Mouse Hunt

For the last two weeks, Jeff has set four mouse traps in the shed baited with peanut butter.  For two weeks, we opened the shed to find four traps un-sprung minus the peanut butter!!!!  Mouse 2.  Jeff 0.
I'm afraid the score is going to even out this week though.  Jeff bought a heavier, more sensitive trap.  I won't enter the shed until the evidence is gone.  I can't stand the idea of their cute little bodies crushed in the traps.  I know it has to be done.......but I can't be the one to do it!  Yes, I'm a softy.  

Found in the Hidden Creek

The Butterfly Effect

Something happens each year in early August that is so neat.  After a good rain, when there's still moisture in the gravel on the road, the Sulpher Butterflies congregate in SWARMS.  If you walk or drive down the road you do so amidst a yellow cloud of fluttering wings.  I've not seen it anywhere else.  That's not saying it doesn't happen, but I've not seen it before.  It's just so cool!

Future Monarchs of America!

We leave a stand of Milkweed just for this purpose.

There's a Mouse in the House (or how to drive a man crazy!)

Last weekend, when arriving at the farm, we opened the shed to get tools and look things over.  Under the front end of the tractor was a pile of gray fuzzy stuff.  I reached down to feel it and determined it was chewed up foam rubber......like the stuff lining the inside of the engine compartment of our new tractor!!!!!  I mentioned it to Jeff.......going ballistic doesn't quite describe his reaction.  There was a LOT or stomping and ranting and words I won't print here.  We decided we should look under the hood......but how to open it was a mystery.  While Jeff went to look at the "tractor instruction manual", I opened the door to the gas tank.  Staring back at me was "the mouse"!!!!!  I don't know who was more startled....me or him!  I shut the lid, then opened it again and he was GONE.....poof! 
Jeff came back and opened the hood and right on top next to the filler tube was a little nest, all nice and cozy.  Now came the threats of 1000 mouse traps, 10 cats and rat snakes.  I say, just leave the hood open so it's not so cozy!  Gotta admit, they are very cute!

And Now for Something Completely Different!

Finally, the weeds around the peppers are under control and I can do something else for a change!  We decided to change the color of the shed from Fire Engine Red to a more earthy brown.  The old color made the shed shine like an emergency light from the road!  It screamed "LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME!!!!"   Not what we wanted!  The temperature and humidity were down yesterday and painting was therapeutic.  Jeff was trimming around the trees in the orchard so that left me and two lazy dogs to hang around the shed and paint.  Alone with my thoughts, the rhythm of a paint brush and the warm sun on my bare shoulders felt like cheesecake for my soul.  Every now and then I backed away to check my progress and sigh happily with a sense of accomplishment.  One and one half sides to go and it's done with its chameleon change.  I like it!

It happened so fast!

I slept until 10 this morning and was jarred awake by the knowledge of not having paid my Visa bill on time!!!!  I've been at my computer for over an hour paying the monthly bills and such.....ugh!  The weekend went by far too fast.  Off to the farm straight from work on Saturday evening.  Just enough daylight left to make the bed and start a fire.  Jeff made delicious pork chops in a cast iron skillet and corn on the cob in the wet husks over the fire.  Mmmmmm!  While we ate, the light show started with fireflies and stars.  The bats came out and flew silently overhead.  The fire died down to glowing embers and we decided to get an early start on our dreams.  While JUST dozing off, there was a fluttering sound in the peak of the shed.  Flashlight on and we discovered a little bat had let himself in through the still open soffits.  We opened the door and he swooped out.
Somewhere in the middle of the night, one of "the girls" (our name for the pregnant cows next door) was making a lot of noise.  I half expected to see a new calf in the morning, but the ladies didn't show up under the tree like they usually do.  Maybe there WAS a calf and that's why they stayed under cover away from the dogs.
We slept until 8:45 and quickly realized that was a mistake when the sun finally burned off the early morning fog.

Damn!  It got HOT quick!!!!  Jeff sprayed while I made a final pass at the weeds around the peppers.  Finally, I've got them all.  Production is down this year and we have decided the soil needs some amendments.  We learn more each year.  While he finished spraying, I whacked weeds along the fence and around trees while the dogs lounged under their umbrella!
We went back down by the shed for Jeff to get the tractor for a quick mowing while I put a coat of stain on the shaded side of the shed.  When he was done......miraculously, so was I!!!!  We washed up, put on clean, dry clothes and took a nap in the hammocks before packing up to leave.  Three hours til we arrived home to a pizza in the oven, courtesy of my stepson, Ryan!  What a sweetheart!