Monday, March 17, 2008, 14:12
Signs of Spring
As soon as I stepped out the door Monday morning to go outside with Pixie, I heard it.
There was a ROBIN in the pine trees just north of the house. I heard cheep-twit-twit, cheep-twit-twit, cheep-cheep, CHEEP, cheep-cheep-cheep-cheep-cheep. And there was no doubt in my mind. It was a robin!
Of course, then I had to go back into the house to get the birdseed I had taken in the night before and put some back into the bird feeders. There's nothing else for the robins to eat, certainly no worms they can get at in the lawn, there's too much snow and the ground is frozen yet, so I wanted to make sure there was something in the bird feeder if it wanted some seed. The nuthatches, chickadees, juncoes, cardinals and tree sparrows will want something to eat, too, I would imagine.
Raccoon
I collected the bird seed and brought it in the house Sunday night because when I let Pixie outside, she immediately went into chase mode in the dark, barking and growling and huffing and snuffing. And then I heard the scrabble of large claws on bark as a raccoon went up one of the pine trees north of the house (the same trees where I heard the robin). She stood below the tree for a minute or two, barking and growling.
I have to confess, though, that I did not think about taking the bird seed into the house until after I had gone down to the barn to give the horses more hay and their little treat of grain. Just as Kajun came trotting into the barn, I heard thumping, banging and scrambling against the tin of the barn wall.
That was too much for Kajun.
With a snort, he turned around and galloped back out of the barn and then stood outside the barn door, snorting and whistling and blowing. I called to him, and he tried to come in the barn again, but the thumping and bumping was simply too much, and out he galloped again. He refused to come inside after that, and was, instead, trotting around outside, snorting, tail held high.
Hiding
I shined the flashlight up near the ceiling of the barn, and sure enough, on top of one of the posts by the door, a huge raccoon huddled, trying to hide his head.
"I see you," I said.
I went to the kitty food shelf to put out some dry food for the kitties.
"Eat up," I said to the barn cats. "When you've had all you want, I am taking the rest of the food inside."
The old black tom cat Squeak and the petite tabby Princess Tabitha and her brother, Midnight, and her other gray brother, Gabriel, and one of momma kitties (I couldn't tell which one in the dark) obligingly dug into the dry kitty food.
Since Kajun was too frightened to come inside for his grain, I gave him an extra flake of hay. When I had put more water in both Isabelle's bucket and Kajun's and had give them both hay, I went into the barn and picked up the rest of the dry food the kitties had not eaten.
It was then that I decided I ought to pick up the bird seed out of the feeders, too. I don't know if it was the same raccoon in the backyard as was down in the barn, but it didn't really matter. When the raccoon was done with the kitty food, he would probably come up to the backyard for the bird seed.
Stingy
I suppose that taking in the kitty food and the birdseed means I am getting miserly. When sunflower seeds were $9 for 50 pounds (only a few years ago) it didn't seem so bad that raccoons were eating some of the birdseed. But when sunflower seeds are $18 for 50 pounds, and likely to go much higher in the near future because of the cost of fuel to produce them and the cost of fuel to ship them, I am not so inclined to let the raccoons eat 50 pounds by themselves!
The Science Diet kitty food has always been expensive, but it is more so now with added shipping costs. And I swear those raccoons can eat their weight in kitty food in a week. The barn kitties eat up their food and don't waste it and it helps them survive in the cold winter weather. Plus, they keep the mice out of the barn. And it isn't any more expensive to feed them Science Diet than it would to feed another cat food because they eat less Science Diet. But the raccoons are a different story.
More signs of spring
Then again, the raccoons coming around for birdseed and dry kitty food in the barn is a sign of spring as well.
The other sign of spring is that I heard geese flying over Sunday evening when I was out in the backyard just before it was time to feed the horses. Then, when Randy and I took Pixie and Charlie for a walk along the road, just as the sun was setting, we saw a flock of geese flying overhead. It was a very small flock and they were headed north, looking, I would suppose, for a cornfield where they could find something to eat.
Yet another sign of spring is that my paths melted off this past week! It really didn't seem like it was warm enough for the ice to melt as well as it did, but still, the ice managed to melt. Temperatures were in the 30s and low 40s for most of the week, but there was enough sun to encourage the ice to melt. I thought I would be dealing with glare ice for weeks, so I am pleasantly surprised that most of it is gone from the paths and the driveway. At that rate, though, it's going to take quite a while for the snow in the woods and fields to melt.
It is snowing now again on Monday morning, too. The weather forecast says just a few inches. Enough to make the roads slippery. That's what the weather has been doing since January: snowing just enough to make the roads bad but not enough to amount to much of anything.
Sinus infection
I need to make another appointment at the clinic. Naproxen sodium and acetaminophen are helping damp down most of the pain in my ribs, but now I've got a sinus infection. I have lots of post nasal drainage and a really rotten taste in my mouth. The rotten taste in my mouth matches how I feel: rotten. I am tired all the time and feverish and just generally do not feel very well.
Friday evening I was so cold I could not get warm. I laid on the couch under a pile of afghans and shivered. I feel asleep and when I work up, I was drenched with sweat. Even my hair was wet. It was like that all night. Cold and then sweating. Cold and sweating. And it continued throughout the day Saturday and Sunday at times. Yipee. I am afraid to take antibiotics because I have had so many allergic reactions to them in the past. But I am going to have to see if I can't find something I can get along with. This is just the pits! I am sick and tired of feeling sick and tired! I can't be sick! I have work to do!
LeAnn R. Ralph
Friday, March 14, 2008, 05:31
Another Sunny Day
Thursday was another sunny day here at Rural Route 2 with temperatures in the 40s.
After a couple of days of warmer weather, I am surprised to see that the snow and ice has melted off the driveway. In another couple of days, I am hoping that my paths will be melted off, too, so that walking around becomes easier and much safer.
As long as the temperature drops below freezing at night, though, I will still have to be careful going into the barn in the morning. The water runs in through the door during the day, and then it freezes overnight. Thursday morning I almost went down when I walked in the barn. I would rather not fall on my sore ribs, if I can help it.
Thursday evening, Randy and I took Charlie for a walk along the road west of the house. We left Pixie at home because we didn't want her to get dirty and muddy. It has been warm enough to melt the snow and ice off the road but because it is a dirt road, it is muddy. The road north of the house is still ice covered and slippery since that part of the road doesn't get as much sun as the road west of the house. In the morning, I have been able to walk in the hayfield because the snow is still fairly frozen. Pixie gets a chance then to snoop around as much as she wants. But as long as the road stays muddy, Pixie is going to have to stay home.
We ended up walking down as far the next place (a half mile one way) with Charlie. I haven't walked that far in a couple of weeks. I still feel weak and shaky from having the flu, but at least I was able to walk. With any luck at all, my strength will come back someday.
As we were walking along, Randy told me he thought he had heard a robin at his office Thursday afternoon. Just as he said that, a bird in the pine trees along the road twittered.
"Was that a robin?" Randy asked.
We stopped and stood for several minutes, hoping the bird would twitter again. But it didn't. We listened for more twittering all the way back to the house but heard nothing more than crows and blue jays.
LeAnn R. Ralph