Tuesday, January 13, 2009

BackTrack to Saturday

On Saturday morning the back yard was a network of tracks in the fresh snow--rabbits, squirrels, birds, dogs--those were the tracks I recognized, anyway. Here, a bird must have taken off.

I don't know what was so attractive about this clod of dirt, but many small bird tracks converged upon it.

It was obvious that the animals tend to run along fencelines and from destination to destination,like, tree to bush-- for cover, I suppose. I never really noticed that before (duh!)

I love the designs the tracks punch into the snow.

While I was distracted taking photos of tracks, Rog and Cadence were stringing fence along the western border of our yard. Despite the underground wireless fence, our dogs have discovered that if they run through it chasing a squirrel or rabbit, the shock is so brief it is worth the discomfort. Of course then they are reluctant to come back into the yard and get zapped again. So, we stretched a wire from the electric horse fence just outside the wireless fence and attached plastic garden mesh to it to provide a visual reminder. So far, we haven't even had to turn on the power to the electric horse fence --the mesh seems to slow Nutmeg and Cocoa down enough that they experience the wireless fence shock strongly enough to deter them. (Knock on wood.)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You cold-weather folks are so hardy - I would save heavy outdoor work like that for when the snow melts, and just keep the dogs inside! Guess you are more used to it than we PNW wimps.