Possum (yes, I'm southern, it's possum around these parts- not opossum), badger, or mole?
My oldest son was watching me put together some fleece hats the other day. I had lots of pieces of paper (don't tell Scott I "borrowed" lots of his computer paper) (with ideas for new fleece animal hats drawn all over them), scattered all over the bed. He asked me if I could make a possum hat. I tried, I really did. I'm just not too sure what it turned out to really be. You see, this guys isn't even finished yet, he is missing a black, outlined mouth, whiskers, and of course, a liner. My son wants him to have red eyeballs and blood spotted teeth when it's finished. Regardless, it has been born, I'm just not sure what it is. At this rate, I'm not even sure when it will be finished with Christmas getting closer and closer....
That's where you come in, tell me what you think it is.You can leave your guess in the comments below. I'd appreciate it, I really would.
The past year or so has been a whirlwind so to speak and I've hardly came by here. Actually, I come by here a lot, it's just that when I get here, I'm called away. I've always said that the phone, doorbell, and children's voices are linked to the power button on my computer. As soon as I click that button, I'm immediately called away by someone or something or another. But, isn't that the way it goes for any mom? It's ok, this time is fleeting and I'm trying to do my best in these times.
My little Roly Poly girl has been feeling very sad lately. She cries when she sees a picture of a gray horse. She remembers my Dusty quite well. Her sadness got me to thinking, to remembering.
Dusty was my friend of 25 years that passed away under an oak tree on May 4th of last year. He trotted, galloped, jumped, and honestly, shyed at every object I can think of over the years. He once ate a Whopper (burger) by accident when I dropped it and wasn't quick enough. He was known to gulp down Dr. Pepper or any other beverage you offered to him. You know what? Arabians really can drink from a tea cup like the old legends say....or at least Dusty could. He could count his age with his hoof (even if he eternally thought he was seven years old), eat mulberries from the tree limbs, crack and swallow pecans, jump in a river, cross a creek, shake his head, and dance. Yes, he could dance. He only danced when he was scared or nervous. I always made sure I didn't see him dance on purpose.
He loved me when my heart was shattered at the loss of some loved ones. He made me laugh and he was loyal. ......... (Alright, he was loyal to anyone that fed him), but he and I shared a friendship. He knew I loved him. I didn't make him relieve his past of getting beaten or kicked, or bitten. He knew he was safe with me, with us. I'm so glad that "O.J." caught my mother's eye across the road from our front porch, out in that pasture. I'm glad I was able to make his life a little nicer.
Roly Poly girl misses the only horse that ever paid her attention and carefully watched out for her feet while he sniffed at her pockets for a treat. We have our memories and they live on....
I wanted to share something special with you. Something about Dusty. Not many people can say that someone wrote a song about their beloved pet, but I can. Thank you Gray Lee (and A.D. for remembering) and for finding the right words.
Track #2 is a song about Dusty, a Song For A Horse...........
This was supposed to be a quilt for my mother for her birthday and Mother's Day. That's right, it's the middle of May and it's still not finished....
Something cold fell from the sky one day. The "something cold" was the 3rd (or 4th- I lost count) something that has freakishly fell from the sky this spring. The scary part is that the hail is getting bigger each time it falls. We were pretty close to golf balls this time.
No, he's not dead....he just does this sometimes.....
And last but not least, "Something Upside Down". Our poor fish, Moe Moe has an air bladder issue lately. We don't exactly know what to do for him yet as we've only researched his little "condition" on the internet. A trip to our local pet store is definitely in order. We panic each time we walk by his tank and think he has went to that big aquarium in the sky (only to have our hearts jump when he suddenly flips back over and swims around like nothing is wrong). Geesh, why do we have such weird animals?
Orion's Stardust (Dusty) April 1st, 1978 - May 4th, 2010
I knew the day would come but it snuck up on all of us. Dusty didn't come up to eat that day and my sister went looking for him. She had grown close to him since she had been taking care of him for some time. When she found him down in the pasture, she called me. She was crying and I soon followed suit. It was a terrible day for us.
I have written about Dusty a couple of times over the past year or so. He was my friend for over 25 years of our lives and I will never forget him. We rambled through the woods, creeks, and over many miles of roads over our lifetime. He was there to carry me through the loss of both of my grandmothers and countless others since then. Dusty was a nut but he was a faithful nut.
