I Love To Go A Gardening
Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
Not Nancy Drew
The weather turned rainy and chilly overnight. I wore a sweatshirt and hoodie jacket when I went outside, but it was almost cold enough for a coat. I figured the weather would remain cold now, but I checked the forecast and the temperatures will be up and down. Today the high temperature is 48 degrees but it will gradually climb to 60 in a couple of days. The overnight lows will be in the low 30s or 40s. I waited until EJ left for work and then turned the furnace back on. He sometimes teases me about turning on/up the furnace but he doesn’t actually care if I turn it on. We are usually in agreement about keeping the thermostat lower to conserve propane. However, I think it makes a better story if I pretend I’m sneaking behind his back.
The leaves have been falling from the trees like a shower of confetti. Yesterday most of the trees had most of their leaves. Today probably half the trees are now bare.
Yesterday afternoon I saw blood on our older rooster’s leg. I didn’t know if it was the result of a kerfuffle with Edward the Turd or if he had killed a mouse or snake or something. I didn’t see blood on his leg today.
This has been a difficult week because our cat Little Bear is sick. He’s old–at least 14 years old–and we are not sure he’s going to make it. But I don’t want to write about that. Instead, I will write about books.
In 2022 I read that “Only a third of 10-year-olds globally are estimated to be able to read and understand a simple written story. The rest around two-thirds (64%) are unable to cover this marker for minimum proficiency in reading comprehension.” In looking up that information today to make sure I remembered it correctly, I read that two-thirds of American children can’t read fluently and that ““The shares of American 9- and 13-year-olds who say they read for fun on an almost daily basis have dropped from nearly a decade ago and are at the lowest levels since at least the mid-1980s.” I also read that In the United States, “14 percent of the adult population—a staggering 32 million adults—cannot read” EJ has told me that the majority of his co-workers haven’t read a book since they left high school. This appalls EJ and me because our lives have been so enriched by books. We have a home library filled with hundreds of books of many different genres: history, literature, travel, language, how-to-books, biographies, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction… I could write much about the many ways that books have enriched my life. However, I want to narrow my focus to describe two–or maybe three or four or five–books that I’ve read and the things I’ve learned through them.
I love to buy books from thrift shops and library used book sales because the books are so inexpensive that I can buy many for a few dollars. Also, because they are inexpensive, I can take a risk on new authors. If I see a book that seems interesting I add it to the pile of books I’m buying, knowing that if I don’t like it, I can easily re-donate it without remorse because I didn’t pay much money for it. I have found some favorite authors by taking a risk at a used book sale.
A few weeks ago, I read a book I had bought from one of our library’s used book sales. It wasn’t a genre that I like. I usually stay away from books that are described as “hilarious” or “rollicking fun.” Your taste might be different than mine, and that’s fine but, in my opinion, the authors of books like these seem to focus so much on trying to be funny that they aren’t funny at all–and their story suffers. Also, they are filled with annoying cliches. They remind me of a vaudeville act or a sitcom with a laugh track. EJ says it’s because I like observational humor–laughing about people’s and life’s absurdities rather than heavy-handed “hilarity.”
Despite my dislike of this genre, I risked buying this book because its title was “Not A Girl Detective” and it was about Nancy Drew. I loved Nancy Drew books when I was younger. I still have most of them packed away in boxes. I had hoped to pass them on to a daughter but, alas, I never had a daughter. I often discuss with EJ books that I enjoy or learn from. He says he has learned a lot from me over the years (as I have him). Being a boy, EJ never read Nancy Drew books but early in our marriage, possibly when we discussed favorite childhood books, I told EJ about Nancy Drew. I said she could find a mystery in EVERYTHING and ANYTHING, no matter how trivial. I remember in one book, I think it was “The Secret of Red Gate Farm,” a saleswoman in a shop refused to sell Nancy the last bottle of a particular perfume. Nancy thought that was strange and, of course, she uncovered a huge mystery behind it. I told EJ that because “I’m not Nancy Drew,” I would have simply assumed that the store was reserving the last bottle of perfume for a favorite customer. Over the years, whenever EJ and I have become aware of some thing or event that was not what it had appeared to be, we have said, “Well, after all, we are not Nancy Drew.” If one of us questions, “What is that person doing?” Or “Why is he doing that?” Or “What’s happening?” the other will reply, “How do I know? I’m not Nancy Drew.” It’s become a family saying. So I couldn’t resist buying the book.
As expected, “Not a Girl Detective” suffered from the author trying to cram in too many jokes. However, the book also had a lot of very interesting history about Nancy Drew books. I had heard years ago that the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books were written by the same author under different names, but I didn’t know that multiple authors were actually part of a writing syndicate who wrote those and other books. They all signed a form promising to never divulge that they were one of the authors writing as Carolyn Keene (or as the authors of the other books). There was a lot of other history about Nancy Drew in the book as well.
Sometimes when I read a story that has “history,” I look it up on the Internet to verify if the information is true. For example, earlier this year I read a historical fiction series about a lawyer during the time of King Henry VIII. I went online to learn how accurate that information was and in the process I enjoyed hours of delving into the history of Middle Ages lawyers, King Henry VIII and his wives, the other English kings, the War of the Roses, and some of the warships of that time.
I also enjoy Dick Francis mysteries. Dick Francis used to be a jockey in the UK; he even occasionally rode the Queen’s horses. After he was injured in a race, he turned to writing. All his books have some connection to horses, although his characters are not always jockeys or trainers. In his books, I’ve learned about horse racing, glassmaking, renovating old buildings, and a lot of other things. In one of his books, his main character worked as a waiter on a passenger train traveling across Canada as he sought to investigate a crime. The train carried horses and their owners to various racetracks in Canada from coast to coast. I followed the progress of the train on Google Maps and learned about some beautiful areas (such as Banff National Park) that I had previously been unaware of. I also learned information about working on a train. I once found an old video on YouTube of Dick Francis actually riding in a race.
I think I own all of the books in Jennifer Chiaverini’s Elm Creek Quilts series. Her stories are woven around the history of quilts. The books are very interesting and I’ve learned a lot about quilts. One book mentioned the winners of a quilt contest in a world fair. I looked up information and now own a book about the quilts entered into that world fair. In one of her books, “The New Year’s Quilt,” the main characters stay in a B&B in New York City over the holidays. A German couple was also there and they were crushed when they discovered that no one knew of the German tradition of watching a short movie called “A Dinner For One” on New Year’s Eve. They had expected to watch it with the other guests. I looked up the movie to see if it actually exists. It does, and EJ and I watched it together just for the cultural knowledge. Months later, I asked a German woman in a Telegram chat group if watching that movie on New Year’s Eve was a German tradition. The woman gasped, “How did you know this?!” because most Americans have never heard of it. The movie is silly but I’m sure that it becomes funnier since Germans tend to match the characters’ drink for drink and get drunk while watching it.
