Daily Wonder: Fairy Fly-By

7 September 20237 September 2023 ~ Carrie

The natural world is full of wonders. If you’re like me, you can’t help but notice – and revel – in these amazing moments that demand your full attention. One hot summer morning, as I was loading up my Gorilla Cart with 5-gallon buckets of fermented feed to begin the animal chores outside (there are “inside” animal chores, too, of course), something caught my eye. It looked like a floating bit of cottony matter. I watched it for a bit, soon realizing that it wasn’t merely drifting on the breeze – it was flying. It invited a closer look.

Continue reading →

Musings: The Wisdom of Wild Snails (Post #1,000!)

23 July 202323 July 2023 ~ Carrie

For this momentous post, I decided that I would focus on a creature that is often maligned (mostly by gardeners), but that I find immensely fascinating. It’s an animal that reminds me of two important things: that (1) there is an absolutely amazing world of tiny plants, animals, and other matter that is overlooked by people and (2) sometimes, we need to slow down and enjoy the wonders of the world around us – or even our own inner world – at a snail’s pace.

Continue reading →

Haiku: Turtle’s Tenacity

23 May 20228 June 2022 ~ Carrie

It’s turtle breeding season here, when the urge to find a mate and/or breeding grounds strikes, there’s no dissuading them. Even if it means that they must make a death-defying trek across a busy roadway to get to their destinations. We always try to give our wild turtle friends a helping hand when it’s possible to safely do so, even if that turtle has incredibly strong jaws and feet with sharp claws.

Continue reading →

Around The Farm: Solitary Striped Skunk

21 February 20228 June 2022 ~ Carrie

*Is that a mullet? I say that admiringly…*

We’ve known about a skunk living under the barn’s tack room for a while. It sprayed in the barn a couple of times, then stopped (thankfully). While we didn’t necessarily want a skunk living there, we decided to just try to co-exist with it.

Continue reading →

Haiku: Clandestine Crossing

29 January 20228 June 2022 ~ Carrie

The cold and snow are upon us, making the very act of living more challenging for wild creatures. I suspect that the canid tracks above may be from a coyote, as they appear a bit larger than I would expect from a fox (though we have both here). Other tracks, mesmerizing in their own way, were left by other animals and invite imagining their destinations and their difficulties during this time of year.

Continue reading →

Around The Farm: Copious Castings And Curious Caverns

31 December 20218 June 2022 ~ Carrie

It’s been warm and rainy here and the ground is thoroughly saturated…which means lots of mud: sucking mud that tries to swallow your boots and coats surfaces with slippery goop that invites spontaneous acrobatics that sometimes result in getting up close and personal with said mud. While farmers may not like the mud, worms sure do. And it wasn’t difficult to tell that the worms had come out en masse overnight because they left telltale “calling cards” everywhere.

Continue reading →