My Poor Fedex Ground Guy

Yesterday it was pouring. What's new. There was a loud knock at the door and I ran upstairs to find the FedEx Ground guy running to his truck. I picked up the package and yelled to the guy. He is usually chatty and since I talk to noone all day long, I yelled thank you. No reply. Odd. And then it hit me. He thinks we are some kind of crazy people. As he walked to the house, he passed half a carcass of a lamb complete with head and 2 front legs. 

I yelled my apologies but he was already in the truck speeding away. I knew I should have picked that thing up. But the dogs were having so much fun with it carrying it around. 

For all you folks reading who think everything is sunny and full of peonies, let's say the past few weeks have been full of pouring down rain, broken tractors and lamb perils. The coyotes have had their babies, the fawns are being born (saw one yesterday), multiple parts of the tractor and haying implements have been breaking down every sunny day, the plow broke so the veggie and flower garden can't be readied. And it won't stop raining.

Mostly it is the coyote losses that get us down. Yesterday The Farmer let a bunch of ewes with their babies out into a pasture to graze for the day. Not a half hour later, he was driving the tractor to collect something and a coyote ran in front of him. That coyote. He hopped off the tractor and went to the grazing sheep. Yup - a coyote killed dead lamb. This animal has been feasting on lambs left and right, night after night. We have a guard dog, a guard llama, a guard donkey, very decent fencing. This thing won't stop. And that is only with one group of sheep in Bernardston. Coyotes are rugged, hungry, very resourceful. The Farmer said this one looked healthy. He has been eating good. It is really driving The Farmer nuts. Me, I think about the poor mama looking for its baby and also the loss of revenue.

Here at our house, three nights ago, it was raining and Winston was barking more than usual. The Farmer got up to see what he could see in the middle of the night. Better him than me considering where he had to walk to and through in the dark, climbing through tall grass and over all kinds of fallen tree limbs and trunks. He couldn't see anything in particular. But when he got up to the house, he noticed Winston had followed him back up the hill and brought the head and 2 front legs of a sheep with him. So that was the ruckus. Too late. 

As for throwing out the dead lamb, the coyote was scared off. He would have eaten it or at least carried it away. Why let a good lamb go to waste so I let the dogs gnaw on it. Something might as well enjoy it.

Julia did notice it. When she got home from school the other day, she said "Mommy, was that a lamb's head I walked past on the way to the school bus?" "Yes Julia." Poor kid - can't believe it doesn't give her nightmares. Sure would have given them to me when I was 14. But it is all in a day around here. Nothing really bothers the kid, or me I guess. Thank goodness because we never know what the next day will bring. 

I'm not sure the FedEx guy will come back. Crazy hillbillies. (That's what I have started referring to us as.)