Squirrel Haven

Squirrels and/or rats have become SO annoying. If they could sleep when we sleep, and simply enjoy the shelter under the house rather than reconstructing the existing framework, perhaps they could stay. Since they work at night and sound like far more demolition than construction, they have to go!



When we first moved here the oak tree outside the side door was filled with families of rambunctious squirrels. We think that the previous owners were feeding them and encouraging them. At one time we found that with the back door open, they were running in and out and shopping at the dog's dish.

This year we saw very few racing up and down the trees... only a few. Last year we heard one rearranging something under the bathtub in our room.. gnawing to be exact. We finally put a container of D Con under the house. As much as I hate to use things like that, I was imagining that they were undermining the bathtub. It seemed to have solved the problem.

This year we heard more demolition under the bathtub... which soon moved to somewhere under the kitchen... then on to a corner of our bedroom floor, the other bath hallway, and last night under the window next to MY side of the bed. Today's the day. We're going to put out some special feed for them. I love how cute they are and watching babies chase up and around the trees is great fun. However:

Last year we had to have the cable company come out 4 times and the telephone company a few times since they were also rearranging and eating the wires supplying telephone and internet connections to our house. At one time they apparently took out the entire neighborhood's Internet Cable service.

Some neighbors feed them. I'm not sure if we'd been feeding them if they would have left the house alone or not. Nor are we positive its squirrels and not rats looking for a wonderfully warm winter home. One of our neighbors has 4 dogs in a small yard way out back. My husband thinks all the dog food and other by products may be calling rats.

They are also now working on clearing and leveling about 40 acres plus not far west of us. East of us they have just finished preparing a site for another new high school. Perhaps all that activity has pushed the wildlife a bit closer to us. One morning I saw a coyote between our road and the new school site. Each morning when the dog goes out, he's extremely interested in smelling each inch of the porch. I can only imagine what has been visiting during the night. There are armadillos all around, but I haven't seen any in our yard. We put in a ramp for the dog to go directly from the porch into the fenced yard. I need to put up a sign.. Mikey only...

I'm picturing cartoons of haggard looking people trying vainly to outwit squirrels etc. I still love watching their antics.

Old Momentos

I think the virus I had a couple of weeks ago returned. I'm determined to be done with it once and for all. Our weather has turned 'perfect' for being outside.. sunny, cool and breezy. The yard is just begging for some sort of attention and up until today the best I could give it was observation from the porch chair. I'd like to say I spent the week doing something constructive, but I don't think sleep qualifies. Now that I'm feeling better, it was hard not to venture out into the yard and at least pull some weeds. Instead I sorted papers and some old photos.

At the worst of the first bout with this virus I woke up thinking.. I need to scribble off some sort of will.. after a couple of days and feeling better, this became quite comical. This second time, I also woke up and made a note that some paintings done by my father in law were to go to our youngest grandson because he thought they were portraits of presidents. Its very humorous to me now that the fever has broken and I don't feel like a truck is parking over me. LOL. I also thought about all the different crafts etc that I've done and still ahve the 'raw materials' and thought how much I'd hate people to have to deal with all of it. Perhaps that's one good thing that's come from this time. I am resolved to eliminate SO much of what I've collected over the years.

What frustrates me most is my body not cooperating with my mind! I can remember my grandmother at 80 years old telling me those exact words. Tomorrow is another day and the most difficult thing will be not to make a todo list so long that I'm worn out writing it.

I went through an old box filled with photos I'd long forgotten. Some were pictures our previous places we'd lived, family and friends from the past. Some were pictures taken by others long before I was born. This particular picture was of a couple named Kotcher. This photo makes me laugh every time I look at it. When I asked my grandmother about it she said that they weren't playing up to the camera, this is just how they were. They came up to my grandparent's summer cottage to pick blueberries every year. I LOVE old pictures. Perhaps someone told people NOT to smile.





Ths second picture is of our two little girls back in 1969 when we lived in Maine. Nothing can replace memories, although some of the new ones are even more wonderful than the old.

We're blessed to live near both of our daughters and their families so we get to see them often. I spent over an hour on the phone tonight with our granddaughter - our first grandchild. I'm always blessed to talk with her. My grandmother was so special to me and its wonderful to also have a grandaughter...

Phooey !!!

LOL - I'm laughing, but still aggravated. My gardening success lately would fill my thumbnail. I was pretty excited that 4 sweet 100 tomato plants were doing so well. My plan was to transplant them into bigger pots - today. When I went out this morning to do it, I found the mockingbird murderer had caused the demise of 3 more little plants. I thought they were large enough to take off their protective covers. I was wrong.

