As I was about to leave for school, John yelled "hurry get my gun"! That always makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. To make getting the gun quicker, we hung a rifle over the front door. Yes, just like on Little House on the Prairie, Gunsmoke and all our favorite westerns. I now understand the necessity of doing that. As John took aim, I grabbed the camera to also take aim. If you look closely across the pond, you will see a coyote. Actually, there were 3 roaming around. We had already seen the cows and they were far to the left-next to the corral. A few shots were fired and off ran the coyote. We don't think they were hit since this particular rifle may not shoot that far. But a good scare was put in the predators that hopefully they will remember. Any closer to the house and they would have been hanging on the fence. Let me elaborate on that a bit. Apparently it is a custom to hang the coyote carcass on the front fence of your land. Legend has it, other coyotes will not cross. Also it sends a warning to other farmers that there is a coyote problem in the area. I agree that seems a little primitive but now that we are ranchers, we plan to follow tradition. We will continue to the hunt and keep you posted.
FYI, there was no evidence of the coyotes other than seeing them. All livestock on Murphy Ranch is fine.
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