Friday, May 29, 2009

Not always routine morning routine

We all have them, those routines that help us keep our lives in order and stay on top of things. My mornings go like this:
Get up and dressed (goes without saying, I guess); let dog out; feed cat; let dog in; feed dog; put out bird feeders on balcony (we have to bring them in at night or the raccoons get into them--yes, on the balcony); yell at dog to get out of cat food; take dog with me out back to feed birds behind my studio; let chickens out into their pen; feed and water chickens.

Most days things go off without any surprises but today we were in for a bit of a treat. I let Jackson out and within a few seconds he woofed--that funny, under-his-breath bark he makes when he's unsure about something and is looking for backup. I went ahead and fed the cat, then opened the back door to let Jackson back in. He was sitting on the top step staring across the back yard so I stuck my head around the corner and I'll be darned if there wasn't a deer standing just on the other side of the irises, not more than 30 feet away, staring back at us. I uttered a surprised "Oh!" and then no one moved for about five seconds, until finally the deer raised its flag, turned and bounded off.

I had a young buck at the salt lick behind my studio the other day but I could not see if this was a buck or a doe. I looked around a short time later and saw the salt lick was knocked off its stump, and the ends of some of the mulberry branches had been nibbled (the berries are just starting to form). I looked a little for a fawn but didn't see one. We've had fawns every year we've lived here but I've never seen a real young one and was hoping, but no luck.

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