I think back to Maine and part of the excitement was fighting the elements and either winning or surviving. These days I'd like the battle to be a little less up front and a bit more.. delayed. smile. I considered going to the store and buying some very inexpensive tulle-netting and making a large enclosure where the birds couldn't get in... namely that mockingbird. They always have their nest in the shrubs in front of the porch, so their dining table is ever present.

I love the birds - and have always planted enough to 'share'. They have to learn to wait until the actual plants are growing so there will be something to share. Since I haven't found a way to convince them to wait, its apparent that I need to take measures to protect the plants..

There is a large plastic cover from a grandchild's birthday cake that will cover the seedlings which are just emerging on the front porch.

Hopefully I still have some of those tomato seeds. AS I remember, they were extremely prolific and very sweet. I picked at least a pint every morning and afternoon. My favorite snack!

Foggy Foggy Dew

Saturday - October 2o, 2006
Views from the front porch this morning..

This was a surprising morning. Thick, thick fog covered everything. We are surrounded by so much water.. swampy and otherwise, that its surprising we don't have more fog. Yesterday was in the 90's again and last night at 10:30, it was still 80 degrees. MUCH too warm for October!! Its so hard to feel the temperatures here and look at the pictures of all the snow in some locations.

I was excited to find yesterday that many of the larkspur seeds sprouted. At least one yellow pear tomato seed sprouted and one homestead tomato. My husband says its too late for seedlings - when I do it earlier he tells me they won't make it because the weather's too hot. LOL. I've finally learned to just go ahead and try it. If they don't make it, oh well.... and if they do... yea!!! My cucumbers and yellow squash plants are doing beautifully... in their pots. I read a 'thread' on the Florida gardening forum this morning with people saying that they've given up on both of these plants because of insect and fungus problems. I know that milk diluted with water is a wonderful anti fungal remedy - and fish emulsion fertilizer sprayed on the plants along with onion and garlic that's gone through a blender and strained, help to deter bugs. We also used to sprinkle bran or wheat germ on the plants. Actually this was sprinkled once you saw signs of insects. It would stick to the moist beetles bodies, dry and make them VERY ... dead.

Our daughter's best friends' son got married yesterday evening. I've never heard of a wedding with so much struggle within the families. I can see the point of view of each 'side'. My prayers are simply that all this struggle be forgotten and that God will bless their union and bring them both to the best they can be. I think there is always more struggle when the bride and groom are a bit older and have more people who care about them... I know that they know God orders their steps and am trusting that there was much prayer before coming to this decision. What things look like to our eyes isn't necessarily the truth. Only He knows what lies ahead and He can choose to pour untold blessings on the couple. May it be.

My husband is off walking at the park this morning. The fog around the lakes is beautiful when the weather is changing. He's made a commitment to walk every morning if we have no plans. My commitment is to find a pair of shoes comfortable enough for walking. LOL and THEN I'll consider the commitment to actually go walking!

I always dread time changes and wish they'd just leave the clocks alone. I do appreciate the opportunity to wake up to light instead of dark. It always feels like you haven't finished the night and sleeping when you have to get up and its still night out. Supposedly dawn is now at 7:30 - During the peak of summer dawn is before 6 AM. I much prefer that. Daylight savings is soon.. or is it the opposite.?? My husband always resets the clocks making it lots easier for me to deal with. Now we'll see 6:30 on the clock when its light. Better time...The drawback is that it will soon be dark at 4-4:30 in the afternoon instead of the 8:30 summer sunset. The kids get on the busses in the dark and come home in the dark.

There's a local place that helps people in need called Hands of Mercy. My daughter's church is very active in trying to fill some of those needs. Someone gave me a large set of corelle dishes, and some other glassware. It just "happened" that someone came in in need of just those things. I think I'm off this morning to look through my house to see what I might pass on to someone else, blessing me by uncluttering my house and them by filling a need.

Seasons

October 15, 2006

I believe this is a Carolina Wren. He has the loudest song I've heard in a long time! I made a few birdhouses from paper mache but am wondering how much sleep this little fellow would allow if he were to reside too close to our windows.

Another week has passed. It seems these days we barely turn around and its a different month. I think that's part of what I DID like living up north. There was such a huge step between seasons. I think my favorite season was spring and least favorite was fall. The firey colors of fall made it incredibly beautiful, but it was like the ending of a life... precious and totally enjoyed and yet you know that winter is coming. I loved the winters, particularly in Maine. I loved to take the girls out after a light snow. We could usually walk on top of previous snows and the new snow gave everything an amazing stillness and made everything clean and white again. We often would find little footprints and follow them.