Books are often the jumping off point to exploring things I didn’t previously know.
So, anyway, despite its failings, “Not A Girl Detective” taught me some interesting history about the Nancy Drew books that I hadn’t known. Here is one of the articles that I found about it: The Secret Syndicate Behind Nancy Drew.” I’m not sure if I will re-donate the book because the story is meh, or keep it because of the Nancy Drew information.
I’m currently reading a library-sale book called “The Diary of a Bookseller” by Shaun Bythell who owns a used bookstore in Scotland. I can’t resist buying books about books, especially when they have books and a cat pictured on the cover. I’m thoroughly enjoying this book and often laugh out loud while reading it. Written in diary format, it has the observational humor I enjoy, as well as descriptions of the highs and lows of the book trade, Shaun’s buying trips to old estates, the effect Amazon has on small bookstores, and the eccentric customers and daily life he deals with. It also has interesting historical, literary, and philosophical facts sprinkled throughout. This book is so enjoyable that last night I took pictures of a few of the pages–ones with stories I thought EJ would enjoy–and messaged them to him so he could read them on his breaks. He said he really enjoyed them. It lifted his spirits.
That’s a tiny glimpse of how books often teach me and enrich my life.
At 5:30 p.m. tonight, EJ messaged me from work that I might want to turn on the furnace. I laughed that I already had. He replied that he had just finished telling a co-worker that I probably had. LOL.
Our Enchanted Forest
Michigan tends to be bi-polar. The weather is different from year to year, day to day, and even hour to hour. I remember years throughout my life when it was warm when we went trick-or-treating on Halloween night while other years it rained, sleeted, or snowed.
I was sure that we had permanently moved from warm to cold weather, from t-shirts to coats.
I was wrong.
For several days we’ve had blue skies and temperatures in the 70s. Today the temperature reached 80 degrees! I put aside my coat and returned to T-shirts. I would have opened all the windows today, but yesterday EJ took out the screens and I washed the windows.
EJ turned off the furnace when the weather warmed up again. I wonder if this means that our Autumn game of “How long can we last until we turn on the furnace” is back on? Do we ignore the days we had the furnace on or subtract them? Hmmm.
The trees took so long to change into their Autumn colors that I was beginning to think that the colors would be muted. However, they have finally burst into vivid color. Our enchanted forest tends to become so orange, gold, and yellow during this season that it feels as if the air itself has turned golden. I think we are at or just past the peak autumn color. The sky is sometimes filled with leaves flying off the trees. The trees are becoming more bare and I can see deeper into the forest. Friday we drove to the farm store for a few items. Our drive was so beautiful that we called it our “color tour.” I wanted to share of photo of the beauty, but a photo doesn’t do it justice.
For the last few years, EJ and I have bought several turkeys in November when they are on sale. We cook one for Thanksgiving and freeze the others to cook throughout the year. Eric cooked one of our turkeys on Friday and today I made 6 1/2 homemade turkey potpies. The half is because I didn’t have enough filling for a complete pie so I made a circle of dough, put the filling on it, and folded half the dough over it into a pastie shape.
I continue to feed my flock of wild birds every day, which fills me with delight and makes me feel as if I live in a truly magical place. Mostly the chickadees eat from my hand. Occasionally a nuthatch lands for a seed. They are getting bolder but are still nervous. The tufted titmice would obviously like to take seeds but so far they are too shy. I’ve seen blue jays hop into nearby trees as if they are watching me. I wonder if they will ever take seeds from my hand?
Each day my encounter with the birds is slightly different. Some days I have to wait for quite a while before a chickadee lands. Other times I barely get out the door before they are swooping around. Some days there are long pauses between bird landings while other times they come one after another. The birds are most active in the morning; it takes more patience to lure them in the early evening. This morning 14 birds took seeds from my hand and this evening 4 came. Last Thursday evening, one little chickadee returned 26 times for seeds. He ate some of the seeds, but I watched him bury others in my herb garden. I didn’t know that chickadees hid a cache of seeds.
When I was 16-years-old, I saw a neighbor woman hand-feeding peanut butter crackers to squirrels. I didn’t know her well so I never asked her how to do it, but I figured out how to train the squirrels to eat from my hand. It was cool. EJ sometimes goes to a discount store before work. I think it’s a store that sells items pulled off regular store shelves because they are outdated or not selling. The stock often changes. I told him that if he sees crackers to buy some so I can start feeding the squirrels.
Our forest is becoming more enchanted every day.
Autumn’s Chill
Yesterday morning the house felt chilly. I tried to be tough. If we can keep the thermostat low, we save on propane. However, I couldn’t get warm so I finally told EJ that I was going to turn the thermostat up a digit or two. He laughed and said that the furnace wasn’t on.
“What do you mean it isn’t on?”
“It’s not on.”
“You mean it has been off all night???”
“Yes.”
Yikes. That’s why I was so cold.
A few days ago the daytime high had reached into the mid-70s so we had opened the windows. EJ had obviously turned off the furnace then, which makes sense. However, the furnace hadn’t been turned back on and the temperature had been in the low 30s the night before; it was only in the 40s when I finally decided to turn the heat up. I turned the furnace on, pushing it up to 65. Today EJ was chilly and turned the furnace up another three digits.
The forecast for last night was for a possibility of snow. It was supposed to stop before daylight and not be enough to stick on the ground so I don’t know if it actually snowed or not. I told EJ that if it did snow, Winter has metaphorically drawn first blood. It won’t be long before it’s here to stay. We are never fully ready for Winter’s arrival although we enjoy it when we adjust to it.
Today was chilly and blustery. Sometimes we had sunshine and sometimes a burst of rain fell. At times we even had rain when the sun was shining. That’s Michigan for ya. I wore a winter coat and hat for the first time today. I’d say that t-shirt and shorts weather has come to an end.
Sunday EJ picked the rest of the vegetables from the garden and then we opened the gate and let the chickens in to glean any leftovers. It’s pleasant to look out the bedroom and see them happily eating and scratching.
I really enjoy being able to combine several of my trail camera footage into one video. Often several videos tell a story that can’t be captured by just one photo or video. I especially like the interactions between different kinds of animals, such as in the following video. For some reason, there is a fuzzy segment in the video even though the original is not fuzzy at all. I tried for hours over several days to get it right before finally giving up. Sometimes the program I use to combine videos works very well, but other times it doesn’t work very well at all, which is very frustrating. It hasn’t worked well lately. My computer is boggy and the program keeps crashing on me. But, whatever. Because I had such trouble with it, I didn’t try any fancy transitions between segments. Here’s the video:
FYI: That thing on top of the black bird feeder pole is a sunflower. EJ harvested them a week ago and I stuck one on top of the pole for the birds and squirrels.
