EEEK! A Mouse

A Flight Plan

It has been a slow week. The Head Gardner came home from corn harvest late Friday and left again early this morning. The weather has been decent for the harvest crew--over a hundred miles east of us--but problems with the machinery breaking down have slowed down the combining of the corn  this year, robbing the farmers of precious work time.

My husband apologizes for being gone for so long, but I told him that I get along okay. The first couple of days, I am lonesome, but as the hours pass and the days go by, I adjust to him being gone--knowing, of course, that he will return. So he left again early this morning, leaving me to keep the home fires burning and doing the chores.

So imagine this: Boone found a young, wounded pigeon in the barn and took it to his master. Surprisingly, he dropped the poor bird and the HG was able to rescue it. He put it in spare dog crate in the chicken coop with food and water then left, leaving me to tend yet another critter. After a few days the young pigeon's leg wasn't tucked up inside the feathers. And one day he was walking on it. Now more active, the pigeon had kicked wood shavings into this food and water, so I opened the door to the crate and reached to give him more food and fresh water. Before I could do anything, the bird took flight, flying into my face and out the the door and into the wild blue yonder.

I called the HG to tell him that his bird had flown the coop, afraid that he would be upset since the night before I threatened to turn it loose since it was better and he asked me to wait until he got home. He took it good naturally, laughing and thankful that the bird healed.

Talking to Mice

With the weather turning colder, little critters come in looking for food and shelter. With hay, grain, and chicken feed there is an endless supply of food for little scavengers. I began stressing mid-day about what I was going write about for this week's post. There really isn't anything very interesting going on here at the Garden Spot. Over the years, I have photographed and written about everything there is, so I am sometimes hard up for topic. So here is what I came up with for this week with inspiration coming while I fed the horses. I always take my phone with me, mostly in case I should fall and need to call for help. 

Here then is Monday's Mosaic:

(Just so that you know, photos are not in sequential order)

Someone did not put the lid back on the can that holds the chicken scratch. So when I reached into scoop up the grain for the hens I was surprised by movement.(Photo top right). The HG got distracted and didn't finish filling the gain bin with the cracked corn and left and= open bag of corn next to the open storage. So I scooped corn into the trash can, filling it up so that little mouse could escape. What a lucky shot of him sitting the edge of the trash can. I had time to take my phone out of my pocket and take two shots.

Bottom left: Sundance has a new stall mate, a mouse snacking on--never mind. You know. The mouse is out there every night waiting for some grain to fall on the floor. Once again I was able to get photos, even with a flash. Risky using a flash--Sundance tends to not like a camera flash, but he remained calm. In the second photo you have to look really really close to see the mouse down in the lower corner.

So. That's the way it is here this week. How are things at your house?

Linking with Normandy Life for Mosaic Monday.