More Than You Probably Wanted to Know

... about this little lady, our 9-banded armadillo.

Erma is back!

Border collie Bob went into her* frantic armadillo dance on the deck. I told her she was silly, Erma didn't live here anymore, and then immediately watched an armadillo rustle out from underneath, ignore me completely to gather a pile of leaves, and pull them back under to make her nest.

Sorry for doubting you, Bob!

 

*(Bob is a girl. The Writer always wanted a dog named Bob. She doesn't care.)

Contrary to my report last fall, Erma apparently wasn't the one killed on the road in front of our house.

Maybe it was her paramour, father of this year's quads. Or maybe it was Erma and this one took over her home beneath the deck. It's not easy to tell one armadillo from another.

Did you know ...

• Armadillos are one of the few animals who consume fire ants as part of their diet. They also eat roaches. As far as I'm concerned, that makes them heroes! Anything that eats fireants is a friend of mine.
  
• Armadillos have four babies at a time, always all the same sex. Their shells don't harden until after they are born and they stay with the mother for a year.
  
• Armadillos sleep an average of 18.5 hours a day.
• Armadillos can walk underwater and/or inflate their stomachs and intestines with air and float.
  
• Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy. People can only get it from them if they eat them or handle them extensively and then it is still extremely rare.
  
• When an armadillo is frightened it jumps straight into the air.
  
• There are over 50 million armadillos in the US.

I'll leave you with an armadillo joke my grandson told me when he was five.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

To show the armadillo how!

 

Posted with Blogsy

It's Just Too Nice!

I can't imagine weather more perfect.

The trees are budding, flowers blooming, anoles catching flies, big yellow butterflies,

birds everywhere (can't keep the feeder supplied), a bumblebee buzzing.

How am I supposed to get anything done?

.

 

 

The spring days start with

a view like this

from the deck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morning walk at

Shelter Cove Harbor

 

 

 

 

Neptune is on guard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to the deck, meet a member of our Fly and Mosquito Eradication Team, Anole 1.

We have three on duty today and believe me, they are well fed!

 

 

 

 

I did manage to stay inside long enough to dust, vacuum, and put up some Easter-y decorations. My sister and I made these with my mom when we were kids after we picked up shells on a vacation in Florida. At one time there were enough for a whole Easter tree but I only have four left.

They'll never make it into House Beautiful but it's not Easter without them!

 

 

I saw these at the store yesterday, an addition to my Southern Foods education.

Ack!

I would not like my potato chips to taste anything like biscuits and gravy!

 

 

 

 

And now I am going back outside to pot plants on the deck.

Chicken on the barbie for dinner.

Ya'll all come!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Take Heart, Ye Northerners

Spring is on the move!

 

Daffodils

at the farmers' market

 

 

The pick-your-own farm

will be open soon.

 

 

This little screech owl likes to be gently stroked. His feathers were the softest, smoothest thing you can imagine.

He lost his eye when he was hit by a car so he will never be able to be released in the wild. He has a new job as an education owl.

 

 

 

 

'

We had a nice visit with the owl lady. A retired teacher, she moved here from the North to start a new career taking care of injured owls and educating the public, especially Low Country children, about them.

This is a barred owl.

His call sounds like, "Who-who-who, Who cooks for you?"

And I know, this photo has nothing to do with spring.

His daddy took it while my daughter was gone and sent it with the caption, "Not sure what he was doing over there on the couch by himself."

Any ideas?

 

Posted with Blogsy

Spring Cleaning

I'm on my own today and got bitten by the spring cleaning bug. The weather has been fantastic, sunny and in the 70s, for several days. Radishes and spinach in the raised bed are up and growing. Azaleas and camellias are in full bloom, and I decided it was time to clean up the water's edge.

 

I wish I had taken a "before" photo but I was in a hurry to get started and I forgot. Suffice it to say our view of the dock and water had become seriously impeded by overgrown brush and trees. It took me all morning, but look!

We have our view back.

 

 

When I started, the tide was out

and I was walking in sucky pluff mud and tall spartina grass..

I love an excuse to wear my polka dot boots!

 

 

 

 

We call this pine tree the woodpecker tree.

It's mostly dead, bark stripped, full of holes from the pair of pileated woodpeckers that nests nearby. It's really, really tall.

Can't imagine why it's still standing.

 

 

I picked up the trash that comes in on the tide as I worked.

This is many months' accumulation, so not too bad. I wonder where the work glove came from.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hurricanes have downed trees that you can't see until you get right down by the water.

They are works of art, sculptures created by Mother Nature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of our dock was taken out by a big storm.

Docks are very expensive so it won't be replaced until we decide if we are going to live here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a pile of oyster shells, memories of past oyster roasts. We have an oyster bed right near the old dock but we have never harvested the oysters.

Maybe one of these days ....

