Saturday, March 28, 2026 • March has come and is almost gone. Amazing. The weather has been a tease, some warm days, up to 83º and more often cold days, down into the low 30’s. There is lots of work to do around the property, but not much fun when the wind is howling in your face. It has been tough enough just keeping up with my walking. The winds today came from the Northwest and they were quite strong, in your face. I did cut my lawn for the second time now, as I prepare for spraying for weeds (first time down here), fixing up flower beds and dethatching the front lawn. Starting tomorrow, it looks like we are going to move into spring for certain and I can get all of my cold crops into the ground.

The covered broccoli plants look healthy, but have not grown much. On the other hand, the strawberry plants are doing quite well, adding leaves and getting larger day by day. The peas are starting to pop up their heads, so I have to get the fencing up to keep out our wildlife friends. I have already seen my first rabbit of the season, close to raised bed, just off the back porch.

Turkey Vultures
Since we have plenty of woods, farm land and wildlife, turkey vultures and hawks are pretty common around here. Squirrels are the primary prey, as they seem to become roadkill most often. In fact, they are the only dead animals (other than a cat) that I have seen in my six plus years here.

Thus, I seem to have become a bit fixated with the “ugly” and always hungry bird of prey that seems to always find it next meal. I included the above cartoon of the poor, dead squirrel that becomes lunch for the vulture. This same vulture remained close to the squirrel as I walked up and down the road. The vulture would tend to his meal until I got pretty close, then fly up above me on a tree branch overlooking the territory. As I walked past, he kept his eyes on me, turning in my direction as I walked passed him, down the road.

The third image above, created by AI from an actual photo I took, is how I would imagine a live squirrel would see this huge enemy, a threat to the squirrel’s existence.