Our visitor or pest control

 

While straightening the area where one of the water barrels was, look who I found?

 

I almost missed him or hurt him.  He was so difficult to see and was so camouflaged in the stone.

 

 

 

We have learned since we moved here that we have toads in our yard.  This year, especially, we have noticed a toad in every area of gardening that we have.

 

And I know that it is not the same toad, as I have seen several in one day in far different locations.  As well as a few different sizes of toad.  I do not have an idea what kind they are, I guess I will have to go google that, but I am glad to have this wild life in my garden, it means that I am doing something right to help support wild life.

DH wishes we had more of them to eat all the gnats in our yard!

What is it?

I was recently at my dad's, where I have a garden as well. (I'll write more about that adventure in the coming months.)

DH and I decided to make a few raised beds there and we were working at putting in another one, so I had to do some weed removal before we could put the bed in.

So, I'm on my knees pulling away the weeds and all of a sudden a tuft of fur is revealed.  I couldn't really see anything, but all I could think was, "oh no, who have I disturbed?"

 

I didn't want to reveal too much, but I had to know, what was there.

 

 

 

It turned out to be a rabbit's nest with 7 babies in it!  What on earth are baby rabbits doing being born in mid September?!!  DH said, They're rabbits!  They're always having babies!"

 

 

I was afraid to move them, but DH insisted since they were in our way.  So, very carefully, with a shovel, I dug all around the nest and move them down about five feet from where they were.  That was when I was able to see that there were seven of them in this tiny nest and that their eyes were still closed.

 

 

I looked up on the internet and it said that if their eyes were closed that they were under 10 days old.  I stayed for four days and on that fourth day, one had it's eyes open just a tiny bit and they had grown to the size you see.

 

 

 

I was afraid that the mother would not come back, but by the second day after my moving the nest the mother had done a great job of hiding her little babies again and I knew that she was coming back to care for them.

 

My DH said we should have gotten rid of them, which I could never have done, because he felt they would eat the garden and leave nothing for us.  As far as I could tell, momma bunny had only eaten one of the cabbage plants that we had let go, so it really was not a garden loss in my book.

 

I'm glad she felt it was some place safe to have her family.  Please, remind me of that next spring and summer if my garden is eaten continually by rabbits!

Something is eating the tree bark

This morning while on the phone with my Dear Dad, I was looking up into the yard and I noticed that two of the smaller trees, in a group of many, had the bark stripped off of them.

Now the snow has melted quite a bit over the past week, so last week, there was probably 24 inches of snow at the bottom of those trees, and not having gone out into the yard yet, I would say the bark is gone from between the 12 inches above the ground and 24 inches above the ground.

Last week, Sylvester seemed quite interested in the underneath of the deck area.  I thought perhaps one of the local stray cats was hiding out of the weather under there.  Perhaps I am wrong.

Now, I will need to put on my snow boots and investigate for foot prints in the snow, IF there are any left to be found, AND also keep a closer eye on the yard when I let Sylvester out at night.

Two weeks later:

More of the snow has melted and while I was up at the top of the yard, near our neighbors shed, underneath which the rabbits live, the sucker starts are all eaten about two feet above the ground as well.  AND there is ALOT of rabbit poop near them!

So, I am confident in stating that the rabbits had a difficult time finding food while the deep snow was on the ground this winter.

Two more weeks later:

Today I was in the garden, trying to see if I could plant some pea seeds.  In the garden were still a few Brussel Sprout plants that had been left behind in the fall.  The rabbits had eaten each one until the stalk had become a woody point!  PLUS, they left behind a fair amount of rabbit poo in the garden.  My poor rabbit friends must have been so hungry this past winter.

I have seen both of them in the yard on the nicer days last week, so I am sure they will be having babies soon, and I'm okay with that!

Some more before and after

 

Here are some more, just for fun.

 

 

During

 

After

During

After

 

 

After

 

After

Before, During and After

 
I should have thought ahead a bit.  But since I am only just trying to do more photography and better photography, you will have to excuse me.  I did try.

 

Before

 

The above picture was taken at night, before there was really any snow on the ground, just to give you an idea of the lattice fence I have around my garden and how it looks from our deck.  The lattice pieces are 24 inches.

 



 

 

February 12, 2014

 

The above picture was taken the day before the storm, just to show you how much we had at that time.  There had already been two days of snow the week before, and so this was melted down some, but you get the idea.

 

 

 

 

February 15, 2014

And this last picture, above, is after the storm.  I would say that we got about 18 inches on the 14th, on top of the 5 inches that were still there from the week before. THEN, we got another 5 inches on the 15th that are not shown here in this picture, after I had taken it.

I was fortunate that Dear Darlings work told them on the 12th that they would not be open on the 13th, so he came home that evening after working late that night.  He was supposed to be off today as well, but he asked the boss if he could have off Friday instead and he would come in today, the holiday, so that he wouldn't have to travel back and have another long day, just to come home again that night.  They agreed.

I am so lucky and fortunate to have a Dear Darling such as he, that works so hard to provide for us and then comes home and because of snow gets no real rest for the weekend.  We shoveled, snow blowed and had the plow on the quad on Thursday and spent over 4 hours together clearing the snow from our driveway and the lip of the street near it, plus our neighbors driveway across the street, and we helped out our neighbor next door, as we knew his snow blower blew up the storm before and he had not gotten a new one yet.

Then, we did it all over again on Friday evening, as well as help our Darling Boy out over at his house.  He was working 24 hour shifts to help cover for people who couldn't get to work.

Saturday came and we did some more!

I was spoiled having him home for an extended visit.

Hope you had a great weekend

Sorry I am a bit unprepared for today.

I hope you enjoy these pictures.

A waterfall seen on a quad ride

Our dream wood pile

A friend in our yard, one of many

 

Dream clouds above our heads

Another view from a quad ride

I hope you enjoyed a peek into the world around me.

What is it?

 

An easy post for today.

 

What is it?

 

 

 

While raking leaves this past November, we found two of these caterpillars.  I haven't tried to look them up, but if I had been in a rush, instead of enjoying my work, I would have missed them all together.

At first, I thought it was a "wooly bully" caterpillar.  But, upon closer inspection, it is not half black and half rust, as they are.  This one has black "bristles" and the rust/red is more of their actual body than hair.  They were much larger as well.

When you are out, in your yard, doing chores, do you take the time to notice the world around you?

Snow Storm

No, not where I am.  In South Dakota.

They weren't expecting this early fall snow.  They hadn't brought in the cattle from the range. Estimates are some ranchers have lost 50% of their beef cattle.

16,000 people are without electricity.

The price of beef will now go up, I am sure.  Maybe even milk as well.

It seems retailers will try to gouge people anyway they can. The ranchers, I'm sure, won't see the higher beef price, it will be the stores.

This is just one reason why it's always a good thing to have food in the freezer and the pantry.  It can hold you over when there is an emergency, whether it is in your immediate family, or if there is a natural disaster near you, or even one that didn't directly affect you, but you feel the ripples.

My heart goes out to the ranchers who are affected by this storm.  I hope once the snow clears they haven't lost as much cattle as they are currently thinking.

Next time you go to do your grocery shopping, think about the farmer/rancher/producer of the item you are purchasing, and be thankful.