Wildlife on the Land

It was a very hot and wet spring this year.  This meant the grass grew quickly and during soccer season!  When I was not running to practices for soccer, Shuberts, or Jui Jitzu, we were dodging rain drops.  This means the grass grew very high very quickly!  It allowed the huge and scary but harmless wolf spiders to be stalking everywhere in the yard.  This one was on the side of the house after I ran over the tall grass, er weeds, on the south side.

A few weeks later our Red Tail Hawk got a little too comfortable being so close to the house.  It really is a love hat relationship with him or her.  Right now, I love seeing how graceful he flies and listening to his calls and eating the snakes and mice/voles (hate the voles!  They have killed two more trees!).  But as soon as we get our chicken, more to come later about those, I will hate him.  In this shot he is looking at me trying to snap his picture from the sliding doors while he is under the fort.

Well, here in the DC area, Terrapins are pretty common.  Well, I guess you thought it was a regular turtle!  No, I was looking out across our back yard, that is the tamed areas behind the house, and noticed the grass moving slowly.  Upon further investigation, after I could tell it was not a snake, with Karl's help, I got his picture.  Yes, this is a snapping turtle and it is mating season for them.  SO the nice thing to do is to move them in the direction they were traveling, if they are crossing the road, bring them over to the other side, if they are crossing your backyard, move them to the other side of the orchard!  Terrapins always go to their birth place to mate.  If you move them to where it is convenient for you, they will turn back to where they were going.  Wow such good sense of direction!

Then I was looking out the window, about mid morning, and saw this orphan nippling the grass at the edge of the tamed area and wild land.  He was alone.  However, after getting a couple of shots, I had to scare him off or he would be getting brave enough to eat my garden about 50 yards from where he was testing the area.  Oh, we need to let the dogs out more but not today.

I have chuckled about how we do not need to go visit a nature preserve, we have one in our back yard.  Other sightings we have seen but not got on picture is the baby ground hogs, voles and moles, red fox, and Karl says the beaver is back at the pond.  From the air is the crows, various owls and birds, a few bald eagles and the turkey vultures.  I did see a few wild turkeys in early spring near the crop line for the farmers who plant the fields around us.

Oh Well!

Sorry to my readers!  I have been having posting problems for some time now.  It has been very frustrating, but I think I have it fixed now.  I hope to up load late information as time permits.

Love and blessings to you all,
Karissa

Mother's Day

Typically I only ask for a nice quiet day for Mothers Day and the kiddos insist on a special breakfast and Karl cooks dinner. This year has been very similar except I got two gifts.

First, I got a new cell phone. My cell phone had been on the fritz for the better part of six months. I was able to receive calls but unable to dial out at times, other times calls went directly to voice mail and I would get the message 12 hours later. Well, this is not good and pretty much reduces the effectiveness of the cell phone. Well, on Mother's Day, my phone was making me crazy again, but this time it was due to some problem in my contact list. I handed my phone to Karl and asked him to please fix it. A little bit later he came in the room telling me he fixed it and handed me a new I-Phone complete with my sim card so all my data was there. He had also preloaded many music selections into the I-pod built into the phone. It is wonderful.

The other gift was going away for a weekend at the beach with some girlfriends from church. The following weekend, us ladies took off for two and half days of relaxation and silliness. First we stopped at a beach front restaurant to eat lunch, but the beach was beckoning! As soon as I paid my bill, I ran across the boardwalk and sunk my feet deep into the warm sun baked sand. It was wonderful!

After shaking off the sand, we all headed off to make a small nail shop's day. The look on the little Vietnamese lady's face when we said we all wanted full pedicures and manicures was priceless. As unemotional as she could she called in extra help as we all sat in the massage chairs waiting our turn.

Later we had a wonderful dinner of crab cakes from another beach side restaurant. It really was one of the best crab cakes I have ever had.

The next day was mostly spend being bums on the sand. Just applying sunscreen and listening to waves for about four hours can be very beneficial to the soul. No need to do anything but rest and enjoy the quiet. Since it was not the true summer season yet, the beach was pretty empty.

We did a little shopping, had dinner and went to a girly movie. On Sunday, we attended Mass, packed up and went home.

It was a beautiful gift, but it was one I almost did not accept. I am not use to leaving my family for a weekend, other than a retreat once a year. I gave Karl many reasons why I should not go and he deconstructed every barrier. So, I made a crock pot full of chili, collected all the dining tickets and placed them on the island with a can of spam. I hate spam but Karl and the kiddos like it, so when I am away, they make it. When I came home, Isabella told me she missed me so much she did not enjoy her spam. Apparently Anton missed me as he kept asking Karl when I was coming home. So I really got another gift, to realise how much my kiddos really love me and miss me when I am away.