Critters of Summer

OK, I admit it – I’m a critter junkie.  One of my greatest pleasures in life is watching God’s Critters.  I’m not fussy about what kind of critters, sparrows and eagles are all the same to me.  I even like watching hornets and yellow jackets – from a safe distance with binoculars of course but enjoy watching them none the less.

Its been a very good year for Critters too.  The rabbits have been much in evidence in the yard, mostly in the clover patches near the forsythia hedge.

The Praying Mantis hatched as usual at the end of May on the iris near the driveway and on the white pines.  They’re only about 3/8 of an inch long when they hatch.

By mid-July they’re right around 2 inches long.  At this point they disperse all around my yard and are much harder to find.  Probably much harder for hungry birds to find too.  By late August they will have wings and be ready to breed.

This is the 2nd turtle to visit my yard this year.  There are around half a dozen individuals that pop up in my yard from time to time.  I generally find them in the back yard when I check it before I mow.

This is a male Five-lined skink, Eumeces fasciatus, just over 6 inches long.  I’ve seen these in my back yard around the Norfolk pine stump, but these year he was very much in evidence on the wood pile just outside my kitchen door.  His orange colored head means its breeding season.

There were also 2 females in evidence; one about a half inch shorter then the male and one about 4.5 inches the long with a stubby tail.  The 3 Kitchen Skinks were very much in evidence from late April until Memorial Day Weekend, then they disappeared.  Stubby Tail had regrown most of her tail when I last saw her.

Then in mid July 6 to 8 of these little fellows showed up in the wood pile and on my kitchen porch.  When I first saw them they had about an inch of body and an inch and a quarter of tail.  I guess the mating went well.   A big male is also again in evidence around the Norfolk stump.

This nice little lady was in my yard when I came back from a grocery store run.  There have been an higher than usual number of deer tracks in the mud along the woods line too.  However, the deer seem to have seriously chowed down on the jewel weed that grows at the back of my yard.  So I haven’t been able to see as many hummingbirds this summer.  The Hummers really really like jewel weed.

Summer Projects

Events at Da Urchin’s place have occupied a fair number of my days off but that doesn’t mean I haven’t gotten any of my own projects done.

I bought this Class IV hitch and a wiring harness for my mule last January. I cleaned the road dirt off the van’s frame, held the hitch in place with a 2x6 laid across 2 pails and bolted everything together. The wiring harness didn’t come with any instructions but a YouTube video posted by a RV dealer fixed that. Now I can actually use the motorcycle and utility trailers I own.

Both of my Lodge Dutch ovens got rusty in storage.  I soaked them in white vinegar which removed the rust, washed them in hot water, dried them in the oven and then re-seasoned them both before painting the exteriors with Hi-Temp BBQ paint.

I got this trailer from Gypsy Jane who got it from Blacksmith Joe who built it. 

The top and one side of the plywood were showing their age.  I could rip pieces of rotten plywood off with my bare hands.  The box has been taken apart and removed from the trailer - a task with involved removing a jillion screws, several large bolts and the brackets the 2x4 supports rest in.

The flooring is still sound, so now I have a useable flatbed trailer.  I plan on mounting a standard A-frame ball mount, replacing the side mount tongue wheel with an in-tongue model, painting the frame and installing stake bed sides.  So I’m about half way there.

I’ve also gotten several more boxes of stuff sorted through, taken 2 boxes of clothes to Goodwill, trimmed various bushes in my yard and finished sewing snaps on my canvas tent door flaps so I can keep the sod flaps up out of the way as needed. 

And since all work and no play make for a very dull day I’ve also hunted out some good fishing places near my place.  No I won’t tell you exactly where they are, they’re My Fishing Holes if you get my drift.  But they hold decent sunfish and are quiet places to sit, fish and watch the world go by.  Which is what I’m about to do right now. 

Happy Birthday to the US of A

Urchin had planned a house warming party on the 4th but as my faithful readers know a bodacious storm blow the party right off the calendar.  Da Urchin and I seemed to be the only party folks with power so all of the potential party attendees were taking care of business.  I drove up on the 3rd after work and got more down tree cut up.   Don and Dolores arrived with a 2nd chain saw on the 4th and 2 of the neighbors came over with a chain saw too so the tree was reduced to a nice stack of wood by early afternoon

Don & Dolores

So the 4 of us had a nice quiet little July 4th party.  We watched the birds come to the veranda  birdfeeders, we chatted about all kinds of things, we played with Urchin’s cats, we chilled in the AC.  Just before dark we went to the local convenience store and got excellent subs and sandwiches made to order at pleasant prices.  We even got a few fireworks off before the thunderstorm drove us back inside.

