Please allow me to tell you about my recent encounters with the wonders of Green Gulch fauna. Yesterday, as I deadheaded roses, I looked up to see a CUTE little foxy fox reclining under a pear tree. He just watched me. No fear, lazy gaze. Then I looked at some rustling branches above to see two more foxes perched in thick blackberry brambles just eating away joyously. And finally one more fox meandering away toward the back of the garden. So count them, four furry foxes. Fluffy, cute, healthy.
Today Claudia, another garden apprentice, and I went around the grounds picking wild plums for jam. We were out in a sort of secluded spot by the guest yurt. I set my bucket down and headed over to the trees with her. As we return to the truck and bucket I am surprised to see a young deer chompin' away in my bucket. Like I had set out a buffet just for him!
Later we are down at the other end of the farm picking plums across the creek near the horse pasture. No horses around but we just get to picking. Before I know it I look up and two curious horses are simultaneously eating grass and checking me out. I am overjoyed to see these beautiful creatures. In some ways like huge dogs but because they're so huge they are almost scary. But they just meander around. One of them has a hitchhiker too. A little bird perched on its rump, probably eating little bugs.
Finally, as I am summer pruning (cutting down the excess vegetative growth to encourage more energy for fruiting) in the apple trees I notice a quail is stuck in the raspberry bed we have covered in netting (to keep them out of course). I go over to help but he scurries into the center to avoid me. But then I notice another smaller bird desperately flapping its wings trapped in the netting itself. Its beak still red with raspberry guts both its wings are stuck through netting holes. It is terrified. As I come closer it flaps harder. I talk calmly and play with the netting until I can pull it out from under its wings and it quickly gets the hell out of there.
I think I saved a life today.
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