Oak Burl

 Found this chunk of oak burl while working in the woodpile yesterday.

Itchy itchy...

Poor Bullet has allergies.  His ears bear the brunt of the irritation.  I'd run out of antihistamine for him a week or so ago.  Last night, they were bugging him so much that he woke me up at 02:30 flapping his ears nonstop.

I managed to find some antihistamine for him in a cupboard, and he eventually settled down again, around 03:30 this morning.  So when they opened, I called his vet.   Unfortunately, they were all booked up the rest of the week, due to holidays, and couldn't see him until next week.

So I came up with an idea, to try to prevent not only the flapflapflap of his big old ears, but to also limit the risk of my house looking like a slaughterhouse if he splits an ear tip!  As much as he was shaking his head, he would paint my ceilings red with the blood from a split ear tip.

I repurposed one of my cycling tubular bandanas into a doggie snood!

He seems to be tolerating it better than I expected.  With this, and his collar off, he doesn't make much noise now.  Maybe I will be able to sleep tonight?

Trailcam fun

We decided to set out a trail cam in the woods to see what wandered by.  There are a lot of tracks, as you can see in some of my earlier posted photos.

Here's what we caught on candid camera!

A couple of bucks, and a pair of does.

Taking a walk

Lately, I have been taking our older male Ridgeback, Bullet, for walks in the woods.  We have enjoyed seeing all the wildlife tracks, and even spooked a buck one evening.  That was exciting!

Bullet gets so excited to go on walks.   His whole demeanor shifts to that of an overgrown puppy.  It makes me happy to see him like this.  All our dogs love their walks, though Shiloh does not like her Gentle Leader halter, and pouts about wearing it.

The woods here are noisy this time of year, with all the leaves on the ground.  Squirrels skitter through the leaves, acorns fall like hail, humans and dogs alike crunch crunch crunch on our walks.

I've found we see all sorts of fascinating things on our walks in the woods.  I hope that for as long as we are here, the woods stay undeveloped.  There is wildlife here.

A little kitty.

Doe, a deer, and a not so little kitty!

There are odd vines, and lumpy trees, that if one were to use their imagination, could see spirits, dark things perhaps, reaching out, grasping, and binding.

There are even trash pandas (of course!) in the woods.   We've seen those pesky guys around...one of them most likely is responsible for the demise of one of our guinea fowl.

Raccoon, aka Trash Panda

The colors and shades of fall are some of my favorites.  You never know when you will stumble upon a brilliant flash of color, even out in the woods under a heavy oak canopy.