It was a glorious day spent with family and friends.  It doesn’t get much better than that.

Nasty Ugly Storm

June 29th was a hot and muggy day so Sensible Me slept during the heat of the day with the intention of staying up very late and working on the Guest-Room-To-be.  I’d gotten up around 5pm, gone grocery shopping, mowed the yard and just finished a most pleasant fried fish dinner when the wind started to kick up a bit.  Then it kicked up a great bit more.  Paws-in-Trouble, my black cat who only comes in the house when its cold or the weather is otherwise truly abysmal, came running up to the kitchen door and DEMANDED to be let in as the wind got really really serious.  I could hear trees cracking and breaking but as it was full dark I couldn’t see much.  The power flickered off, then on, then off again and stayed off.  Other than the lighting and weird reddish flashing off to the north (the power substation took a direct hit) there was no sign of power on anywhere.  Not much rain, just an very scary cosmic light show and near hurricane winds. 

My phone jingled just as the weather was moving off – my Urchin’s new-to-her house, the one she’d been in for barely 2 months had taken a tree to the roof.  A big tree to the roof, with water poring down the kitchen ceiling, the the back kitchen wall and into down the basement.  She still had power, it was storming outside to beat the band at her place and I’m on my laptop at my place in the dark trying to find her home owner’s insurance 800 claim number via my laptop.  If it hadn’t been so serious it would have been funny.

Urchin’s Battered House

My house came through it all with nothing more than leaf debris in the yard and no power.  Urchin’s place had a tree trunk on her roof, major holes in the roof, damage to the roof ridge and some rafters, a broken window, a shorted out kitchen light fixture, cracks in the kitchen ceiling drywall sheets, water damage to the ceiling and 2 walls, a hole in the side of the house just under roof’s ridgeline, a damaged rear gutter and a very big puddle of water in the basement.   Plus some stray pieces of tree in the yard and one the rear deck.  The car was fine, she was fine, the pets were freaked out but fine and she had power.

Urchin’s boyfriend JR came out, moved the tree parts off the roof and put plastic tarps over the damage.  JR is a most wonderful boyfriend.  The insurance company called Monday, the adjuster was there Wednesday and I’m impressed.  The Urchin did decide to cancel her house warming party on the 4th, she felt she had enough on her plate with the house damage.  And she needed to find a contractor to fix things.

Smashed the Roof but Missed the Power Line

Meanwhile back at my place I was straightening up my kitchen and getting ready to drive down to Lynchburg.  My friend Gypsy Jane had a tree hit her RV so I was going to help her out.  Fortunately she didn’t end up needing much help.  I picked up a box in my kitchen, the bottom started to give way, I pushed the bottom back in place and thereby pushed a #2 treble fish hook all the way past the barb into my finger.  So I sat down, realized this was not something I could remove on my own, carefully unscrewed the hook from its lure and drove to the UVA hospital ER. 

US 29 south was a mess – trees and tree debris everywhere.  There were power crews working on down power lines and DOT crews removing roadway obstructions.  And there was no power, 3/4 of C’ville was sans electricity.  Fortunately UVA hospital has its own generators.  Several of them actually.  It took 2 hours, 3 shots of Novocain, 2 doctors, 1 intern and a tetanus shot but my right index finger was finally treble hook free.  I don’t want to think yet about what this will cost me.

My next task was to find some gas – I only has 3 or 4 gallons in my tank at this point.  Remember the no power in 3/4 of C’ville?  Well there was also no interwebs or land line phones in any of C’ville.  So gas stations with power still couldn’t pump gas if their pumps were net run and they couldn’t process ATM cards.  I finally found a good ol boy Exxon station with power, non-digital pumps and a manual credit/check card machine.  Thank You Jesus for low tech.

Tank filled, car charger for my cell phone acquired, I headed down to Gypsy Jane’s rig.  The campground had lost its main power line to a tree but the wadding in the water was wonderfully cooling and there was a delightful breeze all day.  The damage to her rig wasn’t too bad either.   I drove home that evening much refreshed although I still had no power at my house.  And the just bought frozen fish and chicken were toast. 

Sunday I headed to the Urchin’s place with my chainsaw.  She had power.  She had AC.  She had cold fluids.  I hadn’t slept well, what with the heat, no electricity and my very sore finger.  So I hydrated up at Da Urchin’s, napped for a few hours in her AC and then earned my keep by cutting up about half of tree trunk pieces.  I pulled in my driveway around 11:30pm to the welcome glow of my porch light.  Things are definitely looking up.