Journal

When I step outside the cold air brushes my face. 38º. Winter. This is how the last day of the year should feel: cold. The owl is tucked into his box. He is the best gift to us this year. To be able to watch him guard the place we have made for him and raise a family will be the best gift of 2020.

Willis was treated to a myofascial release session yesterday from Chase of Cadence Therapy. It is deep work, but at the same time light work. Watching, it doesn’t look like Chase is doing much, but Willis obviously feels something judging from his licking, chewing on his crossties and lead rope, turning his head sharply to the side to watch her.

The owl huddles in the owl box, curled up in a corner against the cedar wall. He has been in the box each day now for over a week, even on warm days when the temperature rose into the 70s.

Summer’s heat is smothering us. Day after day of temperatures above 100º with an even higher heat index slowly wears us out. We were cruising along nicely through the summer with mornings in the low 70s when the heat and humidity suddenly shot up. Plants and grass are drying up.

Wallawa Lake is quiet at 6:30 a.m. Only a few fishermen are at the marina, readying their boats, and campers walking their dogs, or, just walking. Like me. I like to sit at a picnic table that juts out toward the water where I can look for the adult eagles and a female common merganser I’ve been watching.

Summer drifted in this week on a wave of heat and humidity. For the most part, June has been up and down in temperature, tempered by frequent rain showers. Some wildflowers are going to seed. At the end of May, the Sierra Nevada trail that was flooded with coneflowers, Indian Blankets and lemon beebalm.

I first saw the filly only hours after she was born, lying in a corner of the shed under Kai’s watchful eye.

Liam has a new buddy. Aubrey’s foal arrived Monday, April 22, sometime between 10:30 and 11:00 a.m. I was riding Willis in the fields behind the barns and paddocks when I saw a long-legged tiny horse standing next to a huge bay mare in the paddock next to last year’s colt and filly. On the other side of the shelter stood another mare with a foal, so there were now two foals.

The titmouse nest sits empty, a few rays of morning sun lighting the moss and twigs and sawdust. If I look hard enough, I can see the tip of a single speckled egg. Or maybe it’s just my imagination.

The first foal of the season came into the world on Monday, April 10, at 2:00 a.m. “Liam” looks just like his mother with a long white blaze from his forehead to his nose. All legs, he toddles alongside Miss Mae, who is never far away.

The ringtail shows up nightly and now there are two! Tim’s sharp eye spotted the difference between two ringtails in photos, but it wasn’t until the trail cam caught two together that we were sure.

A ringtail visits the backyard almost every night, traveling back and forth along the fence from our neighbors’ yard to ours. We keep a small feeder tray filled with orange peels and dried fruit to entice him and birds, but the menu also appeals to a local possum. One night the trail cam caught both possum and ringtail at a standoff as they chased each other down the fence and out of the yard.

February 24, 2019 February 24, 2019            As February fades into March, I am jolted by signs of spring:  paperwhites, irises, a stray black-eyed [...]

Winter comes and goes. The first week of February began with warm mornings in the low 50s, creeping up to high 60s. While the rest of the country faced below freezing temperatures and snowstorms, Central Texas basked in moderate winter weather under cloudy skies.

The owl box is up. It is a fine structure made of cedar and mounted on a high pole to keep squirrels out. Tim painted it a light tan to blend in among the oak trees and the rest of the backyard; it even fits in with the color of the house. So now we wait. A camera inside the box illuminates the inside, but so far the fresh sawdust has not been tamped down, though a titmouse did sit on the perch and peek in.

She is like a black fox; everything from her confirmation to the way she trots instead of walks.