Happy To Be Back!

It's amazing to me that as soon as we flip the calendar page to September, the weather seems to flip, too. While I'm a little sad to say good-bye to summer, I admit, I love these cooler days and nights. We haven't needed to use the A/C in several weeks and I've had to put light blankets on all the beds because we all seem to wake up just a tad chilled.

Lately, after dinner, we have been walking in the woods again. It was too hot and muggy to do it during the summer, plus the gnats and mosquitoes are quite ferocious here and it just doesn't make for an enjoyable walk. It's so nice to walk out after dinner as a family and be together, enjoying nature's changing of the seasons. I almost feel like I need to shield my children's eyes as Mother Nature sheds her leaves and bares her naked limbs.

 We have a young black walnut tree growing in the middle of the garden area. I'm torn about cutting it down. As it grows, it will shade the garden, but-- it's a walnut tree!!  All this time I thought it was one of those fast-growing weed trees and we have been putting off cutting it down because we wanted to let it grow just a little bit thicker and get a little more firewood out of it, but this year it sprouted black walnuts for the first time! Pretty impressive for a young tree that's only 3 years old. I counted more than 25 walnuts hanging off the branches. What to do, what to do? We have other walnut trees, but many are old with rotten limbs and not producing a lot of walnuts anymore. I'll probably just procrastinate another year and see what happens in the garden shade-wise.

Is there anything more precious than seeing your children holding hands?

I predict many more after dinner walks in the woods with the family.

***

I've missed this little space I have here. I missed writing and reading your comments. I really needed this time away, to not think I needed to blog every little thing and appreciate time with my family. We did a lot together this summer-- spent every single day of July in the pool; went to the county fair; lost teeth, celebrated birthdays, spent time with friends, enjoyed cook-outs... but most importantly, we were together. There's nothing I love more than being with my family.

I hope you all had a great summer, too. I am looking forward to what the future holds and what Fall may bring to me and my family.

*

The Day Something Exciting Happened In The Morning And Made The Rest Of The Day Boring

Ever have one of those days? Something unusual and unexpected and exciting happens and then the rest of the day just putters along, nothing compares and you sink into a dark, depressing hole that just swallows you whole. Ok, a little dramatic maybe, but what do you expect from a woman that's PMS'ing??? Seriously, after this morning, the most exciting thing that happened was Gretchen spitting down the front of her shirt! (??? I haven't a clue why.)

Morning routine happened as usual: Andrew wakes, lets the dog out and feeds the cats and dog. The kids wake and play and/or watch a movie. I wake and make breakfast for myself and anyone else that hasn't eaten yet. Sylvia comes running and tells me there's a spider in the sink. I go and get a paper towel to squash the little thing and then I spot it-- the biggest mofo spider I've ever seen outside of a zoo in. my. house. I froze.

"Go get daddy!" I scream as I stare in horror at the freakishly huge King Kong of spiders, ever so casually perched on the edge of a coffee mug in the sink. I swear the thing grew bigger with every sip of water.

Daddy happened to be in the shower, his head covered in shaving cream as he was in the middle of shaving when all hell broke loose and two little girls burst into the bathroom screaming for daddy to "Come and see! There's a big spider in the kitchen! Come and see!" He ignores them, thinking, it was just the exaggeration of children when they say 'big spider', and mama can handle it just fine.

Mama, in fact, was still frozen in the kitchen, watching Godzilla the spider grow another inch, imagining it jumping on my face if I even moved a step closer. I wielded a fly swatter and gripped it tight, but even that seemed puny in my white-fisted hands. I knew that if I even tried to swat at it, it would grab the fly swatter out of my hands and proceed to beat me senseless with it. Please God, tell me this is the only one inside my house and there aren't hundreds of baby Godzilla spiders getting ready to hatch from an egg that's been safely tucked away somewhere inside my house!

I commanded my kid to watch the spider while I ran to Andrew, who was STILL in the bathroom oblivious to the fact that his kitchen housed the biggest damn spider outside of a zoo, and was STILL shaving his head. I stuck my head inside the shower and told him to hurry up and kill the thing before it runs off and makes more babies!