Winters seemed interminably long sometimes. We had an antique woodstove in the dining room and a chair by it and the window, perfect for reading on cold snowy days. There were days of opening the door to find the car totally hidden under feet of snow, but more likely we'd find some snow and temperatures below zero. We always knew when it was below zero because when you walked, the snow would squeak.

The first birds to come back in the were the red wing blackbirds. What a welcome sound when they'd be out in the meadow singing for their territories. Then we knew it wouldn't be too much longer. Our first killing frost would be some time in late August and the last some time in June. We read and learned during the winters how to deal with the gardens in summer.

I used to love to walk through the orchard, meadow and fields when the snow had thawed but the ice wasn't out of the ground. It seemed like new territory and it was possible to see so many things you missed during the summers when you couldn't actually walk through boggy areas. I can remember hunting for those first promises of spring.. tiny sprouts of the rhubarb behind the barn, some of the perennials pushing up that cold dry soil in the corner between the barn and the shed... Amazing that if you took it at face value, you wouldn't expect life again where there were once thriving plants. But faith makes us know that the sun will once again warm the soil and those plants have only been resting and getting ready for another season of beauty.

It always made me think of what a miracle it is, and how its like our lives. We go through seasons in our lives, not just once overall, but now I see, quite a few times. Different phases of our lives are full blown and wonderful but yet we sense that they change inevitably and that part of our life is laid down. Yet.. we're not discouraged because like fall and winter, we know that spring is coming and there will be more things growing and flourishing. I've found that sometimes I want to go back and do things in the same way, or even do the same things. Things change and we have to look to see what the plants are that are filling our lives in the present. Yesterday is a wonderful memory - but today is alive and leading to tomorrow.

I've wondered lately if my time for planting and caring for gardens has come to a close. With all my good intentions and seed ordering, not much is making it into the soil in the yard. lol. I order seeds, start them in small containers.. and frequently allow them to simply die before being planted. I think part of my focus needs to be on larger, minimum care shrubs or perennials with a bit of time spent mulching to help prevent grass taking over everything.

I see my children (now 37 and 42) taking over where I left off. Our older daughter is planning a move into the 'wilderness' of the Green Swamp just north of here. When we were young, we thrived on it in Maine. Now.. it doesn't interest me in the least. I think part of the fun was being able to handle all the challenges .. and now, we need to find less challenging fun in other things. Its been a difficult transition for both of us. We were both all involved actively in the things of maintaining life. Now its quieter and a lot of seeing others 'maintain life'. Given a choice I'd love to know what I know now and have the energy and stamina we had then. Much smiling..

Four Legged Friends

October 9, 2006

Sometimes things go on around us and they seem to be too 'heavy' to discuss. Those are times that I take my own advice and focus on other things. "Think on that which is good".. I love the animals that touch my life...sometimes just in pictures from friends, and sometimes some I've 'met'.

This a Cinder, a black cocker spaniel who thinks she's a cat. Each time one of my friend Joy's cats has kittens, Cinder sits vigel just outside the box until all are born, then goes for a nap and soon is back. Whenever mama cat goes out, Center hops into the box and keeps the kittens warm.

















This little Boston Terrier belongs to someone I 'met" through a paper mache group. She was utterly fascinated with 'Robin' her new paper mache 'friend' from England. Willie - a terrier cross who looks pretty much like an oppossum.. hence his nickname, "possum" loves to climb ladders.. especially if my son in law is on it. They were preparing the house to paint and Willie kept climbing up and hopping onto the roof and needing rescuing. He's also managed to learn to race about 5 feet up the trunk of a tree in pursuit of squirrels.



Pinni and Jet love to chase squirrels. They will spend hours sitting under a tree at attention hoping the squirrel will forget and come down. I think the squirrels have learned the game and come within inches of the dogs scolding and taunting.
















Our old neighbor Lauren with a young blue jay that apparently lost its 'parents' and adopted any human who would hold and feed him. He ate around the neighborhood and then flew off with his own kind.




This picture of Orangelo and Forrest is one of my favorites. You rarely found one with out the other. I think they were the most lovable cats I've ever seen. My grand daughter seems to have a gift for raising small animals. They all turn out to be so friendly and get along with any other animals brought into the house.





Pinni's favorite place is UP. She's not too fussy whose arms she sits in, she loved to be in someone's lap while we were working. This was part of the office in my daughter's house where we did medical billing.

