Saturn Swamp

A couple days ago, Pepercorn, a New Zealand/Silver Fox cross, and one of my most productive does died.

Attila is a half shepherd, half husky, that we got from a rescue when she was about nine weeks old. She and her siblings were trapped as feral the week before. They had been dumped in a cornfield as pups and left for dead. Surviving on what they could catch in the field.

I lost count of how many escaped rabbits she has caught without harming somewhere in the low 20’s.

A couple nights ago, Attila and I went out to the rabbitry to work. In warm weather she sometimes goes in ahead of my through one of the sides that’s open for ventilation, other times she waits for me to open the door. This night, she went in ahead.

I opened the door, glanced at my clipboard with the chore sheet, set down the clipboad, glanced down the aisle and there they were…

Attila was laying at the end of the aisle with a large lump between her paws and she was actively licking it.

As I approached I could see it was a good sized silver fox rabbit. When I got up to them, I could see it looking back at me. I reached down quickly and got a hold on it. I told Attila she was a good girl. She was holding an escaped replacement doe, one paw on it’s neck, one paw behind it’s rump, licking it and keeping it calm while she restrained it.

GOOD GIRL!

I put the doe back in her cage, latched it and double checked the latch (I never liked the latch on that cage, I should replace it with a better one…)

Then Attila headed straight back into the rabbitry extention, sat under a cage and set her gaze on it.

This is a sign. Attila does this when a litter is kindled, a kit dies, or something in the cage requires my attention. So I asked Attila what the issue was, and typical of her, she didn’t answer, she just looked at the cage. When I got the cage with Peppercorn and her 10 day old litter I saw Peppercorn laying on her side, motionless and not breathing.

Once what had happened had settled in, I checked the kits, all well filled out and active, some with their eyes open already and tried to figure out where I could foster them. I settled on a rex with a small litter of her own that were just a couple days younger. This doe’s track record wasn’t so good, she had raised as many kits as she lost, but it came down to that or hand feeding them until I could get them on solids.

In the past couple days, this doe has proven herself worthy of the task.

Oh, and like I said, Attila! Good girl!

Lento Restaurant is now serving rabbits from our farm here in the Saturn Swamp. Last week they features a Rosemary mezzoluna stuffed with rabbit sausage over ratatuie with a creamy mustard sauce. These mezzoluna/sausage had a bit of a sour taste, but when paired with the mustard sauce the flavors blended nicely and came together well.

This week they are offering “Saturn Farms rabbit leg, pan seared and crusted with Dijon and rosemary breadcrumbs, over Southern style scalloped tomatoes and braised Raindance baby chard” (Raindance being a local vegetable farm.)

Lento’s website has the details of their location and the rest of their menu at http://www.lentorestaurant.com.

I’m looking forward to seeing what Art, the chef/owner at Lento does with my rabbits next week.

Angel, AKA Swamp Doggie Dog eventually succumbed to cancer and old age.

The original bladder cancer cleared up after a few months treatment with a combination of Chinese spices and turmeric. For the next year and a half or so she showed no signs of the cancer, but old age was taking it’s toll. In the last couple months she showed signs of increased joint pain that eventually made it difficult for her to go up the stairs to come into the house.

The last time I carried her up the stairs, I noticed a tennis ball sized lump under her left arm pit that wasn’t there two weeks prior when I groomed her. She went to the vet the next morning. The vet determined it was a tumor but thought it was a slow growing fatty tumor and that Angel could live with it for a good long time still. When informed that the tumor wasn’t there two weeks ago she acknowledged that it was much more serious. Since the original tumor was in her bladder it was likely that the cancer was spreading and she didn’t have much longer. We decided to go ahead and put her down. Afterwards, the vet also mentioned that she had noticed signs of advanced spinal degeneration too.

The following week we spread her ashes in her favorite area of the swamp.

Last September, during a regular vet visit, Swamp Doggie Dog’s urine showed traces of blood. A few tests later it was determined that she has cancer in her bladder. The vet forcasted that she would survive one month to a year if we did nothing. If we chose to have the lump removed, she would still have one month to a year. We decided that since the outcome was the same with or without surgery, that we would not put her through the stress of surgery. The vet recommended herbal treatments to keep the size of the tumor down. Over the past seven months she has lost about 20 pounds and continues to lose weight. Some days are better than others, but she still does a happy dance when we tell her it’s time to go to the vet. (She has always liked to going to the vet.) She continues with daytime guard duties, watching the chickens and protecting the hens from aggressive roosters.

Another ring necked pheasant encounter has occurred, but I was on foot and didn’t have my camera on hand…

This has been a hard winter for Clifford the Big Red Truck. The batteries died a hard death due to hard starting. So I replaced the batteries and had the Ford dealership check out the charging system, which was fine. I asked them to check the glow plugs, but they didn’t think it was necessary. So, when the new batteries died (!) I had Clifford towed to the dealership and and insisted that they check the glow plugs. Four of the glow plugs were burnt out.

On February 3rd, Clifford came home… and slipped off the driveway. But I managed to keep going, over the moat and most of the way up the driveway, sideways. While trying to get straightened out, I ended up with both driver’s side tires off the driveway. This was not a good thing.

Mired in muck, I climbed out the passenger door and hiked the rest of the way up the driveway.

It took more than a month of digging, jacking, shimming, and rocking to get Clifford out again. Mind you, it wasn’t a daily effort, I was only able to work at this on weekends.

But, isn’t Clifford a 4×4 you ask?

