NATURAL SHELTERS,FOOD SUPLIES AND FOOD CHAINS

Cooler and cloudy this morning but even at 36 degrees I decided to walk outside again today. My right knee is really stiff and sore from yesterday's walk and that just proves to me that I need to get back to walking everyday to keep my knee joints loose.
As I walked today there was no sun light glinting off the water in the creek or no shadows dancing under the tree branches as the gray clouds hung low blocking out any hint of sunshine , but there is beauty always in nature.
I noticed all the holes and hallow places in the trees along my walk, many of them showing signs of routine use by animals or birds.
With the weather forecast for the next several days I thought of the beauty of nature in creating shelters for the wild birds and animals.
This is the one of the largest shelters on my walk, in spring I have noticed grass growing in here.
A closer look lets me know this shelter is being used regularly.
More beautiful natural shelters below.Which one.......
would you like to.....
spend a cold winter's.......
night in ?????????????

All these will come to good use if the snow , wind and freezing temperatures with below 0 wind chills materialize in the next days.
I also noticed that there is still a very good food supply left in natures supermarket.
And speaking of food supply, this predator must have met a bigger predator.
This wing bone and a few feathers were all that was left of this, I guessing it was a Red Tailed Hawk but it could have been a Great Horned Owl, both have these stripped feathers and both are predator birds.
Top side.
Underside.
I snapped pictures of these feathers and left them as they were since it is illegal to possess hawk feathers and fines can be up to $1200 a feather ! Gulp !!

My philosophical thoughts for the day :
If these shelters were in human hands they would have doors and locks on them.

If these berries were human food they would be all gathered and stored behind someones locked doors for their personal use.

Death in nature is a normal part of the food chain, why then as humans after God has given us knowledge to plant seeds and grow from His ground our food and He has given us domestic animals to supply our meat needs, why then do we continue to kill one another????

I'm just saying!!!!!!
This is why I love to walk outside, I just seem to be so close to God when I'm out here and I always get into deep thought.

As I walked I noticed I was being watched by a masked bandit (bird) !
This Mockingbird with it's black mask was so pretty when he flew with white streaked feathers outlining his wings and tail from underneath.

Coming back inside to the task of the day I finished my un-decorating and got everything put away in the shed before more falling weather gets here.
I went over to the neighbors pasture to check out the little calf she wants to sell me. It came running over as soon as I stepped into the field. He is a nice friendly fellow ,but now I have to decide how much he is worth to me in terms of money and I hate to do this.
Worse than belonging just to a friend, it belongs to her son,yeah, double worse. I know what the calf is worth on the market as a co-worker of Hubbie's just took some to the auction, and I can't afford to pay more than the calf is worth but will this insult this young man who saw visions of a very profitable business when he and his friend bought 2 baby calves?
The reason this one is for sale now is 1 of the calves died shortly after the boys bought them and one of the boys then lost interest in feeding this one since it didn't take 2 boys to feed 1 calf.
Then the 1 boy lost interest in feeding the 1 calf because it wasn't any fun without his friend.
Now mom is feeding the calf and wants no part of this calf business!!
Guess I'll call tomorrow and make an offer and take the consequences whatever they may be.
My house is still a wreck with trying to get things back in order and cleaned.
Before I put my large area rugs back down I'm going to take them to the laundry right out the road and see if I can get them in their large machines to wash.
Hopefully I'll have time to do this tomorrow after I run errands, deliver a couple orders of Avon and grocery shop.
After chores tonight we had soup and sweet potatoes for supper and then watched a Duke b-ball game on TV while I put a heating pad on my knee for awhile.
At 11:30 it is still 36 degrees and so far all we have is a cold light rain,wonder what the morning will bring?
Thanking God for a wonderful day and the beauty of nature.
Good Night and God Bless.