Nature

One of the best things about living in the county is all the wildlife we get to witness from the comfort of our porch. We have more birds than I even know the names of. Robins, blue jays, cardinals, sparrows, chickadees, swallows, owls, etc., have all made homes somewhere on our ten acres. We've seen a couple of bald eagles and even vultures (when you see one, you can always assume there is something dead around). The last couple of weeks we've had some new additions: Red headed woodpeckers. We sit on the porch and listen to them screech (their calls are not very pretty) and listen to the rhythmic 'tap tap tap' on our trees. Art's afraid that the trees are going to die since they seem so tasty and attractive to the woodpeckers, but I think I remember reading that that isn't always the case. I'm not sure if this is true, but it puts his mind at ease.

We also have rabbits around. They seem to be well behaved because they stay out of my garden and they give something for Buddy to chase. I always wondered what he would do if he actually caught a rabbit (he may be lazy, but he can run when he wants to); if he would kill it or just try and make friends, like he did with Phil the groundhog. Today I did a little mowing of the garden (no, I didn't mow anything else down) and later that day I saw Buddy run out there and jump on something. I couldn't figure out what he was doing so I walked to the garden there was a dead baby rabbit. Sad, I know, but here's the good news: Buddy is a hunter!! Sure it may have been a very cute, innocent baby bunny but it proves that Buddy, who is terrified of everything and dumb as a post (but very sweet), actually has a few natural instincts! I realize that the baby rabbit was not very threatening or impressive, but that's not the point.