Farming . . . Trapping . . . Wildlife

Farming is in full swing right now.  We have finally gotten our pivots all working and now we are running water to irrigate as much of our place as we can at once.  It has been so dry this spring that there is not much grass anywhere.  We have some pasture that is sub irrigated by some small springs and so the cows are all doing fine but everything is still dry.  We are grateful for the water to irrigate with.  Hopefully by the end of the week we will have our last bit of irrigation water on.  I have taken on the job with my son of trapping gophers.  Our irrigation district has a $1 bounty on them so we have been trapping.  Decided that it is good we are not making our living off the trapping but we are getting quite a few.  As with most other things on this place the gopher population has not been a priority.  Trapping gives lot of walking - talking - and thinking time.  So we have lots of fun hiking around together.  Today we saw a deer doe and wondered if she had a baby hid out.  Sure enough this evening we saw her in the same spot.  We waited very quietly and saw a tiny fawn come following her.  It was only as tall as her knee and all spotted.  So very cute.  My son was entranced.  We just had some baby barn owls grow up enough to get out of their nest this last week.  It was thrilling to watch them grow and sit and watch us over the sides of their nest as we went by on the road.  Now they have grown up enough to leave it.  The chucker, quail, ducks, pheasants, red tailed hawks and golden eagles are all nesting right now too and we have all these on our place.  It is fun to listen to them all talking to each other and get ready to raise their young.