Melissa---here in the northeast we are getting a lot of wind and rain---- Thank goodness I was able to get outside yesterday and this morning and scratch in some food and Alfalfa--- I can only work on a few at a time and then my back starts to hurt so I stop but I am thankful to be walking and get some work done. I do love rainstorms. Florence

Good Morning Y'all, Well, I hope it is discovered and documented, but not on our place. When we had the male/female pair roaming our pastures here in southern Love County several years ago, we assumed they were a breeding pair but never saw any young ones. We didn't see them on our property, but we saw them in two different pastures about a quarter mile north of us, and so did several of our neighbors. I hope the cougar doesn't come back here. We have a huge deer population....I see them in the yard several times a week, if not quite daily. Still, something has been getting our poultry, which are no longer free-ranging, and it/they have been getting the poultry since January. We also lost a 1 year old male Maine coon cat back in the winter. We have everything here most years, y'all, including an occasional alligator that presumably wanders up from the river to somebody's stock tank, although the closest alligator to us has been found in a stock tank about a half-mile away to our southwest, so I am not real worried about finding one of those here. The feral pigs scare me more than the rare cougar sighting. One guy out west barely got away from them year before last--they chased him until he got to his ATV, hopped on it and turned it on. The pigs are a lot more common in our county than cougars, especially along the river and on the more remote ranches west of town, but there's only been one year that we've had them on our property. I am feeling a bit calmer now. Yellow Cat returned home this morning after being gone for 36 hours, and in a big way. I'd let three dogs out to "patrol" the property and chase off any wild things that might be around. It was about 5:30 a.m. While the dogs were off and running through the woods, chasing something and barking, I'd called and called Yellow Cat but didn't see him. Suddenly, the dogs reversed course and came running out of the woods, yelping and carrying on and with their tails between their legs. I thought "Oh crap, something is chasing them." And something was and it was Yellow Cat. LOL Now that I know these three dogs can be chased by an old yellow tabby cat (admittedly a very muscular and aggressive one because he was feral for so many years), I don't know that I'll trust them to keep me safe from any varmints that are running around. Scott, my best guess is that this juvenile male might be from the cougars that have been prowling the rocky hills along the Love County-Carter County line about 17-20 miles north of us. There have been numerous reports of them in that area this year. There's a big rock quarry there and some hills with small caves, etc. and lots of missing pets the last few months, etc. It is an incredibly rugged area. Almost all of our big winter wildfires were there and it is such rugged land that often the firefighters couldn't get up into those rocky hills off Oswalt Rd. except on foot so they'd have to wait for the fires to burn out into the more open areas. Of course, the cougar also could have traveled the river. The river and its thousands of acres of bottomlands seem to serve as a "highway" for all the wild things. When our creeks here dry up, as they often do by mid-summer, the coyotes and bobcats seem to travel the creekbeds too. Fred told me last week his creek is already dry, but ours still has water, so it shouldn't be serving as a "roadway" yet. We had tons of coyotes a couple of months ago but we don't now (as evidenced by all the cottontail rabbits that are all over our yard at night), and I don't know where the coyotes have gone. (I'm not complaining.) I do know a lot of ranchers were shooting them during calf season (for obvious reasons) because one of the ranchers who lives slightly north of us told me he shot 5, and I think 3 of those were in one week. I don't think anyone here shoots the coyotes just to shoot them, but they were killing calves. I hope the only wild animals I see today are the cute little ones like squirrels and rabbits. In general, I like seeing all the wildlife. Seeing the occasional ringtailed cat is pretty cool because they are so reclusive. I think bobcats are beautiful animals and I even like seeing coyotes, and love hearing their howling at night. It is a little harder to appreciate the cougars because they have the potential to be so dangerous. I have noticed a huge decrease in the number of possums, armadilloes and raccoons the last couple of months, and we've hardly had any skunks at all, so I've been wondering what's happening to all these smaller animals. Dawn

I live on 5 acres, backup to a wildlife pond and have neighbors with even more acreage. I have not experienced any trespassing in the 15 years I've lived here. The little bit of garbage that I do pick up, I assume blew out of trash or recycle bins on windy days. I posted one or two posts above about my mom and her inner-city neighborhood. The few people that I know that live in the inner city have some serious trespassing issues. They have had statues stolen out of their gardens, a threat tacked to an outside deck and one of them even had her purse stolen right off her kitchen table (which you can see from the sidewalk!) On the other hand, my lake property isn't nearly as big as my home property. It is about a half acre and sits next to a public boat launch. The problem there is many fishermen bring their dogs. There is a porta potty at the access. When the fishermen stop by to use the facility, sometimes the dog will use my property to go #2. Of course the dog owner will just wait for the dog to finish his busiess, and off into the boat they go when he's done. I've never once seen one clean up after their dog. I don't have a dog so it's discouraging to go up to the cabin and have the yard littered with dog do-do. I have, on occaision, waited for the offending fisherman to leave and then scoop the do-do and put it in their vehicle. But only when I know for certain which vehicle it is and it has to be unlocked.

