{"id":3170,"date":"2013-01-20T00:06:18","date_gmt":"2013-01-20T00:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/redmeadow.com\/?p=3170"},"modified":"2013-01-20T00:06:18","modified_gmt":"2013-01-20T00:06:18","slug":"coincidences-happen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/?p=3170","title":{"rendered":"Coincidences Happen"},"content":{"rendered":"

A week ago Friday, we babysat our neighbors’ dog and four cats over the weekend while they took a mid-winter trip to go run a half Marathon.\u00a0 When they were driving down the road heading out they saw a Mountain Lion run out of our driveway and head down the hill in front of them before it dove off the road.<\/p>\n

A couple of days later we noticed that our bunny friend who lives under the carport wasn’t around.\u00a0 We didn’t think anything about it at first, because he or she goes on walkabout from time to time and then reappears in the old same place under the carport.\u00a0 But after almost a week of no bunny, we figured perhaps something had happened.<\/p>\n

Then yesterday our neighbors mentioned the lion.\u00a0 Coincidence?\u00a0 Probably not.<\/p>\n

Today I went for a walk up past the carport, looking for lion tracks which were hopefully not still occupied.\u00a0 I didn’t wear snowshoes, and should have been as the snow was a bit too deep for comfortable walking.\u00a0 I didn’t get very far before I returned home.<\/p>\n

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Coming back down the driveway, I was admiring what a pretty day we were having, so in lieu of a picture of a Mountain Lion track in the snow, I settled for a snow picture without any lions at all.<\/p><\/div>\n

Sunny days like this make our solar panels produce plenty of power, charging the batteries well.\u00a0 It’s a free ride.\u00a0 Clear skies and full batteries.\u00a0 Another coincidence.<\/p>\n

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A Ruffed Grouse in a Service Berry bush, looking surprised. This isn't a coincidence. They always look surprised by everything.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Our exercise bike has a new home next to the windows overlooking the front yard.<\/p><\/div>\n

I was so happy I’d gone six miles on it the other day when Dan put it into perspective.\u00a0 At that rate, for the 15 mile one-way journey, it would be a 5-day round trip to the nearest town, and I’d only have to camp out four nights.\u00a0 It’s nice having a car!<\/p>\n

It’s actually quite entertaining riding the bike and watching the bird riot in the front yard.\u00a0 We have both been doing this exercise, and we tend to do it when the sun is starting to go down. \u00a0 There is always a riot going on in the front yard to coincide with the fullness or emptiness of the bird feeders.\u00a0 This last week we’ve seen a variety of top avian predators in the yard.\u00a0 A Pygmy Owl has been a very popular guest of the smaller birds (not!), as he tries to catch small birds and settles for the stray vole or two that tunnel in the snow under the bird feeders.<\/p>\n

An hour after sunset a couple of days ago, while it was still not quite dark, Opal alerted us to the fact that a Great Horned Owl was sitting on top of the large Ponderosa Pine down the hill from the house.\u00a0 We admired the profile of the bird, while Opal complained it was in the area.\u00a0 It’s about time to start hearing them call.<\/p>\n

Today a Goshawk flew through the yard, right at eye-level.\u00a0 And Opal complained about that one as well.\u00a0 She really doesn’t approve of Goshawks.<\/p>\n

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We were talking about the cold weather, in the single digits this last week, and Mishin heard us. He is taking no chances of getting cold.<\/p><\/div>\n

Speaking of walkabout, Terry was walking around on the floor in the living room talking to the furniture like she likes to do, and I was following her, talking to her and not paying attention to the fact that the cat had come down the stairs behind me.\u00a0 He walked right up to Terry and they were nose-to-nose.\u00a0 Briefly.\u00a0 Everybody was surprised.\u00a0 I snatched him up immediately to prevent damage if Terry decided to chomp the cat, and set him down on the stairs.\u00a0 He came right back and went upside down on the floor in front of the wood stove, employing cuteness.\u00a0 But it was unsuccessful.\u00a0 I did not put the macaw back on the floor.\u00a0 That was the first time those two have been that close together.\u00a0 Very exciting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A week ago Friday, we babysat our neighbors’ dog and four cats over the weekend while they took a mid-winter trip to go run a half Marathon.\u00a0 When they were driving down the road heading out they saw a Mountain Lion run out of our driveway and head down the hill in front of them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3170"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3188,"href":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3170\/revisions\/3188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}