June 2025

Well, it looks like June brought with it an uninvited guest in the form of a juvenile black bear.  He and mommy showed up one evening around midnight and were immediately chased up a tree by our pack of Great Pyrenees.  Mommy took off but Junior remained stuck for the balance of the night and into the morning until finally escaping over a back fence.  No damage and no harm to anything this time; just a few good pictures.  

Young Black Bear Stuck in a Tree

The Young Bear Finally out the Tree and Escaping out the Back of the Ranch

Spring always brings with it new life, and this season we've had chicks aplenty - both chickens and guineas.  Insofar as guinea moms tend to be neglectful, we've taken to tucking the young guineas under our brooding hens.  Nobody seems to notice the different and the two breeds grow up together until the guineas are old enough to move in with their own kind.  Our guinea count is rapidly approaching 40.

Chicks and Baby Guineas New to the World

 Among the wildlife around this time of year are mule deer and, of course, our ubiquitous feral cattle.  Interestingly enough, the two species have somewhat of a symbiotic relationship.  While cattle graze primarily on grasses, deer tend to go for leafy plants and the two often grow adjacent to one another.  Cattle also offer an early warning system of predators to deer.  In any event, while we couldn't get both deer and cattle in the same photo, they were pretty close together at the time of this taking.

Juvenile Deer Looking on

Feral Cattle Scanning the Landscape

While grapes are usually a fall crop, we are surrounded by wild grape vines up here and a wet spring usually ensures a good crop.  Unfortunately, the birds and other critters get most of them, but a bunch or two generally make it through to harvest time.  When fully ripe, they're small, purple, and very tasty.

Wild Grapes in Bloom

The fig and apple trees in our orchard are also producing, although every year is a contest between bird, beast, and human as to who (or what) will eat them first.  Win some, lose some, but there's generally enough for everyone.

Apples and Fresh Figs

Finally, here's a picture of sorry Sailor who took a nose full of skunk perfume lat night.  It took tomato juice, baking soda, soap, and hydrogen peroxide to reduce the odor, and today Sailor still isn't smelling all that great.  Hopefully, this was a lesson learned.  

Sailor Catching a Bath After a Skunk Encounter