When I first got Dusty, he could count how old he was by pawing his foot on the ground. He could also "shy" at every living thing (and non living thing) and throw me off his back quite easily in those early days. He took me to my first horse show where he won champion (not me- I was totally lost- he carried me through it). His brother (adopted brother) picked on him but he loved him- a lot. Poor old Spirit didn't eat for awhile and stood moping after he lost his brother, Dusty.
Dusty's passion in life was eating. I know, horses like to eat but Dusty lived to eat- not eat to live. He loved sweets of any form or fashion. During berry season, he drastically lost weight each year because he munched on blackberries, mulberries from the trees, and wild strawberries down in the pasture. He had the life of luxury. One "neigh" and he had my mother tied around his little "hoof". She would faithfully bring him loaves of bread to eat (twice a day!!). If someone had the time to crack pecans for him, he'd gobble them down too. He hardly ever took the time to eat actual grass. He wanted goodies.
Dusty was an old horse and had lived the last 15 years or so in retirement. His life was easy and I'd suspect that it was much better than his earlier days before we got him (he was abused by a previous owner) I'm just glad he came into my life and the life of my family. We all loved him.
Dusty died alone under an oak tree. His favorite mulberry tree was not far away so I'd suspect that is where he had been spending his time munching. I've always called him a nut because of his funny antics and I think it ended up being very appropriate that he was buried under a "nut" tree very close to his mulberry munching spot.
I'll miss him but I know it was his time to go........
Yeah, you know that kind of cuteness. The puppy kind. That puppy breath, puppy feet smell cuteness...... Cuteness pure and simple.
This is "Jipped". He belongs to our former neighbor. He brought him over to show the kids. They ate him all up. He said that he was named "Jipped" because they were promised a female pup and when they got him, they figured out he was a boy so they got, "jipped".
Jipped was so sleepy- you know being cute is very tiring. He took a nap in the backyard. The kids had a hard time leaving him alone because he was just too cute and they wanted "awake" cuteness- not "asleep" cuteness.
Since Jipped wasn't around later that day, Roly Poly girl spent some time with this caterpillar for awhile. I've been around these guys all my life and for the first time, one bit me. Yes, it sank it's little fangs right into my arm. Let's just say that I'm not picking these guys up again. You learn something every day I guess.
This beauty was captured by another neighbor. Apparently he was injured by a passing car. We took his picture and then left him under a tree with hopes he would survive. Who knows if he made it or not- we had a nasty little hail storm- (yet again)- the next day. That's nature though. As much as it hurts us, we have to let nature take it's course sometimes.
Somehow or another, we went from the dead of winter to early summer. What happened to spring? I'm not complaining too much since it's not blazing hot, but some days, it's in the mid 80's already! Anyway, with the warmer weather, we find ourselves outdoors a little more than we had been. Roly Poly girl is still young enough to find nature amazingly interesting so I find myself taking full advantage of these little learning opportunities.
Yes, Roly Poly girl was at it again. She had to lift up the mat in front of the basement door to find her little crustacean friends hiding below.
Mr. Bumble Bee
This little guy strikes fear in one of my kiddos heart the minute she sees (or hears) him. Why, I don't know for sure but I would suspect it is due to the fact that my daughter managed to step (yes, I said step) into a yellow jacket nest when she was a very little girl. She feels the way I do about snakes (you know, a good snake is a dead snake) but her little saying would be; a good bee is a dead bee. Maybe we both will get over our little fears one of these days...
Mr. HoneyBee- Stay away from Monsanto Corn!!!!
Speaking of bees, I was thrilled to see Mr. HoneyBee. You just don't see these guys much when someone has planted that evil, genetically modified corn in the area. You might want to get educated on "Frankencorn" if you haven't heard about it already. You can start at Mother Earth News Magazine's site and read their recent article or head on over to one of a gazillion web sites dedicated to let the public know what Monsanto is doing to our food supply.
Ok, I'm off of my pure food high horse now- back to the program......
We have an over abundance of robins in our backyard. That's not a problem. They supply us with hours of endless amusement. The other woodland creatures in our backyard (the squirrel family) do not approve of the flock of robins so, they are constantly waging war on the birds. It is quite hilarious to see either birds jumping straight up into the air after a squirrel sneaks up behind them, or squirrels running around confused after being dive bombed. It's a win- win for us- hey, it's free entertainment!