Although some stories play out in front of the trail camera, some stories happen out of range. For example, yesterday morning I was outside on the deck attempting to entice the chickadees to eat seeds from my hand. It requires patiently holding still so I don’t scare them off. Usually after 4-6 chickadees have eaten from my hand, I replenish all the feeders and go back into the house. Once the feeders are filled, the birds aren’t as motivated to come to me. I was about ready to replenish the feeders when I looked up and saw a couple of fawns walk into the orchard. I continued holding still with my seed-filled hand stretched out so I would spook neither the wild birds nor the deer. (The chickadees kept landing on my hand.) The fawns were very curious. They were nervous but not alarmed. They kept looking at me and stomped a few times but I held still. After quite a long time, the Mama finally joined her fawns. She was more nervous and after a few moments of looking at me, she went back into the forest and her fawns followed her. EJ watched from inside the house but none of that was captured on the trail cam.
Our trees are finally getting some autumn color. Here is what it looked like yesterday afternoon in our orchard. There were mourning doves on the ground and deer were beginning to emerge from the forest: Autumn Afternoon
A Bird In The Hand
In my last post, written on October 7, I wrote: “We still have not turned on our furnace. We just might make it to our goal of not turning it on until October 15. Wednesday night the low is forecasted to dip down to 33 degrees. I’m tempted to turn the furnace on then, but I’m trying to remain strong.” The very next morning, THE VERY NEXT MORNING, I turned on the furnace. So much for remaining strong. I would not have turned on the furnace, but the overnight temperature had dipped to 31 and I was nervous that it was getting cold enough that our pipes might freeze. So I turned the thermostat to 45, telling myself that I was still honoring the spirit of our game, if not the letter, while also preventing the pipes from freezing. EJ noticed that I had turned on the furnace and, after teasing me a bit, suggested I turn it up to 58. A day or two later, I covertly moved it up to 60, hoping EJ wouldn’t notice. He did, but left it there. So, anyway, the game is over. We made it to the morning of October 8.
Years and years ago, I read an article in the Reader’s Digest magazine that was written by a veteran about his experiences as a Vietnam POW. He wrote that when a new prisoner was brought into the prison, they got with him a soon as they could to give him some advice. One piece of advice was that no matter how bad things got, it was important to maintain a sense of humor. They had noticed that whenever a prisoner could no longer laugh, he didn’t survive. I’ve never forgotten that advice. I’ve remembered it through difficult times in my life. I remember it even though we are living through some very difficult times now with high inflation, tragedies such as fires and hurricanes, threats of world wars, and various insanities. I keep track of what is happening in the world, but I also make sure I’m feeding my spirit with things that bring me joy. One major way that feeds my spirit is nature. As the hymn This Is My Father’s World says,
This is my Father’s world, and to my list’ning ears,
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
His hand the wonders wrought.
This is my Father’s world, the birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white,
Declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world: He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass;
He speaks to me everywhere.
This is my Father’s world, from the shining courts above,
The Beloved One, His Only Son,
Was giv’n to show God’s love.
This is my Father’s world: why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let earth be glad!
This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world: The battle is not done;
Jesus who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and heav’n be one.
Watch on YouTube: This Is My Father’s World
When EJ is at work, we always message each other at 7pm when he has his first break and at 10 pm when he has his longer lunch break. During his lunch break last Thursday night, he messaged me that he and his co-workers were sitting outside and they saw the Northern Lights. So I went outside to watch them. I saw breathtakingly beautiful Northern lights strongly pulsating across the sky, even dark rose-colored ones, which I had never seen before. I watched for a short time but I could hear a rustling of something moving through the forest. There is something unsettling about being alone in the dark, hearing a noise, and not actually seeing what is making it. No doubt it was the deer, raccoons, or possums that I see on my trail camera every night. However, for all I knew, it could have been a bear. A few years ago someone reported at FB that they saw one only a mile away from us. Or it could be a cougar. A neighbor told us he had seen them in the area before. Or maybe it was the Dogman, which legend says roams our very area. Or even Big Foot. Or one of the criminals pouring over our borders. Spooked, I went back into the house.
My friends started sending me vivid photos of the Northern Lights from Michigan (south of Grand Rapids), Wisconsin, and Missouri. So I went back outside, sat on the deck, and watched the beautiful light show in the night sky for a couple of hours. I’ve never seen such awesome Northern Lights. It’s impossible to see such beauty and not think of God. In my mind, I heard “How Great Thou Art” epically thundering:
O Lord my God
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works
Thy hands have made,
I see the stars,
I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy pow’r throughout
The universe displayed!
Then sings my soul,
My Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art,
How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul,
My Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art,
How great Thou art!
Watch full song on YouTube: How Great Thou Art
In my last post, I told you about the birds that have begun eating seeds from my hand. They perch on the bushes and line the roof of the house to wait for me to replenish the feeders. Every day at least one flies into my hand and most days there are more. The chickadees are the boldest. By now I think that at least two dozen have landed on my hand. One time a nuthatch took a seed. The little titmice fly around me, but they have not yet dared to land. The other day, I took a video of the chickadees. It wasn’t easy holding my phone (camera) with one hand and the seeds in the other:
This morning FIVE chickadees landed on my hand, one by one. EJ watched from inside the house. Later, as we were sipping coffee, I suddenly said to EJ: “I have a theme song.” He queried, “You have a theme song?” “Yes. Do you want to hear it?” Of course, he did. It’s a cheerful song by Michael Kelly Blanchard. I enjoy Michael Kelly Blanchard. He tends to sing stories.
I’m tempted to combine many videos of chickadees eating from my hand and setting to this song. If I can figure out how.
Our Hobbit Life
The last few months I have not felt very motivated at all. I often think of writing, and even plan blog posts in my head, but Hannah Joy interrupts me frequently when she sees me writing. She seems to dislike anything that takes my attention off her. We call her part Attention Hound and part Grumble Bunny because she’s a bit of a nag–although we adore her. If it’s not Hannah interrupting me, it’s one of the cats wanting to sit on my lap. Sometimes it’s just easier to put aside my keyboard to cuddle.
