Oxen and cellphones – together after 6000 years or so.
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Which I would certainly want if I was pulling a third of my weight up a hill, even if I had help.
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The back pair of oxen are young ones basically along for the ride/walk; it’s a training technique to acclimate them to actual pulling. The brunt of the work is being done by the lead oxen. The empty sled weighs about 500 lbs; fully loaded, probably 4000. Back home is mostly downhill.
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Earl’s family first settled this place in 1868, making him the fifth generation to work the land. The oxen are Red and Rock; Red (horns up) is a milking Devon, and Rock (horns out straight) is a beef Devon. They’re both about 7 years old, and just coming into their prime.
This stop at the watering hole is the prelude to their work day, which might encompass some six hours of logging, the oxen mostly on standby.
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These alpacas lived up the road from us for awhile, and it always a pleasure to drive by, and see what they were up to.
“Shearing Day” is a springtime ritual for sheep, llamas, and alpacas throughout the land; a time when thick protective winter coats are removed – for their health and our commerce.
These gentle and exotic creatures seemed to tolerate the process quite well, thanks in no small part part to the incredibly talented shearers on site that day. A significant part of their job seemed to be keeping the stress level on the animals to a minimum – stylin’ all the while.
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I heard an owl a few nights ago; a soft and beautiful succession of hoo-hoos that woke me up around 3AM, like the call to prayer of a muezzin.
I wonder if it was this little one, who had fallen out of its nest in a nearby white pine over a year ago, and – thanks to the quick response of neighbors and the crew at A Place Called Hope, in Killingworth CT – shortly thereafter re-nested. The crew built a new platform directly beneath the existing nest, lined it with some white pine branches, and placed this little one back up in the tree.
The owl family seemed to leave the area shortly thereafter, perhaps related to the noise pollution of a new house going up nearby. But that is now behind us, and the neighborhood for the most part is quiet again. And the Great Horned Owls may be moving back into the area.
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There’s a knoll in the back of our property that overlooks some wetlands. The area has long been overgrown, and there were rumors of a coyote den somewhere in the tangles. This year, though, I’ve only seen foxes there.
For the 2nd time in a couple of weeks, one has been napping on top of the hill. Not sure they’re one and the same, but if so, what looked like mange on its backside was probably just fur molting; the sparse gray is shifting back to a thick red coat. What I am most struck with are the big ears (actively listening in this photo). Stay tuned for the possibility of forthcoming kits!
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