tuesday's drama

Somehow, even knowing our wacky feline crew, it's just a bit startling to walk up the stairs and see THIS looking at you:



Don't worry. We opened the window and let him in. :)

the drama starts early on November Hill

Thanks to my amazing son, who heard me shrieking that Dickens was facing down another snake and ran outside with my camera, we actually have good photos of the early morning drama here on November Hill.

I was on my way to the bathroom when I glanced out the bedroom window and saw Dickens stalking. It took a moment to see the snake, which was quite successfully camouflaged as the root of a tree.



I realized it wasn't and then saw it moving oddly - it turned out the snake had a bird, which appeared to have been previously dead, as it was covered in yellow jackets, flies, and one inchworm!

The snake coiled around its meal, too distracted by the yellow jackets to get into it with a cat-turned-mongoose.



The approach of my son caused the snake to give up the meal and head for the holly tree, with Dickens carefully tracking its every move.



It became apparent as the snake moved that it had already eaten! Don't forget you can click on the photos to enlarge them, if you want to see the finer details of this unfolding episode. :)



I don't think this is the same snake from a few weeks ago, as the previous one had an entirely white belly.



Dickens was riveted to the tree.



I held my breath and hoped he wouldn't try to climb up and capture the snake in mid-climb.



By the time the snake got to a place of safety, where presumably it would digest that big meal, Dickens had settled in to monitor the situation.



We didn't manage to capture it in a photograph, but a few moments later, he was joined by fellow comrade-in-snake-hunting, Mystical Kit. The two laid themselves out in the shade, like twin guardians, and kept their collective eyes on the tree.



I suspect we're in for an exciting week if Monday morning has started out with such a bang.

thank you netflix "watch it now"

With sick kids and tired parents and all our regular Netflix queue DVDs in transit, we took full advantage of Netflix's nifty "watch it now" feature over the past few days.

Last night we watched I Capture the Castle and The Adventures of Milo and Otis. I highly recommend both.

Today my first disk of the next-to-last season of McLeod's Daughters arrived in the mailbox and I spent the heat of the day watching ALL FOUR episodes in a row. There's just something about that show that grabs hold and doesn't turn loose.

I think I might watch The English Patient tonight.

So far, so good. Mom is not yet sick!

battling heat and bugs (not the usual kind)

It's not THAT hot, but we haven't had rain in a week and it's dry, dusty, and low 90s out. Definitely a "walk straight from the laundry room to the shower" when I come in from the barn day.

I've realized this summer that feeding wet has been a real blessing with the horses and donkeys. They all get breakfast tubs with their cool (this time of year) "soup," Salina gets another tub around 2 p.m. and again at 6, and they all get dinner tubs in the evening. It's reassuring to know they're getting water plugged in all through the day.

I've been rinsing hay in the hay nets lately and especially in this hot dry weather, the hay seems absolutely luscious wet. They seem to love it, and I figure it's one more little piece of beating the heat and making sure everyone gets water into their bodies.

We are fighting bugs. Not the flies, although of course that is an endless battle. (the double shipment of 30,000 fly predators 3 weeks ago with another double shipment on the way right now has done a lot to decrease the population!)

What we're fighting as of 24 hours ago is either a nasty summer cold or a flu. Husband has been feeling off the past two days and has worked from home. Daughter and son woke up yesterday with sore throats which have shifted to congestion and general yuck today.

A quick trip to the grocery store helped stock the shelves with the regular weapons:

tissues with lotion

ginger root

lemons

fruit popsicles

jello

soup (I have one container of turkey soup in the freezer but other than heating that up I'm not really in the mood to make homemade soups mid-summer!)

vitamin C

We have various and assorted herbal teas, local honey, and my trusty homeopathic kit, so hopefully this will be a short, sweet battle for all of us.

I'm not yet having symptoms but still treating myself with the same vitamin C, ginger root tea, etc. so that hopefully I can either miss this one or have a mild version.

If sweating works to flush the system I should be just fine. :)

the six-year old psychs out the boss mare

Last night we decided to give the geldings some time in our front yard. They love grazing there, and we love having them right by the front porch. My husband went out to shift things so that Salina and the donkeys could have the big barnyard while the geldings came down front.

It didn't exactly work that way.

The donkeys got wind of what was happening and came running. That, of course, triggered Salina to come running, and there they were, in the front yard grazing away. We decided to just let all of them down, which is a rare occurrence.

Keil Bay sauntered down and took his position in the midst of the grass. Cody and the pony came cantering down the grass paddock, only to be stopped cold in their tracks right at the "gateway" to the front yard.

Salina had decided she only wanted her "immediate" family down front, so she parked herself in the grass just inside the gate and turned her rear to Cody and the pony.

The pony decided to live in the moment, and just graze where he was, since the grass paddock does in fact have grass too.

But Cody (the six year old) became obsessed with trying to sneak past Salina. He got behind the holly tree and took a sneaky step toward the gate. She couldn't possibly have seen him, but she whipped her head around and flagged him back.

He went around the other way. Again, when he got one step too close to the gate, she turned and flagged.

After 3 or 4 times of this, she seemed to get exasperated, much like a mother who has told a child something 4 times with zero effect. She turned and flagged again, once, then two more times for good measure. This triple flagging caused Cody to wheel around and walk a few steps away from the gate.

Salina must have felt she had gotten the message across, because she moved a few feet forward to a new patch of grass. It was about thirty seconds before Cody saw an opening and took it, going from standstill to gallop. He shot right by her and headed all the way down to the furthest corner in front. She looked up and then continued grazing. Too much trouble to go roust him out.

The pony had been watching all this while continuing to eat.

I guess he figured Cody had paved the way, and since Salina hadn't gone ballistic, it was safe for him to follow suit.

A few seconds later, the painted pony dashed through the gate and down front in a flash of brown and white.

After that there was only the sound of serious grass pulling and chewing, and the hard swish of tails and stamping of hooves that screamed "HORSEFLY!"

My husband took a break from his laptop to show off his horsefly-aversion skills. The horses are very good about letting you get the big biters, and will almost always stand patiently while you wait for the fly to land.

Usually if you do this for a few minutes the horseflies get savvy and leave the area.

It was a rare night that they all get to go in front together, and sometimes one or more have to be removed, but last night they were happy to graze in peace.