December 5th

 

This is the Sweet Gum tree that I park under

every day while waiting for the kids

to get out of school.

It's beautiful, especially in the fall,

but that big bugger has these

lethal, thorny, ball type seeds, that'll

stab right through a shoe sole!

This is my Love/Hate relationship.

I won't wish that it be cut down or

die of some kinda blight,

but maybe a nest of angry woodpeckers

would be nice. 😈

 

Speaking of woodpeckers........

Yesterday, I heard the one that occasionally

roosts in my Poplar

outside of my kitchen.

It was incessantly pecking away at the tree trunk.

Again, I'm not wishing any ill

to befall my little feathered pain in the butt,

BUT,

I'd like him to find a home elsewhere!

ASAP!

 

The other infrequent visitors are a small hawk and 2 cats.

I don't have any cats.

They just come in the yard.

Leia could care less.

She simply isn't bothered by any other species.

I attempted to identify the hawk in a bird book we have,

but there are so many.

He looks a tad smaller than the chicken girls,

with gray wings and yellowish gray feet with black talons.

A couple of days ago, he was actually on my patio.

The hens vamoosed.

I don't believe he can harm them,

but it seems typical, predator/prey behavior.

The girls know to get away and get under things.

Hawks hunt by swooping down and grabbing,

but the girls instinctively know what to do.

The cats are another story.

They don't hunt the chickens.

They just seem like strays looking for a place to crash or food.

There's a black one and a tiger one.

The black one got a bit too close to Henny the other day.

She didn't like that.

She ran after it and pecked the bejesus outta

the poor cats' head.

The ancestral dinosaur came out in her!

I haven't seen that cat since!

(good riddance!)

 

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This is our first haul of mirlitons.

The vine is producing quite a lot.

 

This is broccoli.

Last year, we didn't get much yield.

(partly because the hens got in there and feasted)

Hoping for a decent crop this year.

(and we have it fenced off)

 

The bell peppers are covered in blooms.

As long as the chicken girls don't find them first,

we should get a good crop into winter.

 

I found a tomato bush growing out of the bricks

on the side of the patio.

No clue how it got there,

but,

I'm considering it a windfall.

I'll replant it in a container.

It's about a foot tall.

 

This is Pepper.

She was the most curious today.

She followed me all over the yard.

I put the kitchen scraps in the compost bin,

while the girls waited patiently for me to leave.

All they wanted to do was scratch around in the newly

turned up dirt.

Annnnd,

Here's Nugget.

Eyeballing me.

"No girl, I don't have any worms."

We can't walk out the door without

our feathered escorts.

 

Say "ALOE" to my little friend.

He is going to need watching.

If the temperature goes too low,

he'll die.

He was on life support the entire early spring

because I forgot to bring him indoors

before the freezes and snow.

 

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Musings.......

A picture all the way from California,

courtesy of my son.

So sweet.

A perfect heart.

 

 

I was at the grocery yesterday,

minding my own business, 

while dutifully running

down the items on my list,

when,

Lo and behold!

I was startled by this unfortunate porcine part.

Decapitated.

Beheaded.

Guillotined.

I'm sure at one point he (or she) was wallowing

in his pen with not a care in the world.

Slurping up slop with his little piggy lips,

wagging his little corkscrew tail....

Then,

WHAM!

this happened........

But lets not get "a head" of ourselves here.

Its' sticker says "Pork Market Head"

Sells for $13.19

No!

I saw him looking at me,

with his dull gaze....

And it reminded me.....

my Mom and Grandmother made Hogs Head cheese

when my sister and I were little.

I remember them cutting the head up and

boiling the parts to get that collagenous glue

that holds the "cheese" together.

They didn't use the eyes.

(thank God!)

So,

like curious (demented) children,

 we rolled them around on the kitchen table,

trying to stab them with a fork!

How barbaric!

They squished like an over ripe grape!

Gross!!!

To think, I might have stabbed myself and needed some

"oink-ment".

I don't eat the stuff.

Can't bring myself to do it.

I just remember those eyes!!!

And...

where, oh where are his other tasty parts????

 

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Remember.....

According to my Mom,

"Everything happens for a reason"

So,

When you think something is falling apart,

it may actually be falling into place.

 

 

Hugs!