great horned death

The night felt strange and still. We awoke in the night to ominous hooting and Hansi barking his aggressive guard bark. Shevy ran out to see and encountered the beast that has been devouring our kitties. He walked towards it, it was by our driveway, and it left before too long. Sqishy came running out to Sheves and she then came willingly into the house for the first time since we got Aspen. All cats spent the rest of the night inside, with only minimal growling and hissing from Squishy. I knew it was a large bird of prey that got Ivan and Ursula, but we hadn't seen him here yet, until now. I didn't think it was the coyotes or stray dogs because they don't normally come that close to our dogs. Shevy said he told the owl, before it flew off, to go and eat the rabbits that have been feasting on Dean and Mike's wheat field. Some of our friends recently lost six cats in one week to this great horned owl, or one of his friends or relatives. We've also heard of them killing puppies up to 25lbs. There isn't really much we can do about it, except hope they eat their fill on jacks and our kitties get lucky or start staying inside at night, which isn't likely for that is their hunting time. Squishy has been eating lots of mice lately, and her fur looks extra shiny.

Yesterday, i cleaned stuff, Shevy changed the oil in the truck and made jewelry, i played my bass for a long time and we read about etins. We also planted radishes. The rain really made the garden happy and now mullion is popping up that we planted last year. Also more calendula and zucchini. We also planted a bunch of a native plant last week that's basically a purple spinach called orich. I hope some of it pops soon. Well, tomorrow is the first farmers market and i don't think we're going to have chocolates ready. We're still waiting on our next shipment of cocoa powder to come in. If it comes today, we may be able to pull it off. Oh, and we got paid to feed cute horses this morning. One was a pinto and she was really sweet and let me pet her, until the hay was tossed in and she started pigging out. I've decided that i want to have horses someday. They're pretty awesome creatures.