Finally, the man comes sauntering into the kitchen, asking ever so casually, "Alright, what's all the hub-bub? Where's the little spider?"

"There! There!" we all scream, pointing to the sink.

He looks and looks at me and looks back at Godzilla the spider. Meanwhile, I have since scurried into the hallway, knowing, just knowing, that as soon as Andrew gets close to that spider, it'll jump onto his face and just like in the movie Aliens, proceed to wrap it's eight million legs around his head and lay some Godzilla-sized eggs inside his mouth. He tried to scoop it into a cup and take it outside, but it wasn't co-operating with him, so in the end, he squished it.

"Make sure you clean up the sink," I call to Andrew, from my safe location in the hallway. I do not want to even see a leg next to a fork or cup in the sink. I'd have to burn whatever that leg touched!

He's never going to let me live this down, but I don't care. Call me a pansy, a wuss, a fraidy-cat, but Godzilla sized spiders do not belong in my sink, much less my house! I'm going to be looking around all the time now, just waiting for a foot-long spider leg attached to an even bigger spider to creep around the corner, wanting to exact revenge on me for the death of it's loved one. It's torture, I tell ya! How am I supposed to go about my day always worrying there's going to be an even bigger spider than Godzilla the spider??!!

See what I mean? After this, the rest of the day is turning out to be so dull. Hanging laundry on the line-- yawn! Fish sticks and fries for lunch-- double yawn! Sorting through clothes for the kids-- super mega yawn!!

It's Cinco De Mayo-- maybe a spicy mexican dinner will liven things up tonight! Heck, I may even make margaritas, with double the tequila in mine! Goodness knows I'll need it if I'm ever going to fall asleep tonight! Just imagine the nightmare waiting for me once I turn out the light and my eyes close.

Hawking

All this week, after finding an opossum in the chicken coop on the 31st, I have been diligent in going out at dusk and counting chickens before closing up the coop for the night. Wednesday evening was no different, the sun was still shining through the trees, though the light was thin and darkness was quickly closing in. My count always goes like this: 4 buffs, 2 speckled, 1 rooster, 5 reds, 7 babies. This night, though, I came up with 6 babies. I counted again. I physically moved the chickens because sometimes they huddle close and can easily be overlooked, but I still came up one short. I walked around the coop, maybe the last one was just caught late and huddled outside the coop-- the babies do that sometimes, but no chicken.

Crap.

I flashed the beam of my light further around the coop and saw nothing. I closed up the coop and walked around the house, checking the usual chicken hangouts. The babies don't tend to stray far from the house like the older chickens do, but I saw no chicken. It was cold, my fingers and my toes in my flip-flops were freezing. I went in to make dinner, then I'd go back out later to check again.

One more search before bedtime around midnight. I walked by the rhubarb patch by the side of the house and then I planned to walk into the woods and see if maybe I would flush out the chicken, but as I walked, something told me to stop and look down. I did, and there was my chicken, dead, partly eaten, feathers scattered all around.

Sigh.

I looked over the body, it was a young roo. It had the same marks as the one that the opossum was eating last week, so I am thinking the opossum got smart this time and took the chicken out of the coop instead of staying in there. It was freezing, late and nights in the country are very, very dark. I didn't want to carry the chicken all the way across the yard and into the garden to put it in the compost. I left it, planning to get to it in the morning.


I woke early in the morning and looked out my window, checking to see if the dead chicken was still there and what did I see? A Cooper's Hawk! What a surprise that was to see! I had no idea they would scavenge, but a freshly-killed chicken must be too good to pass up for a hungry juvenile hawk.

I tried to take pictures that were clear, but it was very hard to take decent pictures through the screen. I was so tempted to cut a hole just to get a better picture, but I knew that was just plain silly. The kids came to see what I was looking at and we all spent the next hour watching the hawk make a meal out of the chicken.

