Little House in the Big Woods

Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars... and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers - for no reason. It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are. ~Osho

Yesterday, Angelina asked: Are there a lot of bears where you live or was there just one stray lingering through town? If there are a lot, can't the town's animal control help? I wouldn't feel safe living somewhere where a bear could come out at any time.

Where I live is sort of the best of both worlds. I'm ten minutes from civilization -- I get to WalMart, Target, Home Depot, Lowes, three drugstores, two grocery stores, the doctors office one of four fast food restaurants and more in fifteen minutes or less.

But...

I also live in the boonies. You see, the property we own abuts conservation land. Technically, there is other "owned" property behind us, about a forty acre strip, and someday it might get developed but right now we have nothing but wilds. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of acres of undeveloped land.

Yes, I have a yard:




But it has a secret world behind it:



Want a closer look?





Is it any wonder we constantly fight ticks (three yesterday -- two on the dog, one on my stairs...ICK) or that we're just as likely to see a deer, as a person walking down the street? I've "met" more wildlife here than I ever did when we truly lived in the boonies in California. We have the standard hundred or two chipmunks, about the same number of red squirrels (though their numbers have dwindled since I pulled the bird feeders), owls and bats, racoons, porcupines, skunks, wild turkeys and the four-footed and hooved critters: deer, moose, fisher cats, foxes, coyotes, bear and more (DD is especially partial to playing with the toads, frogs and snakes).

It's a zoo.

I was just talking to my SIL yesterday about the bat I found in my bathroom when DD was just a baby. He was hanging from the window... scared the pants off me. It's just not something you expect to see when you walk into your bathroom! LOL...

And, so, that was my roundabout way of saying, "No, animal control can't help." and honestly, the bears usually aren't out during the day -- the one who hit my feeder last year was young and probably really, really hungry. Even so, it meant that my "trick" of pulling my feeders at night was no longer working (that's what I'd done the last ten years or so).

My neighbors up the street had a hummingbird feeder on their deck and one evening heard something outside, turned on their light and saw the bear on the deck, on his back drinking the feeder like a baby bottle.

So, yeah, I miss my birds. But, safety first!

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You Are Motivated By Autonomy

While you are at ease around others, it's very important that you're able to do your own thing. You are engaged with the world and with life. You find it easy to get in gear, and you're usually busy. You are emotionally stable and totally together. You have struck the perfect balance in your life. You are confident and self-assured. You believe in yourself fully and completely.

What Motivates You?

About 3/4 right.

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Meet Chuck.

Somewhere in the world there is an epigram for every dilemma. ~Hendrik Willem van Loon

However... in this case I couldn't find a quote (or "epigram") to use for today's post. *G*

Something has been eating my SILs garden, especially her lettuce and other greens (including the marigolds that are supposed to help keep pests away!). She thought it was chipmunks, but the other day she saw a critter run across her lawn and had her answer. Yesterday, she put out a trap and lookie what she caught -- Meet Chuck:



Isn't he CUTE? He's actually Chuck #2 -- she caught and released another woodchuck two years ago. Here's C2 asking, "Please, would you mind getting the door?"



We took him to some conservation land around a nearby lake and released him. And, hopefully that will be the end of her problems.

I'm telling you... it's amazing to me that he settlers who came here originally survived. It's amazing the amount of pests we've fought this year.

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Bet I made my neighbors REALLY nervous yesterday. I went down to the end of our road and took pictures of the damage. I imagine they think I'm using it to report them (I wish it would work -- note to all of y'all who suggested we report them to the police. We have, several times, and it does no good. The coppers come down, give them a verbal warning and go away. We've finally given up.), but I was only taking the pix to share with you. *G*

One set of tracks through the loop:


You can't tell from this picture, but one friend of the family took their full-sized Chevy that was lifted into near Monster Truck capacity down this hill to tromp in the mud pit below and then had trouble getting out -- clearly spun his tires to the point there are two ditches right at the edge of the road that are a good 12" deep. When do you suppose the road will start crumbling at the edges?


And another set of tracks:


If I had the money, I'd import some HUGE boulders and circle this area so they couldn't use it. They'd still use their bikes and ATVs, but hopefully it would keep them behind their own house.

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Yesterday, I typed up my longhand notes from last night and then took the notepad back to bed with me. It's my new best friend. If I can get 500 words a night (about what I did the first night), I'll be a happy camper.

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DH's boat trailer is broken -- the carpet covered board that cradles the boat snapped on their last trip. So, all boating plans for this weekend (which promises to be lovely) have been suspended until DH figure out how to get it fixed. The problem isn't the actual fixing, it's finding a place to put the boat while he fixes it!

So... I suspect it's going to be a long weekend...

Do you have any plans?

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Fun With Wildlife

“Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake.” - W. C. Fields

Once upon a time, there was an itty bitty garter snake with eyes far bigger than any other part of him. But he was stealthy and he was quick and ... SNAP!! He got himself a meal.

