Yesterday was a good day, I spent most of the day unpacking and organizing. I still have a long way to go but we're shaping up now. We had to take an afternoon break to run over to Tractor Supply to pick up Beet Pulp for the horses and Kitty food and litter. While at the store, my daughter says "I'm hungry." "What!?!?" I say, "you *just* ate!" So after a short fussing, I swung into a pizza shop in town. One we've tried before. We got our pizza in a to-go box, but ate a couple of slices there and shared an Orange Fanta in a bottle. Like old times. It's been a long, long time since we've had any sodas. We kicked the soda habit long ago. We had a few slices left and we packed up and headed home. When we arrived back home it was such a beautiful day, again, that I decided we would go for a walk in the forrest. Since we went on the trail ride on Monday I am now somewhat oriented as to where some of the trails lead. Those that know me well know how I love a good explorative hike through the woods. My husband arrived home and he ate the remaining slices of pizza. We prodded him on because now that he was home, we all wanted to head down the trail WITH him. We leashed all 6 dogs and shoved off, only my husband led us on a different trail, one I was not familiar with. He assured us that he knew the way. We stormed over bush, bramble and rock. I kept finding myself glancing over my shoulder expecting to see a bear trailing us. Thankfully I did not, haha. My dogs were certain they were on to something. I felt like I was leashed to bloodhounds as they tore through the woods. We've been on many a trail walk, but I've never seen these guys behave so unruly. They were going NUTS with all the scents everywhere. We saw nothing, but their noses "saw" everything! Finally, the Aussies wore themselves out and settled into a comfortable, more regular pace. We reached the edge of the Forrest and broke out onto the golf course. I will admit that I was completely and utterly lost! My husband said that all the while he knew where we were. Hmmpphh, I have to believe him because he *did* get us to the golf course after all. I breathed a sigh of relief when we were standing on a hill just outside the Forrest line, our property line. The hill where we stood bore the remains of a party long past. Discarded fireworks, a campfire and a few cans littered the ground and the dogs heavily scented a spot where we crested out of the Forrest. I surmised it must have been the human potty for the party scene we stumbled upon.
After we gathered ourselves we headed towards the large pond. It was absolutely breathtaking. I know my Aussies would have loved to jump in the water for a swim but I knew that if they would have gone for a swim I would have 3 dogs to wash when we got home. My 3 Aussies, the Bulldog, the Pomeranian, and the Livestock Guardian dog would not be swimming. The Bulldog and Pom are NOT swimmers, and the LGD is still recovering. He did really well on our walk. He LOVES a good swim though. He would have totally gone for it under any other circumstances. We walked down the hills and over to the bridge where I took my fall on Monday when I was riding Justice. We saw lots of Canadian Geese some complete with families of little goslings in tow. They were incredibly adorable, but naturally, our "pack of dogs" worried them. All but two dogs were leashed. My 3 Aussies have a good recall, so I don't worry too much, but I like to air on the safe side of things. We headed back home and de-ticked everyone. The dogs, and then us. We found at least one tick on each dog, and only found one on one human. It was mobile, not latched on yet. I really despise ticks. I don't like fleas, but I despise ticks more I believe! Ick (...as I think about it suddenly my skin is crawling, haha, I know I'm good, but you can't help but check, just to be sure. lol) See the video below for a sample of what we saw.
When we got back we settle in for a relaxing evening, business as usual.
