Category: Wild hogs.

Our weather service is quite useless to be honest.

April 6, 2024 · Leave a comment ·

We still have quite a lot of snow left and since our quite useless weather sites now say it won’t be that warm tomorrow as they’ve said for five days the white crap may stay longer than I had hoped for. Ok it is still going to be above 10C (50F) but nowhere near to what they said before. Honestly I have no idea why they even get paid when they do such a lousy job!

Still the slightly warmer air that has arrived hit the cold air from the snow and gave us a rather nice and thick fog instead. We went out quite early in the morning for our walk because since I thought it would be warmer the fog might vanish quite fast. It didn’t because it stayed until way after noon 🙂 🙂 I thought Nova would go out to the bog again today but she decided that a walk along the creek would be nice.

Much of the snow had melted on the gravel roads so Malkolm wanted to walk most if it himself. It wasn’t until we reached the path along the creek when I had to start carry him even though he did protest a lot 🙂 There was so much snow that it even was hard for the rest of us to walk there without sliding down into the creek 🙂 birds were singing even though I think the fog dampened their will to. I did hear something walking around and since fog brings out my imagination I thought it might be a troll.

It wasn’t though, it was just a badger talking a walk in the snow 🙂 🙂 Could have been wild hogs because they’ve done a great job digging up the road from the creek. They had done a great job digging up the field as well to be honest. I don’t know how many of them we have now but by the look of what they do to the roads and fields they are way too many. I’ll protest to the wolves because it is after all their job to remove as many of them as they can 🙂 🙂

Thew Starlings wren’t too happy about the weather 🙂

Always when a new puppy comes to live with me I always start by letting them go off leash when they’ve been here a week, so today I did the same with Malkolm. To be honest I never did that with Alma because she was all over the place all the time when she arrived here and even though she’s much calmer now I still never would let her off the leash 🙂 🙂 I noticed how Malkolm behaved because he too noticed that she’s a bit wild 🙂 So when we walked he walked close to Nova but when we stood still he went to Alma 🙂 🙂 🙂 Here at home it’s almost only Alma he’s with and I think that’s how Nova wants it to be 🙂 🙂

Tomorrow I’ll leave them in the doghouse/ yard/ garage for an hour because I have to go to the grocery store. He has already been there for fifteen minutes once and I doubt he realized I was gone. So I’ll check with my neighbors if they can see or hear him while I’m at the grocery store, I doubt it though because I’m pretty sure Alma will play with him the entire time 🙂

Have a great day!

Suddenly they came running!

December 30, 2023 · 2 Comments ·

Two days ago we had snow and quite a lot of it as well, yesterday we had mostly icy rods and some snow left in the forest, today we have some ice left on the roads but mostly meltwater lakes all over the place. Tomorrow it’ll turn towards colder weather again and more snow on Monday to Tuesday. I’m glad the snow is gone but it could just as well have stayed since we’ll get more of it anyway 🙂 🙂

We almost saw the sun when we went out on our morning walk, I could see that round disc shine through the clouds but it didn’t last for long. There was a hunting dog barking in the forest but none of our hunters were out today, so I guess the dog had followed what ever it was it followed for quite some distance. So for once I decided that we should try the fields again. It is well over a year since we were out there, mostly because both Alma and Albin behaves like obcessed every time a car passes by.

There were only two cars on the big road so it went rather well. They had put up more electric fences and since I didn’t want to try to open them up so we could go all the way down to the road we stopped when it was around a football field away from the road. We were just about to turn around when I heard a sound I at first couldn’t figure out what it was.

The Boar is a coward so he came running first of all the pigs.

Then it hit me, it did sound like when cattle is running around in panic. The thing is that there aren’t any cattle in the fields now when it is winter. Then suddenly they came around a small mound but it wasn’t cattle, it was wild hogs! Alma and Albin started to scream like insane but the hogs didn’t care about us at all, all they wanted to do were to get away from something chasing them. They came from the direction to the village but since I mostly tried to keep Alma and Albin by my side (nova is never a problem, she rarely cares about wildlife but I have to say that she looked a bit curious about these pigs 🙂 🙂 🙂 ).

