Tuesday, June 16, 2009

A Humid Day in June

I thought I would update you all on life here at our place. It is very muggy today, and thunderstorms are expected tomorrow. I took a few pictures from up at the barnyard to post. Here is a good shot of one of our girls in the chicken house.
They aren't afraid of the flash at all.
I think they hope I have a few more worms for them. These are Barred Rock hens.
Here is some of the corn we planted. The green house in the middle of the garden. Behind it are tomatoes and squashes. Some of the corn is from our amish friends the Yoders. They say it is the best sweet corn and I can't wait to try it. You can also just make out the grapes.
A closer shot of the beets, radish and a bit of asparagus at the side. We also planted watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumbers, garlic, collards, strawberries, peppers, blueberries, raspberries, herbs, leeks, onions....did I forget anything?
I mowed a new path through the woods on Saturday. It is fun to go back in there and really feel secluded.
Here is a shot of the skunk hole, yep, the same one that has a thing for metal cat dishes. Tonight I am watching to see if I spy any fireflies. That always marks the real start of summer for us.

Monday, June 8, 2009

My Late Night Visitor

( I know these pictures are blurry but I didn't have time to get the proper lighting.) Four nights ago I was awoken by a ruckus on the back deck at 2 am. I got up, turned on the lights, and saw what looked like a strange cat. No, not a cat, a skunk!!! Shoo-shoo, go away. But it wouldn't go away. Instead it pushed the cat dish around. This got the cat curious. Taffy got about one foot away from the skunk when it turned around and lifted it's tail. Taffy came running to the back door...let me in, let me in. So I did and we spent the next 20 minutes watching the skunk from behind a glass door. That silly thing pushed the cat dish all the way across the deck and off the edge. It hung around for a while and finally wandered off. I Brought the cat dish back and went to bed. 2nd night, same time, same noise, same skunk and and same cat dish pushing. Again cat comes to door for safety and again we later retrieve her cat dish. This time it has some chew marks on it. 3rd night, you have got to be kidding!! There is no food in that dish, leave it alone!!!! Again retrieve cat dish and try to get some sleep, tomorrow is church and I am teaching! Last night, before going to bed I brought the camera upstairs and left it by the back door. Made sure there was no food in the dish and went to bed. Every two hours that skunk showed up and pushed the dish off the deck. I took pictures and brought the dish back. Finally I must have been so tired I fell back asleep. This morning the dish was gone, though I did find the rubber gasket from around it's edge. Further looking turned up the dish under the deck. So I am sure you are asking why I don't just bring in the dish at night and get some sleep. Didn't think of that until yesterday, (OK, Ron suggested it on the phone) and I wanted to get a picture of that cute fluffy skunk before I spoiled all her fun.
The silver shiny thing is the dish.