The deer hunting season is here again

Much to my dismay, the season is here again. There are alot of hunters around, hunting on public and private lands. Although the hunting is regulated especially on public lands, I still feel awful when I hear gunshots. Some hunters use bow and arrow to hunt, some use smoke guns and some use rifles. We used to keep our southeast gate open, so that the deer can take refuge in our property. However,i feel that I feed them to make them fat and some hunters get them in their pots. Since the gate is open, the deer do come in and out everyday.
Another reason i don't feel happy about is that I have to put my Dumdum on chain. Dumdum is not scared of guns, he thinks when the gun goes "booom", it is time for him to go and search and get the kill. it is his breed, a bird dog that goes hunting for ducks and geese and turkeys.
Although our 20 acres property is securedly fenced-up (8-10 feet), somehow Dumdum finds away to dig under the fence to venture out. Roo and Max are not as adventurous as Dumdum, and they listen to me when I whistle and tell them to stay in the yard. Poor Dumdum will have to be on chain until next year.
Some morning when Roo, Max and me go for our walk around the property, we do see deer hiding from hunters right next to our fence. Of course Roo and Max get excited and chase the deer away straight to the hunters. I was so upset yesterday morning, when we saw some deer hiding around our property and Max got excited and stalked them, the deer took off and soon after we heard the gunshots. I knew for sure that the deer were gone.

Fall is my best time of the year

Dumdum and I went for a walk in the woods.

an evening sun on the trees

My yard, facing northwest and the driveway

Dumdum

Dumdum joined the family on one October morning three years ago. He walked into the yard and refused to leave. He rolled over and went on his tummy to seek permission to be part of the family. So we adopted him, even old Bubba welcomed him by ignoring his antics. Roo immediately took over to mother him and be his protector. We don't know his bloodline but we do know that he was a cross breed of a Labrador retriever. In short he is a mutt. He has grown to be a handsome dog. He likes water and would jump into it whenever he has the opportunity.
Lately he has been marking his territory far and wide and he ventured out of the fence (20 acres)to stake his territory. He would dug a hole under the fence and creep under it. He has been good. He would mark his territory and get back in the yard. However as of last week he has been grounded. The farmer a quarter mile down the road followed him home and reported that Dumdum has been messing with his turkey. Now Dumdum is on a cahin tied to a runner cable about 50 feet apart.
It was hard for him and for me to see him grounded. Until he learnt that his territory is only within the fenced up 20 acres, he would stay on his chain. I do take him for a walk from time to time so that he does not feel abandoned.
I love animals and especially dogs, I could talk to them for hours and they would listen to me without any interruptions.
Hopefully one day soon Dumdum can run in the yard again.

Raya for me

As aidil Fitri is approaching, I can imagine many a household is abuzz with activities. many are sleeping late or getting up early to make all the cookies and kueh mueh for the raya. I am not particularly interested in joining the crowd, but i do say that these activities add up to the festivities.
Here in the boonies where there are only 2 of us observing the ramadan, it is kind of sad to indulge in these activities. I used to invite friends and relatives over, but I find it quite tiring and tiresome.
We usually stay at home and perhaps have some kind of celebration on the last day berbuka. The day itself, if and when weather permits, we would get up early and leave the house by six in the morning for a prayer in the nearest mosque (60 miles away). otherwise, we pray at home. I don't turn on the takbir because it would make me homesick, so, we just sit around and watch movies.
I am used to celeberating raya alone since i was a child of 12, so whatever memories i have of having fun on raya day were those when i was really really young.
later when i was working, raya to us can be any day when all of us ( my siblings and families)could be at my parents all at the same time. That is RAYA for us.
Selamat hari raya to all

Mama nini (guinea fowl) is missing

I have 6 ninis (guines fowls.) i am positive that 2 are females and 2 are males. The other two, I have no clue. The 2 females i know because they lay eggs. The 2 males I know because, they stay by the nests waiting for their partners to lay eggs. The other 2, they hang around the males and the females.
Two weeks ago one went missing, with the male partner yelling and calling for it to come home. I thought it was dead, something had had it for dinner. However the next day I saw it in the yard eating and scratching around. By evening when all my critters go back to their respective pens, this one was missing. So I guess she must have a nestful of eggs somewhere nearby.I don't know how long it takes for the eggs to hatch, until I hear the little biddy ninis, I know the mama is ready to come home.

of Puasa and ikan Masin

I don't know why, ikan masin is like a must in Ramadan. Before Ramadan begun, I went shopping for all Ramadan stuff, ie food. They include dried fish, cuttle fish, dried shrimps, dried soya bean curd, fish balls and all the herbs. Foer the sweets , it was nata de coco, sago pearls and palm sugar.
Well, back to ikan masin. I have a few types, ikan gelama masam/kering (ikan glamour to some) anchovies of different sizes. So, after a few days of fasting, i embarked on frying the ikan gelama masam. That wasa a BIG mistake, no a HUGE mistake. Not only it sent my husband out of the house, it nearly made me fainted. Moved the frying pan out on to the deck and i guess if I have close neighbours, I swear all of them would be out, thinking there must be some gas leak somewhere. it took almost 2 days before the house smell ok again despite air freshner etc.
However, when I ate it with sauted onion rings and fried dried cayene, poooh, i forgot the torture i had to go through. I ate on the deck by the way.

