Rural Thursday - Life on the Homestead

"Getting an inch of snow is like winning 10 cents in the lottery." --  Bill Watterson

I wouldn't say we won the lottery this week on the homestead, but we pocketed more than ten cents. It started to snow Thursday night and continued through Friday. We ended up with around 10" of accumulation.  


Friday morning I saw a coyote walking up the hill away from our cabin. The first one I've seen near our property. I managed to get one fair photograph of him. (He's in front of the fence, to the right of the tree.)

"Shoot! There goes breakfast."

I'd love to show you what he was watching, but the doe he had his eyes on had the good sense to run back up the mountain before I could photograph her. Much later - after Mr. Coyote left the premises -- she came back down and plopped herself under my neighbor's tree. (At least I think it was the same deer. She wasn't wearing a name tag, so I can't be sure.)

"If I even get so much as a glimpse of that Wiley Coyote I'm outta here faster than you can say 'Canis latrans'."

At one time our homestead was part of a large dairy. The old superintendent's cabin, partially hidden by snow-covered boulders, is now part of our neighbor's property. It butts up to our backyard.  I love to photograph it in the morning, as I did on Saturday.

Morning after the snow.

Then again, photographing the old cabin in early evening is fun too. Especially with deer grazing around it.

Feeding Frenzy

Sunday morning this buck posed for me.

"My left side is my best."

Monday morning I was trying to get a descent shot of a pretty pink sunrise from my front porch. . .

You call this a sunrise? Pish-posh.

when I saw something move to my left. I had totally missed the opportunity to photograph a bobcat. In our front yard! Before I could focus my camera and get it ready to shoot again (I need a new camera sooooo badly -- this one is sooooo slow) the bobcat was way down the road, meeting up with a second bobcat. They were too far away to get a photo. Drat! Bummer! However, an hour later there was some redemption in the form of this young bull elk on the hill (in the same area where the coyote stood).

"Ok, so I'm not a bobcat. Get over it Lady."

I watched the elk for quite awhile. The poor guy had a limp; injured in some way. He disappeared for awhile. Late in the day he showed up by the corral. The horses were very curious. They lined up in a perfect row and stared at him as he raised his head to nibble on the ponderosa branch. 

"What is he doing to our tree?" "I'm tellin' mom." "He'd better skidaddle before I show him who's hoss."

Tuesday morning showed off some beautiful light.

In the afternoon several deer visited the homestead. I snapped this sweet scene from the dining room window.

I stepped outside onto my porch and took a photo of this adorable yearling. He just stood there gazing at me, no more than 6 feet away. The deer are very brave around humans here. Probably because we pose no threat to them.  

Dennis finished another watercolor.

Wednesday Alltrips.com notified me that the travel blog and photographs I submitted to them -- Reflections on Sprague Lake -- have been posted on their website. 

Today I've been working on a new blog that I hope to have up and running next week. The blog A Joyful Cottage will focus on cottage and vintage style decor and will tie in to an Etsy shop we'll be opening. I'll still maintain my Joyful Altitude and Mountain Manna Devotional blogs. Hey, I'm a writer and. . .well, writers. . .write. Oh yeah, and there's that photography bug I have, too.

That's a look at our homestead this week. What's going on in your rural world?

Nancy

Today I'm hopping over to Nancy @ A Rural Journal and Lisa @ Two Bears Farm for their Rural Thursday Blog Hop. Check out the wonderful bloggers there.