Soaping Among the Wildlife
This is why I love where I live. Looking out the soap shop window yesterday morning while making a batch of Pepperberry soap, this was my view. This fawn belongs to a Momma dear that comes in every morning and every evening. They drink regular from the pond behind the house, and then circle around to the front and nibble some of the scratch we leave out for the quail and turkeys. We also have a deer block out for them. That is various grains held together with molasses.
We also have a flock of turkeys that visit on a daily basis. I snapped this shot the other day from the door of the shop when I was whipping up some new Sea Kelp & Dead Sea Salts Scrub. These guys have gotten so used to us that we can walk right out to feed them and they just stand there and wait for the food. They also make the same rounds as the deer do. Around back to the pond daily and back up front to eat and then on their merry way until the next day.But I have to say that some of my favorite times are the evening song bird rituals. We have a an above ground pond in the front yard. It is a temporary holding tank for the koi that we brought from our old house. The new pond will be dug and completed next spring. This temporary pond has a filtration system that includes a half whisky barrel filled with filter media and stones.
The water recirculates from the pond through the filter media in the barrel and out the side of the barrel forming a small waterfall back into the pond. Well, I'm under the assumption that the song birds think that we brought this contraption here just for them. Because every evening without fail the bathing ritual begins. We have Evening, Pine and Black-Headed Grosbeaks, Towhees, Finches galore, Red Crossbills, multiple kinds of Sparrows & Juncos, Cedar Waxwings, Bluebirds, and Flycatchers (shown in picture). It is an amazing ritual to witness. As each feathered participant lines up on the edges of the pond awaiting their turn in the pool of the barrel. When each one has finished they flit to the nearby fence to ruffle out their feathers and preen themselves, before turning in for the night.Allot of people ask me where I get my inspiration from. This is it. Nature! The call of the wild! I love it, and love being in it. I just recently had the joy of releasing back into the wild 4 baby field mice, that we raised. Their mother perished when they were just a few days old, they didn't even have their eyes open yet when we found them. So I bottle fed them, weaned them, and then released them. Taking food to them everyday, and then slowly pulling it away until they "learned the ropes". It was a very rewarding experience.
Well, I thought that I would give you a little glimpse "out my soap shop window" here at Valhalla. What I have the pleasure of seeing during my days at work. And a little insight too into who I am I suppose. I hope you enjoyed your walk in my woods.
