Snow Tires

It seemed odd dropping my truck off to have snow tires put on with the temperature in the low 70's. (These temperatures are to continue through the weekend!)We had 16 inches of snow last Wednesday and there is hardly a sign of it now. I've had my warning. Next time I may not be so lucky to have two days off from work; I could have to go in.

I went for a run while the work was being done. Big O Tires is a little over a mile from Waneka Lake so I decided to run to the lake and do a couple of laps. After the hills on the weekend and enduring atrial fibrillation for the previous 24 hours or so I was ready for some flat terrain. The irregular heartbeats often stop after about a half mile of running and that's how it was today. My legs felt as if there were large rubber bands creating resistance to my forward motion. I plodded along though and manage to squeeze out six miles. When I returned, the tires were mounted.

I have been finding my snow tires in recent winters in Craigslist but it seems as though people are catching on and waiting until it snows and trying to get the most that they can for them. It makes sense. So between higher prices for used tires and higher prices to have them mounted I decided to go ahead and pay to have new ones installed.

Los coyotes

Often on a run I'll come across a coyote. They are always aware of me but have little interest. On several occasions I have seen them among cows with calves and the mama cows have never seemed concerned. Prairie dogs who don't heed the warnings of their neighbors are asking to be dinner.

I've seen several news accounts where people and their pets have had run-ins with coyotes. My guess is that most of the people made the coyote feel threatened. Whenever I approach an area where there may be coyotes, or cows in a field for that matter, I scan the area first and if I see animals that might feel threatened by my presence I don't move toward it and I allow it to have space to go off in a different direction. Then I proceed.

Wild animals will almost always know you are approaching before you see them. In the animal world if you move toward an animal,you presumable have an interest in eating it. Animals are generally averse to being eaten so they are inclined to take defensive action. If you are close, they may decide that a good defense is a good offense.

I have heard that coyotes in the northeast part of the US are more aggressive and tend to hunt more in packs where as the ones here in the west are inclined to conserve energy; to them, hunting is laying amid a prairie dog colony waiting until the little burrowers forget the coyote is out there.