Let the summer begin

[maystone]

We had a smog alert today. I don't think it's the first one this year, but it does seem to signal the official start of summer in southern Ontario. I had no idea this part of Canada was as smoggy as it is, but there you have it. I believe that it's a combination of the air patterns and the industrial smog from Detroit wafting its way north. Anyway and for whatever reason, we get smog. Dar is feeling under the weather tonight, and I think a good part of it is due to the air quality. For some weird reason my asthma doesn't seem to be affected, and I'm not complaining at all about that happy fact.

An unhappy fact is that our neighbors heard coyotes howling at the edges of the property last night. I was going to head out to Home Depot to buy some floodlights, but Dar suggested that we hold off on that until Tyler comes this weekend and runs some proper electrical lines farther out, which makes sense. Instead we strung all of our outdoor Christmas lights around the sides of the paddock. I know the odds are that they'll go for easier prey (such as the small army of rabbits that inhabit the area), but I had to try to do something to make the place look less easy to attack. Especially now that we have little Valentino out there. Tomorrow come hell or high water I'm going to mow down every bit of high grass and weeds that still stand out there; the less cover the predators have, the less appealing a place is. That goes for wild dogs as well as coyotes. What we need is a shotgun and a livestock guardian dog. Or me on a cot in the barn with a big old stick and my usual bad attitude :)

In less angsty news, we did some errands around Listowel, one of which led us to the municipal building. While Dar was inside, I went strolling around the parking lot and ran across

You gotta love Canucks :)

Comments

[malterre.livejournal.com]

. Or me on a cot in the barn with a big old stick and my usual bad attitude :)
That mental picture is pretty darn funny and scary-especially if i camp out...

[maystone.livejournal.com]

Just don't make any sudden moves toward the alpacas and you'll be just fine.

[budclare.livejournal.com]

Or me on a cot in the barn with a big old stick and my usual bad attitude

I'd go with a big, rolled-up newspaper. "Bad dogs, bad!"

[maystone.livejournal.com]

I don't think coyotes react too well to a rolled up newspaper; they might laugh a lot before they bite me, though, so there is that.

[petranef.livejournal.com]

I vote for you and the stick in the barn!

[maystone.livejournal.com]

Heh, it sounds like Clue: mays in the barn with a stick.

[darlong.livejournal.com]

Ah yes. I can see it now. Stomping out of the barn, walking stick in hand..."Hey you damn coyotes...stay off of my lawn er...land..."

The paddock looked like a UFO landing pad, and I'm sure any animal even thinking of dragging themselves over 2 fences and across an empty paddock to get to the UFO landing pad (with the oldies rock station blaring from the barn) is properly discouraged. However, if Valentino gets alien abducted and suffers traumatic flashbacks, it's YOUR fault. : )

[darlong.livejournal.com]

Oh and as for the photo...I think he's the mayor of Listowel, no?

[maystone.livejournal.com]

Well, he is going to get an anal probe - at you hands I might add :)

[brighty18.livejournal.com]

Smog alerts suck! Believe me, I grew-up in Southern California in the 1980's and remember smog. We had days that we could not go out for recess and later on sports were canceled, etc. What stage was it? Or do you have stages in Canada?

We had coyotes, too. In fact, one almost ate my cat when I was none years old. It attacked her and she got away, but she developed an enormous abscess that nearly killed her. She disappeared for days and had crawled off to die. We were worried sick but were out grilling steaks one night and we heard her crying. My dad (who claimed to hate her) cut up his own steak and crawled under some bushed with it to lure her out. We took her to the emergency vet and she lived but it cost us a small fortune. Yes, I'm rambling, but the point is I don't mess with coyotes.

I heard that llamas are good defense against coyotes AND they get along with alpacas. Is this true?

[maystone.livejournal.com]

I lived right at the edge of the metro-Boston area, and people were always losing their cats to coyotes. We used to see a coyote come up and browse around the dumpster where I worked. I didn't think that coyotes made up this far, but I guess they did.

Llamas are very good guard animals against small predators like coyotes. They're no match for cougars, wolves, or packs of wild dogs, though. You need several Livestock Guard Dogs for that. We're planning on getting a llama or two by the end of the summer, and we were even before the coyote scare. I love llamas, so I was pushing for getting them :)

I think now that the shows and the shearing and the birthing are finally over I finally have the time to go back and really read through that post you did a few days ago about the (co-operative?) farm that you have with your friends. That looked fascinating! I've been wanting to get back to it, but lately I've only had time to quickly browse through LJ. Off I go!

[brighty18.livejournal.com]

I will never cease to be amazed at the capacity for certain forms of wildlife to adapt to urban situations. Coyotes virtually THRIVE in the suburbs with the abundance of trash, water and small house pets.

Yes, it IS a co-op sort of farm. We're just getting started, but it's a good way to learn. Andrew spent the past few days working on developing and installing the irrigation system.

We're getting a free llama, too. Some neighbor came up and said that his brother bought a pony which apparently came with a free llama. The guy doesn't want a llama, but he DOES want to shoot a wild turkey, so our friends are trading turkey shooting privileges for a llama. This is not a bad deal unless the guy has exceptionally bad aim!

[brighty18.livejournal.com]