Step away from the baby deer....

And that is just what I had to do yesterday after finding a tiny baby deer in our front yard. So small.... about the size of our cat Mickey, except the deer's legs were longer. And so fragile.... it was all I could do to resist the urge to pick up that baby and cuddle him close. But.... not exactly what you should do with a baby deer.

The momma deer will leave their baby for ten or even twelve hours at a time, so we are all told out here not to touch them, move them, or try to feed them when they are alone. The baby deer just rests and sleeps, and picks up its head every once in a while for a little look-see, and then goes back to sleep. At one point this afternoon as the sun moved through the trees, the baby's sleeping spot was no longer in the shade. We watched from the kitchen window as the baby deer got up and stretched its legs and then gingerly moved three steps into a shady spot. My husband and I watched from the kitchen window, both of us wanting to go out there and somehow help that tiny fragile baby.

We got close enough to take some pictures, neither of us touching the deer but both of us wanting to. I kept Savannah away from that part of the yard all day, and let Mickey stay in the kitchen so even he wouldn't bother the baby. At dinner time, I walked Savannah in the backyard, and when I got to the front yard, the baby deer was gone. I walked all around the pecan trees and the gazebo and then all through the side yard to make sure the baby hadn't wandered off. My guess is that the momma deer had been watching the yard and when she saw me go out of sight around the back, she came and reclaimed her baby.

The yard felt so empty all of a sudden. I walked down the road a bit and looked out into the tall grass of the pasture, and then I walked up to the barn and looked out into the fields there.  Not a sign of any deer at all. Well, I am hoping that momma and baby are safely tucked away in the woods by now. And I hope the hiding place there is as quiet and as safe as our front yard was all day for that tiny baby.

There's a new rooster in town...

....and he lives on one of the properties along our road. We can hear him crowing (and probably strutting his stuff) every morning. Truly a country sound coming from that rooster. So much nicer than the howling of the night-time coyotes.

Hearing the rooster gets me to missing our chickens, but I just don't want to adopt any more hens, thank you.  For our first batch of hens, I named each of them after my aunts. Big mistake. The first one to die was Edie, because her curiosity got the best of her and she drowned in the fountain in the front courtyard. I had to explain that calamity to my Aunt Dolly, and she was not happy.  Actually, my Aunt Dolly is under the impression that the hen named after her is still alive and gifting us with eggs every morning. I didn't have the heart to tell Aunt Dolly that her namesake was killed by a snake nearly four years ago.

After the first flock of hens met their chicken-maker, we got another half dozen and I named those after characters in "Gone With the Wind."  After a while, they also got taken by foxes, hawks, and heaven only knows what else, with Scarlett being the last survivor until a snake got her also. Life is not easy in the world of chickens, unless you can keep them completely fenced-in all the time, and even then, a snake can get in if he is very determined. (Refer to Scarlett.)

So now the chicken coop is a screened-in porch for Mickey Kitty..... he can get into the coop from his sleeping spot inside the garage. We keep him in the garage at night, hopefully safe from predators. Mickey loves the coop, and I don't think he would be happy to share his spot with chickens. Actually, I doubt very much that a flock of hens would want to be sharing space with Mickey either.

Life in the country....

As I type this, there is a snake in the breakfast room window... and of course it's the window right behind my chair. This is the second time a snake has gotten himself caught between the screen and the glass of that particular window. As it happens, there is a bird's nest right above that window. So the snake smells the eggs in the nest, tries to get up into it, and gets itself caught behind the screen.

The last time this happened, half of the snake was hanging out below the screen and my husband used a snake-grabbing pair of tongs to capture the snake and throw him out into the field. For all we know, this could be the same snake, back for a second attempt. However, this snake was very determined, and all of his slithering body is now behind the wood screen. In order to get him free, my husband would need to unscrew the wood frame of the screen, but in doing so, he would be in close proximity to a very aggravated snake. Not a good thing.

So I closed the shutters of the breakfast room window and I am trying to forget the snake is there. Fat chance of that happening. Either the snake will get out of his screen-prison by himself, or he will take his last breath in there and then my husband will unscrew the wood frame and toss the dead snake out into the field. Thankfully, even though there is an inch-wide gap between the screen's frame and the windowsill, the glass window itself is very tight and secure and I know for sure the snake cannot get into the breakfast room. Give me a blessed break with the wildlife out here.

In other, more sane happenings..... I am still collecting books for The Magic Wand Book Club. The one thrift store that offered me free books had a nice selection for me when I stopped in there this morning. In another thrift store, one of the girls who works there gave me some nice books for the students. I will probably have enough Halloween-ish mystery books for the month of October, and Christmas stories for December. I am still making bookmarks and now I have started on the bookplates for the books the students want to keep.

Busy, busy.... who has time for snakes in the window.  I just looked over there.... I can see his shadow moving, so he is trying to get out. Either that, or he wants to join the book club.