Seldom Seen

We have made a few interesting discoveries up on the Ridge over the past couple of weeks.

I received this box in the mail last week, which contained a bouquet of sunflowers from Chewy.com as a sympathy gift after the loss of our kitty.

They were confused about Lizzie's name...Stella is alive and well.

L and I have been walking around the property and picking wild black raspberries this week.  We haven't seen any up here for a few years.  We already made a peach/black raspberry cobbler this weekend.

On our walks, we found evidence of racoons enjoying the raspberries as well.

I also discovered these in our sad, sad orchard - after 13 years of trying to grow fruit trees, there are 2 whole apples on our apple tree!

There is no end to the surprising things we find up here!

Who's A Pest?

 One of the most fun books that I read to the girls over and over again when they were small, was "Who's A Pest?" by Crosby Newell Bonsall. In it, everyone calls Homer a pest, and while his toboggan gets bigger and bigger, he saves EVERYONE from a big hole in the ground.

We have had MANY pests around the hill this Spring and Summer, but none of them have had any redeeming qualities.

We eventually caught 1 racoon, 1 possum, and 2 squirrels in the garden.  Another raccoon and a blue jay were spotted multiple times stealing cat food from the veranda.  They don't have any kitty food to steal any longer, so they are likely being pests at someone else's house.

There are still a pair of crazy cardinals that repeatedly throw themselves against the windows downstairs.  I exercise while holding a yardstick, so that I can tap the window and chase them away.  We also put colorful clings on the windows to try to discourage them, but I'm not sure how to make them leave for good.

The blueberries have come in strong and they are very welcome since we lost our strawberries.  I need to pick them again today.  In the meantime, I had to buy strawberries to make jam with this year.

The other pesky thing we've been dealing with lately is the mass failure of our appliances.  We replaced our dishwasher in May.  When I came in from trying to find our cat last weekend, I found water all over the floor from the deep freeze, which had given up the ghost.  I transferred items to other freezers, including my parents' deep freeze until we could get a new one delivered on Wednesday.  I still don't have everything transferred back.

We hadn't even had the new freezer delivered yet when the extra refrigerator started making clanking and grinding noises, so now we are trying to chose a new refrigerator to order.  

It's maddening!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

We got at least 8 inches of lovely snow yesterday.  The girls finished their school work in record time, and I moved all my patients to the morning, so that we had time to play in it.  We were out for a couple of hours until we were wet, cold and tired.

It continued to snow during the night, and I went out after dark to take a few pictures.

This morning, everything looked transformed.  The birds were hungry, and after filling the feeders, I sat in the snow and watched them for a while.

The driveway, however, is a bit scary.  Luckily we don't really need to go anywhere, so let it snow!

Turd of the Day

 Late every summer for the past couple of years, I have found a solitary turd outside our main door or one of the garage doors in the mornings.  This tells me that we have a night visitor, who enjoys walking around our house and randomly pooping in front of a door.  Weird.

This year is no different.  For the past couple of weeks I've been finding the turds.  This was last Friday:

Stella could care less about the pooper!

This was the day before, in front of Dad's woodshop - 2 turds that time!

They are fairly small, so I know it's not the dog or the cats.

Dad actually trapped a few raccoons over the summer, as we were having issues with the trash being ransacked and the kitty food on the veranda being burglarized.  So I was pretty sure it wasn't a coon.  They actually gnawed a hole in this 5 gallon bucket to get to the cat food! 

I tried to identify it using my Mammal Tracks and Sign book, which identifies many different types of scat.  The closest I can find is skunk.  I find that fairly disconcerting!

Dad got a trail cam for his birthday in May, so I asked if he would set it up in front of the garages and see if we can positively identify the secret night time pooper.  So far, the beast is in hiding...

Empty Nest

The 3 baby Phoebes have flown away.  I suspected as much, and confirmed this yesterday.

Unfortunately, in the storms last night, the tiny nest blew out of my cherry tree.  L discovered it and all 4 eggs on the ground, one of which was broken.  We carefully returned the nest and all 4 eggs to the tree, but I did not see Mama bird return at all today.  Very sad news.

Home Sweet Home

Yeah, yeah.  Being safe at home doesn't quite have the allure it used to before we weren't allowed to leave here!

