Category Archives: critters

And then it was Monday…

I forgot how often my weekends were filled with schoolwork last semester. :p Granted, I’m trying to get a little bit ahead, so I spent extra time this last weekend doing lots of reading and note taking and essay writing. We did, however, leave time for a Twins game Friday night since I hadn’t been to the new stadium yet. It’s pretty nice… not that I’ve had much experience with baseball fields. 😉

On Saturday after lots of schoolwork and our bi-monthly shopping, we decided to grill, and thankfully Josh didn’t heat it up before checking under the cover because this little guy would have been toast.

Tree frogs are definitely one of my favorite things about living where we do.

On Sunday morning I pulled out a recipe for Apple Butter Pancakes, which I haven’t made in years. It’s a recipe from the Lightner Creek Inn that I grabbed when I worked there years and years ago.

Josh played games while I worked on schoolwork, I made lasagna, we watched X-Files, and before we knew it, the weekend was pretty much over.

I promise next weekend will be more exciting!

I’m a little nervous thinking about how hot this guy is going to be… I’ve never let a jalapeno get red before.

A few of my favorite things…

Right now I am loving how  many more veggies are ready for harvesting… we have tomatoes turning red (finally), onions, jalepeños, and even some carrots!  I can’t wait until we have a yard where I can try other things as well.

Despite their small size, Josh said the carrot (or at least the one that was darker) tasted really good!  Hooray for growing food!

Josh is away for the day (hanging with the boys), so I spent a few hours cleaning, which felt really good, watched a couple of movies, and then spent some time outside with the cats doing a little reading, and finding the cutest little frog on my marigolds.  I almost didn’t even see him, but noticed something looked off, so I got closer, and there he was!

Now I think it’s time for a cup of tea and some more reading, I think. Tomorrow we’re going to see Captain America, and it should be a good way to end a pretty relaxing weekend. Maybe I’ll even get some sewing done as I have a pile of things to fix for Josh (buttons and things that are so easy to fix, but also so easy to put off). 😉

A Tale of Two Squirrels

A rather short tale that began when, while camping, I foolishly left a bag of food unattended. I blame my thoughtlessness on lack of coffee. It was early and we wanted to be on the boat no later than 5:30, so we decided to forego coffee and just head out immediately. It was a nice day on the lake, and while we only caught a couple of small perch (pictures on Josh’s camera), we still had fun and returned to camp around 12:30.  I realized something was wrong as soon I walked over to the bag to pull out hamburger buns for our lunch. Our hamburger buns and bread had been fairly chewed on, and I figured that might be the extent of the damage.

Oh no. These squirrels were not satisfied with bread alone. As I pulled the bread items out, I noticed a hole had been chewed through the bag (one of those reuseable ones) and they had found my cookies. The cookies that were in a well-sealed container, and well-sealed it was. The thick plastic lid was still attached to the glass base, however, a nice big hole had been chewed through the lid and the squirrels hit pay-day. I estimate at least a dozen cookies were pulled out before they either ate their fill or saw us driving up.

So, lesson learned, and you can bet we made friends. The smaller squirrel, whom I called Stinker (seen below) returned often, looking for leftovers and wasn’t the slightest bit bothered our presence. Several times I’d look up and he’d be watching me at eye level in the tree next to our table, while I was looking for food or cooking. He also had a (camera shy) friend, whom returned often as well, and whom I expect to have eaten the majority of the cookies. Chunky Biscuit was morbidly obese and not a good climber, so there’s no way he pulled it off on his own.

Lesson learned.

Trumpeter Swans

In this cold weather it seems especially hard to get outside, but we got out for a bit (despite single digits) this past weekend. There was a nip in the air that drove us back to the car after about 20 minutes, however. I was not made for these constant cold temperatures!

Anyhoo, last Saturday, armed with hot beverages and bundled up, we drove to Monticello to see the swans. The second we opened our doors, we knew we were in the right place, and not just because of the sign. No it was the cacophony of hundreds of swans, ducks, and Canadian geese that filled the air – feeding time was on. There’s not a large viewing area, and there are some ill-placed trees and bushes, but we managed to get some shots of the massive gathering, and will most likely go back with my tripod to get a panoramic view of the river and just how many birds can actually be there on any given day during the feeding frenzy.

Unfortunately… I’ve checked the forecast and it looks like more singles and teens are in the future and potentially more snow, so probably not this weekend. Which is all right because we’re going to be combing our offices and turning my office into an official guest/game room, which in turn could be easily converted into a nursery, but it’s unlikely we’ll still be living there when that time comes. We’re going to throw the giant love sac in there for now, but will be on the lookout for a futon or something inexpensive that can serve as seating when needed and then turn into a bed for guests.

State Fair

We arrived at the State Fair and were greeted with the smell of animal poo mixed with the glorious smell of every deep-fried food imaginable, and thousands of people. We had made it a goal to see as many animals as possible – particularly of the squishy and cuddly variety and to try as many fair foods as we could stomach, which due to wallet constraints turned out to be fewer than I had hoped (fair food is seriously over-priced).

We started things out at The Miracle of Birth Center where we got tried to manuever our way through crowds to see baby cows a day old, lambs a few hours old, and piglets in the process of being born, while a growing crowd waited to watch a cow who was supposed to give birth at some point during the day.

 

We then squeezed our way out and went to check out the bunnies, which was thankfully much less crowded, and boy were there ever a lot of bunnies – row upon row in fact. I think a part of me may have died from cuteness overload that day.

   

The horse barn was a bit difficult to navigate and many of the stalls were empty, or the horses were getting ready for various shows (we didn’t know what or where as we couldn’t get anyone to tell us). Talk about some huge horses!  The majority that we saw were Percherons, and they were a sight to behold. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such big horses, to be honest. (Granted, I haven’t been around that many horses). They really were stunning, though, even if we could only see many of their rear-ends.

 

We spent most of the day walking around and soon realized that it was going to be very difficult to find anywhere to sit down. Every available bench or table was in use, so we decided to head over to the colliseum and watch some cows get judged. As we looked around we wondered if other people were just there to get out of the sun as well, or if they actually knew what was going on, because we certainly didn’t. Cow judging is a lot like curling or Nascar or other sports that are boring to watch from the sidelines. I don’t know how or why I get drawn in, but the cow judging was the same way… granted, Josh and I had our own commentary going, which made it slightly more interesting.

 

I think it was shortly after that we decided to head home. We had had our fill of deep-fried twinkies and root beer floats, and struggling with crowds. I definitely did not enjoy the crowds – especially the high volume of rude shovers and pushers. Will we go again next year? Probably not, but now I can say I went.