Empathetic people feel the suffering of the world and since I keep myself informed of what’s happening in the world, I’m keenly aware that people are suffering so much with high inflation, health issues, devastating fires and storms, and other tragedies. This drains me emotionally. And, of course, EJ and I have our own challenges. I’ve also given support to a friend who is trying to escape an abusive husband. Sometimes it’s difficult to write about my gentle Hobbit life when all this other insanity and suffering is happening. My faith in God helps me stay strong but the suffering is still wearying so I try to take stress breaks to focus on the beauty and goodness in the world. Perhaps I need to write about my gentle Hobbit life for my own mental health–and maybe in case you need a stress break too.
The weather is gradually cooling and I’m wearing sweatshirts and jackets more often. We still have not turned on our furnace. We just might make it to our goal of not turning it on until October 15. Wednesday night the low is forecasted to dip down to 33 degrees. I’m tempted to turn the furnace on then, but I’m trying to remain strong.
EJ and I are accomplishing Autumn tasks to prepare for Winter weather. This last weekend we dug up potatoes. I picked the last of the green beans and EJ cooked some of the squash he grew. Today EJ disconnected two of the garden hoses and laid them out so the water can drain out of them before he puts them away. He hasn’t yet disconnected the hose in the front yard so I can fill the birdbath. He also hasn’t yet disconnected the hose I use to fill the chickens’ water dish. Once he does that, I will have to carry water with a bucket so he puts it off as long as possible.
I’m checking the weather each day to see when to take the screens out of the windows. We don’t want to take them out while we still can get some warm weather and open the windows. For example, the National Weather Service is forecasting a high temperature of 77 degrees on Friday so we will want to have the windows open. Once we take the screens out, I plan to wash the windows one last time.
With news of the longshoreman strike–which, thankfully, was delayed for a few months–we made sure we bought a few extra groceries. We were getting low on beef, which is very expensive these days. We read in the grocery store’s online ad that brisket was less than $6 per pound so we drove there to get some. We found it priced at about $9/lb, and EJ was planning to walk away because that’s too high. However, I motioned the man in the meat department over to ask him what the price was, mentioning that the ad said it was on sale. He said that that might have been last week’s price, but EJ showed him the ad on his phone and the man marked the brisket down for us. We bought four briskets for about 1/2 price, leaving one brisket for another customer. Life has taught us to be frugal and to think outside the box so on Friday EJ spent several hours grinding the brisket into ground beef while I measured it into half-pound portions to freeze. EJ’s co-worker from Louisana was horrified when EJ told him that we turn brisket into ground beef. However, we can get only a meal or two from each brisket if we cook it as brisket while we got a total of 57 half-pound portions from the four briskets we ground up. Since I use a 1/2 pound of ground beef for a meal, that’s 57 meals of many varieties.
EJ’s Louisiana co-worker is about the same age as our son. He came to Michigan about two years ago to work on the Great Lakes ships. He’s planning to go back on his ship soon because the money is really good. EJ had been bragging about my homemade pizza, which I make every Friday, and the guy asked if he could come visit on “Pizza Day” before he left for his ship. He visited a week ago last Friday. We had a grand time eating and talking. He ended up staying until after 1 a.m. He said we felt like “home” and “family.” We told him that if he’s not on the ship on Thanksgiving Day, he’s welcome to spend the holiday with us. I also told him that if he tells us what ship he will be on (he doesn’t know yet), I will keep an eye on him as he sails the Great Lakes. It’s fun knowing people on the ships and tracking them via app and live stream. I also pray for them during storms.
Meanwhile, our own son is still recuperating from badly breaking his leg when he slipped on the deck of the ship earlier in the summer. He’s in currently in physical therapy. He says he’s making improvement although it feels slow. He probably won’t be able to go back to the ship until next year.
Observing the wildlife outside my window and through the trail camera brings us a lot of joy. I’ve enjoyed watching the deer and raccoons with their babies this summer. The fawns are growing up and losing their spots. The rut will soon begin and I’m hoping to see some bucks appear in front of the camera. The raccoons are getting roly poly with winter fat.
Last week we had a coyote appear in the orchard during the day. Theo, our outside cat, is sweet but not particularly smart. He was sitting on the deck when the coyote appeared. He sat up with obvious curiosity and then ran TOWARD it. Alarmed, EJ ran outside shouting. He said he wasn’t sure if he was yelling at the coyote or at Theo. Both coyote and cat ran into the forest not far from each other. We called and called for Theo, afraid that the coyote would decide to snatch him as a fast food meal. Not long after we finally gave up, Theo appeared from the forest. I shut him into the garage for a while until the coyote had time to move on. A couple days after that, Theo saw deer in the orchard and decided to run toward them. They all glared at him and a fawn walked toward him, stomping a warning with each step. Theo decided to back away and the fawn curiously followed his trail until Hannah barked in the house and it ran back to the adults.
Here’s my video of the coyote incident. I’m learning to put together several of my trail camera media into a longer video. I’m also learning to add interesting elements.
Usually I only feed the wild birds during the Winter months but we enjoy them so much that I decided this year to feed them throughout the summer as well. As the birds have grown familiar with me, they have gotten bolder and in the mornings I hear the swish of many wings as they swoop around me in eager anticipation of their feeders being replenished. Some of the birds–especially the chickadees–have grown so bold that they come to the feeders when I’m standing next to them. Occasionally I’ve put seeds into my outstretched hand to see if they will land. The birds flew close before nervously veering off so I poured the seeds into the tray and walked away. But this week, although still nervous, the birds have begun to land on my hand to take the seeds. I’ve had about 10 chickadees and a nuthatch eat from my hand. I suspect that they will overcome more of their fear until they flock to me. It’s really cool. I told EJ that I’m beginning to fulfill my childhood dream of having animals gather around me like Snow White or Dr. DooLittle. He says he will really be impressed when the wildlife start cleaning our house.
Autumn
Autumn has officially arrived. It feels like autumn with temperatures cooling, especially at night. However, the trees are not as colorful as they usually are at this time of year. We haven’t had much rain over the last month so I’m wondering if that’s muting the colors. Rather than vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows, the colors are more dull brown.
With autumn’s arrival, EJ and I have begun making lists of things to do before winter: finish harvesting the herbs and vegetables, let the chickens out into the garden to glean the leftovers, put away the garden hoses, and so on. We are making the lists but we want to wait until the last minute–just before the weather turns permanently cold–to actually do the tasks. I believe the hummingbirds have flown south so I put away one of their feeders that was empty. I was going to dump the nectar out of the other feeder and put it away also, but yesterday the honey bees began mobbing it so I decided to leave it up for them.
Yesterday EJ asked, “What is our target date for turning on the furnace?” In order to save money on heating costs, we play a sort of game each autumn, trying to wait as long as possible before we turn on the furnace. We decided we’d try to wait until October 15, which is actually quite late. Some years we’ve had snow before then. Whoever gives in first and turns the furnace on is the loser.