I had been watching some little birds flying in and out under the deck last month, and repeatedly checked for nest building activity.  Well, somehow I missed it, because they built this mossy little thing way up in the eaves.  By the time I found it, there was a small, white egg there, and I didn't have the heart to destroy it.  I also wasn't able to identify the parents - they were a species that I had not seen around here very much.

We kept an eye on things, but can only peep by climbing on a ladder and taking a blind cell phone picture.  By the time Mama Bird was finished, there were 5 little eggs in the nest.

At the end of last week, L noticed a tiny, naked baby bird on the ground under the nest.  A few days later, we discovered 3 little semi-fluffy guys still at home in the mossy nest.

I was also able to identify the parents as Eastern Phoebes.  They have a cute habit of sitting on the fence around my flower bed, and puffing up the feathers on their heads.

We also noticed a tiny nest being built in one of my weeping cherries.  You have to look hard to see it!

By yesterday, it also had 2 very diminutive blue eggs with brown spots.  I have yet to see the parents, but these may be the eggs of House Finches, based on my research.  Apparently Cowbirds love to parasitize the nests of finches, and add their eggs there as well, so we'll have to keep an eye out for that.

Any interesting bird sightings at your home?

They're Baaaack!

The minions have returned!  By this, I mean those thousands of stink bugs that plaster the sides of our house every fall, and somehow creep through tiny crevices to find their ways inside as well.  It is absolutely disgusting!

I might as well call these things the minions as well:

the gazillion teeny weeds growing in my garden paths.  You can also note in this picture, how much of my mulch washed away in the rains we had several weeks ago.  It isn't what I wanted to do, but I have removed all of the pull-able sized weeds from the garden, and I sprayed weed killer on all these - I don't feel that I had any other recourse!

Today I spent about 2 hours digging dandelions and thistles from the asparagus bed.  I did this about 2 months ago before I mulched it all thoroughly.

SIGH.

L's 2 caterpillars formed beautiful chrysalises.  I figure that it will be 2-4 more days before they are back as well - this time as monarch butterflies!

This evening, for the first time in 10 years, both girls had after school activities that actually started RIGHT AFTER SCHOOL.  It seems a reasonable request to have this happen, but it does not most of the time.  It meant much less driving around, dropping off and picking up this evening, for which I was very grateful.

2 more weeks of soccer, and one more month until the play.  Hooray for Fall!

Mystery Poo

Every couple of days, I find a lone turd in front of my garage.

It's not the dogs or cats, or the random cattle that meander through here from time to time.

My best guess has been either a raccoon or an opossum.  According to my book, Mammal Tracks & Sign, by Mark Elbroch, opossum scat is "rarely encountered in the field," and consequently there are no accompanying pictures.  The photo of raccoon poo, however, looks similar to the mystery turd, and is within the size range listed.  The book warns, however, that "raccoon scats can carry the parasitic roundworm Baylisascaris procyonis, which can be fatal in humans."

So it would appear that we have terrorist raccoons prowling in front of our garage on a regular basis.  Wonderful.

It makes as much sense as the chip that suddenly appeared in the pickup windshield this summer.  I have confirmed this afternoon that it will NOT pass inspection without repairs/replacement, so the windshield company will be getting more of our business it seems.

By the way,  L got up early yesterday, finished her homework before school, and was even keeled and fairly polite for most of the afternoon.  It was a Wednesday Miracle!

I am off to pick up the girls from school.  J has another game tonight and needs the extra time for homework.

The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night...

It is finally looking like winter around here.  We had sleet and then snow last night - less than an inch, but shoveling it was quite a workout this morning.  I did half of it before taking the girls to school this morning, and finished up on my return.

When I went into the chicken house after shoveling, all the chickens were still inside, which is a bit unusual.  I discovered the reason when I went out into the yard.  There was a carcass of one of my hens, tangled in the electric netting.  This one was destroyed much more violently and thoroughly than the ones killed by hawks in the past.  My dad came over as I was cleaning up, and asked if all the chickens were ok, as my mom saw a fox leaving our place this morning.

As we stood there talking, a hen came out from under Old Bessie, where she apparently spent the night.  I counted, and we seem to be missing one more, but I couldn't find any more remains.

After walking the fence to look for holes or low spots, we realized that it was not electrified.  After much trial and error, we narrowed the issue down to the box supplying the electricity.  I made a trip into town to the Tractor Supply Company to purchase a new one.

