It is nearly three o'clock in the morning as I type, and I've hardly had anything close to a good night's sleep so far. I've heard my husband snoring from the other side of the bed, and I've also heard three train whistles from the other side of town. Why is it that the later it gets, the louder those train whistles seem to be? (The snoring is not so loud... just constant.)
So, what to do in the middle of the night...... how about a wildlife report:
The baby foxes have moved on into the woods. With the recent mowing of the pastures and the hay baling machines being here, the mama fox decided that our barn wasn't the most quiet of spots for her family, so off they went. And good riddance. The baby foxes were cute, but I wasn't exactly thrilled that there were five of them in the barn.
The bluebirds continue to hatch their eggs in the birdhouses around the property. My husband checks those boxes every other week and keeps a log for the county wildlife association. Along with the bluebirds, wrens and swallows have also taken up residence in some of those birdhouses. We're supposed to evict those birds from the boxes that are set up for the bluebirds, but honestly, how can you really do that? Pooh on that county rule, if you ask me.
Barn swallows continue to nest on our porch columns... the baby birds who have already fledged have started home-improvements on some of the old nests. Layers have been added to the existing nests, making them look like bird condos... some of them are about eight inches high. Makes me wonder how the new baby birds will ever climb out of those skyscraper nests when they're ready to fly off into the yard. The barn swallows must like it here.... they don't fly away when they leave their nests in the morning, they just fly off into our trees, then come back to the house for their afternoon naps and nest-building. As a result, our porch is decorated with bird poop.
I haven't seen any more tarantulas lately.... I think we had three or four at last count, and I haven't seen any all week. And yes, I've been looking. One thing I don't want is to be surprised by something like that as I walk around the house. And no, I don't walk around the outside of the house any more than I have to. All this property... and hardly any of it is wildlife-free or insect-less.
The wasps continue to build their delicate little nests that seem to hang by the merest of threads, no matter how big the construction is. All those little sections within those nests.... unbelievable how fast they can build them, and I believe that they lay eggs into each of those openings. More eggs equals more wasps. Oh goodie. We keep spraying them, and knocking the nests down, but within a day's time, a new nest is being built somewhere else.
Orange Kitty is still around the porch, and trying to be friendly by falling over on his back when he sees me, offering me his white tummy for petting. I fell for that trick of his once, and got scratched for my effort, so no tummy-rubs for that cat. Orange Kitty seems to be good friends with Mickey... they both sleep under the back porch steps during the hottest part of the day. Gatsby stills meows loudly when the orange cat comes into the yard, but he's not chasing him off the porch anymore. I would still like to catch Orange Kitty and bring him to the shelter, but he's too quick, and too smart for that. That cat simply wants to be here, whether he gets Meow Mix or not... and if he doesn't eat here, then he eats at the neighbor's across the road and then comes back here to spend most of his day on or under our porch.
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange you glad I'm still around?
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