Archie and Lucy the cats came and chased the hawk away, but he just hung out in the tree until Lucy and then Archie got bored and went away.

He was a beautiful bird to look at. I've always admired hawks and it was a treat to see one right outside my bedroom window. After the cats left, he flew back down and ate some more. It was fascinating to watch it pull feathers out with it's beak then rip into the chicken and eat some more.

The kids and I all watched for over an hour until the hawk seemed to have it's fill and flew away. What a sight to see it's wingspan and watch it fly away. Afterwards, we talked about what we saw, looked up our animal encyclopedia and bird books for identification, but finally came up with a positive ID on the internet.

-

I felt bad last night for losing another chicken, but on the bright side, at least it was a rooster and not a hen, and we got such a great nature show out of it. One less rooster to butcher in the Spring, but also one less rooster in the freezer. Counted chickens tonight: 4 buffs, 2 speckled, 1 rooster, 5 reds, 6 babies. All safe.

New Year's Eve

I got invited to a fancy New Year's Eve party in D.C., but at $40 per person, I'd rather stay in my warm and cozy home with my family. I certainly don't want to drive 3 hours to D.C. and then deal with traffic and potential drunk drivers and get home all red-eyed and exhausted from driving in the wee hours of the morning.

My plan for spending New Year's eve is to just be home, maybe watch a movie with Andrew, kiss each other one last time for 2010 and then another kiss welcoming 2011. Sounds good to me! Unfortunately, Mr. Opossum had his own ideas for celebrating the New Year::


He killed and feasted on a chicken, right there in the nest box at the bottom of the coop! Andrew went out to shut the coop up for the night and came in to report to me that 2 chickens were out; one under the van and another heading into the woods. So I grab my sweater and flashlight and go out to check, thinking it's just a matter of herding 2 chickens caught in the dark back into the coop. Imagine my surprise when I shine the light inside and catch two reflecting eyes shining back at me!

I run back into the house to fetch Andrew and he fetches his .22, but I was afraid the bang would scare the chickens out of the coop, which is the last thing I wanted. I suggested the nearest tool handy, which was the rake, and Andrew hit the opossum a few times, but he wouldn't budge and give up his meal. All it did was turn around and huddle itself in the corner. Andrew went back in and got his BB handgun and shot it a few times, but it still wouldn't budge. Banged on the outside corner where the opossum was, and other than jumping with every bang, it remained there.

I ended up getting the hammer and pulling out the board that covers that corner and Andrew took the rake and poked it and it shot out the hole I made and went under the coop. Not exactly where I wanted it to go, but the coop is closed up and there's no way for the opossum to get back in now. I removed the dead hen and examined it, and he must have been in there awhile, a good part of the breast meat was eaten and its' stomach was exposed with all the ingested food spilled out. Poor hen, I feel bad and hope her death was quick.

I still have 2 chickens on the loose, but it's a mild night, thankfully (the temps got into the 60s today!!) and I'll find out in the morning if they are still alive. They ran into the woods and from past experience, it's damn near impossible to find a brown chicken amongst brown leaves and trees and branches. The warm weather melted what little snow we had, so I feel their chances of surviving the night are good. If they hunker down and keep quiet, they'll do alright.

In the morning, I'll inspect under the coop and if it's all clear, I'll cover up that hole. What a way to start the new year. I think it's time for Andrew to teach me to use the .22, so if I ever needed to, I can do it myself. I got a little squeamish thinking about killing that opossum, but now that he's had a taste of fresh chicken, I have no doubt it'll come back. I'll have to get over that squeamishness and kill it the next time it comes around.

I think I'll have to make that into my New Year's Resolution: Learn to shoot a rifle and learn to shoot it well.
-

Hungry?

Garden spiders are welcome here. As long as they stay outdoors and don't try to venture in the house!*

Not sure what kind of bug it's eating, but it's one less bug in the garden!

I love how I can see the details of it's face! Green "teeth"!

Would you believe the camera I used is a point and click?

