<p>Funny JDA! I grew up around farming and working the water (harvesting seafood) and take it all for granted. But to someone unaccustom its a wild different world. The sounds, smells, actions, machinery, the rythmns of the day and seasons. Sometimes I think about moving but I would miss it. Once my step mom was visiting from the city, she and I were walking the dogs late at night. We heard a very loud “moooo” and she was terrified. Thinking it would reassure her, I told her it was only a cow. She ran inside yelling to my father that there were cows in the woods! The pasture is out of eyesight but close as the crow flys and sounds carry well at night…</p>
<p>Fiendish flyers and killer cows in the woods!!! hahaha! We live in the woods now, and it’s always a surprise to look out and see various varmits. We have an oppossum who waddles up our back steps every night to see if there are any morsels of cat food left. And, although they are really cool to watch, if I see deer in the backyard, I’ll go out and make a bunch of noise to send them back into the woods instead of eating my landscaping. It would be much more entertaining to have fiendish flying machines and killer cows lurking in the woods.</p>
<p>I grew up in the midwest in the heart of soybean and corn fields. I have NEVER missed having to share the road with all the farm implements!</p>
<p>killer cows, dont think so…I believe that cows with such sinister intentions would be much more stealth. Take the case of Howard the bull from my college days. He was huge, mean, very calculating and could sneak up on you with the stealth of a secret agent. You were in big crap before you even realized he was there…</p>
<p>The cows were surprisingly quiet last night. But oh the wild turkeys were loud and clear at 5am this morning. Strutting, gobbling and flapping for all their worth. Quite a show those boys put on, but sadly I was the only female watching. Perhaps I witness their “stomp” practice and not the actual performance.</p>
<p>Lions, tigers and bears…oh my! Got up this morning to be startled by a large deer lying in my backyard. She was obviously heavy with a fawn, and I guess just needed to rest. It wasnt quite light yet and she wasnt acting strange so I’m not concerned about it but I feel bad about interupting her solitude…She got up and ran away, of course I would too if I had two mouthy schnauzers on my trail…</p>
<p>Whats in your yard today?</p>
<p>We frequently have deer in our yard. They like to nibble on our bushes, especially when there is snow.</p>
<p>I had a wild turkey walk up to the house and peer in at me the other day.</p>
<p>Our yard is fenced so that shuts out many critters we might normally get. This morning I have a tuxedo kitty (ours) stalking chameleons, grasshoppers, non-UMich squirrels, and the biggest, fattest blue jays I’ve ever seen.</p>
<p>On any given day we have black racers traversing the yard. Have had yellow rat snakes, indigo, pygmy rattlers, and even a coral snake show up. Also have a mole, but I think the cat is convincing it to move on. Raccoons have been known to make a showing during the night. Once found a gopher tortoise who made his way under the gate.</p>
<p>On the bird front - lots of blue jays, cardinals, mockingbirds, hawks, turkey vultures, pileated woodpeckers, and hummingbirds (the mama made a home in a nearby tree and feeds on flowers near the house). Less frequently, we get quail and egrets, and on pre-storm days we get the seagulls. Also have some sort of small, finch-like bird. Haven’t identified it yet. Hear the owls, but haven’t seen them. Evenings bring out the bats which are really cool to watch. </p>
<p>Always careful driving because of all the deer around here, but the fence keeps them out of the yard. Have seen bunnies while waiting for the school bus with the kids in the early morning. </p>
<p>The folks behind us own horses and peacocks, both of which we hear more than see. And there is the occasional smell of skunks, which seem in much abundance around here.</p>
<p>Two once-beautiful bunches of hosta are now stems with jagged ends. I don’t have to call in CSI to know that those are deer mouthprints. Grrr. Time to get out the smelly stuff. (or start sleeping in the backyard)!</p>
<p>colmomto2:</p>
<p>That sounds wonderful to me right about now. I think I’m starting to get sick of the city.</p>
<p>Killer cows! What memories! In grad school I took two pals to my ancestral farm in PA for Easter weekend. The city girl who’d been a girl scout and I quickly ducked under the electric fence for a stroll in the cow pasture. The city girl who hadn’t, touched the wire and sat down very quickly with a surprised “Oh!”. It hadn’t occurred to the other two of us that friend 2 wouldn’t know an electric fence when she saw it.</p>
<p>And as for the farm vehicles on the roadway, I just start humming Craig Morgans “International Harvester” and put my car into low gear for a while.</p>
<p>What’s in my yard today?</p>
<p>A skunk.</p>
<p>“sleeping in the backyard” brought to mind, “sleeping with the fishes” two totally different concepts one would hope. </p>
<p>Funny happymom, had a similiar situation while in college, brought a girl from Chicago home to visit Dairy Farm. It didnt occur to us to warn her, and she wasnt paying any attention to how we manage the fence, she swung her leg over and straddled it. It was a painful (and strangely funny in a sick way) lesson. She still talks about (now with a smile) over 25 years later…I hadnt thought about that in ages.</p>
<p>Okay, how about the smells of a farm/rural life…lets start with the abundant manure!</p>
<p>This thread is turning into something funny to read. Thanks for the laugh.