Last week EJ had his physical therapy assessment about his back. The therapist wanted him to come three times a week for a month, but he can only manage Fridays, which is his day off during the week. Even one day each week will be expensive because he has a co-pay of $85 per visit. Yikes!
The physical therapist was quite nice. We found out that she also has chickens. I told her that we had a problem with mice in the coop this summer and that I trapped more than 100. She said she doesn’t have any problems with mice because she sprinkles cheap cayenne pepper on the poultry feed. The chickens don’t notice it but the mice hate it and stay away from the feed. That was a very helpful tip which I put into practice as soon as we were able to get to the store for the cayenne pepper.
I trapped 96 mice in August but the number sharply decreased in September–only 11–even before we started putting cayenne pepper in the feed. I did find one mouse in a trap yesterday. Usually, I threw the dead mice out in front of the trail camera to observe what ate them. I know chickens eat mice, but my chickens are never very interested in them. However, I didn’t feel like taking the mouse all the way to the trail cam with just one mouse, so I decided to just throw it out in the chicken pen. The chickens went crazy; one hen grabbed it, and the others chased her to try to take it away. Chickens can sometimes act like land piranhas. Their “game” was still continuing after I had gathered the eggs and left their area.
Hannah Joy had been excessively itching. It got so bad that it was keeping me awake at night. I read that the itching could be caused by food allergies so we began making her homemade food. Her itching has greatly decreased. Hannah always loved her food, but now she LOVES it. She is so eager to eat it that she stands up to the counter and tries to eat it as we dish it into her bowl.
I’m noticing that the deer are getting in their winter coats and the fawns are losing their spots.
I’ve been slowly learning to combine several of my short trail cam videos into one longer video. At first, I concentrated on learning to combine videos and now I’m learning how to put in transitions between videos. I’m excited about this because now it’s easier to convey a whole story that lasts over several videos, rather than just pick one to upload to Rumble. Here is one of my longer videos in which a Doe makes sure a raccoon does not bother her two fawns:
In the app I use to combine videos, there is an option to let Artificial Intelligence make a video with the my footage. I tried it just to see what it would do. Here it is: AI Video I warn you, it’s pretty awful. I won’t let AI loose again. LOL.
The Trapper, The Thief, And The Widow
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:
- Pain similar to a pinprick
- Nausea
- Chills
- Fever
- Muscle cramps and spasms
- Stomach and body pain
- Shock
- Severe high blood pressure
However, the severity of these symptoms can vary depending on the individual and the amount of venom injected.
Yikes! In the future, I will be very cautious when I move posts. Shudder.
Trapper TJ
Time has sped by and we are already nearing the end of summer. Lately we’ve had slightly cooler temperatures which hints that it won’t be long before we switch from wearing t-shirts to sweatshirts.
In some ways, this has been a difficult summer because EJ has struggled with various health issues, including increased back pain. He suffers from chronic back pain as a result of slipping down two flights of stairs at work years ago, but this summer the pain has been so excruciating that he’s missed several days of work, which isn’t good for our finances. To be honest, I’m not sure how we are making it because we were counting pennies before the medical bills and vehicle repairs we’ve had over the last year. I can only attribute it to God’s provision. I feel a bit like the widow in the Bible (1 Kings 17:8-16) whose oil and flour never ran out.
Usually I only feed the wild birds in winter because they can easily find their own food in the summer. Also, bears are awake in the summer and they like birdseed. Or so I’ve heard. However, this year I’ve continued feeding the birds throughout the summer. It’s good for our mental health. We get different types of birds in the summer–those who spend winters in the south and summers in the north: Indigo Buntings, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Baltimore Orioles, Robins, and so on. When I go out in the mornings to put seed in the feeders, the birds excitedly swoop over my head and the chipmunks poke their heads out of their hiding places. We always say to the chipmunks, “I see you!”
I’ve been enjoying my trail camera, which I put in our little apple orchard. The camera usually captures footage of deer, raccoons, and opossums. I also sometimes see a mouse, a few times I’ve seen a skunk, and once a coyote came through. In recent weeks, I’ve captured Does with their fawns. Frequent visitors are a Doe with two fawns and a group of two Does with three fawns. I also often see a Raccoon Mama with her three little ones. I’m still hoping to see an opossum with babies. I upload my favorite videos to my Rumble trail camera channel, which you can see here: TJ’s Critter Cam.
Oh, and we’ve had new arrivals in our neighborhood: For several weeks we heard constant bird cries–often one called and another answered. At first I assumed they were Blue Jays but one day I realized that Blue Jays don’t “caw” for hours at a time. So I looked for the birds I was hearing whenever I went outside and finally spotted one: It was some sort of hawk. EJ tried to identify it but even using binoculars we couldn’t see enough details to identify it. So then I got on a bird identification site and listened to audio of the different types of hawks in Michigan. As far as we can figure out, our new visitors are Red-Shouldered Hawks. The description of their preferred habitat and behavior seems to fit as well.
Here is one of my trail camera videos of the Doe with two fawns. In the background, you can hear the cry of the hawks:
I’ve noticed that there was an increased number of mice in the chicken coop. Mice can cause problems, including nibbling on the chickens while they sleep. So I cleaned out the coop, tried my best to make sure there was no leftover feed in the chicken dish, and set several mouse traps each night. I put the traps inside the doghouses which are inside the shed that we use as our coop. The doghouses have doors which I keep slightly ajar so that the chickens can’t get into them but the mice can. The chickens like to roost on top of the doghouses. I started with three traps and every morning they had a dead mouse in them. We found three more traps so I was able to set six every night until one broke, leaving me with five. Every morning the traps have a dead mouse in them. So far I’ve caught 42 mice. EJ is very impressed with my trapping skills.
I assume some mice are coming from outside. Over the years, the chickens have pecked holes into the side of the coop. We need to find and plug those holes, but we are also dealing with EJ’s health issues so…I keep catching mice. I’m assuming that eventually there will be no more mice to catch. Although I set the traps, I can’t make myself remove the dead mice so EJ does it for me. He throws the bodies into the forest.
This morning one trap got two mice. I told EJ that I thought I should get a double score for that one.
Independence Day
I hope you had a meaningful Independence Day.
Independence Day has always been one of my favorite holidays.
When I was growing up, we’d have the traditional Independence Day food: hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad, cole slaw, potato chips of various types. We had epic water balloon fights, played volleyball, and ended with a campfire in our firepit. My Dad had a small cannon and he’d shoot it off (minus the cannonball). It was fun. When our son was small, we’d go to town fireworks–and later he liked us setting off our own little fireworks.
