Wyoming ecology - Wyoming

COYOTES: Attendant shares his face-to-face encounter with animals - Sarnia Observer

18.04.09

Stay calm, don't run.

Tim Steadman repeated those words to himself as he retreated.

The attendant at the Children's Animal Farm in Sarnia's Canatara Park had long-known coyotes were living in the area.

He'd been cleaning up the bloody remains of waterfowl, believed to be meals they'd left behind all winter.

Now, two coyotes stood before him looking intently in his direction. This was the first time they'd come face-to-face. He was stunned. They shouldn't be this close, he thought.

Steadman had ventured outside around 8 a. m. that cold winter's morning in late January to do a lap around the farm. As he approached the back fence he noticed the pair lingering.

"I hollered at them and raised my arms," he said, recalling coyotes he'd seen on his farm in Plympton-Wyoming. Normally, they ran at the first sign of humans.

"They looked at me and started towards me."

Without thinking, Steadman turned his back to the animals and walked toward the barn. When he glanced over his shoulder, they were following. Turning to face the coyotes, he stepped backwards toward safety.

Source: Sarnia Observer,  Canada

Gardening begins at White House, Wyoming still a month (or so) away


In the High Lonesome, we're more than a month away from planting our gardens. Seeds have been sprouted, plans have been made, but the planting comes somewhere between mid-May and Memorial Day. Even then, we can get snow -- which isn't so bad -- and frost -- which is bad. This is why many of us plant container gardens. And the rest of us keep a ready supply of old sheets and other frost-defying coverlets. Watch the sky!

Meanwhile, in the White House low country, Michelle Obama and kids from Bancroft Elementary School were turning the soil and putting in the crops including heirloom varieties from jefferson's Monticello). A press release from FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States) had lots to say on the subject. Gardening is good for kids, it can help with the obesity epidemic, drives the wingnuts crazy. I made that last part up. It's true, but the White House won't say it in print. But the wingnuts start foaming at the mouth when any mention is made of ecology, gardening, Michelle Obama, locavore, global warming, peace & justice, etc. Almost anything can make them foam at the mouth.

I read an article the other day about people in more temperate climes replacing their water-sucking front lawns with vegetable gardens. I have contemplated this. But our growing season is so short that the blooms don't stay around and come October we're left with dried-up stems that looks like weeds. Better to have a brown lawn than a weedy rock garden. We're challenged to intersperse the plants with evergreens with rocks with ground covers and mulch and possibly some yard art. Looks better. But it's a chore.

I'm revamping my entire yard this summer. Stay tuned for...

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