Also, it’s making me homesick, I’m tired of the city, too.</p>
<p>Nothing in our yard today except for some “wascally wabbits” and a bunch of squirrels.</p>
<p>Walked the dogs early this morning, enjoying the light mist and the flora and fauna of the country. THEN the old english setter got entirely too interested in some smell on the ditch bank and fell in… He was major health issues and couldnt get out. SO there I was knee deep in the run off ditch (fairly clean water-thank goodness) hauling him out and hoisting him up the bank. We were both soaked. Back home to redress for work. Huge (lose a car or a dog in)runoff/drainage ditches- another wonder of country living…</p>
<p>A Great Egret was just walking around in out backyard so I walked very carefully outside, since they’re very skittish, and took a few pictures of it. An Egret has been stopping by or yard or some adjacent property about every day. They’re magnificent looking birds.</p>
<p>Made many trips from the driveway to the backyard last weekend with mulch- every trip a male cardinal would fly away from an arborvitae in front of the house to lead me away from a probable nest (didn’t go looking for it), if he only knew how humans can backtrack and aren’t fooled into chasing away from a site. The poor bird got a lot of exercise- he deserved all the birdseed from the feeders. In our city with woods neighborhood the deer wouldn’t be phased by anyone in the yard. </p>
<p>Mourning doves are dirty birds- they perch with their tails facing into the winter birdbath (to keep warm I suspect) and don’t worry about what they leave behind- thank goodness they don’t sit on the summer birdbaths like that. Robins and cardinals do take baths. </p>
<p>Dogs have wonderful immune systems- our Shih Tzu has thrived on a diet that has included deer and rabbit droppings forever (the critters leave their pellets close to the house, I’ve quit worrying about it). Our dog knows his mushrooms- he’ll go for some avidly and ignore others on walks.</p>
<p>Had to add extra wire to prevent raccoons from grounding my hanging birdfeeders which are inside my deer fencing, I gave up on squirrel prevention many years ago- I just buy plenty of sunflower seed. No birds around- check the sky for the hawk making his/her rounds.</p>
<p>Wow, I am happy to hear there are still fields to crop dust in Maryland. That’s my home State–I grew up surrounded by farmland that is now all developed!!</p>
<p>yea jazzzmom there are fields left, but dissappearing rapidly. I wonder who and how we are going to be fed when all the fields are gone… I am surrounded on three sides and across the street as well by fields. They rotate crops for the health of the fields (some plants deplete the soil nutrients and others replenish) anyway its generally soybeans one year and feed corn the next. I hate the years its corn, it grows so tall I am completely hemmed in. Cant see anything until its at my drive/yard. I lose the view of the far lying fields and woods. Not complaining really, just commenting. Anyway this year its soybeans so the views are secure. One year as an experiment, my husband planted sunflowers in those fields. He left a 5 foot path unplanted through the center of the fields. I walked those paths everyday. What a wonderful expereince. The birds were plentiful and diverse. It apparently wasnt beneficial because he never repeated it.</p>
<p>“Take the case of Howard the bull from my college days. He was huge, mean, very calculating and could sneak up on you with the stealth of a secret agent. You were in big crap before you even realized he was there…”</p>
<p>And living with cows as I do, I know that you mean that quite literally.</p>
<p>H and I spent a couple of months in Kansas for a course he was taking, and one of his classmates was a recent college graduate from D.C. She said that she found all those wide-open spaces “really scary and creepy”. We decided that the real need for study abroad in our country was for heartland kids to go to one of the coasts, and sophisticated coastal dwellers to spend some time in the country. Maybe our country would be less polarized if the red staters and blue staters got to know one another.</p>
<p>The talk about animals in our yards made me think of something I heard comedian Jeff Foxworthy say recently. It was a “Redneck Fashion Tip”. He said, “If your rear end looks like a couple of full grown racoons rasslin’ around in a 50 lb. corn sack, do NOT wear spandex.” :)</p>
<p>With Howard it was literal and figurative crap both! He was mean and we respected that but it was a college farm and many of us worked it. Sometimes when he was supposed to be in another field or in the barn etc, we let down our guards and got caught in the field with him. Several got hurt and eventually he was transferred off the teaching farm. Thank goodness it was a natural breed situation and not artifical because it would have been awful for the ppl assigned that task!!! For those not familiar with artifical insemination just use the imagination to figure out the harvest process… Still couldnt have been pleasant for the poor cows… He was a nasty nasty bull!!</p>
<p>Kansas is my second favorite state, have familyout there. Heading west myself in a few weeks. I miss the wide open spaces. They are few and far between these days. Far from finding them scary, my soul sighs when I see the fields stetching out… </p>
<p>No new flora or fauna this morning. Although I expected ducks! We’ve had over 8 inches of rain in the last 24 hours. Our run off ditches are level with the yard. They are over 6 ft deep. The turkey vultures were all lined up in the trees with their wings spread drying off this morning. Prob 100 of them. Now thats a sight for anyone that hasnt seen it!Ominouis even.</p>