These days, EJ and I have a very quiet holiday. We went to the local farm store for a few things. I barely restrained myself from buying more chicks, on sale for $1 each. Then we came home and puttered around on our property.
After dark, we heard booms of fireworks all around us so we went and sat outside hoping we could see some. For a year or two a neighbor set off spectacular fireworks that were close enough and went high enough that we could clearly see me. However, we couldn’t see any this year because they never rose above the trees. We still enjoyed sitting out at night and chatting as loud booms echoed around us. I wondered to EJ if the fireworks disturbed the wild animals. Then I looked at our trail camera the next morning and saw this opossum, which answered my question. (The date/time on the video is completely wrong because I forget to reset it when I changed the batteries.)
So it appears that the wildlife are fine. EJ said the animals might think the booms are just thunder.
Independence Day is even more meaningful to us because of the events of the last few years. It might not seem like we had much of a celebration, but we enjoyed the freedom to spend it exactly as we wanted. We don’t need crowds and activity to make us happy.
Operation Rescue: Tufted Titmouse
I’ve been enjoying the trail camera that I bought last February to spy on the wildlife on our property. Every now and then, especially during this season, I move the camera to a new location hoping to get footage of animals with their babies. I’ve not been overly successful.
On July 1st, I captured a doe with her nursing fawn on my trail camera. They were along the edge of the forest a bit far from the camera so they are hard to see. I’m hoping for a closeup.
A couple evenings ago, I saw a mama raccoon walking along the edge of the forest with her two little babies scampering behind her. They were nowhere near the camera–so I moved the camera. I haven’t yet gotten any footage of them. I’d like to also see a opossum with her babies clinging to her back.
Last weekend we saw a group of young Tufted Titmouses (Titmices?) visiting the birdfeeder near the house. They obviously had just left the nest because their flying was a bit clumsy and at least one of them kept opening its mouth expecting to be fed by its parents. Since then, we’ve watched the youngsters frequently flock to the feeders, acting like a bunch of chattering, goofing off children. It’s brought smiles to our faces.
Yesterday evening, sometime after 8 p.m., I heard a thump and went to check it out. I saw one of the young Titmouses clinging to the door in obvious distress. When it didn’t fly off, I went out to help it. It fluttered to my shirt when I tried to pick it up off the door. It clung so tightly that I couldn’t get it off so I walked around the yard with it clinging to my shirt for several minutes. I finally got it off my shirt and onto my finger where it held on tightly. I would have taken a photo/video of it on my finger but I was too busy caring for the little bird. Also, I had left my camera in the house where Hannah was, and I didn’t want to risk any incident.
I didn’t want to traumatize the little bird so with it clinging to my finger, I walked over to put it on a low-hanging tree branch–but it wouldn’t let go of my finger. After a few minutes, I finally got it onto the branch. I went away to get the chickens shut securely in the coop for the night and when I returned, it was still there, which concerned me–especially with night approaching. I told it that it needed to get home and I gently lectured it about practicing safe flight protocol. After several minutes it recovered, hopped around on the tree a bit, and then flew off. I’m so relieved it recovered! While it was sitting on the branch I took this video:
When I was a child, I always wanted to be like Doctor Doolittle and talk to the animals so I thought It was pretty amazing to hold a little Tufted Titmouse. I told EJ that if all goes according to a fairy tale, this little Tufted Titmouse will someday save my life because I rescued it.
This morning the group of chattering young Tufted Titmouses is back at the feeders so it seems all is back to normal.
Blond Chicks
We’ve had several hot, dry days which yellowed the grass and made the garden plants droop. Our area is sandy, which doesn’t hold moisture so lack of rain is a problem. For several days I watered everything–EJ’s vegetable garden, my herb garden, the flower garden, and the fruit trees–so they wouldn’t die of thirst. It was so hot that the robins lined up to use the birdbath. I kid you not.
Thankfully, we got some rain overnight. It’s supposed to rain through Sunday night, which is good, but the National Weather Service has issued a Flood Watch with 2-4 inches of rain possible, which seems a bit too much. I guess it’s really true that “when it rains, it pours.” Fortunately we live on a hill, although we always have to deal with erosion in our driveway after a heavy rain.
I can’t remember if I told you that a couple of weeks ago the little blond Buff Orpington chicks graduated to the adult flock. They still act rather uncertain and skittish around the big chickens, keeping themselves to themselves. I have trouble getting them into the coop at night. I’m concerned about them going in before it gets too late because I don’t want the raccoon to threaten them. I finally figured out that the chicks didn’t want to go in the coop before the older chickens had gone in and settled in their roosting places. The chicks seem particularly wary of one hen who is usually the last adult to go in. I think she’s Edward’s sister. EJ has named her Turdweena. I often herd Turdweena into the coop and then I have to wait while she stops at the food dispenser for a snack and then slooowly finds a place to settle. Once she’s finally roosting, it’s very easy to get the blond chicks in.
One evening earlier this week I went out to shut the chickens in their coop. I always cut through our attached garage, walk through a portion of the garden, and enter into the chicken pen. I pulled open the garage door, walked several feet into the garden, glanced up, and spotted a doe on the other side of the garden fence. She saw me too. She looked at me for several minutes and I looked at her without moving. Finally she decided I wasn’t a threat and calmly went back to grazing. Then another doe emerged from the forest behind her with a tiny little fawn trailing behind. I stood and watched them for several minutes as they slowly meandered across the grassy hill and back into the forest.
I continue on to the chicken area to get them all shut securely in the coop. Then I moved my trail camera to so it was aimed at the grassy hill where I had seen the deer. I haven’t yet been able to capture footage of the fawn, but I’m trying…
Yesterday morning I watched a male and female turkey for about an hour as they slowly meandered across our property. I figured they must be mates since the male turkey was not trying to impress the female.
Yesterday evening, just after I got the chickens in the coop, I saw a raccoon in the front yard going to all the birdfeeders–near the rocks and near the house–to see if it could get any leftover birdseed. It was unsuccessful, which means I have succeeded in making the food inaccessible to the coons. I normally wouldn’t mind if raccoons ate leftover seed, but I don’t want to attract them so they go after the chickens.
Critter-Scaping
Last week, June 10, we had Frost Warnings in our area. I love living in Northern Michigan. In my opinion, there are very few negative aspects to living here. However, the one thing that is hard to come to terms with is that by the time it feels as if summer has actually arrived, we’ve reached the summer solstice and the days begin to get shorter.
Thankfully none of our plants were affected by the frost. EJ says that because we live on a hill, cold air tends to sink into the gullies that surround us. In the winter he has observed temperatures drastically dropping as he drives down the hill, according to the thermometer in his truck.