my chicken

This is my proud Rooster
It was 2 years ago My husband and i decided to raise chicken for our own consumption. We bought about 100 little ones.We raise them and they multiplied. we now we have them running around the yard.

beautiful and cruel winter

Winter in the boonies can be very beautiful and sometime can be cruel. It is beautiful when the ground is covered with snow and the sky is blue. It feels beautiful when it is cold and dry.
It can be cruel, when mother nature decides to drop liquid from the sky on an already frozen air and ground. Then we have ice everywhere. The heavy laden tree branches will snap and powerline will do the same. when powerline are down it will result in no power for at least a week or so. Imagine that in the midst of cold winter, ice, ice everywhere and you have no electricity. For all of us in the boonies, we are ready and prepared. We have generators to run the electricity and we have gasoline stocked up.
We will practically be iced-bound. can't go anywhere, can go down the hill, but not up the hill. We glide from one spot to another. My dogs love to run and glide on the frozen ponds.

seasons change

While chatting with a friend in Phoenix on this hot summer afternoon, I want to think of those cool Fall and Winter days. My favourite time of the year is the late Fall. Clear blue skies and cool. This is the time to sit on the deck watching geese flying south in a formation, one group after another.

Spring in my boonies

It is in the middle of a hot hot hot summer which makes me want to think of the early spring. My backwoods were filled with all kind of foliage and blooms. There were wild grapes blooming, wild plums white with those sweet smelling flowers, The blacberries making the ground looked like a carpet of white roses. My cherry trees and peach tress were covered with pink flowers and pear and apple trees were covered with blooms. Then the bees busy buzzing around from one tree to another.
Wild sun flowers come out a little later, but those blue/purple flowers and those brown eyed susans were abundant. The honey suckles were sending all the sweet smelling fragrantce all around.

Here is nutkin

Here is nutkin enjoying a nut under the oak tree.

Roo and her adopted babies

Mother hen has decided to abandon her babies, so now Roo has taken over baby sitting the chicks

Tales of my critters - Roo

A couple of months ago, a hen from my flock went missing. I thought it must have been dinner for some predators. However,one evening, I told Roo to look for it by saying "roo go find chick chick". She went to her house and look inside. I thought she was just acting strange and not understanding my request. I told her again. She just sat there and wagged her tail. Oh, well, I went and looked inside her house, and there was a hen sitting right at the back of her house. She was sitting on a pile of eggs. So, all these while, Roo has been sharing her house with the hen. if only roo could talk.

I petted her and told her that she was a good girl. She was indeed a good girl. Then after a few weeks, I saw roo was jumping around and playing around her house I kept a distance and watched her picking up a tiny baby chick in her mouth and put it back inside her house. Then a couple more of the chicks jumped out of her house, she had a fun time putting back the chicks into her house. I went and asked her what she was doing, she picked up a chick and brought it to me. i did not know that dogs can be so gentle with helpless babies. I told her she was a good girl and to look after the babies. After that she became a guardian for the hen and baby chicks. She would guard them from max and other hen.

They now do not share the house anymore since the mother hen has brought her babies to the chicken pen. But everyday without fail, the chicks and mother would go and stay around roo's house. Drink from her water bowl and just laze around her house.

Tales of my critters

I have never thought how fancinating it is to observe critters at their antics. People must think that I am insane or gone bonkers wasting my time watching them. But then I have all the time in the world to do whatever I like. I am sure many people think that not being employed is a faculty failure. I am looking at my life from a different angle. There is no more need to calmour for materials acquisition. It is now to enjoy God's given paradise.
I observed a baby rabbit grows all by itself. It made a home under the pile of rubble of our torn down building. Every morning it will come out to eat and play with the chicken. It is smart as it would run and hide the moment it sees my puppies (dogs) are out of their houses. When it feels sfe to go out again it would come out to play and have a dust bath amongst the chicken and guineas. It is wonderful to see how animals are just being animals and having fun.

