Foxy Momma

My folks live on the Chippewa River. Their house is built into the side of a hill, and the hill is actually the high bank of the river with a big horseshoe shape of river flats between their house and the river itself. This is a view of the flats from my folks' "basement" back door...



Behind those big spruce trees, you can see the opposite high bank of the river, like a big hill. Right there at the big curve of the river it's a nice, sandy bottom, and we used to swim there all the time when I was kid. Still do, sometimes. Further upstream, the river is very shallow and has a gravel bottom. We used to pick up clams there and have them squirt at us.

Also when I was a kid, a lot of the flats was our vegetable garden, and that's still where Mom and Dad have a smaller garden spot today... that's where Joycie grew her garden a couple of years. Part of it has also been a hay field. That flats is a beautiful piece of land. To the left, just starting to show in that photo above, is a big stand of pines. Where the river winds back around, before the high bank gets close, we have a fire pit there, next to the river and the pines. There's another camp fire spot on the opposite side, across the field.

Mom and Dad are usually doing something down on the flats, clearing brush and what not. They've got 2 big brush piles going. One of them is currently occupied...



Yes, that's a fox...



She's living in the brush pile with her babies. Mom and Dad have seen her out sunning herself often, and a few times, like today, she had her 3 pups out with her.



Dad said she fed them outside this afternoon (nursed them), then they played a while before going back into their den.



I have yet to get a photo of the pups, but the momma fox seems very accepting of the activity that goes on up at the house, so we think they'll be around for a while.