Unfortunately for him, the meal was too big to fit in his itty bitty mouth. So there they lay, in the grass: snake refusing to let go, despite the fact his prey wouldn't slide down his throat (and even if it did, it would kill him), and prey struggling in vain to go free.

Until a savior in pink appeared and called, "MOM! There's a snake out here with a toad far too big for it."

And Mom, who was in the middle of weeding, came to the rescue. She stepped on the snake's tail, causing it to open its mouth. The toad, a bit stunned, only moved away an inch or two. And the snake, being nobody's fool, tried to run... er... slither away.

But he hadn't counted on the speed and fearlessness of Mom who caught both Snake and Toad for a photo op.



Toad was handed off to DD to put in the garden, but Snake got to hang out with us a little while.





Yes, I'm raising a DD who has little fear of anything in the wild -- though she's not too crazy about yellow jackets or other critters in the "crazy stinging" family.

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In other wildlife news, we had another release in Pillar Place: Swallowtail. Ethel hatched! We were actually able to watch her emerge from her pupa and pump up her wings. Unfortunately, she's in the box with Carole, so I couldn't open it up for pictures. I took one through the netting of her fat little behind and crumpled wings because I'm always amazed at how they begin:



We waited and watched and hoped this one would finally be female... and she WAS! Meet Ethel:




You can tell that Ethel is female from how blue the bottom spots on her wings are. Compare her to Daniel:



See how yellow the spots are on his wings?

Also, the females are significantly larger than the males. We think Hannah will hatch today -- her pupa is getting quite dark. We have only Bugsy and Carole left (and maybe Greg and Fiona... but I have a BAD feeling they are going to overwinter).

Still no monarch eggs. Last year, we found our first eggs on July 15th. Not this year.

:-(

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Living With Wildlife, Part 2

Our suburbs are stretching a little closer to the woods, and we like living in the woods. We enjoy the wildlife, so we're now a bit closer to where the predators are.” - Stephen Zawistowski quotes

The past three nights, DH and I have been awakened around midnight to screaming. Okay, it's not people screaming... it's this (go listen to the YouTube video, I'll wait -- you need to hear it to get the full affect of why it's been such a rude awakening for us):



That's a Fisher Cat.



What makes this even more amazing is... yesterday morning, before anyone but the dog and I were up, Dakota laid at the back door, staring out like she always does. Then she started growling... then louder... then "oof-ing". I looked, and saw nothing until ... HOLY COW! An enormous fisher cat popped out of the woods and sauntered across my lawn. The thing was just HUGE -- maybe two-thirds the size of Dakota. I've seen them before, but not this closely and never one so large. Dakota wanted to get out there and take him on, but fisher cats are very nasty buggers, and she'd have been torn to pieces. The articles I've read indicate that very large males can reach 20 pounds, but that's unusual. I'm guessing mine is one of those. Yikes.

So... no lions and tigers but even so, the wildlife count this year is through the roof.

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I heard from the owner of Resplendence Publishing two days ago. A very nice email and request to resubmit. I might do that. I'm making a few changes in the story first, but there was a reason I'd wanted to submit to them in the first place. So, kudos to Resplendence for making it right.

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You Are a Burrito

You're not a picky person. You're able to go with the flow and really enjoy life. You have a taste for the exotic, and you're quite adventurous. You're willing to try almost anything. You're very low maintenance. You don't mind getting a bit messy if it means having fun. You aren't superficial or easily impressed. Someone has to be the real deal if they're going to impress you.

What Kind of Fast Food Are You?

Except for the "adventurous" part, this is pretty close to right.

Plus, I love me a good burrito... mmmm....

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A Visitor to the Feeder

“I have never been in a natural place and felt that was a waste of time. I never have. And it's a relief. If I'm walking around a desert or whatever, every second is worthwhile.” - Viggo Mortensen

Look who visited our bird feeders a day or two ago (sorry I couldn't get closer, but I had to take the picture through the kitchen window):



He was so healthy looking, fat with a fluffy tail as big as his middle! Amazing. He just sat there and ate birdseed off the ground for a good ten minutes until something startled him (he did the same "vulture" look that Dakota does when she sees something she doesn't like... it was funny) and he trotted off into the woods.

Because we are so close to a massive amount of woods (conservation area behind us), we get lots of action out back. I've seen a fisher cat, a bear, a hawk (this one amused me to no end, because there were squirrels on my feeder when he flew over. They ran up the tree that he landed in. One was directly above him and one immediately behind him around the tree and I swear I could hear them thinking, "You don't see me... you don't see me..."), lots of deer and chippies and TONS of birds. It's amazing how many birds I get to my few feeders. I wish I could afford to put out more! I've had a domestic cat back there a few times, which makes me angry -- my birds aren't a cat buffet and I sure wish folks would keep them inside for the birds' sake AND for the cat's sake.

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A couple gratuitous Christmas photos.

Santa 'Kota:



I think DD likes the afghan Gram made for her:



And Dakota likes the one Gram made for me her:



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