Nutkin, the squirrel with an attitude

I tried and tried to get a picture of Nutkin, but he is so elusive. Today, he played hide and seek with me. I saw him hunching over the corn cob ontop of the feeder and the moment i got the camera out, he went to hide under the feeder. The nearer I got to the tree, where the feeder is, he moved to the other side of the tree. oh well, however Nutkin has an attitude.
Usually during late winter and early spring, i like to put out feed for all kinds of critters in my yard. I like to look at Nutkin because he is like a naughty kid. he would steal food from under the chicken mouth (beak?). He would rush out for the food I throw out for the chicken and eat with them.
However Nutkin can be very irritating. I used to put nuts on the deck and Nutkin with his clan would come and steal the nuts and eat them. For a while they behaved quite well, but Nutkin, being braver than the rest would come and shake the door screen if there was no more nuts on the deck. Soon, he would come frequently to shake the door or window screens for the nuts. He was not interested anymore on the corn on the cob. he was also tearing the window screen. he was not scared, he would hang on the door screen showing us his big manhood (big for a squirrel). He did this a few times and even when poke from inside, he would not budge until one day when my husband had enough of Nutkin's attitude. he warned Nutkin to quit, or face the consequences. with pallet gun, my husband shot near enough to scare nutkin. Until today he has not done his show anymore. he only comes to eat at the feeder.

fun in the summer

What do we in the boonies do to while away our summer days? Ohhh, we go boating, we go riding and we sleep off the afternoon heat.

Call it friendship

This lonely peacock has made friends with my guineas and chicken. Every morning, it is either, the peacock comes to call or my guineas will go and fetch him. They will roam around together in the yard till night. Some nights the peacock sleep over and sometime he flies home. Incredible isn't it.

My Puppy Max is now a grown man

It was like yesterday that Max was a little bundle of white fur. Now Max is a grown Great Pyrenees at the age of 1 year and 5 months. Max has learnt to mark his territory. he has learnt to p** by balancing on his 3 legs, lifting one hind leg to shoot at a target. Was is last week he was not able to balance to do that? It was just like yesterday, this big furry bundle was squating to do his toilet? Now he is doing just like all the males of his specie do. However he is still Max. Max who does not know that he weighs over a hundred pounds. Max who still wants to sit on your lap when he has the chance. Max who runs to you the moment you whistle. Oh my Max.
Max is still playing with the chicken, tossing one up in the air whenever he catches one eating his food. He is also intelligent. I watch him managed his food bowl and his favoutie bone. In between eating his food and keeping the chicken away from his bowl and bone, he solved it by bringing his bone into his food bowl. Isn't he a problem solver?

Those were the days

My last blog sort of triggered this desire to write on my quest for travels in my younger days. I went to the UK in the 70's for my first post graduate degree. It was in London and wanting to see much more than London, i did travel up and down the the country. Beside the short trips to nearby cities and covering London from one end to the other, I did go up to Scotland a few times. One winter time we drove up north to see the snow. As we all know, it does not snow in london as regularly as in the north. My friend, I and the parents of (Shalin Zulkifli) drove up north stopping at the cities along the way. We enjoyed Leeds, Carlyle on the way. We drove up to Edinburgh and did all the things tourists usually do, the castle, etc.
The trip got exciting, when we wanted to get to Inverness. We forgot that it became dark right after 3.00 in the afternoon. We drove on and it started to snow and it was getting dark real quick. The further we went, we met with accumulated snow on the road. We could not see the road as new thick snow was falling too. The driver was Shalin's dad. We skidded a few times and there was no other vehicle except us in the middle of no where. So, we decided, the next light or house we see we would stop and ask to sleep for the night. We did drive into one later and spent a night in a small room in a house of an old couple. Thank goodness that the couple warmly welcomed us. Those days, people still have trust in people.
Then we went on to Aviemore and stayed at one little town called something i still can not pronounce, Carra...something. That was a lovely place. We stayed in a bed and breakfast for a couple of days. Then we drove on down the lakes to see the great Lochness and down to Fort Williams and to Glassgow. That was an exciting trip.

A visit from the past

A friend from Hawaii came for a visit last weekend. It was an enjoyable visit. All the years we did not see each other seemed to have vanished. It was like only last week we said goodbye at Honolulu airport, yet it was 24 years ago. Suddenly all the Honolulu city lights bringing back all the memories. Memories of friends who skinny dipped in the blue pacific ocean. Memories of the party nights on the windjammer off the fishermen wharf. Memories of the trips to Maui and Kaui, sneaking the weekends away without the knowledge of my supervisor. Memories of the surprise find of a nude beach on Kaui. Memories of walking fully clothed on that beach and memories of seeing a professor you knew on a gay beach. Those beautiful bodies!!
And I was young again once more!!
Those days when I was young and invincible, riding a bus with bikini clad women and shopping in Ala Moana Mall in my swimming costume and Anne, my dorm mate in her skimpy bikini. Eating at Keo's and Mekong restaurants and licking Baskin and Robbins icecream cones, those days seem to float back in my mind.
My friend Ruth was on her way to a conference in Orlando Fla. decided to swing by and pay me a visit. Although it was a very short visit, it was a very enjoyable one. We caught up with all the years in between. We talked about those colleagues that have retired and those who are still there (East-West center) and i can still picture those faces I left behind.
Over a box of hawaiian Host macademia chocolates, we talked about those "swap meet" that we could buy a sack full macademia nuts for a few dollars. We talked about the "pakalolo" guava juice that I loved so much. wonder if they really have 'pakololo' in the juice. We talked about the 'kalbi' over rice at the food court in Ala Moana and the the korean kimchi.
Wished she could stay longer and we could talk forever.