Muddling along through the pandemic… Boredom is the word, so we decided to take a drive in the area, exploring roads that we’d never driven for the most part. We used our Hyundai’s navigation system as well as our DeLorme Tennessee State Road Atlas to chart our route…
En route heading west to my initial starting point for our backcountry exploration, Laurie asked me to turn down a road near our home that we’d never been on before. It was a dead end but much to our delight, we encountered these friendly and curious donkeys along the road.
We love
donkeys! Next to horses, they are
Laurie’s favorite domestic animal and they are #1 in my book, just ahead of
horses. Of course, donkeys are members
of the horse family, Equidae. Donkeys are very smart and have been used as
working animals for at least 5,000 years.
Today there are more than 40,000,000 donkeys in the world. In the USA donkeys are frequently used as
guard animals…as they will attack wild dogs or coyotes harassing ‘their herd’
of sheep and goats, etc.
We made another block long detour off of TN Hwy. 72 at 691 Vonore Road. This is the old Robinson Mill, now renamed the Pond Creek Milling Co. It was built in 1849 and as of the time it was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, it was still an operating mill. It sits astride Clear Branch Creek. There were signs before the pandemic that the property was undergoing some type of refurbishing…time will tell. It would be a great property for a brewpub with burgers and other treats.
We took this photo of this old and stately home just because we liked it… Those twin brick chimneys and the windows as well as the design mark it as a truly old.
On our
last drive along the back roads to the east of our home, we’d noted a few
hedgerows near Greenback Tennessee.
There were a couple of miles of very well-defined hedgerows along local
byways just a little west of I-75.
Increasingly,
hedgerows are valued for the major role they play in preventing soil loss and
in reducing pollution as well as for their potential to regulate water supply
and reduce flooding. They serve to
increase earthworm diversity and they also play a big role in providing shelter
for small mammals, birds and insects.
Speaking of Laurie’s favorite animal! As we neared the end of our backroads exploration near Sweetwater Tennessee, we came across fields full of horses! These photos just capture a few out in the pastures. Our guess is that this area is home to between 70 and 90 horses… They are always beautiful to watch! This was the biggest assembly of equines we’d seen anywhere in the area.
Back to
our home…
Despite
the record number of homes being built all around us, we still enjoy the
occasional visit by our local deer population.
The other day Laurie saw a small herd hustle through our backyard…too
fast for her to grab a camera. She did
capture this photo through our deck railing showing a doe nibbling her way
along the backyard.
This broad shouldered hawk has become a regular visitor. Built to function and hunt in wooded areas, it has decided that our bird feeder provides significant opportunities for its meals. Just a couple of days ago Laurie and I both witnessed the hawk’s attempt to snare its prey. It all happened very fast and the hawk’s intended dinner escaped! We can usually tell when a hawk is nearby…as our feeder is abandoned.
The
broad-winged or broad-shouldered hawk is a medium-sized hawk, measuring 13 to
17 inches long and weighing between 9.3 and 19.8 oz. The migrating subspecies of these hawks tend
to overwinter in deciduous and mixed forests…hence our neighborhood! Females are slightly larger than the
males. To catch their prey, these hawks
watch from low branches, hiding in the foliage where possible, until they spot
a target. They are very fast indeed!
One bit
of Covid-19 related positive news!
Laurie and I are scheduled for our first vaccine shots this coming
week. Before too long, after the second
‘jab’, we should be able to begin resuming some sort of semi-normal life
style. Hooray!
Just
click on any of the photos to enlarge them…
Thanks
for stopping by for a visit!
Stay Safe
and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
I enjoyed your drive around the area and I know Laurie was especially happy seeing the horses.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your outing with me...it was fun to see the various things you captured, and animas too! Didn't see a single cow, which most of our area would have. I'm over in Western North Carolina...so we have lots of country roads too. Good luck on your vaccines, I've had my first one.
ReplyDeleteI know donkeys are smart animal, but I don't know they will attack wild dogs or coyotes .... Interesting.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing beautiful photos of countryside.
Have a wonderful day
Lovely post again, friend David! Donkeys. Ya. We also have experience with them regarding guarding our cattle. Llamas are also very good guardians . And so are ostriches. And so are pigs, especially when they have young :) I remember many a morning coffee interrupted by a whole lot of screaming and kicking out in our corral when wolves/ coyotes tried to attack. Anyway, on to the weather: It warmed up nicely for us:) Right now we are sitting at a balmy -15C :) I heard about the snow storms and power outages in The Midwest and south east of the States, including Tennessee ... Hope you peeps are doing alright? Sending love, and stay happy and healthy. cat.
ReplyDeleteAny outing is a good one just by the definition of "out" and nice that in your back roads drive you made some discoveries. The donkeys looked very sweet, but that hawk looked quite menacing. That's good news to read about your upcoming vaccine shot. We too hope to be able to get out and about a bit more after our 2nd in March, but have no illusions that precautions will continue (sigh).
ReplyDeleteA descoberta consiste em ver o que todos viram e em pensar no que ninguém pensou.
ReplyDeleteFYI, This translates to "The discovery consists of seeing what everyone saw and thinking about what nobody thought."
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