This year has been quite a bit like our first winter here. With the exception that the cold has stayed a lot longer. The temps have not been that severe, merely -9 at the coldest, but it has seemed to have been forever. We are burning almost a wheel barrow load of wood each day, and so far I seem to be burning about twice what I did last year. Hopefully the temps will moderate a lot in the near future.
We had some snow that began on Christmas Day and there is still some of it hanging around. I am not sure that the temps have gotten above freezing more than twice since then. Every thing is feeling the extra pressure to keep warm and to do that requires a lot of food as fuel to take the place of the wood stove. The rabbits have been doing quite well with our hay stack now that the Bob Cats have been removed. There are a pile of them each night and some days, crowded around it. The rabbit turds are every where, and starting to pile up around the hay stack. As you can see from the picture above one learns to put wire around the fruit trees if you don't want them stripped of bark. The old Juniper is past hurting as it has been dead since before we moved here. It was explained to me, by Karen, that it is a bird perch, and there fore immune from the fire.
The Quail at this time of the year are hard pressed to find enough to eat, and we generally start a bird feeder when the weather gets colder. It seems that there are nothing but House Sparrows and Starlings here right now, so we haven't put one up. We are putting out feed for the Quail however. It didn't take long for the Rabbits to decide that some of the corn was pretty tasty and join in.
Jasper is still around and I have been feeding him occasionally. Not every thing that he needs, but just enough that he can survive if he doesn't catch anything else. The mouse population seems to be rather lower than is comfortable for the raptors. The resident male Kestrel at the ranch next door managed to freeze himself to a metal truss in their barn. Unfortunately he didn't make it. So I decided that it was time to feed Jasper if he needed it. When hunting is good, he doesn't show up at all, but when he flies up on the Telephone pole or into the tree, I take it as a hint that some food would be nice. I have been cutting a Starling in half for him, since he can't eat a whole one before it freezes solid. I didn't have one thawed yesterday and he was hinting pretty strongly. I started one thawing, but decided to cut off a chunk of the Harris Hawk's food ( fresh Coyote) and see if he would come to that. It took a bit to find a place that he would be able to see it above the snow. He was sitting on the Telephone pole. I tossed it in the yard, then turned back into the house. By that time I had the bird thawed and went out to give it to him. As I stepped out of the door, I could see him on the hack tower and he was eating the meat that I had earlier tossed.
This is the time of the year that being retired has paid big time. I generally do a lot of reading when the weather is bad, and I have been getting the most out of the Malheur County "on line library" and my Kindle.
Earlier I purchased an electronic Predator call to help with the boredom and the Coyote population on the days when the weather is a bit more moderate. Since my friend, the trapper, is interested in the hides, I have a renewed interest in shooting more of them. I have in the past just thinned the ones that are working the area around the house. Now with an actual use for them, the interest is intensified. One of the problems that ran into was the damage to the hide when I shot them with my (Deer rifle) 243. When they were just shot for their nuisance value it didn't matter if I blew the entire other side out of them. Now that I am skinning them, those large holes are a bit more of a bother. I decided that I needed another gun just for that job. Well, with the run on guns after the re-election of Obama, the prices and demand is way up and it is hard to find a gun anywhere. Since I reload I decided to see if I could find a bullet in 243 that would do the job. I decided to go to a smaller bullet that would go faster and see if I could find one that would not exit a Coyote. I have had two of my candidates loaded and ready to go for some time, but the weather has had me holed up inside. I did go out to make a set, out a bit from the house the other day, and stayed until I was numb, but with no success. The pack just sat and howled at me, rather than come in.
Yesterday while I was doing chores, Josie started barking and running down towards the creek. I knew that there was a Coyote down there, so we called her back and I checked out of the window every now and then. Sure enough, soon there was a Coyote in the field. Unfortunately it was only about 100 yards from the house, and I didn't allow for the closeness, so the bullet hit her in the spine.
She dropped of course and the hole wasn't all that bad considering. Apparently more testing will be required.
I got her skinned out and took the meat off the legs and what was left of the back strap, for hawk food, and then took the remainder up to the gravel pit for the clean up crew. ( Ravens and Eagles) When I arrived I found that someone had shot a large male Coyote up there and had left him. I loaded him up and took him to the house to thaw enough that I could skin him. He was a bit of a chore, but I got it done.
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