A Secret World

Our son, JJ, works on a Great Lakes bulk carrier. The shipping season ended in mid-January but willl resume in the next week or two so he’ll be back on the ship. Our son’s car needs expensive repairs, but he’s thinking of buying a new (used) vehicle after he gets back to work. Meanwhile, he has food from the grocery store delivered to his home and uses Uber if he needs to get around. Sometimes we chauffer him if Uber can’t take him or if he has a lot of stops to make—as he did this Tuesday. While we were running his errands,I told him about our youngest rooster, Edward III, demonstrating how he pecked me (quick pokes) and bit (pinching my skin in his beak and holding on). Our son said, “He sounds like a turd!” and then he and his Dad renamed him “Edward the Turd.” Ha ha. Actually, I think Edward the THIRD will settle down nicely. He hasn’t bitten me in quite a while and rarely pecks.

I found one of our roosters dead in the coop last week so now we are down to two. I’m not sure which of the older two roosters died because they look identical. There was no sign of violence. I’m hoping it was Sassy. He was an excellent rooster, but he was also the oldest and likely would have died of old age soon. Corey is only a couple years old and I’d hate for him to die young.

In Michigan, when robins appear we know that Spring is near. A few days ago, I suddenly saw FIVE robins. I also saw Canadian geese flying north above me. They are also a sign of Spring’s return. Yay! I like winter but…every season has something to anticipate. Early Wednesday afternoon a coyote crossed the road in front of us as we were driving home from the library. It was not far from our property. Coyotes aren’t actually a sign of Spring but since they are more frequently seen and heard during their mating season, which is now, I guess seeing one could be considered an indirect indication of Spring.

I like the current location of my trail cam and will probably keep it there for a while. In this location, I capture neither too many photos/videos (which drains the batteries) nor too few so I see a variety of animals coming and going. Every morning I trade SD cards—taking the old one from the cam and putting in a fresh one—and I watch the cam footage from the day before. I save my favorites on my Rumble channel. I feel as if I am observing a secret world that exists parallel to mine. So much life happens outside our windows that we have been unaware of. The other night the cam captured our voices as we took Hannah outside just before we headed to bed. None of us—except the cam—were aware of the deer that were calmly watching us in the darkness not far away.

I like seeing the eyes of the wildlife glowing like headlights as they approach the cam. I always try to guess what animal it is before it is near enough to identify it. The other night, I caught the following on the cam. If you turn up the sound, you can hear the deer grunting and the spooky howls of the coyotes in the distance.

Today I moved one of the birdhouses to a location where a hill comes to a point. There are two other birdhouses on the ridge. I tried to space them far enough from each other to prevent any territorial battles. I put the birdhouse still attached to its wooden post on my green garden cart along with the posthole digger. Then I pulled the cart down the driveway and up the hill. I dug the hole and set up the post.

EJ is an awesome storyteller. People who hear him tell his stories always want more–including me. Usually he tells his stories verbally but he has contemplated writing them down for quite some time. Several weeks ago I helped him set up a blog but he’s sort of at a loss for where to start. If you would like to encourage him, you can comment here at his blog: Just A Few Simple Stories.