ugh

I am not going to complain about the rain. Even if the ground is too wet to work on, or the air hasn't been dry enough to work on my fence. Drought will be coming soon, we need all the rain we can get.

I haven't done much outside work in the past 2 weeks. I sink in the mud if I try to work in the garden, my boots getting sucked down and stuck, making it difficult to accomplish anything. Weeds are getting a little out of hand. But the veggies are growing nicely.

I have a few things that need to be done. I was hoping that I would be able to do them all in the cooler weather. That doesn't look like it will be happening. This means hard, physical labor during the high summer. ~sigh~ I always look forward to a good case of heat stroke. I can do some of it under our out light during the evening, west Nile virus is also a fun one.

I ought to snap out of this funkiness of mine, tonight I am meeting abbagirl74 for dinner. I don't think she wants to meet a moody Phelan.

We witnessed a fox taking the last of my hens. A very large gray fox, never seen one so big. I thought it was a coyote at first. We know that it wasn't the fox alone that stole our birds. We have proof that people were also involved with the theft. Monday I was getting the mail, when I heard the neighbors birds going off. I looked over and saw the fox running about with his old English banny in it's mouth. I was too far away to scare it off. I went inside and wrote a note;

I saw a very large gray fox with your hen in its mouth. Over the past month all of our birds have disappeared, we think the fox had some to do with it. I am sorry I was unable to stop it. We want to kill it, but other people in the area are against it.

your neighbor to the east

Phelan

I got into my truck and drove over there. When I got out a noticed a shaggy looking greyhound type dog in his yard. Never seen this dog before, and since it was collared and fenced I figured it was his. And then realized that it was the animal I saw with the Bird in it's mouth. I wrote that at the bottom of the note and pasted it to the door. He called later that day, and thanked me for letting him know. I friend of his had dropped the dog off, and he was trying to get a hold of him to take the dog. He also thanked me for the heads up about the fox, and I told him that we think that someone else was stealing them. He confirmed that it has happened before out here. He too thinks we should shoot it {the fox} it should be eating the wild game, but isn't. Something is wrong. He didn't understand why the neighbors wanted it to live, I told him it doesn't seem to be fearful of people, and comes out during the day. I am concerned about allowing my 3 year old to be out in the field. He has set out live traps for it, and I will have the gun with me when I go out to the garden.