This has to be one of my all time favorite photos. This is Pepper, the dog belonging to my best friend from high school. We were apart for 30 years and when we 'caught up' we found that our lives had been an amazing paralell as far as our husbands, our choices of colors in our houses etc, and our piece of fluff dogs. I love Pepper's expression. This little dog does everything but talk.




























Lisa and Lilly. Lilly loved to be snuggled. When anyone sat down and she was invited 'up. she would put her head under your chin and lean on your shoulder. A sweet, sweet dog.

After this squirrel tried so hard to get into the house we had just purchased, I considered inviting all the dogs over for a fun weekend!

No matter what's going on, the sun rises each morning and sets each night. Pets remain loyal... and my todo list lays unfulfilled. Tomorrow is another day.

I remember - The Big House

This is a picture taken by a cousin my age with whom I grew up. This barn wasn't nearly as picturesque with its bright red dress until recent years. It was always the typical New england weathered barnboard gray.. beautiful. I remember when we were kids and the 'bathroom' was located just inside that small door on this end. Most of the barns I knew in New England had 'basements'. This particular bar had a large door on the far end where the cattle spent the winter, kept warmer by being insulated by the earth. Our house in Maine had this same.... amenity... where apparently previous owners kept their cattle in winter, enjoying the benefit of the rising heat from the cows to help heat the house. Along the fence to the right of this barn was the biggest 'snowball' hydrangea I've ever seen. When we were little they used to tell us there was a prize for whoever could count the number of snowballs on that bush. The picture is taken from the side porch down the path to the barn. To the right of the path was a huge stand of lilacs. Between the barn and the road was a long bed of flowers. I remember seeing my first iris there.. great big, multicolored flowers. Just to the right and left of this porch were hollyhocks, lilies, peonies and assorted other old fashioned cottage garden flowers.

This house is a huge old two story house with a full 'cellar' and full attic, filled with wonderful old treasures. I can remember going into the big kitchen from the side porch and the house having a unique smell.. friend eggs and bacon, pipe smoke, fireplace smoke.. The dining room had windows all along one wall with a view of the lilacs and pasture out back. A huge living room had a beautiful well used fireplace, a small "secret room" which we kids loved, and it lead to another porch on the other side, this one screened and used as a summer sleeping porch. The 'front room' was used as the telephone office when they first had telephones. If we were really good, we were sometimes allowed to put in or pull out the plugs when people requested a number. I remember our number was one long ring, one short ring. It was a sad day when they became fully automated and the big switchboard was removed.

The house was on a hill, set back from the road. That hill provided us with endless pleasure. In the winter we learned to ski and would slide all the way down the hill and off into the pasture to the right. In the summer, we would lay down and just let ourselves roll down as far as we could. Apparently this was wonderful entertainment because I can remember every child doing it through the years. Off to the other side of the house were three huge boulders.. New England has a bit of soil tucked in among the rocks. In one of the huge maples we had a swing attacked to a very high branch. We were sure we could swing high enough to touch heaven as we would swing out from the higher ground looking down to the lower parts of the hill.

I've just been revisiting Judith's site: http://web.mac.com/knitagarden/iWeb/weedsbetweenthecracks/Welcome.html and things she mentioned brought back such memories of being in the Berkshires in Massachusetts in the fall. Looking at one of her photos of a fall garden, I could almost smell that unique fall smell. I guess its a combination of the drying of leaves, those last strongly scented flowers enticing frantic bees preparing for the winter.. We used to say "Fall is in the air".

We spent most weekends and summers in Otis, at the time an extremely small -what they called - hill town. The center of town lies along the Farmington River - normally a peaceful well behaved small river - Across the road from our house up on the hill there is a small stream which empties into the Farmington and then goes on down to the Connecticut River and out to the ocean. In the spring when the snow melts that little brook... Soames Brook.. turns into a raging torrent so loud you have to shout to a person 2 feet away from you in order to be heard. During the summer it turns into a very small peaceful brook with 2 or three 'holes' where we would occasionally go swimming. Since most of this water came from springs deep within the mountains, the temperatures were always "refreshing".

My cousins and I used to spent most of our time 'exploring the woods' . If we followed this brook (about 12' wide at the widest part) backwards, it led up into the higher mountain where it was mere trickles bubbling up from underground springs. We loved to go up there and would pick thing like the wintergreen berries growing wild, and find small the small springs where we could take a drink of the clear, ice cold water. We also discovered caves up there and one time brought my uncle back to appreciate our discovery. We hadn't been in the caves, but he ventured into one and came out, brought us home and forbid us to ever go up there again. Apparently there was enough light for him to see a mountain lion in that cave. There had been rumors for a long time about a mountain lion killing dogs in the town and apparently we had found his den.