I’m so glad that I managed to take some photos of the hogs this time 🙂 Normally they run sop fast in to the trees that it is impossible, the fields however have no trees 🙂 I never saw what it was scaring them that much but I guess it was a wolf or wolves because later today just as it had gone dark the dogs wanted to go outside but as soon as they did they refused to leave the entrance stairs, just sniffed in the air and wanted to go back indoors again.

I’ve done the laundry and we’ve had our pancake day so from now on it is just relaxing for me 🙂 I might have to go to the supermarket tomorrow because I have no bird seeds. I could also fill up with other things to be honest. It would be nice if I didn’t have to do it on Monday and Tuesday because of the snow that will fall and after that they’re guessing it will be nasty cold again. Always better to stay at home in the cottage when it is nasty cold 🙂

Have a great day!

Lots of snow.

December 2, 2023 · 4 Comments ·

We have lots of snow now, I can’t pretend to like it but the dogs are at least clean when they come in from being in the garden. we’ve had two really cold nights, -15C (5F) but mostly it has been between -4C to -8C (24,8F to 17,6F).

There’s so much snow now that the forest birds have problems reaching their food so yesterday I saw the first Bullfinches. I didn’t get any good photos of them, the best is the one shown below. That is a male, the females are more towards mauve colored. I also have a, in this area, very rare visitor and she comes by every day, a Wood Grouse. The roosters can weigh up to 7 kg (15,4 pound) but the hen usually around 3kg (6,6 pound). I’m not sure what she is eating here, they usually eat pine needles. So my guess is that she eats buds from the lilacs and some of the seeds on the ground. We haven’t had a wood grouse in these parts since long before I moved here 23 years ago so it’s kind of cool that when one comes it chose my garden 🙂

We went down to the creek this morning. The snow that the weather sites said wouldn’t fall started to fall already yesterday evening 🙂 It didn’t stop falling until we were almost at home again 🙂 Lots of tracks from animals in the snow, mostly from wild hogs, roe deer, hares, a fox (possibly the one visiting my garden every night and either a small mosse or a big red deer. Only one human had walked there since the dogs and I walked there last time and that was a couple of days ago. My guess is that it is the beekeeper who has made those tracks, very few other people walk there in winter.

Alma was a bit impossible on our walk today so my back feels a bit sour. She has behaved so much better lately but today was a day when she just couldn’t. Turns out that she isn’t especially quiet at nights when I am at work so now I have to figure out a way to either make her quiet down or dampen the sound from her barking. I’ve ordered two sun powered lights that will shine as soon as she’s outside in the dog yard, if that doesn’t help I’ll have to put up a wooden fence instead. Turns out that she sometimes is so loud that she wakes up my neighbors youngest daughter. They are the kindest and best neighbors one can wish for so I wish they would have told me when this started. Well I’ll figure out something to make her at least not sound as much.

I’ve baked a bread today, I checked recipes online and the recipes are either really complicated or they all use a ready mad mix. So I just checked how much flour/ mix they were using and tossed in what I had (in this case oat flour, sorghum flour and rice flour) in the same ammount 🙂 I haven’t tried it yet because as soon as the bread was ready I put in french fries and meatballs in the oven. I’ll have a sandwich with meatballs, christmas ham and beetroot salad after writing this 🙂 As worse it’ll just taste like the breads one can buy and they work if one toast them 🙂

Hunters out in the forest tomorrow and I hope they will hunt for wild hogs because we have so many of them now. They are now slowly destroying the forest roads I usually walk on and it is hard to see where they’ve been now when the snow covers everything. It is very surprising when there’s a deep hole beneath my foot when I can’t see it by looking at the snow 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

I don’t like wild hogs!

September 24, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

Working those one and a half hour longer on Fridays really makes a lot of difference, more than I thought it would. I’m constantly tired even though I have taken long naps several times during the weekend. It’s not only me feeling like this, my work friends says the same thing. So today I’ve mostly napped and done the laundry 🙂 🙂

Alma behaved like an angel today when we started our morning walk. I was really surprised! She didn’t pull the leash and only whined a little. I got that feeling You know that this is too good to be true :-)So we kept on walking, she being just as great when suddenly wild hog ran out from some trees and over the gravel road. She didn’t behave like an angel after that 🙂 🙂 To make things worse Albin too started to act like insane.

I managed to get two photos with pigs in them despite the way Alma and Albin behaved.