Hazel, Yes he is very much a typical coyote in appearance. His coat might be slightly more golden than what I usually see, so I think there is a slim chance he has some domestic dog DNA in his heritage, but he is not at all the sort of coyote-domestic dog hybrid we sometimes see here, so if he has domestic dog DNA, it is a small amount. I had to deal with a coyote one year that was a clear coyote/golden retriever mix. About the only part of him that looked like a coyote was his head and his tail. He had no fear of humans and would try to walk right up to you, which is extremely dangerous and cannot be tolerated. I ran into that one occasionally while walking my dogs and he would try to walk along with us, not in a menacing way, but because I knew he was a coyote, I always reversed course and headed straight back home. If a car came along, he'd run right off. Otherwise he'd pace us from about 20 yards away. This one is not like that, but he also doesn't exhibit much fear and he certainly doesn't slink off with his tail between his legs like coyotes often do. He is probably 2 or 3 years old---a young, muscular healthy one that is eating very well, not looking at all like the lean, skinny half-starved ones we often see in drought years. Clearly he roams our neighborhood a great deal and is used to humans and the noises we make because he does not startle easily and he also has taken to standing his ground a bit and staring back at me instead of just turning and running off. We probably should have shot and killed him long ago, but the longer you live with wild things, the more you know that all of them have an important role to fill in the ecosystem and the more you understand that it is better to divert them, to try to prevent them from becoming habituated to your presence/your habitat, etc., instead of killing them. And, truthfully, killing a coyote or a bobcat doesn't really protect your animals because another predator moves right into the available territory as soon as you kill one. I have studied his trail and no matter which wildlife trail he uses to enter/exit the woods near our house, it appears that once he gets deeper in the woodland he is utlizing a fallen log that rests across the creek bank about 10' above the waterline as a bridge to cross the creek. So, also on our list of things to do must be for us to go into the woods (ugh, in snake season already) with the chain saw and cut that log into several pieces so it no longer serves as a bridge. It is a very large tree trunk, possibly a walnut that the idiot beavers chewed/girdled but couldn't bring down due to its huge size about a decade ago. I've only seen it from the road's bridge over the creek, but tomorrow I think Tim and I will put on our leather workboots and such and venture into the woodland to check it out. With free-range chickens, you expect to lose one to predators here and there, but it really doesn't happen that often here. Except in the past year it has happened too often. I worry more about the coyote getting one of our cats than our chickens. Still, when a coyote is coming into your yard while you're outside working in the garden and not that far away, you do have to take action, if only to establish that you're a threat and that the coyote needs to stay away. So, that's where we are now. I left all the poultry inside their individual chicken coops/runs today, and they are not happy even though their fenced runs are large and fully covered with fencing so they are safe. Once poultry is used to free-ranging, they're never really happy confined. I don't care if they're happy today, because at least they are safe. Our chickens would rather be free than be safe, but their vote didn't count today. Only mine did. I kept the cats in, and the dogs are in their fenced dog run with the 8' tall fence to keep the coyotes out. So, I am not worried about the dogs, but I do always bring them indoors from the run if I have to leave the property. Kim, The thought of the blood doesn't bother me. We use blood meal and bone meal, after all, as organic fertilizers. I'm glad you and your little man are having so much fun together. See there---he'll be like me---growing up gardening and having it in his blood, which is a wonderful way to grow up. When kids understand where their food comes from and how it is grown, they automatically understand concepts that non-gardening children (and adults!) do not. Amy, I think Tim would have a stroke if I suggested he bring home some Zoo Doo (lots of zoos do sell it!). He told me yesterday he'll take care of the coyote himself. I love my husband, but I rolled my eyes. When I was having cougar encounters in the yard and was terrified and just trying to make it back to the house alive and in one piece, where was he then? Sitting on his butt watching TV and not paying any attention to any noise outside, not answering his phone (which he conveniently leaves in another room so the noise will not interrupt his TV viewing of some stupid movie he has watched 10,000 times before) and completely clueless, even though after the first cougar encounter he KNEW I was terrified and wanted him to keep his phone with him at all times. If I ever kill him it will be because he walks into his office, closes the door and tunes