Vintage Home and Farm

Living next to a creek, we expect to see various wild animals coming and going, as this land is their home, too. We've got deer, chipmunks, raccoons, and a wide variety of birds, including birds of prey like barn owls and bald eagles. Once, a black bear was spotted behind our milk shed down by the creek, and our neighbor has seen cougar tracks on the trail that runs behind our house. Occasionally, we get word that someone has seen a cougar along Morse Creek. Even so, we were rather surprised when we spotted five coyote pups hanging out around here. They are not hiding from anyone and are present during the day. If they spot you, they don't run away too quickly, so they aren't all that afraid of people.  The coyote pups look like small dogs, and they spend much of their time hunting for field mice and other rodents in the fields on and around our property. All five pups were hunting together for rodents in the newly hayed field across the road at Elton's farm. We noticed...

We recently attended a wild bird workshop that discussed creating and certifying a property such as our yard as a wildlife habitat through the National Wildlife Federation. The intention of the wildlife habitat certification program is to encourage people to make adjustments to their yards to benefit not only wild birds but also many other creatures, such as frogs, toads, bees, and butterflies. The program also results in increased species biodiversity and the support of native plants.  We've seen all kinds of wildlife on our property, but some are not visible during the full spring-to-fall growing season, and when they are present, they are not in great numbers. So, we're looking forward to adding a few elements to our property to attract and keep more wildlife around. I'm especially interested in how we can make our yard, fields, and garden more attractive to frogs, toads, and gardener snakes. As you may recall, we had a mama gardener snake and her babies hanging around o...