Stay tuned, I've been trying to get a photo of the squirrel family but they are photo shy. One of these days I'll try to share the squirrel family with you. Their three babies are sooo cute so it will be worth it to see them.
A Roly Poly Girl treasure.....
With the general population of children in the neighborhood being male, there are a lot of boy-related games that are taking place at any given time somewhere around the house. One of those boy-related activities is marble shooting. No, not the old fashioned kind of marble shooting- the sling shot kind of marble shooting.
What's so good about boys shooting marbles in slingshots? Well, little girls enjoy spending hours looking for marbles that boys shot out of slingshots. Before it's over, the girls have more marbles than the boys!
Roly Poly Girl and I like to leisurely walk around in the backyard and nearby gravel to look for long lost marbles. (It's like treasure hunting...) On this particular day that I snapped this photo, we found 3 of them. The best time to go marble hunting is in mid day, the day after a rain storm. Once, we found 4 at once- that's a good haul if I do say so myself!
One day this week, during a brief break in the rain, we spotted something creepy- crawling up foundation of the house. I had seen these things dried up in the driveway before and I had thought that they were "snake worms". Ewww, the mention of "snake" sends shivers up my spine. Anyway, this creepy guy (or gal?) was inching it's way up and I noticed it had a flat head. Ewwwwwww.
I can't believe I'm blogging about this.
Anyway, I looked on the internet and quickly found out that this guy is called a Hammerhead worm and he is bad news to earthworms (which are good news to farmers and gardeners). I found this neat article on these guys so if you are interested, just click on over here to find out more.
Apparently, they devour earthworms (rather slowly and painfully by the way) and if you chop them up, each little piece multiplies into a totally new hammerhead worm. Blechhhh. Top get rid of him, you have to "dissolve" him. Hmmmmmm, that kind of creeps me out too. What to do.....?.....
By the way, RolyPolley Girl calls him a "pop" worm. She says they pop...?.... Even she didn't like him or he would have been named "Bob" like most other critters.
There you have it, the hammerhead worm or land planarian. A new critter found in my neck of the woods. I hope I don't see him again either.
Either way you look at it, we all learned something new today, how about you?
Screeeeeeeeeech, screeeeech, screeeeeeeeech (imagine the sound of finger nails on a chalk board here), tap, tap, tap.
"Hmmmph, that didn't get their attention, I'll just "mosey" up here for awhile and wait for some unsuspecting person to walk through this door...mhwaa,ha ha (think Bela Lugosi's voice here)
"Oh drat, and I was wanting to scare somebody good today!"
"Hey, you lookin' at me or something? I'll be back..." (think Arnold Schwarzenegger here).
Scott hit the jackpot this week when he happened to notice something "fishy" outside his car windows.
Apparently this fish in particular won first place. Congratulations Mr. Fish.
This fish loves South Carolina
This fish sports a native heritage
I'm not sure why there is a huge circular object sticking out of this one. Maybe a Frisbee contest went bad? High school disc throw practice gone crazy?
The other day, I made this observation that there sure were a lot of dragonflies actually "flying" around in my back yard. They were landing on the volleyball net, the steps, the porch rail, the trees, and the fence line. I grabbed my camera and started shooting away.
Roly Polley Girl was with me and made it quite interesting to snap pictures of little creatures that liked to flitter and flutter at any little sudden movement. Anyways, I managed to snap these photos. The only one that I wished I could have photographed was the army green colored one. He was a beauty but apparently, he was also camera shy.
I know this picture isn't focused right but I just had to show you this little guy's face. He really did have a "smiley" face plastered across that little head of his.
I lost count but this one was the most persistent of them all. He must have flew off and landed on this same stem 100 times while I tried to focus in on him.
This one was familiar. I just couldn't think of what he reminded me of. I know that the kids have watched a movie at some point with a dragonfly in it, I just couldn't remember which one it was.
Look closely, doesn't the face of this one remind you of "Tom" the cat in the old Tom and Jerry cartoons?
This is a view of "Smiley" the dragonfly from the side. He sure is happy.
What could this pile of green lizard looking mess possibly be?