-

*Funny story-- When we lived at the old house, there were these huge wolf spiders in the house. They freaked me out. I hated that they grew so big and were jumpers and it didn't help that they were mostly in the scary basement that gave me the chills to go down at night. Our basement was the kind of place where when you were at the bottom step, you ran as fast as you could to the top before something grabbed your ankles and pulled you down. Seriously, the basement was scary. When the light got turned off while I was still down there, I'd scream. Anyway, at night when Andrew was at work, I'd go down to do laundry and a wolf spider would be down there at the bottom of the steps, I don't like to kill spiders, especially freaky large ones that make a popping feel when you smoosh them, I might not be able to hear the squish but I can feel it-- *shiver*! So I'd grab whatever was handy, a cup, a jar, a vase and catch it inside. Then when Andrew came home from work, he had to go around and dispose of all the spiders inside the overturned cups. I'd catch camel crickets too and those are just gross. There were a few times when there was nothing under there, and I'd imagine the spider lifting the jar to make his escape.

-

Living here at this house, the basement isn't scary at all. It's unfinished, and spiders everywhere, but I'm cool with it. The old house always felt like there was someone watching you and I never liked being alone at night there. Might even have been haunted, there were plenty of unexplained happenings at the old house: lights coming on, stove turning on, noises, smells in the house. Andrew even woke up one night with a heavy weight on his chest and he couldn't get up no matter how hard he tried. After a few minutes, he was able to get up. Scary! The house was built on land where the Civil War was fought, and on the property next to us was a falling-down house and a cemetery that was supposed to be for the slaves. The lovely old house in back of us was taken over and used as a military hospital for both sides. Might explain the weird happenings at our house. Beautiful area, but creepy just the same. Can't tell you how many times the hair on the back of my neck stood up when we lived there.

--
I don't miss the old house one bit! The spiders there can keep it!

Visitor

Look who lives in our garden and came to visit!

Mr. Toad!

I happened to pick something up and he was under there and hopped onto my foot.

Well, hello there!

He hung out on my foot for quite a bit,

while Andrew ran to the house to get the camera.

He's a handsome feller ain't he?

He's welcome to live in the garden for as long as he likes,
provided he eats his weight in bugs!

~

Shoutin' From the Roof Tops

I'm so excited I could just pee my pants! The Mulberries are ripe!! It's been a slow torture watching the berries form and grow slightly bigger week by week and then all of a sudden, they're ready! I have 4 mulberry trees and they ripen at different times, but we are getting tons of berries. yum yum yum!

Seeing "berry faces" is a regular thing around here. We pop berries into our mouths whenever we walk by one of the trees. You don't want to see the "berry feet"!

We even go in our jammies in the morning to munch on berries before breakfast!

I love that we are teaching Peter to pick and eat berries, too. Took a few tries but he understands now which berries to pick. The branches have so many berries on them, they are touching the ground, which makes it easier on me, I don't have to pull branches down for the kids-- they can just pick their own and the ones I pick for the berry bucket stay in there!


Another happy berry face!

The black raspberries and cherries are ripening too, so we are filling up on all kinds of fruit! My cherry tree is still small, so I still want to pick from the local PYO cherry orchard, but it's nice to eat my own cherries! Peter really likes the cherries, too. I eat half of the cherry and pull the seed out, then give him the other half to eat. He makes me stay there and pick more cherries for him and if I try to walk away he blocks me and pushes me back under the cherry branches. Looks like he'll be a cherry lover like me! :o)

_

Chickens and Turtles

I still have the Box Turtle. I was told to soak the turtle in warm water, as it was likely dehydrated, and when they are dehydrated, I've learned, that their eyes swell shut. I suppose that is a body mechanism to keep their eyes from drying out. Since soaking the turtle in water for a couple of days, it's eyes are starting to open!

The right eye is still not all the way open, but the left eye seems to be fine. He can definitely see my hand come down and he flinches and moves away. His color seems brighter, too, so it gives me hope that the little guy (or girl?) will be alright.