EJ has been keeping busy in his vegetable garden in the backyard. He works in it in the mornings before heading for work. My herb garden is doing pretty well although the parsley seeds I planted weren’t growing. A week or so ago, we bought a few plants. At this time of year, grocery and farm stores often sell starter plants in their parking lots. At the farm store, I put a few herb plants in the cart next to me and searched for more while EJ was looking at other plants. When he rejoined me, I noticed that his hands were empty. “Did you want to buy any plants?” I asked. With eyes sparking with mirth he pointed to the small cherry tree that had magically appeared in the cart. “How did that jump in the cart without me noticing?” I gasped. We both laughed.
I’ve been busy “critter-scaping,” which is what I call making our front yard attractive to wildlife. I have a bird bath and various birdfeeders to draw in the animals, It brings us joy to see the various birds and animals: blue jays, red-breasted grosbeaks, robins, red-bellied woodpeckers, ruby-throated hummingbirds, mourning doves, Baltimore orioles, cardinals, indigo buntings, and many other birds, as well as chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits, deer, opossums, raccoons, Theo our cat, and once a coyote.
I set up my trail cam to try to get closeups of the critters. Currently, I sort through the videos from the cam and upload a few to Rumble. I would absolutely love to set up a live stream of the critters visiting the feeders and wandering across our yard. I looked into it but, if I understand correctly, I would have to buy a webcam and pay a monthly fee to livestream. That’s not currently in the budget.
We often repurpose items for new uses. Last week EJ got the brilliant idea of attaching my trail cam to a metal tube that he inserted into an old patio umbrella base. EJ painted it green to better blend into the landscape.
This makes it very easy for me to move my camera to different locations without having to struggle to refasten it to a new post or tree. Better yet, I can also take the tube with the camera out of the base and slide it on a t-post anywhere on the property. We have t-posts along the driveway to define the driveway in winter’s deep snow. I like to have my cam set up to record visitors to the birdfeeders during the day, then move it to try to catch nocturnal visitors wandering through during the night.
EJ also repainted my hummingbird feeders a cheerful red. The coloring had worn off. I put one of them with the feeders near the large boulders and the other up closer to the house.
A Mighty RAWR!
We’ve been keeping busy doing summer stuff, which mostly consists of working in our gardens.
Last Sunday we had a visit from a couple that EJ went to high school with. He knew both the husband and the wife back then. I became friends with them when I was on Facebook, but had never met them in person until now. Correction: I met the husband a month or so ago when he was in the area and stopped in. Se had a enjoyable visit.
Early one evening last week I heard the chickens squawking in alarm. I almost didn’t check on them because I’ve never seen any threats in the past when they’ve sounded the alarm. I sighed and went out to check on them. I walked into their pen, which is quite large, and was surprised to see a large raccoon running along the side of the coop toward me INSIDE THE PEN. Most of the chickens were hiding in the coop; the others were running around with great alarm. I did the most natural thing I could do: I ran toward the raccoon with my hands up like paws and shouted, “RAWR! RAWR!” The raccoon turned around and bolted over the fence.
I then ran to the bedroom window, which overlooks the garden, and knocked on it to get EJ’s attention. He was in the living room talking on the phone to our son, but our house is small enough that he could hear my knocking. When EJ came to the window, I urgently motioned for him to come out. Then I ran back to the chicken pen and saw the raccoon circling outside the fence and again I yelled, “RAWR! RAWR!” It plunged into the forest.
We didn’t want to risk the raccoon returning so we herded the chickens inside the coop even though it was early. Chickens won’t go into the coop unless they CHOOSE to so it wasn’t easy. It was kind of like trying to intercept a football player who was running with the football. However, we finally got them all in and shut the door. This is the first real threat we’ve had to our chickens. There are predators in the area, but they are usually roaming about during the night when the chickens are all safely shut in their coop.
Raccoons are rather bold and I didn’t know if he would return for another attempt on the chicken pen so I’ve been keeping a close watch. However, I’ve seen neither hide nor hair of the raccoon.
Apparently, I have a very mighty RAWR.
Life And Limb
Yesterday it rained and rained and rained all day long. Our soil is sand and water tends to quickly drain away so an all day rain was very welcomed and appreciated.
EJ has been working hard in his vegetable garden in the mornings before work and on his days off (when it’s not raining). His garden is growing nicely. He has placed fences in various places in the garden as trellises for the climbing plants to grow on–such as peas and beans. His garden reminds me of Farmville, the FB game that was popular years ago.
We are enjoying the wildlife teeming outside our window. We have several large boulders in a row at the top of our hill not far from the house. Every morning I put birdseed in a crack on top of one of the boulders as well as in several bird feeders and on the post I set up in front of the trail camera a short distance away. There are always birds, squirrels, and chipmunks stopping in to eat. An adjacent boulder is flat on top; I put a large shallow bowl of water on so the critters can drink and bathe in it. The robins, especially, like to take baths in it.
Bluebirds have nested in a birdhouse not far from the boulders. They are fierce protectors of their nest and we have seen some battles as they drive away any bird or critter that gets too close. This morning they were especially diligent at driving away “threats,” which makes me think that their young might be getting ready for their first flights.
Theo, our outside cat, has been catching chipmunks. I don’t mind because left unchecked, the chipmunks would take over. This morning I saw Theo carry off a chipmunk and later found it in his food dish in the garage, which he often does. It’s a bit disconcerting to find dead chipmunks in his dish. I got it out with a scoop and carried it through EJ’s garden to the front yard. As I passed EJ working, I told him that I was going to discard the chipmunk in front of the trail cam. He made a sound of dismay, but I told him that it was already dead and I wanted to observe what, if any, critter carried it off. I put it in the grass that was long enough to hide it from the camera, but wouldn’t hide any predators. EJ did suggest putting the next dead chipmunk near the camera so we could watch the carrion beetles go at it. I once saw the battles consume a dead chipmunk and I thought it was interesting. You might consider me macabre, but observing wildlife is very interesting.
During the day I watch birds, chipmunks, and squirrels at the boulders as I look out the window. The next morning I retrieve the SD card from my trail cam so I can observe the animals that have passed it. During the night I mostly capture deer, raccoons, and opossums, with an occasional rabbit, stray cat, and coyote. Currently I post trail cam videos I especially like on my Rumble channel, but if we ever get extra money, and if I can ever figure it out, I’d like to set up a live stream camera to observe the birds and other animals that come to the boulders. I don’t think my current camera has the capability to live stream.
