of the fawns was in trouble, he was right there to help.

Any and all names will be considered.

The Boys Are Back In Town

The caption says it all.  These are my good boys, not the whatever it was that was here earlier.

Comfort Food

Today because I have a rotten cold, I've been thinking about comfort food. So I decided I'd give you all one of my favorite recipes, my layered flavor spaghetti sauce which is really easy and very good.


Ingredients


1. 2 pounds of ground meat. I like to use ground beef and ground pork, but whatever you like would be fine.
2. 2 different spaghetti sauces. I like to use Wegman's portobello mushroom sauce and their sauce with olives.
3. 1 can of pasta ready diced tomatoes.
4. 1 can of mushrooms, drained.
5. 2 cloves of garlic, diced
6. 2 tablespoons of worcester sauce
7. 1 tablespoon of Louisiana hot sauce  (optional)
8. 2 bay leaves
9. 1/2 bottle/ can of beer
10. salt and pepper to taste.

Brown the meat and then once it's done rinse it to remove all of the grease and fat.
Place the browned meat in a large sauce pan
Add all of the rest of the ingredients. Stir.
Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for at least 45 minutes. The longer it simmers the better it tastes.
Add salt and pepper to taste.


Enjoy

PS: If you try it and like it, please let me know

Thank You

100 Wonderful people have looked at this blog which means alot to me.  I hope, from time to time during this busy season,  you'll stop back to pay us a visit.

PS: Don't forget to click on my view my complete profile, so that I'll know you were here.

An Update

There are no pictures. My girls are too stressed out.  Anyway, I got home a bit late and there were deer around, so I called out to them, "Hey Pixie, hey Charlotte, I can see you. Come and get it. " It wasn't Pixie and Charlotte and the deer hissed at me, like a cat, and took off.  Two seconds later two more deer came up and I called out "Hey Charlotte, hey Pixie, I can see you and dinner's ready."  They stayed, so I said."Dinner's ready and I'm just leaving now." They came and ate.  This level of trust, blows me away. These are prey animals, and they have no reason to trust me, but they do.

Please click on my profile, so I know that you were here/

Update

Charlotte and Pixie were just here and Charlotte was totaly freaked out.  She kept looking over her shoulder and licking her hips. I guess she was torn there as well.  Once she even turned and walked away to where she could see into the fields behind her.  I guess if there was a human bully/rapist lurking out there, I'd be nervous too. Pixie was nervous as well. So,  I decided not to stress them further by shooting pictures.  It will probably be a week or more before I do it again.  I want her to calm down.  Suffice it to say, I'll be getting Mare14 (a mare and foal feed) for her. 

This isn't the way it is with horses.  Kitt never met a male, stallion or gelding, she just didn't love to bits and when we had a stallion at the barn, it was all I could do to keep her from sashaying herself right up to his stall any chance she could get.  I swear she would swing her hips and bat her eyes at him and we don't even want to go into the winky routine.  Those of you with mares know what I'm talking about.

Oh yes, it's snowing and it's beautiful.

Remember, please click on my profile, so that I will know you've been here.

Now I Know What Was Up With Charlotte

Well unfortunately the whole thing happened when it was too dark to photograph anything, so you're just going to have to trust me on this.

 Now I know why Charlotte has been acting so strangely and Mr. Studly has been hanging around.  The whole time he was doing his innocent, who me? routine, he was waiting for just the right moment.  He was waiting for the nanosecond that Charlotte went into season and it happened last night.  I had just put out my treats when I saw Charlotte scoot past me and Pixie and Vivi came up to get a snack.  Then as I was watching, I saw him sidle up to the group and nothing too unusual happened for about a minute.  Then he exploded. He started making all of these very loud grunting noises and then he reared and stood straight and I do mean straight up.  He was entirely vertical.  He held on to a branch for a second and then after this display, he pounced on Charlotte, who somehow managed to get away.  She took off, faster than I've ever seen her run and he was right behind her.

Well if he caught up with her, I guess there will be a fawn next spring and if he didn't, I suppose he will continue until he succeeds.

Remember:  Please click on my profile so that I will know that you've been here.

What's Up With Charlotte

Charlotte has been acting very strangely lately, not herself at all.  I even came home from work and found her in my backyard, something she has never done before.  Also, she's constantly looking over her shoulder into the woods and it seems like the smallest thing or noise would make her bolt.

Here's what I think might be happening;

1.  It's that time of year and love is in the air.  Maybe she's tired of being chased and chased and chased.  The buck is back and you never know.

2.  She was chased out of the protected area by some studly buck and was shot at and now she's terrified.

3.  There are strange deer around, there are, and she doesn't know if she's still the queen bee.

4.  The coyotes or a pack of wild dogs are out there and she knows it. 

5.  The worst of all, hunters have invaded the protected area and she knows it.

Please keep checking my profile, so I know that you're there and I'll post more later

Thank You

I decided that when I had 50 people who  cared enough to look at my profile, ie: let me know you're there, I would thank you. You're interest means more than you can know.  If you're at all  concerned, please come back.  Tomorrow, I'm going to talk about what's up with Charlotte.  She's scared and I have thoughts, but I have no answers.

PS: Please forgive my spelling.  This program doesn't  have spell check.