Wildlife

4-26-06 VERMONT: An exciting day for wildlife. In the area where I removed vegetative matter yesterday, I raked and seeded today and saw and probably woke up two spotted salamanders near an outcrop of schist. The pair of mallards were back on the pond which infuriates the dogs. And…while on the way to Lebanon to pick up the roto-tiller I saw a fox mom and one kit on the road half way between the two neighbors that have chickens. Very pretty, red coat and brush, black legs, white on the face. I guess it’s the same costume as those who hunt them on horses. Do they still do that? Then tonight on the way back from dinner with the Koreys at the Mex place in Lebanon, I saw the foxes again, four kits this time fighting on the side of the road over something will probably be dinner when they settle who gets what.

Otherwise, it was a cloudless sky, but cool and windy. I did all the tilling in about 3-4 hrs, found a lot of new rocks in the process, some two handers. All the ox poop was ground up into tiny pieces and mixed with the dirt. seeded the shady spot where grass won’t grow in frontof the porch-hope springs eternal in the spring. I finished the no brush area as mentioned above plus lots of little other things.

New blooms: a bit more forsythia is out and the magnolias are threatening.