Yes, but, the u-joints on the front drive shaft chose THIS MOMENT to go on a permanent vacation. By the time I got Clifford out on the 20th the front drive shafts were toast.

The dealership that I had been getting my work done at wanted three grand to get Clifford roadworthy and offroadworthy, a mere grand to get him to the point of passing inspection. Things weren’t looking good for Clifford, retirement was close at hand.

In looking for a replacement vehicle (Diesel, 4×4, high clearance) I was referred to a local mechanic who was only two blocks away (in other words, a short three mile drive.)

He gave Clifford the once over and quoted $1053 to get him back to good health! So, Clifford has gotten a second lease on life here at the swamp.

Clifford is back in service, happily running on biodiesel. I’m now looking at a heated fuel tank so Clifford can run on straight veggie oil.

December 11th, 2003

An occupation hazard of living in a swamp is that wildlife finds the most inopportune times to introduce itself to you. This morning the SwampWife was running late for an appointment but a Ring-Necked Pheasant decided to stand in the way as she was driving down the driveway. After waiting longer than she could afford to, she inched the vehicle forward until the pheasant realized that something large was approaching and decided it would be a good idea to move along.

November 11th, 2003

I met Fred the Backhoe operator. Normally, this would not merit mention here, but it’s WHERE I met him.

I was on my way down down driveway and I saw a backhoe in the swamp moving toward the driveway with a 30 foot wide cleared path in it’s wake! So I got out of my truck, and started toward it. The operator got out and started unfolding a piece of paper.

I called out to him, “I’m glad to see you, but the ditch that needed cleaning is about three hundred feet that way” and pointed to the east.

He called back that there was a ditch there too and wanted to know if there was a culvert under the driveway. I informed him that the culvert was 300 feet to the east as well.

It ends up that the ditch he was clearing had been overgrown for about 40 years. He’ll be back to clear the other ditches. So we had a nice discussion about the layout of the ditches, where there are solid banks, where there is marsh/trees/beaver dens, etc.

November 7th, 2003

Yesterday, while taking the SwampDoggieDog out for her morning activities, the yard was alive with winged wildlife! Most of it was commonplace to me… I spotted a male cardinal, a female cardinal, a red-winged blackbird, a couple bluejays all around the pond.

Then I spotted something off to the east of the pond about 30 feet up in the trees. It was so big that I thought is was a small turkey at first. Then it flew down 10 feet to another tree about 20 feet north of where I first spotted it. As it came around the trunk of the tree I recognized a red crest, then it started that familiar woodpecker drilling on the trunk. It was my first sighting of a Pileated Woodpecker! And I didn’t have my camera with me!

May 28th, 2003

Last month we had an Ice Storm, and following Upstate New York tradition, it was promptly followed by sufficient winds to knock down whatever the ice didn’t.

This morning the local utility company had a crew out to the swamp to execute some minor repairs. They noticed that one of our poles was leaning a bit too much, so the went to check the anchor. As the lineman approached the anchor he was surprised by a turkey flying out at him. Yup, there was a turkey nest at the base of that pole.

I took a few shots of the eggs in the nest and posted them.

I’ll be keeping the dogs away from the back of the house for the next three weeks or so until the eggs hatch and the poults leave the nest.

Every time we drive down our driveway we run the risk of being delayed on the way to our destination. The more urgent it is (running late for work or to pick up Monkeyboy from school, for example) the more likely that we will be delayed by one of the swamp critters.

So far, rabbits, ducks, ducklings, geese, goslings, small, yet to be identified wading birds (sanderling? sandpiper?) snapping turtles, and an eastern painted turtle have all caused us to run late for appointments.

Yesterday, the SwampWife’s way out was blocked by a 12 inch snapping turtle who was in no mood to be polite. SwampWife used a rope to get the snapper off the driveway (her talents never cease to amaze me). She turned it over, for a couple minutes to get some photos of the bottom shell (for identification purposes.) Then she turned right side up, “snapped” a couple more photos and went on her way.

The day before that, an eastern painted turtle blocked her passage. She picked it up, ran it back to the house, and placed it under a wire basket on the grass with a dinned plate full of water. When I got home an hour or so later, we photographed and observed it for a little while.

Following our captive critter rule, we released it before sunset. I placed it to the side of the driveway near the place where it was originally found. When I went back to check up on it a little later, it was gone. I suppose it went and found itself a turtle Bed and Breakfast…

We also never know what we’re going to meet when we step out the door.

I’ve walked into white tailed deer, wild turkeys, chipmunks, and about a week ago, when we were letting SwampDoggieDog out to do her business, she ran down the stairs so fast that she fell half the way. This was because there was two geese with two goslings right next to the porch. They were hiding from our view, but SwampDoggie’s superior hearing and sense of smell told her that there were “toys” down there and she couldn’t wait to get to them!

The geese made for the pond, one of the adults and one of the goslings got there quickly. Both adults were honking, and we were trying to call SwampDoggie off. Knowing what we know of the disposition of a goose in defense mode and of SwampDoggie’s playfulness, there was no doubt that if physical contact were to be made and SwampDoggie would get the worse of it!

When the second goose made it to the pond the adults realized that only one of the goslings had also made it to the pond. The other was halfway to the pond, with a big red carnivore between it and it’s calling parents.

One of the adults came back out of the pond, wings spread wide, and charged at SwampDoggie. Soon after this, SwampDoggie decided to heed our calls, and came back to the porch. The stray gosling was reunited with it’s parents and the whole goose family rested safely in the pond.