This morning I was sitting in front of my computer contemplating the local radar to see if I could persuade some rain to come my way (it’s supposed to actually rain today), when I stretched and leisurely looked out the window. I almost fell off my chair. This guy is a big one and any hunter would be proud to have this strapped to their wall. They would call this an 8 prong. He’s in terrific shape. Not a rib to be seen and very well muscled. He’s clearly not from around here because when he saw me he took a spectacular leap over the fence and leapt into the field beyond. In contrast the local deer here are skinny and very tame and kind of just look at you when you try to chase them out of the garden beds. It’s rutting season and last Sunday he was busily making new fawns with a doe right outside the living room window. Talk about nature up close and personal!! I feel like I am living in a wildlife TV show.

Saw this healthy, handsome fella wandering through my back yard yesterday. He had a couple of doe with him too. Handsome guy. Dick had to go chase him off. It’s rutting season and the deer boys get a little aggressive at this time of year. I told Dick to pee on the land so they know it’s not their territory.

I woke up this morning – it was 41 degrees and I was uncovering all my plants again because they said it might be a freeze – which it obviously wasn’t. I guess they need to sort out their forecasting.

Anyway – there I was when my neighbor came walking out of his house to the goat pen to let his goats out for the day. 2 goats had some kids over the last week or so. As usual all the goats went charging out of the pen into the fields. Everything seemed fine until I heard a little pathetic “Baaahaaa”. I looked and there they were: Mommie goat had been so busy rushing out of the pen that she had completely forgotten her two kids still in the pen, calling pathetically for mom. I was wondering if mom was ever going to catch on and was just about to call my neighbor back, (who had gone back into his house) when it suddenly dawned on mom that she’d forgotten her babies. On she came charging back into the pen, calling all the way as if to say: “Oh Goodness! Sorry! My bad, I’m coming!!”

So mom and kids were reunited again and it all ended well. What excitement for 7:50 in the morning!

After spending all day yesterday mulching and watering both flowerbeds and the 21 trees I planted this year we had to cover all the plants with frost shield at sunset. Dick was very industrious and sowed some frost shield together and made huge sheets out of them for the front garden. (It is very handy to have a man around the house who sewed and designed sails for sailboats in his younger years!)

Having it go down to freezing this time of year is just not normal. It would have been a real shame to have the plants damaged by frost when they all  just finally recovered from the drought and hot temps from summer. Hope this will extend their life a bit longer. It only went down to about 30 last night so I hope they are all OK. Tonight is another cool night so everyone gets their warm blanky back again. Tomorrow night its going to be in the 60’s! That’s a 30 degree difference in nighttime temps. Crazy! I am not complaining about that though….

What a wonderful surprise! The picture is crappy – I apologize, but it is the only chance I had to take it. That was because he was in the bush right outside my bathroom window, grooming himself.

Hummingbird??! You might ask if this is just too late for hummingbirds. And you would be right. I was truly surprised because they have all usually migrated to Mexico by the beginning of October. I had read that you can see a straggler or 2 come passing by in the middle of October, but this guy is truly late! But I was delighted because when I went outside he was sitting in my Mountain Sage slurping up all the nectar that this beautiful bush puts out in fall. So there is my blessing. Yesterday I was all sad that there were no more hummingbirds to take advantage of all the beautiful flowers blooming right now, and today, here comes a hummingbird. Now if that is not a gift, I don’t know what is!

I would not be surprised that he got knocked out of the sky by the nasty cold front that came blasting through here with 30 mile per hour winds.

I’m just glad I had some food for him to recharge on before he moves off down south. Naturally I rushed outside to refresh the hummingbird feeder – just in case he needed that too.