Our son JJ has been back on his Great Lakes bulk carrier since mid-April. He contacted us yesterday to tell us that he had slipped and fallen on the deck and he was pretty sure he had broken his leg. This morning he informed us that he had been taken off the ship to a hospital in Duluth. The break is bad enough that he is going to have to have surgery to put a plate in. The hospital told him it would be better to get the surgery close to his home. Usually he drives a rental home to and from his ship, but he’ll be flying home instead. He will be in the same hospital EJ was in when he had his stroke last September.
JJ usually works about a month aboard ship then gets two weeks off before heading back for another stint. He had been planning to attend a school in Baltimore during his off time to train as an Able-Bodied Seaman, which is the next rank up. However, that will have to be delayed while his leg mends.
Eyes On
Last week something bit my hand. I wasn’t aware that I had been bitten until later when over half of my hand began to swell up and itch. It was so itchy that I started to wonder if I had touched poison ivy when I was out weeding my flower garden. However, we saw a bite site so…? I tried putting insect anti-itch ointment on my hand, but that didn’t even slow down the itch. So then EJ thought of plantain. Not the banana, but the weed which grows everywhere in Michigan. Most of us don’t even pay attention to it. EJ went out to the yard, picked some plantain leaves, brought them in, used our little pestle and mortar to crush it, and put it on my hand, keeping it in place with a sock. Amazingly, it worked! Far better than the ointments! My hand is now mostly healed and not swollen or itchy.
The days and nights are warmer now so on Friday the little chicks “graduated” from their cage in the house to the chicken coop. I put them in a shelter in the coop to keep them separated from the adults until they grow bigger. It gives chicks and adults time to get familiar with each other before they are put all together.
I think Hannah Joy is glad to have the chicks out of the house. Every time they chirped loudly or ran around she whined and ran in to check on them. She also made sure the cats didn’t get too close to the cage. Hannah is such a nanny dog.
After I got the chicks resettled, we drove to our library to pick up a book I had ordered through the Michigan inter-library loan system, which is called MelCat. Through MelCat, we can find and borrow books online from other Michigan libraries. Once I order a book, a library that has it sends it to our library for me to pick up. We had a wonderful long chat with the librarians.
After the stop at the library, EJ and I went grocery shopping. Ground beef has become very expensive and we were very reluctant to buy it even though we were out of it. Then we saw that the brisket was $1 less than the ground beef. We have a meat grinder…why can’t we buy brisket and grind it into ground beef? I mean, beef is beef, isn’t it? It’s nice to have brisket, but it’s not as versatile as ground beef. We bought two large slaps of brisket and EJ spent hours grinding it into ground meat. This requires putting the meat through the grinder twice–once at a course setting and once at a smaller setting. We lost count but we believe we ended up with at least 50 lbs of ground meat. Some of it we divided into 1/2 lbs portions and froze. Some of it EJ turned into potato bratwurtz; he found a recipe on the internet. The bratwurtz is still in a big bowl in the fridge that we haven’t yet bagged. We will do it tomorrow. I use 1/2 to 1 pound of ground beef for meals, depending on the recipe. That’s a lot of meals. EJ has been wanting to grind our own beef because he recently read an article recommending buying beef and grinding it ourselves because it has less crap in it than the ground beef from the store.
EJ also spent a lot of time working in his vegetable garden this weekend. I puttered around doing this and that. I was going to make and freeze turkey potpies today, but decided instead to keep out of EJ’s way as he worked in the kitchen. I’m home every day so it’s easy for me to make the pies another time.
If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you will know that my son works on a Great Lakes bulk carrier. There are a number of ship-watching cameras set up in various places around the Great Lakes. Each camera live-streams on a separate YouTube Channel so we can watch ships passing a camera in real-time. We always try to watch our son’s ship pass when we can. If I tell a Channel Admin via Chat that my son’s ship is passing their camera, they usually zoom the camera right in and search for him. Sometimes we are actually able to watch JJ as he works. He also often calls or messages us from the ship. It’s amazing that technology lets us do this.
This morning EJ and I watched JJ’s ship go through the Soo Locks, which is located between Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Canada. We watched JJ go over the side of the ship in the bosun’s chair, which is a little seat, so he could go ashore and moor the ship. We weren’t sure it was actually him until he verified it later, when I asked him. When I told the Admin at the Soo camera that JJ was onboard, she moved the camera to look for him. JJ and I messaged back and forth on our phones. When I asked him if he was on duty, he said that he was on the other side of the ship so we probably couldn’t see him. However, he walked past the ship so we could see him on the camera. At first he walked too far to the right so he went out of range of the camera so I messaged him, “No, go back the other way! Near the pole!” When he was in view, I messaged him to wave and he did! I’m quite sure that when he looked down in the video, he was reading my messages to him. Here is a portion of the livestream that I recorded from my computer with my phone.
Here is part of the conversation I had at the Youtube channel. I thought you might enjoy it. I added a couple comments in brackets for this blog.
Admin: TJ If your son is on deck while the ship is passing one of our cams, and you let us know this, we might be able to get him on screen.
TJ: Thanks. I will. I didn’t see him on deck so he might be off duty. But I’ll keep looking!
TJ: I sent him a message asking him if he’s on duty. I told him we are watching. Of course, if he’s working, he won’t be able to reply. LOL.
Admin: Let him know if he’s going to be on deck ahead of time we would be very happy to get him on the cam. We all enjoy watching and getting a wave from the crew, TJ.
TJ: I just got a reply from him. He said he is working on deck. I told him to wave if he gets a chance. He said he’s on the starboard side. [I was wrong. He wasn’t on deck but on the shore.]
Admin Okay, let me move the cam and see if we can see him.
TJ: JJ just said he’s on the shore by the back of the ship so he doesn’t know if we can see him. He likes when I stalk him via livestream. LOL.
Admin: We can go and see
TJ: Thanks for indulging us!
TJ: He was one of the guys that went over the side in the bosun chair earlier. [Here is a 5 minute clip from the live stream of JJ going over the side of the ship on the bosun chair]
Admin: Well shoot, can’t see him.
TJ: He said to hold on, he’s going to walk to the back of the ship. LOL.
TJ: There he is!
Admin: That’s great, you get to see him!
Admin: Tell him to stop and wave right now.
Admin: Let him know that I’m waving at him.
TJ: I just did
TJ: I told him you were waving.
Admin: Tell him thanks for the short way.
TJ: I told him to dance but I don’t think he will. LOL. [He messaged me that he was NOT going to dance.]
TJ: Thanks you for letting us see our son. It’s always such a pleasure. And he enjoys the Admins looking for him.
Admin: You’re very welcome, my pleasure. We enjoyed it!
Except for the bite, we had an enjoyable weekend. We got a lot done and had fun stalking JJ.
I Love To Go A Gardening 