I love to bird-watch. My father used to bird-watch and he’d point out birds to me when I was a girl. Became second nature…While I was in Ireland in 2005 I learned the British term for this activity when I was noticing the birds of Ireland and someone asked me if I “was a twitcher”? Cute!

Bobcat!! The year we first moved back to my husband’s family farm area – with two sister cats and their new litters of kittens, we moved into another being’s terrain. From time to time during the first summer of moving in, building a deck, planting trees, garden, some lawn, I noticed that the cats were frightened, and later, that some kittens disappeared, but it was a cold night in January, 1993, when I realized that something was watching me thru the living room window as I held our new baby. The fearless creature was either a lynx or a bobcat, and was merely two feet from the back of my head, thru the glass. We put “the run” on it, but it appeared again, so we got a permit to shoot it, and did try to trap it. Bobcats are too smart for our trap, at least, but we did trap one skunk and one of the neighbor’s cats! Releasing the skunk took a LONG piece of rebar and a bit of stealth. By June, we had lost several cats and kittens, and feared we were providing a ready lunch for this bobcat. On a fine afternoon in July, we finally saw him creep around a shrub, in broad daylight, trying to sneak up on our newest group of kittens. My husband shot him, and by pre-agreement, turned him over to the Fish & Game Commission. One good thing from all this: knowing we had a predator on hand convinced me to NEVER take our baby out to the lawn, and then turn my back to go back in for a phone or blanket, etc. Now the “baby” is eighteen, so he goes with me to the compost pile or to turn off the garden water, if it is getting dark. A good reminder for all mothers who move to the country – all manner of animal predators can be watching for a small child as well as for your cat. (Martha Cook, Idaho)

MaryJane I remember the first time I caught a catfish; I was by myself at a pond while visiting friends. I couldn’t get the hook out of the fishes mouth. Then I nearly fell over when that catfish started squawking at me! Swear on my grannies grave; that fish was talking! So I put him in the pail with water and carried him back to the house, conversing with him all the way.

Beautiful!

Love those pyrs. Thru the years we have had several as flock protectors. Currently’ as our flock is very small, we have only 1 pyr named Gus. I plant in old water tubs too but bottoms are out and filled with dirt only 1/2 way to help protect their start from harsh winds and I water with soaker hoses but now I am excited about doing the deep watering like you do. I cover the tubs with cut to size hog panels through which plants can grow but keeps Gus from crawling into the cool damp earth in the tubs.