I'm still waiting to hear from a turtle rehabber, to find out what I can do to help it. Since it's soon winter here, the turtle should be getting ready for the long sleep.. so it's likely that they'll take him over the winter, and if he gets better, they'll return him here, back to his home area.

***

From all accounts I've read.. online, bloggers, books; I was under the impression that 6 hens will give me, on average, 5 to 6 eggs daily. If I was lucky, I was getting 2 or 3 per day, sometimes, nothing. I worried that maybe they were laying in the woods and I'd have to put up a fence to pen them in.

exposed!

*
Then one day, Youngest came running with an egg in her hand. She said she found it in the pole barn. I asked her to show me exactly where, and turns out, they are laying eggs under the tarp that covers the log splitter. Ah-ha! That first day we found them, there were 5 eggs there! Since then, we are averaging 4 eggs daily. That's more like it! Some days we get 5, but usually it's 4 and I'm happy with that.

***
After I wrote my last post about making pants for Baby from an old sweat jacket, my sister sent me a box of clothes from her baby boy! What an unexpected surprise in the mail today. Thanks Sis!! :o) Lots of nice warm clothes for Baby to wear in there!
*
(Thanks for all the wonderful comments and compliments on the recycled baby pants, by the way! The idea did come from Amanda Soule's book, I borrowed it from the Library when it first came out and she used the bottom of a t-shirt to make shorts for the kiddies. My version is using the sleeves for pants. These will work as pants for baby legs, but probably not for kids 2 years and up.)
*

Why Did The Turtle Cross The Road?

To get to the other side, not get hit by a car.

So this turtle shows up in my garden the other day. I was thrilled. I have a soft spot for turtles.
Then I took a closer look at it and realized there was something wrong. His eyes are not open. As I look closely, I can see there is a crack in his shell and it looks like his face got a rude introduction to a tire. There is an open wound on the top of his head that has a shell fragment stuck in it and it healed over, but I'm not too sure about his eyes... Can he open them at all? Is he blind now? He can walk fine, he has strength to push his sharp little turtle claws and scratch my hand while I hold him.

We called our local wildlife dept in town, the guy said put him back where I found him, they don't do turtles. No, no, no.. I can't do that. So I turn to the handy-dandy internet and search for box turtles and found a link with an email address. I didn't hold out much hope that I would hear from them the same day I sent the email, but lo and behold-- I did!

I sent pictures and she replied back that the turtle was likely dehydrated and needs water. When turtles get dehydrated, their eyes swell shut. I hope that's the reason why his eyes are shut. I have him soaking in a bucket with a little water in it and hope that helps. She referred me to a wildlife rehabilitation link and I found 2 not too far from here, so I am going to contact them in the morning and hope little turtle here can get some help.

Turtle has put things into perspective for me. I woke up feeling out of sorts, I didn't sleep well and had weird dreams. Our van being out of commission stresses out the Husband and he doesn't like taking the only vehicle that works and leaving me and the kids stranded. What if something happens and I need to go somewhere? Then we worry that it will cost more than we can afford to fix. We're working on the O2 sensors now, and if that doesn't work then it may be the thing-a-ma-jiggity-whazit (I forget the word, sorry) and it's not cheap and we don't have that kind of money in the bank.

Usually I am the go-with-the-flow kind of gal, but talking about money before I close my eyes at night screwed me up and it wove itself into my dreams. I know things will work out, they always do, and I need to give my worries up to God and focus on what I need to do.

At least my life is not as bad as poor turtle here-- getting run over by a car and then not being able to see. I can't imagine what kind of pain he must be in and how long has he been like that?

Speaking of not being able to see, my dad just had surgery for his eye today, unexpectedly and without the surgery, he would lose sight in that eye. I hope the surgery is a success; they won't know until next week. I love you Dad, hope everything goes alright. xoxo

So, perspective? We'll deal with the van, at least we have our health.

Surprise Visitor!