Hmmm, it has hands maybe, or is that a claw?
A long, long time ago, in a land far away (15 years ago in a Big Lots store in the upstate) , I obtained a 39 cent pattern for this little guy. (Yes, I'm serious, it was only 39 cents. You'll never see something like that again- that's for sure!) Over the years, I have managed to make all of my children one of these silly creatures except for my youngest. The problem I have had, is that I lost some key components to that pattern and had given up on the hope of making my youngest one of these creatures. After all, it's ears, neck, and tongue were missing- kind of important parts in my opinion.
One day, a light bulb went off. I said, "Hey, just take one apart and trace the pieces, you big dummy". And that is exactly what I did. Now, I have all of the pieces necessary (minus and entire bag of stuffing) to complete a new one. I checked to see if this pattern was copyrighted. It wasn't so I'm going to make some of these little guys and try to sell a few this holiday season.
All I can say for now is that if I manage to get this big guy back together again for my son, you might actually get to see what this creature will turn out to be. I haven't decided if I'm going to sell these in my Etsy shop or not. The thought has crossed my mind to just sell them here on this blog. Still working on how to set that up. (Blog store set up tips are welcome by the way- I'm clueless.)
From time to time, we see strange things outside our windows. You might remember the scary snake that Scott saw from the motorcycle. Well, I'm pretty sure I came face to face with that humongous varmint today.
It all started innocently enough. I passed by this tree that happens to have a hole in it. This particular pecan tree has some history with that hole. You see, last year, three gigantic snakes took up residence in that hole. It's for that very reason that I cast a sideways glance at the hole each and every time I pass by that tree. I hate snakes- there is nothing you can say or do to change my opinion of these evil creatures. Sorry, you can't pull the, "they eat pesty rodents" bit with me. I don't care- they also bite and kill people- so there.
Anyway, back to the tree with the hole..... I happened to have my camera in my pocket and snapped a quick picture of the hole in the tree. My intentions were to eventually make up some kind of silly story to go with the hole. My intentions quickly changed when I noticed something strange.....
so, I zoomed in a little bit and saw.......
something strange that was moving and was black and white and....enough said.....you can figure it out can't you. Guess who came back this year.
Yep, there he (or she?) is. That tongue was just a flicking around too. Let's just say that this particular snake was quite violent in it's behavior as I found out awhile later once I returned home. I got a call and was told that the snake lunged out of the hole about a foot into the air. Here I have been thinking all of these years that I only needed to watch my feet when walking out in the countryside. Now, I have to watch up in the trees too!
(read the following to yourself with a French accent- yeah, you know the one- like the skunk on Bugs Bunny)
Squirrel: "I'll just sit here and scratch myself while they eat those delicious, homemade chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting......."
Squirrel: "What did I just say! CUPCAKES! - I can smell them, the beautiful glow of the aluminum foil calls me........They are within sight- Come to me oh, beautiful cupcakes.....I long for you...."
I try to be an optimist, I really, really do. After all, this world is full of enough negativity and sadness already.
Sometimes, a person just has to keep hope alive. This time, my little form of hope came in a quick trip to the garden to dump my compost bucket on the pile. There was this handy, dandy pitch fork just waiting for me. I gave it a sideways glance and thought- "Naaa, I'd be wasting my time". That little voice inside said, "What have you got to loose- just a little time"
What is this leading up to you say? Well, remember that sometime back, the evil fire ants devoured all of my fingerling potato plants. First they started at the top of the plant and then ate down the stems and into the ground- yeah, kind of like locusts. Most people don't believe me when I say they did this but I have photographic proof- you've seen some of it already.
Potato Hill was the area in which we planted our precious spuds. Potato Hill now sits vacant except with a few mysterious looking mounds and loads of saw briars. Those mounds made me curious. What if, just what if, they (the evil fire ants) missed some of the buried spuds. I couldn't wait much longer and I snatched up that pitchfork and went to the Hill. What you see in the picture above is what was left. A single, lone, little tiny potato that had started it's life but had it's growing season snatched away by some evil ants. I smiled when I found this potato. I was so proud. Not that we had grown it, but that I had somehow triumphed in some strange sort of way over the evil ants that were out to get me and everything I touched in the garden.
Take that you nasty little ants- you missed one- HA!
