Hey everyone!

I know it’s been a while and I kinda disappeared off the face of the earth, but I finally got around to starting up my own blog.  This will be the last time I take up any space on the lovely Horse Farm Diaries, but I just wanted to update anyone who might be interested in what I’m up to.  If you get the urge, feel free to check out my blog at www.aliontheloose.blogspot.com , I would love to hear from you.

Lori, thanks so much for the chance to post on your blog.  And everyone else back home, know that I’m missing all my fellow barn rats, and I look forward to seeing you guys this summer!

We have several woodland friends that frequent our yard. Fortunately, we have this glorous picture window in the front of our house that allows us to watch a lot of these creatures move about. Duke is thrilled, or should I say he’s our deer alarm and goes ballistic whenever they appear, which is daily.

I snuck out the back door to try and get some good pictures, but I was spotted.

It didn’t take long for this herd of about 25 decided to run away. But no worries, they appear every day.

One of the many amazing things about living out here is what you find around the house. Every time I move somewhere new, I’m always excited for Spring. You don’t know what plants will bloom or what woodland creatures share your habitat. Here is the beginning of spring.

I’m not sure what will come out of this batch of green, but I’m guessing some iris and late daffodils.

This could be a field of lillies. I will let you know what flowers.

We have several batches of scallia around the house. I love this little plant. In fact I put a lot of these bulbs around my father’s grave. I often wonder if they have flourished.

Another interesting development, a set of eggs out in the open. Chuck thinks they are eggs from killdeer. And I must say from looking at this website I agree. Although they are miles from the shore, they might be confused with our flood plain.

Speaking of water, here is our oxbow.

Here’s life from a frog perspective.

In fact, if you look closely, here are a couple of frogs doing what frogs do to create more frogs.

We have stone walls along our driveway. Here is a wonderful succulent growing in the cracks. I’m not sure of the name, but I will find it out. If anyone else knows, please chime in. Thanks.

Duke has found a new use for the bird bath. Sorry birds. Good thing we have a lot of water around.

When you have a chicken coop, well the next stage is obvious — chickens. We ordered 15 chickens and 3 ducks. Guess who wanted the ducks. No, not Duke, Maddy. I’m sure Duke really will want the ducks and chickens, but he will have to share.

Here’s the new door that Chuck built.

This is the lower condo. It has six nesting boxes and a nice little area to roam on cold days. Our chickens will be free range.

So here’s the upper condo. I think the previous owners used it for storage.

Regardless, it needs some serious work.

As you can see, there are plenty of nesting boxes.

Well, like I said, it needs work.

For those of you who know what this picture means…we did it. Thanks for the help along the way.

We live in the perfect environment for frogs. Our low valley wetlands and oxbow lake are an open invitation for breeding. When we walk outside the sound is so loud it is amazing. Chuck found this little note in our local paper about a frog seminar at a local nature conservancy being offered by the UW. We were told to wear rubber boots and headlamps. About 25 people showed up and off we went to learn about frogs.

The first thing they showed us is a snake door. Like the frogs, snakes don’t have a lot of protection in the prairie. Hawks fly above these lands looking for food. These wooden doors create a place for them to hide. We lifted a few, saw some snake paths, but no snakes.

Next we moved on to the ponds, where all the noise was coming from.

We could hear them, next a few people found them.

Who would have thought this full-grown chorus frog could make that kind of noise.

Here’s Chuck befriending one of the little guys. We heard both chorus and peep frogs. If you want to hear the frogs, check out the amphibian research and monitoring initiative.

Maddy and her friend Tori are taking a couple of horses out for a ride.

Ginger and Athena want to join Monty and Durango. They watch to the right.

They watch to the left.

And they crack me up.

Finally Maddy and Tori come back. Ginger and Athena can relax.

We live on 80 acres, but when taking walks, Chuck has decided, why stop there? After buying several maps, we discovered that the land behind our is part of a Wisconsin land preservation program. The nice part for the public is we can walk on this land without tresspassing. There are a lot of places to explore on this land.

There are great rock formations to explore.

Chuck goes for a better view, making his way through all the thorns.

Duke is a trooper and manages to make it up to the top. A dog with a view.

It is just amazing how we can look in all directions and walk for hours without seeing house or human.

In addition to climbing hills and rocks, there is the ongoing trout stream.

It is really a fun stream to explore. We can even watch the trout swimming.

Chuck has a keen eye for finding things. He is developing an animal skull collection.

At a first glance, we thought these were eggs. But upon closer examination they are gourds that look like eggs.

These are called Nest Egg Gourds.