The guardians

Well, contrary to the heading on today's post, these two aging but lovable donkeys don't appear to be guardians or defenders of anything much.

However I did want to talk a bit about donkeys as guardians today and as innovative solutions to problems. Driving around the countryside, I've come across some local organic farms. One raises sheep... and in the sheep pens are also a horse and a donkey. The donkey is the guardian against predators particularly coyotes.

Interestingly, I haven't heard our local coyotes crying to each other at dusk as I always have in past years. I'm very afraid that a bounty was placed on these important keepers of  ecosystem balance or some old-tyme farmers have gotten together and decided to wipe them out.

Perhaps they are denning. I certainly hope that's the case.

Donkeys hate coyotes and are wonderful protectors against them. They are all that a farmer usually needs. Being herd animals, donkeys stay with the other animals. Their sharp hooves are deadly protection and they will attack coyotes. That sheep farm has huge pastures, far from the house... the donkey is always in the field with the sheep...

Without coyotes, we will have an excess of moles and other tiny rodents, rabbits, groundhogs and similar vegetation eating critters. Coyotes themselves are part of the ecosystem that we humans need to think about protecting not changing. The moles, voles and other small rodents did a lot of damage to trees, lawns, and gardens this past snow season. And it was in deep winter that I stopped hearing coyotes.

It makes me very sad that humans feel the need to take a gun to solve problems...not only in the country against animals, but around the world against each other.

Donkeys are an example of a peaceful solution that can be found for most problems with a bit of ingenuity, creative and out-of-the-box thinking.

My you find a creative solution to any problem you face today.

What happened this winter?

Many people, when the deep snow disappeared, me included, were dismayed to find several small trees and even a few large ones, completely ringed below the level the snow drifts had reached.

While I was wandering around the park at the Heathcote river, I saw this small apple tree. At least 18 inches of bark completely stripped away.












Immediately at its base I saw these pathways dug into the
soil - mole and vole tunnels. These little critters have even managed
to chew away the base of the dogwood branch (the red stick on
the left of the picture) a bush they don't normally like. They have created tunnels everywhere.

And they have ruined many a garden, tree plantation and lawn in their munching. Wonderful for them that they have been able to survive under the snow all winter, but tough for those of us who now have to repair or replace the damaged areas.

I've lost a few small red pines, a large 10 foot red pine, some wild apple and ash along the windrow, and who knows what in my gardens. The little creatures have left behind evidence of a very busy winter.

It's also evidence of the inability of hawks and coyotes as well as feral cats and fox to dig through the snow and catch them.

I haven't heard coyotes howling around here in a while. I suspect the guns I heard last weekend, cleaned out at least one pack. Sad for us to be destroying nature's attempts at retaining balance. Some people just can't abide nature's ways and must impose some of their own.

However grass will eventually cover over the muddy tunnels, coyotes will move into the area that's been stripped of others of their kind. And nature will roll over, eventually, most of the control attempts. An ongoing battle.

My solution has been to plant more than I need and try to live with nature rather than fight it, as much as I can that is.

So far so good. And today it's cold and sunny, a good day to tidy up some of the dead and dried up foliage from last year and make plans for spring planting and fall harvest. Always fun to think ahead.

Hope you are enjoying a delightful Sunday wherever you are.

A puzzle

This morning we were walking in the very wet snow - it's quite mushy but the pathways on the property are still pretty solid. At the north end, both dogs suddenly stepped off the path and into the deep snow.

This (right) is what they saw. Can you figure it out?

I looked at it for quite a bit of time until I too finally stepped off the path to see better. It's a pile of snail shells with a deep, brownish hole in the middle. I realized that someone has been cleaning house.

A mole must live here. It's finally gotten tired of eating snails for breakfast, lunch and dinner and decided to throw out the garbage. The solitary snail on the left still had it's foot, so I assumed it was still alive and tossed it back down the hole. It might have a better chance of getting away through the grass below seeing as it's so mild, than being left on the surface of the snow.

I had to check on the internet to see if moles eat snails... and apparently they do as do frogs, snakes, foxes and raccoons. So do people, but I'm not sure we eat garden snails. I don't think I'd want to.

The tracks from all kinds of tiny creatures were really evident last night when we toddled (or rather I toddled and the dogs walked or ran) around the trail for the last walk of the day. Lots of tiny bird prints and many many deer mince. Several mole trails too, like you see in your gardens in spring - just under the surface of the snow though rather than the mud - long tunnels, curving and twisting from one set of dried flower stalks to a small red pine and then on. I'm only hoping all these little guys don't girdle the seedlings in the field. I guess wire is in order around them if it's going to stay warm for a day or two.

Hope you've had a good day so far and enjoyed as many meals this holiday season as our mole friend obviously has. Time for you to clean house before the new year?