With the cooler weather quickly blowing in, the leaves falling and piling up around us, that also means animals are looking for warm places to settle down for the long winter ahead. Squirrels are scampering around for nuts and berries, deer are foraging for food (we had a low crop season here for nuts and fruits, so deer will be traveling out of their comfort zone looking for food-- good for hunters, bad for deer) and snakes are also looking for that warm shelter.


The husband found this snake in one of our garbage cans by the chicken coop. It wasn't huge, but it was taking a defensive position and striking out often and rattling it's tail. That made us think it was a rattler.

We studied it for a little bit, called the girls over to come see and we stressed again (and again!) why we don't want them walking in the woods without mama and daddy. Leaves are great cover for snakes and now is the time for them to be out looking for food and shelter.

-

After much debate on what to do, we killed it. We didn't want to set it free only to have it come back or make more baby snakes, eat our chickens or eggs, and/or hurt our children or animals. We don't kill animals without a reason and we do feel bad about it, but our family comes first.

-

I looked up on the internet for identifying the snake and turns out it is not a rattler after all, but a juvenile Black Ratsnake. It usually shakes his tail like a rattler when it feels threatened, which makes many people think it is a rattler (like we thought it was). It's not poisonous, but it does bite and does not slither away when people come upon it. Black Ratsnakes are usually the ones you see killed on the roadways, because they freeze and strike when they are scared-- which creates snake pancakes. Then I read further on about their eating habits and their nickname? Chicken snakes. Well, that made me feel better about our decision to kill it. They like to eat chicken eggs and chickens and are often found around chicken coops.

-

We will be making sure to rake often around the chicken coop now, to prevent any sneaky snakes from moving into the coop and I will be just a bit more cautious when I reach my hand into the nest boxes for an egg.

Birdbrain

We have a daily visitor in the mornings. He isn't too bright. At least we don't think so.

*

Every morning, round about the same time, we have a male cardinal that comes to our bedroom window.

*

Same window. Same time.

BC the cat has since learned that there is glass separating him and the bird, so he no longer hunches down and does that butt wiggle that cats do when they're ready to pounce. Over and over he would lunge at the bird, only to bonk himself on the glass.

*

Finally, after one bonk on the head too many, he knew that the glass would never magically disappear or he would not pass through like a ghost.
*

So now he just passively sits there and watches the bird. Maybe dreaming of cardinal roasts and cardinal sandwiches and cardinal mousses...

The bird on the other hand... He still has not learned that there is glass there and it will never magically disappear or he will never morph into a ghost and pass through it.

*

So every day, the bird flies into window, sits on the sill and peers through. Maybe it sees its' own reflection and thinks there's another bird.

*

Maybe it sees the cat and knows it can't get him and he's tweeting "Na-na-na-nah-nah!"

*

Or maybe it's just scatterbrained.

Hey! Where'd the cat go?

Yoo-hoo!

You still there?

Hello?

Cold Hands, Warm Heart

We have some visitors that have been staying with us and have taken over the pool. And yes, that is our filthy little kiddie pool that the husband and I have neglected to wash and keep clean. We're busy and cleaning a pool is low on our list of priorities.


In the meantime, while we have been busy doing other things, a turtle and a family of frogs have moved in!

Here, Mr. Turtle (or is it Miss?) is checking out his new digs.

"Hmmm.. yep! This'll do just fine! What's the rent on a joint like this?"

The frogs have been busy and there are quite a few tadpoles swimming around in the murky water. Too tiny for me to take pictures with my cheap-o camera. We usually find between 3 and 5 frogs in the pool and the girls are having fun trying to catch them.

We have also discovered a family of toads living under a tarp that we have neglected to put away. (detect a theme of neglected items, do you?) I pulled the tarp out to lay it flat and let dry so we could finally put it away, when the girls spotted them. We counted 4 toads, so we put the tarp back and come Fall, we will put it up, because, surely by then, the toads will have moved on to find a more secure home for the coming winter.

What a perfect chance to learn about cold-blooded amphibians and reptiles!