Wednesday, May 29th:
This morning we headed over to our local farm, Walnut Farm. We picked up some milk and honey and headed back home. My daughter reminds me that she is absolutely starving. She must be having a growth spurt, it's about that time, she sure has been hungry... ravishingly hungry, lately. So I set about making brunch as soon as I got home. A typical yummy breakfast around the Kelley home. Farm fresh eggs made to order and the fixins'. I had just served my daughter breakfast when we hear barking coming from the barn. It's one of our neighbors popping in to drop off something he had promised my husband. I invited him up for a cup of coffee. My dogs are still getting used to our many visitors dropping by on a regular basis. We LOVE it, but they don't understand, and they have what I like to call "stranger danger." They don't like everyone, they have to get to know you first. Like the movie "Meet the Parents" you have to get into their "circle of trust." Until then you are 'guilty until proven innocent.' So while I'm attempting to visit with my neighbor my dogs bark and whine their protests for the living room. They are on their assigned dog beds, but are just wiggling and NOT listening very well. We finally decide that the most unruly of the bunch needs a time-out in his kennel and my daughter delivers him to his kennel. He's none-to-pleased with this and from the basement he barks more protests. He certainly lives up to his name, Ronen, it means song or praise in Hebrew. Only right now, when he isn't behaving it's more like NOISE. I call him "the mouth," he always has something to say about something. After his cup of coffee, our neighbor heads out the door. I finish my brunch (it was a little cold, but still good) and start about doing my office work. I unpacked a little and organized, then sat back at my office. Every once in a while I would hear this "peeping" sound. I thought it was a little bird, but each time I heard it, it was inconvenient to get up and look for our visitor. At least one cat would scamper over to the front door to see who our visitor was though. I had opened the front door and the clear storm door provided an unimpeded view of the front yard and porch. It was my compromise for the kitties because I requested they stay out of my bay window.
After I finished in the kitchen, my dogs needed to go out for a potty break and a drink. I called the dogs to the door and as I opened the door this strange looking beetle with long antennae stumbled in the door.
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| Asian Long-horned Beetle |
He was a little shocked and somewhat grumpy. My daughter told me to step on him, I was wearing boots after all. I couldn't bring myself to do it. Instead I chased him out the door with a dowel rod and when he slipped in between the deck slats I tapped hard above him and he fell to the lower level of the house and landed on the ground in front of the basement door. I had no idea what kind of a bug he was at the time. Now that I do, I can see that I probably should have stepped on him!
Well this little bug reminded me of a story of a similar bug that occurred a few years back.
We lived in a beautiful home in a gated community in Texas. It was a rental home, the story of how we ended up there is sort of long so I'll skip that part. I had several plants and it had been nice weather so I had all of our plants on the front porch. It was about September and some storms had been coming through the area and due to our porch being sort of high in the air some of my plants had gotten knocked over a bit so I opted to bring them inside. So one-by-one I brought them in and after I was done we sat down to watch a movie and enjoy the company of the plants in our downstairs formal living room. As we sat there my cat came over, she had noticed a small bug crawling across the rug in the living room. The bug paused then raised it's rear end and sprayed an offensive odor on my kitty. She scrambled away, appalled, shaking her head and sneezing! I realized it was a stink bug, so I ran and got my broom and dustpan and carefully scooped it up and took it out to the front porch and discarded it in some bushes. I figured that would be the last of it. I didn't want to step on it because I did not want it to stink up the place any more than it already had. The next day I, again, saw this SAME little bug walking purposefully across the carpet again ... in the house...headed for this one particular plant. Again, I grabbed my broom and dustpan, gently scooped up this bug and once again discarded it on the plants in the front yard. These plants are planted and were low to the ground, so it was quite a distance that this little bug had traveled to get back up the stairs and into my house. The NEXT morning, I opened the front door to go down the driveway to pick up the newspaper and was shocked to look down and find this SAME little bug standing on the threshold of my house. It was at this time that I realized that this little bug wanted to get in that plant that I brought inside. It was like, (in a little bug voice) "um excuse me, but someone took my house away and I just want to move back into it." I said, "that's it!" Once more I grabbed my broom and dustpan, scooped up the little bugger and this time I carried him all the way down, several houses down to the ditch/waterway. I took him over to a cluster of trees and discarded him there. I said, I hope you find a new suitable home, but I just can't have a stinkbug living in my house. Sorry mister. haha ... The End.
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| This is what that Shield Bug/Stink Bug looked like. |
Anyhow, that is all for now. Tomorrow we are going to the lake with some local Homeschoolers. If anything exciting happens you'll know about it. God bless! <3
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