I awakened this morning to a beautiful pink sky and a soft tapping sound on the window behind my head. I like to have a window near my head as I sleep, to open and close as I choose. Also, to look outside as soon as I open my eyes just to have a few moments to be grateful before the busy day begins. This soft tapping I soon realize is a little bird pecking either at its reflection or possibly bugs. But it is winter and there really are not a lot of bugs out there. Anyway, my usual quiet moment became a tapping contest back and forth. I'd tap, it would tap and so forth...until I gave up and got up.
I always shower first thing in the morning, and I also take a bath at night. I enjoy a morning shower just to extend a bit of alone time to think about my day. And, I like to end my day in a nice warm bath, usually reading or writing. As I was enjoying my morning hot shower, I could hear tapping and little knocking sounds. We have a sky light in the bathroom. And the little noises sounded like they were coming from up there. So, I look up and there are seven (7) doves (14 little feet that looked like spiders, pecking at something and then sliding down the sky light. As I said, it is winter and so there is some snow/ice on the sky light. The doves would climb up to the highest point, peck at something and eventually slide on the slippery surface, down to the lowest part. When my husband enters the bathroom, I point up and he says that possibly they are getting the grit from the shingles. Or adds, maybe they are just having fun :).
At least once a day there will be a woodpecker knocking on some side of our log cabin. Now, I think that they really are doing that just for fun. There are many trees right around the cabin (there are several thousand acres of state land around our 40 acres) that he or she could choose from...but, they choose our home to do what they do.....
A little history of this (new to us) log cabin. It has been a 'camp' for many years. Families would just come up here occasionally to hunt or whatever. We are renovating (slowly because it's winter) into a year around home.
We've noticed that the wildlife on this forty acres really does not pay much attention to us. The birds that come to the seed basket don't even move when we add more seed or walk past them as they are helping themselves to a sunflower seed. The deer just walk around and drink out of the pond and eat the corn that we put out for our sheep like they are part of the herd. The squirrels do not even run when we walk out onto our deck and they are in the seed basket.
It is as if, this place is their's and we are just a mild inconvenience.
This log cabin has an attic and we have closed it off for the winter. It is full of stuff (junk) (not ours) and we don't really want to address it at this time. We filled an industrial dumpster with the junk that was here from the first floor and plan on attacking the attic in the spring. That is unless it attacks us first. We hear running around up there every day. Sometime with boots on, sometimes rolling bowling balls, sometimes yelling at one another. My husband thinks it's kind of funny....I guess I do too, but occasionally it sounds like they are going to drop right down on our dinner table as we eat. We're thinking squirrels. There are definitely openings in the ends of the roof and it's an easy entry for anyone that can climb up there. Perfect sleeping quarters during this cold season.
We've been here about two months now and we are so used to all of the noises that if we don't hear any running or tapping, we wonder if everyone is okay. Our dogs don't even look up anymore. Once everyone quiets down at night, we wish them a good nights sleep, assuming that they are tucked in, curled up and enjoying all the heat that escapes from the 1st floor.
We are not hunters, I am a vegetarian and so, harming any animals just isn't our thing. This was their home and place to be, way before we bought this place. So, we have learned to cohabitant. As long as I don't have to sleep or bathe with a squirrel, I'm fine with that. There are apparently bears and other large wildlife around here also....(our land butts up against thousands of acres of wet land/state land) and so, our current group of little creatures that live with us, are really our more desirable neighbors and housemates.
My husband and I raise peacocks. Fell in love with them 25 years ago, after going to a bird show (yes, there are bird shows) and have not stopped buying and raising peacocks and peahens since. We have watched 100's of chicks being raised by the best moms in the world. The males are busy showing the world their beautiful tail feathers and the moms who have much more subdued plumage, are busy raising as many as 4 - 12 babies. They average 6. It takes 27 - 30 days to hatch and that mama will not leave that nest. Ours are free range (generally) and they nest under hosta plants and hide so well that we sometimes just come upon them by accident. Watching mom raise her chicks is so amazing. She will take them out for a walk and if she feels any danger, gathers them under her and sits until she feels it is safe. Everyday she has them roosting a bit higher. I've seen her teaching them to jump up on a large clay pot and roost for the night. The next time, it's up onto some saw horses, until she gets them to jump/fly to the lowest branch on a tree. The growing chicks get so excited at sunset...they are all running and hopping a few feet off the ground under the big walnut tree, trying to work up the nerve to fly up to the lowest branch. Many make it on their first try and others fall back down but they don't quit because mom is always calling from the lowest branch, until all of her babies are warm and safe under her for the night. We are currently raising them in a protected building/run. We just moved to the UP Michigan and it's winter and we wanted to have more control over our animals/birds for this winter season.