I can deal with one insane dog but not two, the rest of the walk was not as nice and to make things worse we had to go back the same way again and even though we didn’t see any more pigs those two nuts behaved like we did 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m so tired of wild hogs now! Nova however behaved like the Lady she is, she watched the hogs and then continued on her merry way down to the creek and was just as calm when we passed the place on our way home.

Yesterday I started to put some potted plants down in the cool cellar. Only those who need their leafs all winter so far, the rest like the small apricot trees can stay outdoors until the frost takes their leafs. they don’t need any more light after the leafs have dropped so I can place them where it is darker in the cellar. Still I realized that I most likely need to buy a new plant light anyway, I don’t have more plants to place there but they have grown and become much bigger.

Have a great day!

Wild hogs.

August 27, 2023 · Leave a comment ·

It was a nice and cool morning but those mosquitoes are just awful.

Even though the sun has been shining all morning and that it is fairly warm I still can feel it in the air, autumn has arrived. There’s a sort of bite to the air that I only can feel in autumn. Still the morning walk was really nice even though the mosquitoes doesn’t understand that they now just should fall down to the ground and die 🙂 🙂 🙂

Alma was just as annoying this morning as she was yesterday morning. She were all over the place and in the end she entangled both me and Albin in her leash. Both she and Albin also sniffed in the air all the time. Nova didn’t but instead of walking far ahead of us she walked by our side. I thought it was because I possible had taped her knee in a bad way. As soon as we had come to the long straight road towards the creek she resumed to her normal position, far ahead of us.

I saw something but couldn’t really say what kind of animal it was.

Then a much smaller one came out to the road too. Then I saw the ear of the bigger one.

I didn’t think more of it than that she perhaps didn’t feel that bad in her knee anyway. We walked up-stream the creek but neither her nor I wanted to walk in the high grass and in to the more dense old forest, so instead we went back the same way we came and I thought that we perhaps would walk in the forest where we walk out to the bog. I didn’t look especially much ahead of us but when I did I saw something I first couldn’t figure out what it was, an animal that I could guess but not what.

I think I could see seven or eight piglets.

Turns out that where Nova suddenly walked ahead of us again now stood a rather big wild hog sow 🙂 Thankfully far away from us but I am annoyed at myself for not bringing the right tele photo lens. Then suddenly a piglet came out from the trees and then one more and suddenly I think it was seven or eight piglets in total. This is the moment when Alma actually decides to stand still and be quiet. There’s something with wild hogs that makes her do that, never otherwise but always when we see hogs.

My spring flowering Clematis has restarted 🙂

The Sarracenia sure is slow to open up. I do hope that at least one of the four buds will before frost takes them all.

One can hate or love the Big Dragon flower (Nepeta sibirica) but bees love them and they flower from early summer till frost take them all.

The wild hogs crossed the road and in to the forest where I had hoped we would walk so no chance on doing that 🙂 🙂 I started to talk loudly to the dogs because I didn’t know where the boar could be or if there were more sows waiting to cross the road. Both Alma and Albin did look at the direction they had come from but that doesn’t mean there were any more out there. I don’t really like to come close to wild hogs but it is fun to see them from a safe distance 🙂

No more sightings of hogs though. I took a tour in the garden when when we had come home again. There are still flowers in bloom, even potatoes flower still. This is the time the Hardy Kiwi decided to finally start growing and I do hope it calms down before the frost arrives. I’ve re-potted all but one of my apricot trees and also the cherry plum tree seedlings I have. I’m not sure what to do with those cherry plum seedlings to be honest. I really don’t need any more but have no place to plant them and since they tend to spread like wildfire via their roots I’m not sure I can give them away either. Well I do live beside a forest 🙂 🙂 🙂

I have three Hardy Kiwi vines planted towards the fence around my vegetable garden. They have finally put some speed in their growing.

I managed to break the top of this vine when I tried to pull it through the loops in the fence. I have no idea if the top will grow new roots but I’ve put it in a pot and either it dies or it starts to grow new roots.

The third one is a sad one. It does grow but slowly and when it finally put some speed into it something ate the top of the vine 🙂 🙂

Have a great day!

A15398_016 — Time flies and it won’t be long until we’re back to snow again 🙂 Taken with the Agfa Ambiflex.