Posted in Homestead

Most homesteads have some farm animals: cows, goats, chickens, bunnies, cats, dogs, horses, ducks, etc.  Our homestead however, has different animals.  Since we are not zoned agricultural, we are not permitted any of these wonderful animals.  Perhaps someday...

Until then we enjoy other homestead animals; the ones God gave us.  We have bunnies, but not the kind you buy and keep in cages.  We have wild bunnies, and lots of them!  I will have to try to get a pic, but we have about 8 at last count.  They live in the "woods" behind our home and feed on our extensive grass.  They come everyday and are used to us, so they don't run as soon as they hear us.  We can acutally get pretty close to them, but no petting yet.  We also have coons.  Sometimes adults, other times they bring their kids.  LOL!  Usually to munch on our cat's food.  They are loud when they talk with each other.  I hate to brag, but they talk so much, I have learned to imitate their sound in so that they talk to me.  A regular Dr. Doolittle.  LOL!  We only look at them from our home, so as to have no accidents, but they seem to regard our homestead as a safe haven. 

We also have Bobcats.  The last one was the size of an adult golden retriever, but with shorter legs.  He was beautiful!  We have grey fox that scamper through our yard, seemingly going from one wooded area to the next.  My daughter has even rescued a fox cub!  There is a snake that we call side winder, who lives under one of our gutter run offs.  He follows the same path to the woods everyday. 

Yesterday, the kids went  out in the rain.  Here in SW Fl it rains a LOT during hurricane season; everyday actually.  This causes moats to form around our property.  In these moats, tadpoles are plentiful.  When they mature to full frogdom, the croaking is so loud (because there are so many) that it can keep you from sleeping.

This is Evan watching the tadpoles swishing over his galoshes, or as he likes to call them, goolashes. 

We have another of God's creatures as a pet on our homestead.  It is a tortoise.  He has a VERY deep house/hole in our yard.  We are hoping it might be female and we might see babies.  He was out eating today while I was tooling around the yard. 

Of course, we do have some domestic pets; a cat and 2 fish.  We also "have" a domestic dog, who must live somewhere in the neighborhood, but he hangs out at our place. 

While my heart is yearning for a stead on which we can have farm animals (especially chickens), I am blessed by God's way of giving me a homestead filled with animals. 

These are my thoughts.