Life at the Post

Posted on December 22, 2017 by TJ

I took a beautiful photo of Josette sitting on the gate post in the blue-ish early morning light. I am totally in love with sweet, beautiful Josette. I am delighted at how she joins me each time I go out to care for the poultry. In the summer I use a hose to fill the water buckets and the ducks’ pool, but in the colder months I put the hose away and I fill buckets with water from the faucet outside the house and lug them to where they need to go. Josette follows me back and forth between the faucet and the coop while I fill, carry, and empty the water buckets, and then she meanders around the pen when I go into the coop to let the birds out and fill their water and food bowls. It’s nice having a companion.

Last weekend EJ and I bought a mineral salt block for the deer. I positioned it in various places in the front yard before finally deciding to place it on an overturned tub just below the living room window a few feet from the bird feeders. I didn’t want the mineral salt block anywhere that the salt could kill off plants, but I don’t mind if it kills any weeds that grow in the stones near the house.

Our sweet serial killer cat, Miss Madeline Meadows enjoys lurking near the base of the bird feeder post. Today I actually saw her climbing the post. Obviously, my Madeline-proof fencing isn’t working as well as I hoped. It didn’t help that the deer crushed the fence near the post. Still….I haven’t found any dead birds since I put up the fencing. When Madeline is not sitting at the base of the post, she has been enjoying sitting on the mineral salt block.

Madeline was sitting on her mineral salt block throne this morning when a large flock of turkeys came around the corner of the house. JJ and I watched with fascination to see what would happen next. Madeline sat on her block for quite some time while the turkeys huddled at the corner of the house. Finally Madeline sneaked off under the deck and the turkeys moved on. I’m sure their original goal was to eat the seed that had fallen from the bird feeders, but instead that calmly marched across the yard and into the forest.

An hour or so later, a deer visited the feeder. She was easily spooked by movement or noise and ran off several times before returning. She ran off when Kee-Kee jumped onto the window sill to watch her, but soon returned. However, when Timmy make a loud noise by knocking something off the end table next to me, she ran off and didn’t return. The deer often come to the house when it’s dark outside. In the mornings I always find the feeders empty so I know they’ve been there.

Of course, the wild birds also visit the feeders. They were very busy feasting today when they weren’t scared off by the cat, squirrels, turkeys, and deer. I saw a couple birds that I haven’t seen at my feeders before. I believe they are house finches, but I will double-check.

I love living in our Enchanted Forest. There is always so much to enjoy. It’s a very magical place to live.

Early this afternoon I sledded down the driveway to the mailbox. We’ve had a couple of inches of snow so while the sledding was very good, I didn’t go as scary fast as yesterday. I sledded down the driveway twice yesterday. The second time I veered off the driveway before the curve and traveled over a grassy hill and back onto the driveway. The grass didn’t even slow me down much. Yeah, it was like pod-racing. I feel very blessed to have such a tremendous private sledding hill.

The Magic Box is at the right. This photo was taken in early October.

I got a package in the mail from my friend in Texas. It was small enough that it fit in the mailbox so I didn’t have to wait to retrieve it from the post office. UPS and FedEx are putting packages in our magic box at the bottom of the driveway. It’s really fun opening the box and finding a package magically inside. However, the post office doesn’t even try to enter our driveway. They just make me go to the post office to retrieve it, which is difficult because I seldom have access to a vehicle during the week with EJ and JJ at work and/or school.

I loved my gift from my friend. Her husband made an awesome pen especially for me in my favorite color. He started with just a block of plastic. I’m not sure how he did it. He is going to be selling these pens at their Etsy store when they get it set up. I also received some shells and coral that my friend had found on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico during their beach-combing adventures. We marveled at the intricate beauty of their design. Finally, I received an adorable little figurine of a black kitten with a butterfly on it’s nose. I told my friend that I will treasure these gifts like a dragon treasures his hoard of gold and jewels.

I took this photo in 2015–the day we began our Christmas Day tradition.

Today we bought tickets to the Star Wars movie. When we moved to Northern Michigan, we started a tradition of watching the latest Star Wars movie on Christmas Day. We go to a cute historic theater located on the shore of Grand Traverse Bay. Last Christmas the theater gave everyone free bags of popcorn. The theater has large scale murals showcasing the beautiful Lake Michigan shores on which it sits. They were designed and painted by award-winning local artists. I just read that the murals have several “easter eggs” relating to classic films and local history hidden within the murals. We will have to see if we can find them.

This afternoon JJ is meeting his new girlfriend’s family. He and the girl attended a college class together, but only just started becoming friendship at the end of the semester. They’ve talked for hours on the phone and JJ said they have a lot in common. She came to our house for JJ’s sledding party, but they haven’t actually gone on a private date yet. Her Mom wanted to make sure JJ was a decent guy–and in fact, the girl’s friend came with her to the sledding party to make sure she wasn’t alone. To help reassure the Mom, JJ offered to spend this afternoon at her house so they could meet him. JJ became rather nervous when the girl told him that her parents, brother, several friends were all going to be there to meet him. Her brother threatened to give him a hard time. Ha, ha.

I’m excited because tonight EJ will be off work until after the new year. I love having him home with me. We plan to go to Meijers when he gets home from work. He wants to get nuts and oranges and stuff like that.

I can’t seem to resist the urge to look for adoptable dogs even though I tell myself it’s too soon. I commented on a local animal shelter post at Facebook, asking if they had any medium- to large-sized dogs available for adoption. It’s the same shelter where we got Madeline. They gave me a personal invitation to visit their shelter tomorrow. I am so screwed. I’m not doing very well at resisting temptation. It might be a Jedi mind trick.