Coyote Pup Saved

This poor guy took on a cholla cactus and almost lost the battle. I am so glad they saved him.
Cholla Coyote

Puns

My main character Myles loves to tell puns, just like my father did. Here are some groaners.

It's raining cats and dogs. Well, as long as it doesn't reindeer.

I once heard a joke about amnesia, but I forgot how it goes.

When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.

I relish the fact that you've mustard the strength to ketchup to me.

Wonderful, thoughtful review from Allison Hunter

Thank you Allison!

"There are days when I tire of being a reviewer, but then along comes a book like Coyote Winds by Helen Sedwick that makes me feel excited about my role. Coyote Winds  is a bittersweet story, full of sadness and hope. As a historical novel, it’s about Myles and his family who struggle against overwhelming odds to maintain a farm during the depression and the Dust Bowl. As a young adult novel, it’s about thirteen-year-old Andy who lives in our modern times but misses his Grandpa Myles and is determined to keep his grandfather’s memories alive.

It’s been a long time since I have read a book about the love between a boy and a wild animal. Books such as Rascal come to mind. Being about a teenage boy and a coyote he rescues from a dust storm, Coyote Winds is also such a book..."More on Allison's Book Bag

Introducing Keeping It Legal for Writers

I am starting a companion blog today at Keeping It Legal, a step-by-step guide to the legal issues of self-publishing, blogging and marketing your book.  For a living I practice law, and I have noticed that many writers find the legal issues quite daunting. Please check out my posts and feel free to ask me questions in the comments sections of Keeping It Legal. 

History.com's 10 Things You May Not Know About the Dust Bowl

I just discovered that History.com has another list of ten things you may not know about the Dust Bowl. With the on-going drought in the southern plains states, people are growing more concerned about repeating this gritty history.

History.Com 

The Dust Bowl -- Ten Surprising Facts

Like many authors writing historical fiction, I researched my time period extensively. I wanted to capture day-to-day life, as well as the attitudes and dreams of people living in past times. In researching the Dust Bowl for COYOTE WINDS, I learned some surprising facts:

1.  The Dust Bowl was a one of the worst man-made ecological disasters in history. 

Drought, by itself, did not cause the Dust Bowl. The western Great Plains have always suffered periodic droughts. But native prairie grasses had deep roots, sometimes five to eight feet deep. Even when the above-ground shoots dried up, the roots held the soil in place, and the grasses re-grew quickly when rains returned. During the “Great Plow Up” of the 1920s, farmers torn out prairie grass in an area as large as Ohio. They planted wheat, corn and other shallow-rooted crops. They dreamed of a verdant future because they had been told that “rain follows the plow.” But the rains stopped in 1931, and wind did what it always did—blow. It picked up dust from Montana to Texas, and the Dust Bowl was spawned. The farmers’ dreams gave the wind the weapon that then destroyed those dreams.

2.  Not everyone moved to California. 

After John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, and the 1940 film, I thought everyone affected by the Dust Bowl moved west. I was surprised to learn that 75% of the people in the Dust Bowl area “stuck it out.” More than 2.5 million people did leave the area, and 300,000 of those went to California. That is a huge migration of economic refugees, but it was scattered over many states. 

3.   Grizzly bears, wolves and bald eagles once were abundant on the Great Plains. 

Early settlers saw these predators as competition for game and a threat to their livestock. So the animals were poisoned, trapped and hunted relentlessly. And when the buffalo herds were wiped out, the remaining bear, wolf and eagle populations collapsed. That is one reason why coyotes have thrived so well. Their competition was eliminated, and they filled the void.

4.  Florence Owens Thompson, the mother in Dorothea Lang’s famous photo, was only 32 years old.  

Hers is a care-worn face if I have ever seen one.

5.   Dust storms cause high static electricity. 

Drivers dragged chains behind their cars to ground them; otherwise the engine would short out. If you reached out to shake someone’s hand, the static shock could knock you both off your feet.

6.   Dust caused attics to collapse.

People knew enough to brush the heavy dust from their roofs, but many people did not realize that dust was seeping into their attics. Many attics collapsed because the dust was several feet deep.

