Yesterday morning before the sun was up, we could hear the peacocks honking loudly in their pen across the road from the cabin.

Also in the pen are about 15 or so half-grown pheasants that Kim has been raising this summer. (Don't ask me why he wanted to raise them, there is no logical answer to that...)

When Kim went out to check on them just after dawn, he spotted this culprit inside what he thought was a tight enclosure. 

Apparently the owl was wise enough to figure out a way to get in somewhere, as it has netting across the top as well as all around the sides.

I think it is a juvenile great horned owl. And the blood on its beak is a dead giveaway (no pun intended) to what it had been doing...

The owl might have figured out how to get in, but it didn't know the way out.

Kim put on some leather gloves and grabbed his net...

Captured!

Just look at those eyes...

He was able to grab its talons and pose for a quick photo before he released the grumpy owl.

Unfortunately, at least 3 half-grown pheasants perished before Kim discovered the owl....

Just a couple of weeks ago, Kim had to deal with another critter. One afternoon he discovered a big pile of gravel by a hole that something had dug under the barn.

Not good. We weren't sure what it was, but knew it had to be big and strong to dig out that much rock. 

Kristoffer saw it one day, a groundhog scuttling out of the big burn pile in the back corner of the pasture lot. We haven't seen a groundhog around here for years and years, and never had one (that we know of) on our property in the 40 years we've lived here.

Kim set a live trap by the entrance, to no avail. Then I googled "How to get rid of groundhogs" and discovered that they don't like epsom salts. Worth a try!

When Kim went to purchase some epsom salt, the checkout lady remarked how much she loved soaking in this! I think Kim was afraid he was going to have to turn in his Man Card unless he fessed up, so he told her he was using it to get rid of a groundhog! He said the look on her face was priceless...and the conversation ended right there.

Meanwhile, he found a second hole on the other side of the barn. So he set up a trap there and sprinkled epsom salts all over the original hole entrance.

The next day, Mr. Groundhog had covered the salts with more gravel and had tried to make his escape out of the other hole...

...and into the trap!

He really didn't seem that scared (this is Kelsey checking him out!), but he sure skeedaddled away when Kim set him free in a wooded area a few miles away.

My man is a warrior when it comes to dealing with vicious animals! (But put him on a even a small roller coaster and he's terrified...)

Critters don't stand a chance against my husband.

Kim 2, Critters 0.