I had to put the two old rams together again today.  They have been together the vast majority of their lives, but still it is an event getting reintroduced after a separation.  I had to take Jocko out when his horn was broken off.  And last Friday we butchered our other ram Velvet who was in with Lewis.  Rams do not do well alone so they had to be put back together.  Both of them in their old age have fragile horns so I tried to put in extra barriers to prevent great force in their rammings.  Hopefully this will work and no serious damage will be done.

Later in the day a trespasser showed up.  I was in our front yard (which is unusual) when a truck stopped suddenly short of our driveway and behind the trees.  I heard a door open and close quickly and then the truck pulled away fast.  I thought this was suspicious so I went to the gate to investigate.  I was thinking maybe someone had dropped off an animal (and I guess I was technically right).  What I found was this:

This guy was sprinting fast toward our neighbors’ barn.  This was very suspicious.  I thought he might be a hunter or fisherman, but he did not seem to have a rifle or a pole.  I got Tom, and he yelled at the guys asking what he was doing.  The guy did not stop so then he said he was calling the cops.  Still no response.  We called our neighbors first and left a message and then we called the police.  While we were waiting for the deputy to call, the neighbors drove from the barn.  They said they were in the barn and noticed him coming up the driveway.  He saw them and then hid from them.  Then he came out, gave them a name, and said he was looking for hunting locations.  They let him go.  The deputy called about the same time so we told him the story.  He appreciated us calling him.

It is still very suspicious.  There is a homeless/felon encampment on the Samish River.  I regularly see one guy with his dog walking from it on Old Highway 99 to the south, and I see another guy near the river who always pulls the hood of his sweatshirt over his face when a car drives by.  This trespasser does not seem like a hunter or fisherman, and we suspect is joining the encampment on the river.  We have been losing a fair amount of items out of our produce stand and are concerned it is to these fellows.  We will continue to try to be vigilant, are contemplating putting a digital camera in the stand, and if things do not go well, may need to close down the stand altogether or raise our prices to cover the thefts.