I chose one with a few more joules of power than the last one, whatever that means.  It had a pictorial guide on the back regarding which animals it is appropriate to use for: 

It looks like I'm good with chickens, rabbits, dogs, goats, pigs, cows and horses, but I'm out of luck with bulls, elk, and...what is that?  A fox?  I'm not sure.

Sigh.

We plan to get the fence up and running again before dusk, and will close the chickens up for the night.  Hopefully we won't lose any more of our hens!

Just a Trim, Please

It was so nice outside this morning, that despite all the things I SHOULD do, I went outside and puttered a bit in my flower beds.  There were a few plants that I neglected to dead head, as they were hiding past my weeping cherry tree.  And speaking of the weeping cherries, JP has been after me to trim them rather aggressively.  I have been dragging my feet because I like the way they look with their long, graceful branches trailing on the ground.  Nevertheless, I wielded the loppers and gave them quite a trim this morning.  In the process, I discovered 4 Praying Mantis cocoons on one of the trees.

I find these things quite marvelous, and I usually find a couple when I am clearing for the winter.  I actually found one on the asparagus that I cut down, and tucked it into the oregano for the winter...hope it's ok!

I'll try to remember to watch for hatching mantis-lets in the Spring and keep you posted!

Dumbstruck

In light of the Presidential election results, I am sticking to the policy: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything."

Critter Update

The minions are back!  By that I mean the swarms of nasty stink bugs that have been visiting our neck of the woods every Fall for the past few years.

Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB)
-By Yerpo - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32004988

JP wages war with them every year, but usually it seems to be a losing battle.  This year, however, he found information that they can be killed with a solution of soap and water.  Most evenings lately, he has been outside, spraying hundreds of BMSBs with his squirt bottle of soapy water.  There are minion carcasses everywhere, and splotches all over the siding and windows from the soapy water.

Yesterday I hosed down the front door, as the glass was all smudgy from the soap.  I guess I did too good of a job, because early this morning, before the sun was even up, a little bird flew headfirst into the storm door.  I was cautious opening the door when I heard the thump, because I was a bit concerned about things bumping into my door at 7 AM when it was still fairly dark out.  The little guy was on his back, and I thought he was a goner.  I nudged him with my toe, which flipped him right side up, and he stood and hopped a bit!  I put him in a box of wood shavings on the deck - safe from marauding kitties, and an hour later, he had flown away.  I was able to identify him as an Eastern Towhee...a pretty little thing.

Photo by Jim Hully of smugmug.com

Ernie cat has been looking a bit bedraggled lately.  Over the weekend, I noticed that one of his cheeks was puffed out pretty significantly.  He unwillingly let me feel around, and I didn't see any wounds on his face or neck, and his ear on that side looked ok too.  He wouldn't let me look in his mouth though.  Last night, JP told me that I should probably take Ernie to the Vet today, because he was "smelling."  This morning, the poor guy had goo all over the side of his face and neck, but the swelling was gone.  This afternoon I was able to examine it better.  He is obviously feeling better, and purred the entire time that I washed his face and sprayed it with my magic farm boo-boo spray.  He apparently had an abscess that ruptured on it's own.  Right now it looks clean and should probably clear up on its own.  Whew...Vet visit averted!

Now I am off to clean out the chicken house a bit.  It was pretty smelly this morning when I opened up after closing up for our chilly 38* night!

That's the critter report from Poplar Ridge.

Frog Research

JP and I removed another 13 frogs from the swimming pool cover last night.  A few of them were gettin' busy, if you know what I mean.  ACK!  I decided that some research was in order to be able to confidently face the challenge of the pool frogs.

 

We have been completely stymied as to how the frogs are getting there, seeing as our pool is nowhere near a body of water where we ASSUMED that frogs would need to breed and grow.

 

Well, I discovered that the frogs in our pool are actually tree frogs, and we live IN THE WOODS. 

 

Cope's Gray Tree Frog
picture from paherps.com



Apparently, these little guys migrate from the trees to small standing bodies of water from May - August to breed.  I guess it just took them a couple of years to find our pool.

More research reveals that proper chlorine levels should keep them out of the pool, so if I'm ever able to achieve that, we'll be golden.  Of course, it has rained 2 1/4 inches over the past 48 hours, so I'll need to re-shock the pool, etc.

SIGH.

They're Here!

After a break in the rain this morning (1.52 inches fell yesterday), the cicadas began to emerge.

We found them clinging to grass, plants, and fences, and gathered them by the dozens to feed to our chickens.

