Speaking of the little (and not so little) creatures with whom we share our immediate piece of earth here. Some are very visible on a daily basis........and others live right under our noses, but venture out after the sun goes down. So I see them less frequently, but they're here just the same.
I got my belly-laugh today when my husband informs me I need to read the mechanic's notes at the bottom of their work invoice. My jeep went in today for its regular maitenance and it seems the "air box" was 2/3 full of sunflower seeds. rofmao. Thank you chipmunks.
We used to repair our tiller every time we used it. It was stored in the same outbuilding as the chicken coop. The wiring harness was being continually gnawed through. Thank you mice.
There are at least two "caves" at the periphery of the area we keep mowed off you could drive a volkswagon in, compliments of the groundhogs. I see him/her on occasion and the road always seems to be a magnet for them. To date they've escaped turning in to furry pancakes, but many are not so lucky.
The long summer evenings give me occasion to see the beginnings of the nightly rounds of a possum. He comes out of the wood's edge and scopes out my vegetable garden, then procedes to the front door of the chicken coop and checks it out, then heads on up back past the apple trees. This is a nightly event. One night, I just stood really still because many animals who depend on sight rather than scent cannot easily see an object when it's inanimate. They see it but it doesn't register as a possible preditor or other animal. This little creature nearly walks over my feet. I kept having to back up to keep out of it's path. It comes clean to the back door of the solarium and then continues on toward the grotto and springhead. I never realised how awkward their gait was. It's as if the hind legs are too long for the front. Once, and I wish I had my camera with me, I was out checking the outbuildings and a possum and racoon were ambling side by side like jogging partners. It was precious.
We see the deer sporadically, depending on the seasons. They've been hanging low lately, but you can see where they've bedded down in the excavation of where the old barn used to be. You can also see their paths through the underbrush, using them like little hiking trails and bending the vegetation and breaking the twigs of saplings. The path on the dirt is a collage of hoof prints.
Our resident skunk family had a sad loss last week. I see them occasionally and don't know where they're nesting but our cat rustles up a responds almost nightly and the air is laden with "perfume". I found a very flat skunk down on the near the mailbox. It had grass is greener syndrome I guess and was on it's way over to scope out the cornfield across the road. Each spring, they rip up the turf in the front near the house searching for grubs. The damage looks hideous, but actually they sort of peel the turf back and dig and after the spring rains, you can't even tell where they'd been. We also don't have much of a beetle problem, thank you skunks.
I also have become familiar with many of the birds who are nesting here this year. The catbirds follow us around like puppies, totally comfortable in our presence and know that either my mate or I am likely to have a hoe in hand and exposed bugs lay in our wake. I've found the Blue Jay home, the song sparrow home, the house wrens' homes. Plural . Summer means a total absence of the pesky English sparrows, who hang around cities year round. They only come out here when the feeders are filled in wintertime.
Hubby spied a salamander yesterday and we have a whole minefield of terrestrial crawdads over the ground where the spring runs under the surface in a low spot. I could go on and on, as the place is a teeming metropolis when you look closely enough. Actually, I'm rambling. I got called away from shampooing carpets upstairs and am not in any hurry to start that back up. LOL.
oscarthecat
mwoods
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