Moon Dancer

(Update on Moon Dancer- After receiving vet care, teeth floating and much grooming, attention and loving kindness, he has found a perfect new home grazing in the winter in the National park and carrying packs for visitors in the summer.)

 I had ridden this beautiful horse twice.  Two years ago on a cattle round up we went high into the hills with the old timers who knew how to flush out the cows and calves who had separated and hidden from the rest of the herd in crevasses  He was awesome.  When his owner wanted a new home for him because he was too energetic, I was looking for an lively smaller horse.  I was not informed that head tossing was the real issue.  I believe in the two years since I had ridden him he received some rough handling and a severe bit which ulcerated his mouth.  Now he is living at Harmony Hill and receiving love and gentle handling and working at Liberty till we are sure he is safe to ride and happy to be ridden.

Mariann, Melisa and Moon Dancer

Egg Thief vs. Rattlesnake in the grass.

He slid under the hen and lifted her off her nest.  He swallowed an egg while slithering down the side of the wall.

I had read on line that one egg would satisfy a Gopher snake for a month so he would be unlikely to return.  I set up barricades to the nest while he crushed and engorged the egg.  

He wasn't sated.  He returned to the nest, past my insufficient blockcades.

So I gently removed him from the coop after making absolutely certain he was a GOPHER and not a RATTLE snake.  His head was rounded and not angular. He had no rattles though he tried to convince me he did by hissing and and shaking the tip of his naked tail.

 
He seemed indignant about his removal casting back a look of disdain before sliding away into the grass.   I secured then in a safer spot, put a big plastic owl in the coop and blocked  his entrance hole.

He is a lovely Gopher Snake. The snake in the grass shown below
looks the same but look closely and you may see six buttons on the end of his tail.  A six year old rattler...

Perhaps the two will meet.  It is likely the Gopher snake will devour the rattler.

sliding down the wall swallowing an egg

The Gopher snake lifted the hen from her nest and stole her egg.  I moved her to a safer spot and she lives with me now in Aptos with her two healthy chicks

Rattlesnake in the grass, look carefully to the far left and you can see six buttons, his rattles.

Love Letter to Harmony Hill, Drinking in the Green

First red bell like bud which becomes a juicy sweet pomegranate

Drinking in the green of what might be my last spring on Harmony Hill.

Cows, calves, horses, goats munching on the green grass bursting up from the last rain.

Yellow and purple iris explode in front of the house.  Hollyhock, crouching ready to lift pink, white and red puckered flower heads, poised for opening

The orange trees dripping with both fruit and blossoms.  Artichokes within the curtain of sharp edged elegant leaves, need just a bit more plumping.

Explosion of new figs and pomegranates darkening, sweetening for summer’s delight.
(written April 2014

Mama plus 10

ON THE SALE OF MY FARM
Robert Frost
Well-away and be it so,
To the stranger let them go.
Even cheerfully I yield
Pasture, orchard, mowing-field,
Yea and wish him all the gain
I required of them in vain.
Yea and I can yield him house,
Barn, and shed, with rat and mouse
To dispute possession of.
These I can unlearn to love.
Since I cannot help it? Good!
Only be it understood,
It shall be no trespassing
If I come again some spring
In the grey disguise of years,
Seeking ache of memory here.

{1911}