 

 

 

 

I cleaned the mud off my boots and the knees of my pants (because of course I fell in the mud a couple times!), took a shower, and now I'm sitting in a chair right next to the pile of oyster shells, writing this and enjoying the much improved view.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Far-Flung Family - Vietnam Edition

My daughter is in Vietnam for a couple weeks as part of a program for leaders in agriculture for the state of Minnesota. It's a two-year program and 20 are chosen to participate. The culminating activity is a trip to meet with leaders in agriculture in another country. All expenses are paid by the program!

I thought I'd share a few photos she has sent me over the first few days.

 

 

Halong Bay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They have toured oyster, shrimp, and crab farms and pineapple plantations near Hanoi...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...experienced the fisherman's life on the water and exchanged fishing stories about Minnesota

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

... gone to market with Vietnamese fruit and vegetable farmers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...learned how rice is grown and helped with planting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...ridden working water buffalo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...walked down a country lane

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...and been invited to stop for unscheduled tea and tour of this little farm -all 20 of them!- by a friendly farmer.

 

 

 

 

My daughter is on the left. She is the policy director for the Minnesota Corn Growers Association and their liaison with federal and state government.

They are only half way through their trip.

 

Posted with Blogsy

My Far-Flung Family

Let's see. It's Wednesday. My sister and brother-in-law must be in Panama because last month they were in Costa Rica. Sarah is just back from a business trip and a few days of fun in Puerto Rico. And Anna is in Vietnam for a couple weeks, part of a leadership program for agriculture in Minnesota. Without the wonders of Facebook and WhatsApp (free texting all over the world) I would be feeling very lonely!

 

 

My sister and BIL rented a house in Costa Rica for a few months. My favorite adventure of theirs so far involved this little guy.

 

 

 

They were eating breakfast one morning in their open air kitchen and a baby sloth fell from the rafters of the house with a plop onto the floor at their feet! No mama in sight, which was odd because this was a tiny baby and they usually stay attached to the fur on the mama's belly for many weeks after birth.

The neighbors called an animal rescue group who sent someone out to try to find the mother. No luck. They were told that baby sloths seldom survive without their mother and they didn't offer much hope for this one. They recorded the baby's cries, took the baby with them, and left the recording to be played at intervals in hopes that the mother would hear and come s-l-o-w-l-y down out of the trees to find her baby.

Several days passed. They did see one sloth but it was determined to be a male, not the mama.

Finally, after it seemed too late to even be looking, they spotted a female in a tree!

I'll let my sister take over from here:

"A little later in another tree Darryl spotted another sloth. This one looked like a female. We played the tape of the baby over and over and she reacted, moving around trying to see where it was coming from. Called the rescue people and they came right over. The guy said yes it's a female and is the mother.

"They had brought the baby with them. They put it at the base of the tree with our speaker playing hoping the mother would come down. She started to come down but stopped. They decided they would get the baby up to the mother. They got a rope around the branch right by the mother and used my straw purse to put the baby in and hoisted it up. Took a bit for the baby to get out of my purse and try to reach the mother. The mother was able to reach down and grab the baby and put it on her back.

"It was one of the neatest things we've seen. The rescue people were very happy and appreciative for us spotting her."

I just wish they had taken more pictures!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Harper Lee and Atticus Finch

Having taught American (as well as British) lit for many years, I learned of the death of Harper Lee this weekend with memories both sad and sweet.

Most American students read To Kill a Mockingbird in the 9th grade. Over the years I guided hundreds of them through it.

I love this book.

My copy has many loose pages held together by a rubberband. It has years of underlining, highlighting, and notes.

 

With her southern gentility and beautiful prose, Ms Lee seductively and oh-so-gently draws the reader into a horrifying tale of unfairness, of prejudice, racism, classism, gossip, brutality, suspicion of those who are "different," parental abuse, alleged rape, and murder. The story's profound lessons are delivered by the wise lawyer, "nigger lover" and single father Atticus Finch. Through the tale, the reader is confronted with the maddening stew that is the complexity of human nature and the problems that afflict society. Ultimately, and at great personal sacrifice, even Atticus is helpless in the face of such deeply-rooted custom and prejudice.

Atticus faces an angry mob of white men with his children by his side outside the jail on the night before he is to defend a black man in a rape trial. (from the movie To Kill a Mockingbird)

For many, if not most, students Mockingbird is an introduction to life in the American South post slavery, with all the complexities of good people and prejudice that comes from generations of living in Maycomb, Mississippi. With the children of Atticus, Jem and Scout, readers lose their innocence.

"The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."

Atticus Finch, "To Kill a Mockingbird"

The book is served up to students at a time when teenage brains are maturing, as they begin to examine issues and form values apart from their parents' and based on their own knowledge and experience. It's a about the loss of innocence read by students who are in the midst of losing their own.

"Its not fair"

"It's not right"

they protest. With the children of Atticus, students grapple with tough lessons gently taught:

The knowledge that good people, people who are willing to make great personal sacrifice, can't always fix society's evils.

The knowledge that the all-powerful parents who rid the closet and beneath the bed of monsters can't fix everything.

The knowledge that,

"You can never really understand a person

until you consider things from his point of view. ... until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."

Atticus Finch, "To Kill a Mockingbird"

 

Posted with Blogsy