Winter in the mountains of Western North Carolina is as fickle as the wind. Changing directions at the drop of a hat. It’s no surprise to have freezing cold temperatures and spring like weather in the same week. If you don’t like the weather here, just be patient, it’s bound to change. We have a saying “if you want to know the weather forecast just look outside.”
This week-Old Man Winter has come for a visit. As soon as he arrived, he made his presence known. Hootin and a hollerin and stompin about! He got our attention, that’s for sure. I don’t mind when he visits as long as we’re prepared. I can sit by the fire drinking tea and reading knowing that there’s plenty of firewood in the shed, food in the pantry and the animals are warm and safe.
Yesterday, however, with the temperature down close to zero, that peace and security got a rude awakening. Around four in the morning our guardian dogs alerted us that danger was lurking in the pasture. Tilly and Stoney are our Great Pyrenees dogs and guardians to our sixteen heavily pregnant Boer nanny goats. It wasn’t long before we were able to hear the coyotes that were on the hunt for a quick meal. We have heard that coyotes will lure your guardians away from the herd and then strike from another direction. Some people say this is myth but what happened yesterday made a believer out of me.
All the goats were safely at the barn and Tilly, our oldest dog, was firmly planted in her spot as look out. The coyotes were relentless in trying to lure her to the bottom of the pasture but she wouldn’t budge. Stoney however is only a year old and she would start to go after the howling menaces but quickly return to her post. They were waiting for us to acknowledge that we were up and had the situation in hand.
I am sorry to say that it took a while because I had the fan running and Steve could only hear the bark of the girls and was annoyed that they woke him up yet again. Nevertheless, they did their job for hours and at the break of dawn we were up and out the door with shotgun in hand after hearing the commotion. The crows were all in a tizzy, the ground crunched under our feet and the Old Man bit at our cheeks. There was no way we could sneak up on those varmints and it was too cold to lie in wait. The coyotes would run and hide until we went in by the fire to warm up. Then they came right back and started their nonsense all over again.
Steve walked back down again and again only catching a glimpse of them as they would duck into their hiding places. The goats and dogs hung around close to the barn most of the day and by the time the sun was high in the sky the band of thieves had abandoned their plan. Hopefully the pesky things have moved on and realize that Morris Farm employs the best and cutest farm hands in the mountains.