Where did January go?

Wow, this month certainly flew by! Even without traveling we seem to keep plenty busy! After neglecting this blog for so long I vowed to post an update at least monthly until we're able to hit the road again, so here's what's been happening at the ranch this month. 

We started out the month with The Great Bambi Adventure.

This problem was a holdover from late December, when I looked out the back window and saw a fawn drinking out of a bird water pan. I was shocked! 

In the 10 years we've lived here we've not had any deer in our gated and fenced yard other than two or three that managed to sneak in while we opened the gate to drive out, and we were able to chase them out immediately. 

For convenience we started calling the fawn Bambi (though we think it is a girl, and Bambi was a boy). Bambie apparently arrived shortly before her mother, which I saw slip through the gate as I was going to my car to leave for town.  

This doe was smarter than our previous visitors, and in no time she managed to hide in the brush. I didn't know at the time she was following her fawn, so when the fawn showed up at the water pan and I saw the mother around the corner I knew we had 2 deer in the yard - Yikes!  

The doe managed to jump the gate at some point (the only place low enough for a deer to jump over) but Bambi was too small to jump that high, so she became a resident. We were faced with quite a dilemma - if we left the gate open the dogs would wander out and more deer would probably wander in.  What to do???

It became part of Steve's daily morning walk around the property to open the gate and then try to flush the fawn out and work it down the driveway. The fawn always managed to dart sideways and hide in the brush again. Finally we put up a temporary fence that created a path to the gate and with a little strategy succeeded it moving Bambi out. Seeing that little white tail heading down the driveway was one of my happiest days! It seems to have joined the local herd with no problems, and we're certainly hoping we don't have a repeat of this adventure! 

In the middle of January we had a bit of snow. 

It's been several years since we had enough to even accumulate. This storm delivered a nice amount of snow that gave the grandsons a chance to throw snowballs at each other, and enough to melt slowly into the soil. 

We've had a very dry winter so I know the wildflowers will appreciate that, and the Magical Giraffe that lives here seemed to appreciate the view too. 

I think everyone can identify with having "too much stuff", and when we moved here we downsized considerably in regard to space to store the "stuff" and still have access to it....so.... we've created a couple of new storage buildings. The crew working on the newest project showed up the day after the snow, so it was a rather chilly enterprise, but they didn't seem to mind.  The company we use for construction is  DNA sheds and they are GREAT! 

Rather than an off-the-shelf shed, we can plan the configuration exactly the way we want it, door sizes, windows or not, etc. It's amazing to watch them put one up. 

They bring the parts mostly cut to size, paint the exterior pieces laying on the ground, assemble the walls, but on the  wall panels and trim, and poof! there's a building! All done in one day. They built one for us last summer, attached to the RV parking area. In this photo all the trim strips have been painted and are drying while they finish the walls and put on the roof.

They finished both of the small storage sheds we wanted this time in one day. Now Steve is paneling the inside of one and installing lights, then we can move in all of the items that are crowding us out of the house!

The lack of water for wildlife this winter has been pretty noticeable - I think that's why the deer wanted into the yard. We always have a nice variety of migrating birds for that reason too, and this year is no exception

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I looked out the kitchen window a few days ago and that water pan was covered with cedar waxwings, all busily dipping and sipping. 

They're a very nervous bird, and it was hard to get a clear photo. It didn't help that the many robins who also wanted a drink kept chasing them away. 

Cedar waxwings love the little berries on the juniper trees that are so common around here too, so it's a pretty comfortable environment for them. They are a beautiful little bird, with such fascinating coloring and pattern, I wish they would stay around a little longer but we seem to always be just a stop along the way to somewhere else.  

The robins are still here though, by the dozens! and soon we'll have young cardinals, finches and then the buntings to watch.