Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Grasshopper Days


 

Grasshopper Days

For today, Tuesday September 10, 2013

Outside my window...  fall color starting to show in several trees around the neighborhood, apples ripening on the neighbor's (that we can pick :D), and morning fog - so typical of beautiful fall days around this neck of the woods.

Hearing...  a boy in the shower, and birds in the trees, though some are heading south already.  (Birds, not boys ;D)  And somebody in the neighborhood is listening to the LOTR soundtrack... oh, so perfect for this gorgeous fall morning, but where is it coming from?

Pondering...  must pick the Chinese Lanterns before the deer eat them... nasty pests!  We caught one actually bedded down inside the garden!  Well, the garden-to-be.  I keep saying I won't plant anything until it's really deer-proof.  Ugh.  I know, I know, you probably think they're cute.  We think they're long-legged rats.

Here's what happened...

It was a cool and rainy day, and the boys looked out their window at the so-called garden, and saw this:


There are two yearling bucks (spikes) - one in the garden...


... and the other just outside the fence, under a tree (you can just see his backside.)


So the boys went outside to move them off the property.  Here, the deer have alerted to their presence.


Now they're moving, but they're stupid.  The one outside the fence is headed for an intersection...


... and here's where I lost it, and was laughing too hard to take any more photos.

This deer was bouncing around in there like a pinball, flinging itself at the net fence until it finally got through a gap.

Einstein, they're not.

Praying...  Kerry could really use some work.  An avalanche of work would be nice.  And I'm praying for Wyatt.  He's not complaining or shirking, but he's tied up all day with school work and I know it's wearing on him.

Thankful...  for a beautiful Indian Summer!  It's supposed to be in the upper 80's for the next three or four days and I'm hoping we can get out to the lake again, a time or two.

Wearing...  shorts and a tank top!

Going...  to try to get our (Tate's and Gunnar's) school work done early in the day so we can get out and enjoy the sun :D

Reading...  two books by Eloise Jarvis McGraw - Mara, Daughter of the Nile and The Golden Goblet, both set in ancient Egypt.  It's kind of fun to read them with the boys, as one has a girl and the other a boy as the main character (she must have done that deliberately, to appeal to boys and girls?).  Well, our boys like both the stories, even though the Mara does have a leeeetle bit of romance to it.  (Nothing questionable.)

Looking forward to...  not having weekends tied up (I think the boys have a SAREX coming up, and then nothing for awhile), and Wyatt's job ending for the season.  He's been working just one afternoon a week at the local speedway (motocross) and has really enjoyed it, but this is the last week.  It's all good, I just like tying up loose ends :D

In the kitchen...  hmmm, nothing that will heat up the house.

Around the house...  the books are piling up all over again, and need to be tamed.  It's a good problem, but it still looks like clutter when they're left lying all over.

The Mother Load...  oh boy... pay the bills, pick the lanterns, unclog the sink, synch the calendars, inventory the freezer, scrub and wax the floor (yuck!), hem Gunnar's BDU's (he takes three steps before his uniform starts moving), sew his patches on, manage some craigslist items (story about that later!), set up a keyboarding program for the boys, make a new chore list for the boys, work in the flower beds, finish the quilt top...  feels like I never get anything DONE!

Noticing that...  Gunnar remembers every little detail about the animals we've studied over the last two years - he's amazing.  A little encyclopedia.

A favorite quote for today...
Giving money and power to government is like
giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
P.J. O'Rourke

One of my favorite things...  sunny days at the lake.

A peek into my world...  out for a walk with Gunnar this morning, we passed a sculpture he really likes.

Yes, it's a large mailbox...


... a REALLY large mailbox!


Oops.  I didn't hold the camera quite steady (still kind of dark, this morning),
but Gunnar gives the mailbox its proper scale ;D

2 comments:

melanie said...

The 'neighbor' lady I buy eggs from always has a deer story or two :p Latest is a mama deer eating her peaches off the tree, one bite of each peach before they drop on the ground...
The helpful hint is that the deer is now afraid to bother one of the apple trees where she's hung a large black trash bag -- enough breeze to keep it moving and scare her away I guess. Maybe you could try something similar but prettier? :-)

dlefler said...

The deer have eaten all of my tomatoes this year. They are impossible to stop! We used Liquid Fence, but we've had so much rain this year that it just washes off the plants and the deer have a hearty lunch. Grr. Deer season starts in about a month, so our neighbors will seek revenge on our behalf. At least they left my apple trees alone.

The mailbox sculpture is pretty cool! I like the way it is situated in the woods, as if it just grew there.