Something VERY new for the New Year

Mowgli....the cat.Anyone who knows me knows I am not a cat person, but thanks to my cousin, Andy and I are starting the new year with a new orchard cat. Mowgli was a Seattle cat who was having trouble playing nice in the city life. He now resides in our greenhouse and is taking to country life quite well. I have been the one feeding him, so he likes me way more than Andy, so we call him "my cat". Somehow having a "barn cat" makes our place seem even more country now. Happy New Year to you all, I hope you each have something new to enjoy this year.

Country Living is Good

A quick 5 minute walk around the property can produce vases of flowers like this every day, so nice!

A summer staple: Pulled pork. Andy is smoking 30 pounds of pork for the 4th of July celebration.

Smoked Alaska! We are trying desert on the grill for the 4th of July. Pound cake, a layer of cherry preserves, ice cream, fudge, all wraped in a layer of meringe and frozen. The whole thing is put on a wood plank and placed in the grill to toast the meringe...should be exciting!

We net our cherry trees to keep the birds from eating all the cherries. Sometimes birds get caught in the net and we have to go out and "take care of them". While checking the nets the other day Andy realized he had caught something much larger than a Robin. This is a Hoary Marmot who was trying to get a free treat from the cherry tree and had gotten stuck. Andy freed him from the net and we have seen him every day since. He is currently residing underneath one of our out-buildings we used to refer to as the "Skunk House" because skunks used to live under it. Looks like we will now have to call the building the "Hoar House"...not sure about that.

We discovered that we have three fledgling Barn Owls living in our silo. When you peek in on them they hiss at you and snap their beaks to sound intimidating.

Life is good. We work outside every day, but love it. Our friends and family are over regularly to enjoy good food, help with a work project, or just hang out on a nice summer evening. I can't imagine life any other way.

Owl Banding

Andy and I got a chance to go out on a trip with the BLM and band fledgling Western Screech Owls for a day. We covered nearly 250 miles that day, most of them on dirt roads. It was a fun day, except for the baby owls poop all over your hands when you pull them out of the nest box!