 

The hens gobbled them up as fast as we would provide them.  We should have some protein packed eggs for the next few days!

They're Coming!

This spring, we expect to see the emergence of the 17 year cicada brood V in our area.  It should happen any time...reports I've read say that the ground temps need to be at 64* for emergence.


photo by Billy Tesh, NBC

These insects are among the strangest ones I've ever encountered:  they are huge, with red eyes, and they make a racket!  In 1999, JP and I witnessed this emergence when we were living not too far away from here.  He was working on an outdoor project, and the sound of his power tools seemed to be similar to the mating call of these buggers, because he got completely swarmed. 

Our little dog thought they were mighty tasty, and would gobble them up until he made himself sick.

They are also LOUD!  Their calls have been measured up to 90 decibels!  Relaxing out of doors may not be so relaxing for a while.

These insects do not do any damage to foliage, but can be extremely destructive to the trees.  The females cut slits into the underside of small branches with her ovipositor to lay eggs.  These openings often cause infection and/or death to the branch.

Yesterday afternoon, JP, L and I headed out to the orchard to try to protect our little trees against cicada damage.  We used mosquito netting and fishing line to create what appears to be a field of ghosts.

Speaking of ghosts, I spotted this gorgeous Luna moth last week.  These beautiful moths do not even have a mouth, so they live only one week.  What a life!

Wild

The buddleia is covered with butterflies lately.

The sweet peas have dozens of
these big-eyed little guys.

This unknown variety of squash is escaping from the compost!

Recent garden harvest:  kohlrabi, cauliflower, cucumber

This little fellow startled me as I was weeding behind the pool today.

New Visitor

We've been having a rash of errant critters on Poplar Ridge since the weather took a turn for Spring-ish.  They must be getting "twitterpated" like the animals in Bambi!  My parents' dog flushed a raccoon out of Mom's flower bed last week.  JP dispatched an opossum that was feasting on cat chow last night on our veranda.  This evening, we watched this little "kitty" nose around under the bird feeders and then try to get into the garden!

I still can't feel my left arm from the elbow down as a result of surgery today, and typing one-handed is making me weary!  T Dawg over and out.

Hip, Hip Hooray!

So...my test scores arrived, and I passed my Recertification Board Exams.  Hooray! 

This afternoon we discovered that the last of our Black Swallowtails changed from a chrysalis to a  butterfly.  We found 2 little caterpillars on the dill in our garden about 6 weeks ago, and fed them a steady diet of Queen Anne's Lace and Parsley until they became huge and fat.  Not long after the last one changed to a chrysalis, we discovered another itty bitty teeny weeny little caterpillar on the greenery in our butterfly habitat, and then another a week or so later! 


Male Black Swallowtail Butterfly


We were lucky enough to have 4 lovely butterflies emerge, but I only have pictures of the last two. 


Female Black  Swallowtail Butterfly

Tomorrow is J's Picture Day, so we have chosen an outfit.  (Shhh...don't tell anyone, but I found this dress at the thrift store last week!!)

L was doing cartwheels at J's soccer practice last week, slipped and landed HARD on her hip.  She has been complaining of pain ever since, so we got X-Rays on Saturday.  Finally found out today that they are ok...guess she just bruised herself and/or pulled a muscle.  At least we don't have 2 girls with broken bones to treat!

It's all good news for a Monday.  Hope yours is going well too!

Over My Head

I ventured into town in Old Bessie this morning, and picked up 3 - 100 foot rolls of 6 foot high welded wire fencing.  My Dad offered to help me get a better fence up around the garden to keep the deer out.  We only got one roll up before the day got too hot, but it already looks better...the bottom of the garden now has fencing that stands over my head!

 

It looks like the beans are coming back after being munched, I'm not sure about the strawberries yet.

I've wrapped up the blueberry bushes, to protect the growing berries...just in case.

 

 

We had a nice weekend.  We spent Saturday evening with friends, and took a lovely walk on the hill.  On Sunday afternoon, we made barbecue for my parents and my grandma.  L helped my Dad retrieve an Indigo Bunting from his chimney chase.

 

 

J discovered this enormous snake coming down out of a tree by the compost on Sunday.  There is an Oriole nest in this tree, so I'm sure he has a gullet full of eggs or chicks in this picture!

 



I'll leave you with this picture of one of J's tomatillo plants.  Isn't it beautiful?