The Trapper, The Thief, And The Widow

Posted on September 9, 2024 by TJ

Here we are, already in the second week of September. It feels like autumn. We’ve had our first frost although the temperatures are forecast to gradually warm up into the 80s. Even on warmer days there is a hint of crispness in the air. I don’t think the trees have as much color as they usually have at this time of year. Perhaps it’s because August was so dry.

This summer had gone by in a blur. I haven’t slept very well so I’ve been a bit tired and unmotivated all summer. Mostly I get my tasks down and then veg out. Actually, I haven’t slept very well since our son battled cancer in 2013-14, but my sleep patterns seem to have worsened this summer. It hasn’t been helped by Hannah Joy having a lot of trouble with obsessive itching. She sleeps with us and jiggles the whole bed when she scratches. I finally looked up what could cause itching–I know it’s not fleas–and learned that it could be a contact or food allergy. I washed her harness in case she was allergic to the homemade tick spray I had made. We also considered that the new pet food we bought Hannah could be causing her problems. So this weekend we began making her homemade food. The itching seems to be decreasing.

In early August I realized that I had a mouse infestation in the coop so I began setting traps. I was catching 5, 6, and even up to 9 mice a night. I began keeping a tally and I trapped 96 mice in August! The number has tapered off in September and my overall total is 104 mice. EJ is very impressed with my trapping skills. At first, EJ took the mice out of the traps for me because it was rather gruesome. Did you know mice sometimes eat their dead? I kept finding half-eaten mice in the traps. Yuck! But after EJ didn’t have time to remove the mice from the traps one day, I did it. And then I just kept doing it. I throw the mice out for other critters to eat–the whole “circle of life” sort of thing. I confess that I throw the mice in front of the trail camera to see what eats them. Most of the time I don’t see who takes them but I have seen a raven fly off with one and a raccoon carry another one off.

EJ and I made up a story about me being a legendary monster in mouse lore, a story told in whispers around mouse campfires at night. Sometimes young mice try to prove their bravery by challenging the traps, we say, but they never return home.

This morning EJ and I were in the garden. I looked over toward the chicken pen and thought I saw one of the blond chicks (Buff Orpingtons which are now full-grown) outside the fence. I thought it must be an optical illusion because I couldn’t imagine how she could have gotten out of the pen. We have a 10-foot fence around their pen and the garden. I looked again and realized that she WAS outside. So I quickly ran around the fence, thinking I could herd her through the gate at the far end of the garden and into her pen. However, she was anxious to rejoin the flock and kept running back and forth. After a couple tries, I was finally able to grab her and cuddling her I got her put back safely in the pen. I found no holes that she could have gotten through so I’m guessing she got up on the roof of one of the outside shelters and flew over the fence from there. I made sure to move the shelters that were too close to the fence. The shelters are merely dog crates. I have them in the pen so the chickens can run into them to escape rain or flying predators.

The apples are ripening on our apple trees. It’s a good thing we have fences around the trees because the deer are very interested in the apples AND the trees. They eat both. I’ve seen deer stand up on their hind legs to grab an apple or branch to munch. One time an apple was on the ground within the cage and I watched a deer try to paw it out. Here is one video I took of a deer stealing an apple. Her fawn is nearby, no doubt learning thievery from her Mama:

This is the first year that I keep feeding the wild birds throughout the summer. Usually, I stop feeding the birds in the Spring when the weather gets warmer. We’ve really enjoyed watching the birds flocking to the feeders this summer. It’s a real spirit lifter. When I go out to put the seed out in the morning, I hear the whir and flutter of wings as the birds excitedly circle around.

Every year we have bluebirds nesting in our birdhouses, especially one up near the large boulders. One of the boulders has a depression in it that is perfect for holding birdseed, and I also put several feeders around the boulders. The birds were landing on the roof of the bluebird house to wait their turn to get the seed which irritated the bluebirds trying to nest so I decided it would be best to move it a little ways away–still in view, but maybe not so close that the other birds land on the birdhouse. I waited until now to make sure the birds were done nesting. I’m still not sure I have the birdhouse located out of the way enough so I might have to move it again. But I will be careful when I move it because this is what happened:

The bluebird house is on a 10-foot wooden post. When I move a wooden post I rock it back and forth to loosen it from the dirt. Then I hug the post to lift it up out of the ground. I carry the post to the new location, dig a hole, pick up the post and put it in the ground, fill the space around the post with dirt, use a level to make sure the post is straight, and then stamp down the dirt around the post to secure it. So last week I was using the level to make sure the birdhouse post was straight after hugging and carrying it to the new location when I saw a large black thing crawl down the post. My heart fainted because I was quite sure it was a black widow spider. A very large black widow spider. I swear it’s body was the size of a grape. When it dropped to the ground, I saw the red hourglass on its body and knew my suspicion was correct. I picked up the post-hole digger and tried to hit the spider, but it was in the grass and I don’t know if I killed it. I shudder when I think that it could have landed on me. This information is why. This is from the summary that appears at the top of the search page on my computer:

Black widow spiders are venomous, but their deadliness is often overstated. According to various sources, the venom of a black widow spider is 15 times stronger than that of a rattlesnake, but this potency rarely translates to fatal consequences for humans.

Symptoms and Severity
When a black widow spider bites, the symptoms can be severe, including: