Wildlife Blues

I needed to rid my yard of some pesky critters before they decimated my recent plantings. My neighbor assisted me in my ambivalence about shooting them with neighbor houses so nearby by loaning me his live trap. Look what came to spend the night the first night.

Several nights later there was his companion come to stay the night.

When I opened the gate for the prisoners to go free, they were too fast for me to get decent pictures.

Some different kind of folk arrived in the next few days, Oppie and Opal O'possum.

Can you see the visitor who was bedded down in my backyard?

Once again, I was not fast enough to get a decent picture of the escaping youngin'.

Standing at the kitchen window, I am reminded why we have trouble with anything not "fenced in" being chewed on. The plant down from the deer's hind legs was chewed down flush and is resprouting. I guess I need to put monofilament line around the planter, too.

Strolling casually through the backyard one day in the merry, merry month of May (or perhaps June), a morsel she did spy that her mouth was game to try, oh, what a sorrowful plant next day.

I am thankful for the successes I have had in deterring and redirecting (i.e. relocating) wildlife and still seeing some about. This is putting to the test the saying, "Life is a balancing act."

Taking out a dying Ash tree

It has been over two years since I have cut firewood. Considering that I heated with wood for 38 winters, that feels amazingly long to go without cutting wood.

A friend of mine needed a tall, skinny, sickly White Ash tree taken down without hitting his house. I set up my extension ladder, tied a rope around the tree about 28 feet up, attached two long ropes, tied one off at nearly a right angle to exclude going toward the house, attached the other rope to the bumper of the pickup truck, and notched the tree. Then I had my friend drive the truck to tension the rope while I back cut the notch. It fell within a foot or two of where we intended only smashing a wild cherry tree we had not intended to take out. The wood was not at all sappy, ready to burn this coming winter. My friend said that moonshiners liked ash because it burns hot and produces little smoke. It certainly lives up to its name by producing plenty of ash, too.

The base of the tree had sawdust from ash borers. About midway up the tree, branches were still producing leaves, but at the top everything was dead.

Ever thankful for God's protective hand, we successfully laid it down and cut it up. He remarked that he had a lot of work to split it and stack it. Ash is very straight grained and easy to split, however. Baseball bat makers are chagrinned by the demise of their wood supply. "Ash is the most popular wood used to make baseball bats." This particular trunk will make good firewood but was already too compromised to make bats.

Incidental Randomness

Several mornings ago, I left the house early for work in order to take my car to be worked on. Since the auto repair facility was less than a mile away from my workplace and the weather was pleasant, I decided to walk from where I left the car to work. The sidewalk and pavement spoke of concrete jungle and many of the houses are older and not all well maintained. Even the following picture reveals that the neighborhood is not well taken care of. But oh, how God through His creation makes pretty what is not so otherwise.

Bachelor Buttons are a simple "weed" with a handsome, tidy little bloom. They obviously are able to bloom where they grow, being quite drought resistant.

The next day I drove my wife to a Cosmetology Training Center in order to get her hair cut. Her Beautician-in-Training is a friend of ours from church. I wasn't about to hang around for the whole event, so I brought my bike along and rode over to my son's house. I had a few minutes of talk to him and my granddaughter before I had to head back.

 

The Training Center sits on top of a fair-sized hill with a steep approach. When I returned, they were just finishing up. One girl who observed ask my wife if she dyes her hair this color. We had a good laugh. As a matter of fact, she comes by it naturally through time and experience.

That night I set a live trap for a groundhog that was nesting on the spare tire under my truck. My neighbor had first seen him crawl up into the truck and told me. He looked it up on the internet and informed me that people say they sometimes chew on wires and things. Well, that's not good. He then offered to let me borrow his trap. I set it out with a slice of apple that night. Next morning there was no critter. I went back inside to get ready to leave. When I returned an hour or so later, here is what I found. He was a young one. I took him out along a country road and released him in a wooded area. I could not believe how fast he ran out of that cage. They may have short legs, but they can use them efficiently.

The next day was centered chores, but I am prevented from doing several projects I want to accomplish by a lack of good topsoil. So, I loaded up water jugs for my truck, whose radiator has a small leak, and made two stops for my wife along the way to a bottomland and really good topsoil at a reasonable price.

Now we come to the most random siting of the four days of variety, yet. During lunch I decided to take a walk as I often do. One of the neighborhood roads crosses a little creek. Being a boulevard, there is a little concrete bridge over the creek in the median. I don't usually use it, walking or running on the asphalt instead. I decided to watch the minnows scurry but caught sight of the following mystery. The size and shape is definitely a rat but without skin. But look closer at what is below it in the picture. It must be the skin. The tail covering is enough larger to contain the muscled tail. Did a cat do this or a human or some other critter? It is so perfectly skinned, and some of you are wondering why I am going on about it or even why I took a picture or shared it, but it is interesting.

Not wanting to end on that note, I share a picture of two of my grandsons from last weekend. It is a random moment, too, since I had no idea that when I went to visit them that we would be walking around on an excavation site. Boys and big machinery are like magnets.

Random enough for you?

 

Every Precious Moment

How do you think about your grandchildren, should you be so blessed as to have some?Following are thoughts on the personalities of eight grandchildren who my wife and I saw this past Saturday.

Rough and Tumble #2, works well with his hands, thoughtful and helpful:

Most always happy with a smile, quiet, content:

Little Miss Gregarious, will talk to any stranger;

Big Sister, smart, everything is black and white and by the rules:

New kid on the block, very observant, quiet:

Rough and Tumble #1, memorizes long passages, inquisitive, friendly:

Grandpa loves him some grandchildren:

Content, usually with a smile, shy around those less familiar, expressive even without speech:

There they are quietly observing again. No use doing otherwise since they wouldn't be able to get in a word edgewise:

I realized after looking at the picture that they must have been tired after the number of books their aunt read to them, but they still wanted more.

Rough and Tumble #3, appreciative and shy, wants to be your friend:

Little Miss M contentedly sitting next to daddy,...

...who is teaching his nephew to play chess. I think his nephew is incredulous about the rules and progress of the game:

"Cheaper than a water park," my son said. A 100' sheet of 6 mil plastic (reusable), dishwashing soap, water hose and water, garbage bags, and cord all make up the supplies for the run. You have to keep your feet down and in front of your or you roll and tumble.

Brother pulls little sister down the chute.

Since the ground is not slanted just right, you have to pay attention in the tautness of the cord to keep the Slider on the chute.

The hose sprays them for about halfway down the chute.

Someone else traversed the chute, A Huntsman or Water Spider.

I thought that we should use the day well, so I asked two of my brothers if we could meet in the evening at a restaurant convenient for all. We had good, happy conversation about past, present, and future events. Theology, health, vacations, nature, education, and more came up, all of those subjects you are not supposed to talk about in polite company. But we are blessed with believing the truth, so there are only the nuances of disagreement, I think.

Family is high on the priority list. We were blessed with more contact and memory making this past weekend than in many a day, for which we are thankful to God.

First Time Out

 Douglas' Excellent Adventure is a 5.6 sport climb with positive slope and little exposure. It is my go to for first time outdoor climbers. My climbing partner for the day flashed it and followed it up later with a 5.5 just to the right.

I like ferns and moss, but these two look a bit sad because it has been exceptionally dry on this rock face in places that usually seep water.

Secondly, we did a short 5.8, the crux move being the transition from the arete to the left face above the lower roof.

Surveying the next move

Making it look easy

Belayer in Chief

For so little moisture these beauties are faring well.

Grow wherever you are planted. Bored is only a state of mind, so find something useful or challenging or fun to do, and "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (I Corinthians 10:31)