Surprise!

Wow! Look at the surprise we found in the mail this evening. Rhiannon drew some lovely pictures, made some art work and wrote loving messages on the birthday card and envelopes that we sent her for her birthday. Thank you, Rhiannon! You are quite an artist! Thank you for thinking of us and sending us back your beautiful pictures! There are hearts, rainbows, flowers, faces, and best of all, Rhiannon, wrote lots of "I Love You" on the cards. We love you too, Rhiannon!

In this photo are also some of the letters I am making for Jaidan's quilt. I'm going to make his quilt first because it will have things like pockets, zippers, and snaps for him to play with when he is little. If I wait to make his quilt later, he will be too old to enjoy playing with the things. Don't worry, I will make a quilt for Rhiannon and Tristan. And one for you too, Kathleen. I need to make one for Kristine too.

The hens have finally figured out that the corn is in this feeder. The chickens would much rather eat the corn when scattered on the ground. Maybe the reason they took so long to eat the corn out of the metal feeder is that they don't like the sound their beaks make when they peck at the corn and hit the metal. I guess they just had to get used to the noise.

Tanya here warned me about the coyotes being dangerous to Morgan. This is very true. Kristine and I have talked about this problem. Kristine said that the coyotes up the mountain in Tahoe are larger, more wolf size, than the coyotes we have around here and they run in packs and they will for sure kill dogs. One of their tactics is to send in a female coyote to play with the dog and lure it out into the woods where the pack will kill the dog. The coyotes here are smaller and the most we have seen together has been two. I saw one by the chicken pen once. If we had the larger coyotes or packs here I would have to leave the chickens in their pen and keep Morgan inside the house.

Our neighbors put up a tall chain link fence to protect their little dog. Small dogs and cats and children here are also vulnerable. If Morgan was smaller I would be afraid to leave her outside. And I must admit that I do have some worries about the coyotes. Several times a day, Tom walks his male dog along the fence that circles our property and his dog lifts his leg on the fence regularly and marks it with his scent. I think that sent marking may have something to do with warning the coyotes away. I hope. We remain vigilant.

[9 eggs today]

Smiles

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