In looking back, this uncle contributed a lot to our love of the outdoors. Each fall he would take us to 'find a bee tree'. He would make a small device from a small wooden box with a sliding top which came filled with dried codfish for codfish gravy. He would make a small baffle in the box, put in some liquid anise, and leave the top open. When the honeybees were attracted to it, he would watch which direction the bees flew when they headed back to their hive and close the last few in the box. A honeybee will feed on the nectar, go up about 4 feet, go in a circle and fly directly in a line to their hive. We would then walk about 30 feet in the direction the bees flew and repeat... as many times as needed until we found the tree. For us the pleasure was in the hunt, but our grandparents used to wait until colder weather and go out with "smokers" which made the bees groggy and they would take half the honey for winter use. I can remember being in my great uncle's attic which had that amazing fall smell mixed with the honey smell. He had a very primitive device for spinning the honey combs to extract the honey and canning jars filled with that golden liquid would line the shelves . He always saved a good amount still in the honey comb which we were allowed to 'chew' like gum.

I now realize that our uncle wasn't merely making fun for us, but instilled in us a sense of adventure, appreciation and wonder at all we could find if we just ventured out.

In the age of digital photography, I am sad that it wasn't available back then. I don't believe I will ever go back there and at this age, etc, know that all that exploring is not longer an option except through others pictures and descriptions... Now I explore and travel through others pictures and descriptions. I have to say it saves gas and I get far fewer mosquito bites. Thanks for the memories, Judith.

Oasis

October4,2006
An oasis can be so many different things to different people. I think its where we find respite from either stresses or humdrum. Others posts, photography, gardening and nature all provide varying degrees of that oasis for me.

Yesterday I got the papers ready for a trip to the recycle. There was a HUGE accumalation and I skipped through them looking for the Friday sections containing Florida gardening tips. So much of our local news has been dreadful lately, so the gardening spot is an oasis for me. In one of these there was an article about things to do in Lakeland, including a map and listing of parks and public areas around the city. I believe there were 45 different parks. I'm happy to say that most of them may include a few benches strategically placed, perhaps a restroom somewhere on the property and some policing of the grounds keeping it litter free. For the most part the areas are left as natural as possible. Lakeland is a large city - both in population and in acreage. Its also full of uninhabited areas and therefore so much wildlife. In spite of being a major industrial hub because of the interstate and other roads meeting toward the south of the city, its a very country area. We have several feed stores where the 'cowboys' can find whatever they need... and we do have cowboys. Most of the larger herds of cattle tend to be in surrounding areas, but a lot of the workers do live here.





These pictures were taken at Lake Morton and at Lake Mirror which is a small round lake in the heart of downtown. On its perimeter is the tall electric company building and assorted other office buildings and Hollis Gardens. I've included some pictures that I didn't take, but my daughter Lisa did. She also loves photography, as does my grandson and they share his Olympus camera. One of his photos won the county purchase award through the museum here. An art dealer was very excited over his pictures but at the time at 13 years old, his interests were fairly short lived. His true passion is working on computers and developing software to make things easier for more people to use. He's now 18 and spends 2/3 of his day at school working with the computer teacher on the schools computer systems.

I have never seen this particular aspect of a pelican's bill... Perhaps he's airing it out before the next fishing foray. This duck is a muscovy. When you can see the many colors in their feathers, an ugly duckling becomes almost beautiful. People feed them and they seem to multiply at an almost alarming rate.





This last picture makes me laugh.. makes me think of bookends.

Lisa has a special gift for perspective in her pictures, I think (this couldn't be the words of a proud mama, could it?) lol... She was playing with the camera and self portraits in Picasa2 - an online storage, sharing and editing web site. Even something like figuring out how to use something new can turn into one of those "oasis moments'.


The times that we've gone walking in the woods and looked through the camera's eye and seen the most infinitely beautiful things are like mini vacations.


I love this idea of being able to blot out everything but the features. How amazing is man's creativity.

This post is rather disjointed... I've read a few lately who have voiced how I've been feeling. Like there is nothing to say. I originally started out to keep a record of the garden here.. and then 'Alice' talked about writing 'life stories', which is a marvelous idea.. and then I read so many things that played on similar chords in my heart and thoughts.

My husband has been away helping friends move out of state and is now home. I'm hoping things will begin to feel back to normal now. I realize that He is part of the oasis God provides for me day to day.