January Update

We have been away for a week on a little holiday and all seems well on the ranch. Thanks to the neighbors that feed the animals and watch the place we can get away every once in a while. I'm sure the deer and birds are glad we are back as I have filled all the feeders for them. I did see a Blue Jay this week. They are very common in the city, but I have never been able to confirm seeing one on the ranch before this week. When I first came here I thought that it was very odd that Blue Jays would not be found in the country. I'm not sure why. Another common bird you see more in the city than in the country is our state bird, the mockingbird. I see a few mockingbirds but not many. I also saw a robin this week. Maybe the bug eaters are hanging together.

About six of the goats look like they will be kidding within the next month. I knew they were with kid for quite a while but not having seen them for a week makes it more noticeable, especially the ones I was unsure about.

I moved the stealth cam from the feeder to the water tank since I knew I would not be here to fill the feeders. Nothing really exciting seen. I did move it back to the feeder upon return and had a lot of activity. I'll upload the photos of the past few nights. Look for a link on an update.

Weather was cool before leaving, but the past few day have been very nice. It always changes though. Yesterday it was 86°, but this morning it was below freezing, a drop of 56° in twelve hours.

Fair Access Policy: It's not easy out in the country to get good internet access. We are beyond cable, DSL, and other common ISP's. Most who have internet in the country have to use satellite. I use Hughes.net. When you see someone with a hughes.net email address your almost assured that they live in the boonies. One of the problems with using satellite is that you are sharing the air waves with all kinds of people, businesses, military, devices, etc. so they have a policy called the Fair Access Policy which limits your internet use by volume. I have learned to upload or download large files in the middle of the night so that I will not go over the allotted limit. That is why I'll have to wait to upload the wildlife photos. Just another thing we deal with living in the country.