Chipmunks, Bunnies, Spiders and Snakes

While I know there are many small animals around here, we do not see many due to the hawks and eagles.  Any small animals that we see, I am sure that the large birds see as well.  (Mice are the exception; we are plagued by mice.) But this year is different and I do not know if this is good or what.

It started with a chipmunk.  This is the first year that we have seen one and it is a brazen little thing, sitting on our root cellar structure and looking into our laundry room/office window.  Drives the cats crazy.  We put out food scraps - it loves fruit.

Then, bunnies started hopping around the back yard, eating the 'rabbit ears' grass that grows there.  (I have no idea what kind of weed or grass it is, but my mother called it 'rabbit ears' because it looks like that.)  These bunnies have very little fear (like the dust bunnies in the house!) - we can walk within 4 feet of them before they hop away.  We have one that sits on our car parking pad and dares you to move your car closer.  I have heard my husband honking his horn and waiting to park his car because the bunny is there.  This bunny joins a select group of animals with attitude that we have up here.  Deer, turkeys, bear and now bunnies stand in the road or whatever and I can swear they have the look of "What, I should move for you?"

I do not notice many hawks or eagles or other birds of prey this year.  This explains the small creatures, I guess.  Maybe it is too warm and the birds went farther north.  I notice we have more song birds this year as well.  Nice to be serenaded at sunset.

Every year we do get a lot of spiders, living in the woods as we do.  But this year is ridiculous.  I find myself turning on lights and checking the ceiling for nests and webs, especially in the garage.  Large webs and spiders appear overnight outside next to the house.  Impressive webs, but yuck!  I know, they keep the gnat and fly populations down, but it follows there are a lot of gnats and flies in order to attract this many spiders.  Either way, bug repellent and constant clearing of webs outside are our ways of coping.

And now, snakes.  There are snakes up here, outside, in the woods, near water, etc...but - not in the bedroom, right?  Our little Fancy has caught three snakes so far in our bedroom!  Little, non-poisonous, but they are snakes and creepy nonetheless.  My husband flushed one, I flushed one, and the other night he went running by me to go the back door to throw out another one.  Might not have thought anything of his running by, telling me to ignore him, if he had not dropped the stupid thing in the middle of the living room!  I screamed, and he asked me why the scream.  Hey, I'm a girl - girls do that.

Time and Inclination

I am not going to apologise for not posting, as I guess I just did not feel inclined to do it.  Not an attitude, just no concrete reason.  Time moves on and the realization that a year has gone by escapes me.  Also, every time I opened the blog, I saw the last entry where we had so much sorrow over losing our 'children' and I would just close it up and walk away - or play Solitaire.  I lead an exciting life!
We are looking to adopt another - or a couple - of new cats again.  So many need homes and we have so much love to share.  Not to be fatalistic, but most of our cats are over 10 years old, so it appears we are preparing for the inevitable.  And I like to think we need some new life in here.

My husband and I celebrated 30 years of marriage in June.  When we made the 25 year milestone, I thought we would surely do something spectacular for 30.  We didn't.  We just made a little 3 day trip over to Mystic, CT - a place we have never visited, but passed by - and we had a lovely time remembering why we still love and care for each other.

take us with you on your trip

I am no longer working, for personal reasons. My husband is very understanding and (knock wood) is doing well with his job and enjoys it.  So I am waiting for my pension to kick in the month after I turn 60 next year.  Yes, I fret with every news story about pensions and the effects of the economy.  And yet my husband has a hard time getting people to apply for a job at his place - go figure.

Home improvement is still an issue with our older house.  It seems like every time my husband has a few days off, we are working to repair, place or embellish something around the house.  The present need is our shower pan.  We purchased a special, half-round shower for our front bathroom and the pan has developed a crack and a leak.  Of course, they no longer make that version of the shower, a replacement pan is unavailable, so we have been trying many different things to patch the surface.  I hope this last repair, involving epoxy and fiberglass and sanding and more resin and hardener works.  Good thing we have another bathroom. 

After this repair is complete (oh, please!), we move on to the other bathroom to replace the toilet.  My husband is an expert on toilet replacement - he has done many of them at the various places we have lived and has done a complete install in 15 minutes flat.  The power of need, if you will.