out the whole world including me and any predator that might be out in the yard with me. If I do not specifically tell him "I am going outdoors, there is a coyote lurking around, keep your phone right beside you", he won't have his phone handy. It makes me nuts. The odds of the coyote coming into the yard when Tim is home on the weekend are between slim and none. In the last year, that coyote has killed dozens of Chris' chickens (he built his coop too close to the woods and knew better and wouldn't listen to us, so what do you do?) and comes into the yard all the time when I am outside and when Chris is working on his house on weekdays, but never on weekends. That could be because we have a weekend neighbor whose property, which sits between us and the river, is not here during the week but often is here on the weekend, so it might be his presence that keeps the coyote from coming up through the river bottoms, crossing through his land and coming onto our land. I have thought about ordering cougar urine though and using it there on that edge of the woodland. Nancy, We have long had dogs---anywhere from 3 at one point up to 8 (a stray dog adopted us and then had puppies) and now we are down to 2 very old, grey-haired, more mellow ones and two hyper-excited ones that I guess are about 3 years old now. It is the easily excitable younger, smaller dogs who sound the DefCon 5 Coyote alert. They are ferocious barkers when a coyote is near. I believe all our dogs have prevented us from being burglarized on several occasions. Once, the word got back to me through a third party that a less-than-honorable person was prowling around our property looking for stuff to steal and our then young and healthy dog named Biscuit (who was a big softy but had a very ferocious attitude towards strangers) went ballistic over his presence. Supposedly this idiot fled and then told all his friends and acquaintances to stay away from our place because "they have a dog that will tear you up". Biscuit crossed over the rainbow bridge several years ago and we miss him so very much. After Biscuit, Duke was our main protector. He died last year. He was a Rottweiler-terrier mix and looked mean. He could act mean and just his appearance terrified people, but he also was just a big wussy. Luckily, no one but us knew what a wussy he was. His brother, Jet, is my big protector now and he has become extra-protective since Duke died. He even barks at Tim and Chris and doesn't really want them coming too close to me, which just makes me laugh, but it makes them highly irritated. I tell Tim it is his fault, When he leaves for work, he tells Jet "you take care of Mom today" , and Jet does just that. The problem is that Jet doesn't really turn off his protective instincts when Tim and Chris come home from work. It is easier to have 4 dogs than 8, and when our two older ones cross over the Rainbow bridge, I don't intend to replace them. We'll still have the two younger ones, and they think they are tougher than they probably are so they bark at anything. I mean if a car comes up our driveway, they have a full and total conniption fit. It is hard for anyone to sneak up on us with all these dogs, and that is a good thing. Amy. I'm so sorry about your dog. It is so hard when we have to let our furry companions leave us. My garden still is too muddy to do much, which is frustrating. I am going to try to weed today and then add some mulch to the just-weeded areas. Baabaamilker, I was going to say dianthus (specifically Sweet William, which is Dianthus barbatus) and bachelor buttons, but I see you already have it all figured out. Kim, How odd that the lettuce seeds did not sprout. Are the seeds fresh? Hazel, You can grow lettuce and pretty much all greens indoors under lights in the summer, preferably in an air conditioned room that stays below 80 degrees. Both heat and lack of water make lettuce taste bitter, and I think it really is a moisture issue more than a heat issue, at least until the lettuce begins to bolt. You will have the best success with leaf lettuce or with summercrisp lettuce varieties, not iceberg. Iceberg types are nice and crunchy but take too long to head up here and hit that wall of heat pretty early. Tim likes the crunch of iceberg, but leaf lettuce is more acceptable to me and I like the crispness of summercrisp ones. I really don't think it is a variety problem---I think it is our heat and lack of abundant moisture. Every lettuce variety I've ever grown has done well as long as it is well-watered and as long as it has shade from noon onward in the hot months. Eventually even well-watered, well-shaded lettuce will bolt though, and growing more indoors is one way to work around that. Amy, I'm sorry you're disappointed with the work done in your bathroom. That's why I like for us to do it ourselves, even if it take us 100 years to finish one project. Katie, I hope you're enjoying the chickens and hope the weather stabilizes soon so you can get plants in the ground. I have almost everything in the ground now but I am very far south and have been having awesome warm weather for a long time. I also have frost blankets if the cold nights come back, as they are sort of threatening to do late next week. Your lettuce looks fabulous! Dawn