7.   Superstitions were revived. 

In the hope of generating rain, farmers killed snakes and draped their bodies belly up along fences. So-called experts used balloons to lift dynamite into the sky. They claimed the explosions “agitated” the atmosphere and caused rain to fall.

8.   In the 1930s, an estimated half-million teenagers were riding the rails as “hobos.” 

We tend to think of hobos as grown men, but hundreds of thousands of boys, some as young as ten, left home and rode the rails in search of work and adventure. Some girls joined them. FDR worried that the country would suffer from this lost generation of hardened, wild children.

9.   Tumbleweed—that ubiquitous symbol of the West--came from Russia, probably mixed in with early sacks of flax seed. 

It is a water-hogging, invasive and hated pest. However cattle will eat the young shoots, so it was used during the Dust Bowl as cattle feed. Some people tried to eat it as well. Unsuccessfully.

10.   The Dust Bowl has happened again, although on a smaller scale. Starting in 1952, there was a five-year drought called the “Filthy Fifties.” Another drought hit in the mid-1970s and again between 1998 and 2002. Today the area is experiencing another tough drought. Due to better soil management, dust storms have not been as large and widespread. However if the Ogallala Aquifer ever runs dry (and some people say it will in about 50 years), we are likely to see more dry, abandoned farmland lose soil to the coyote winds.

To learn more about the Dust Bowl, watch the Ken Burns special THE DUST BOWL. The second half will be broadcast on Tuesday April 30, 2013, and it is available on DVD.  http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/

 
My novel, COYOTE WINDS, explores the American can-do spirit that drew people out to the western prairie in the hope of making a new life and feeding the world. And it shows what happened when that spirit came up against the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.  For more information about COYOTE WINDS, visit my website Helen Sedwick Website

Beware--Babies Nearby

It’s Spring, and babies are hiding everywhere. Does tuck their fawns in the tall grass, and quail are nesting in the bottlebrush. Grey foxes have their kits in an old barn down the road. A few years ago, this male kit was so bold he snoozed on our deck.

And out there in the brush are coyote pups.  As cute as they may seem, it's best for you and for them to keep your distance.

Unlike dogs, coyotes breed once a year. Pups are born in March or April. Weighing approximately 250 grams at birth, they are blind and limp-eared. The eyes open and ears become erect after 10 days. Around 21–28 days after birth, the young begin to emerge from the den, and by 35 days, they are fully weaned. Litter size ranges from one to 15 pups; the average is six. About 50–70% of pups do not survive to adulthood.

Female coyotes prefer a dry, safe place to have their pups. A typical den site is a brush and tree pile. Or under the base of a large, standing tree that has an opening at ground level. Coyote pups sometimes are raised in hollow logs and under rock ledges. Most pups are moved several times by the time they are old enough to leave the den on their own. If the pups are too small to follow their mother, she carries them one at a time by the nape of the neck to the new den site.

Coyotes are rarely dangerous to humans, except when the pups are threatened. If you see what look like cute, romping puppies in the wild, do not approach them.  They may be coyote pups, and the parents may be nearby.  Call your local animal rescue service if you fear the pups have been abandoned. Do not try to rescue them yourself. 

If the coyotes are coming closer to your home than you’d like, here are some suggestions:

·        Do not leave out food or water.  Secure your garbage.  Move any bird feeder inside a coyote proof fence. Keep small pets inside, particularly at dawn and dusk when coyotes are most active.

Try "hazing” techniques. Use noise makers, whistles, and other deterrents. Yell. Act big and scary. The bigger the better. Here are some helpful links:

Humane Society Hazing Techniques 

Project Coyote Hazing Brochure

Don’t haze… if it is March through July, and you are in a park or open space and think you could be near a coyote den, or if you think that pups could be present. Allow them breathing room to raise and protect their new families. Be aware that you may encounter a coyote who is trying to haze you away from his den by acting anxious and/or assertive. He may attempt to escort you to a safe distance by hunching his back and walking towards you, or by vocalizing (barking or “huffing”). Please leash dogs and pick up small pets and leave the area calmly. Do not run.

Don’t haze… if the coyote is at a comfortable distance from you. Seeing a coyote at a distance is no cause for alarm. They have adapted to urban environments and may be seen during the day or night.