Spring is a rush of planting, and from late summer to fall is an almost daily hurry of harvesting and preserving. In between, like now, there’s not much to do but wait. While we pass the time, I thought I would offer you, dear reader, a glimpse of my wild, wild life.
A handy soundtrack would be “Wild Wild Life” by The Talking Heads, which can be found here.
From day to day, we never know what we’ll see here at the farmstead, and it’s certainly never boring.
From wild turkeys teasing the cats…
to the occasional deer on the patio…
…Mother Nature keeps us on our toes and entertained.
We’ve had bats hanging above the doorway (outside), an invasion of millipedes (inside), and the occasional arachnid atrocity (startling, no matter where they are).
We’ve had moles, mice, and mayhem.
The cats bring us the moles and mice, and usually cause most of the mayhem. But the most unusual specimens were actually plucked right out of the yard by my husband, The Rodent King. Not only did he find this oh-so-adorable star nosed mole…
He also found this shrew-of-a-different-color. It was sort of like the horse of a different color, only smaller and easier to hold in your hand.
One summer, we had leeches in the kiddie pool. I kid you not – leeches! One of the kids had scooped up some tadpoles and dropped them into the pool, and somehow, leeches came along for the ride. There are no words to describe my surprise when, on a hot day, I stopped to dip my toes in the kiddie pool and found leeches in the water. (This paragraph should be read with a loud emphasis on each use of the word “leeches.” Try it, you will almost feel as if you were there.)
The tadpoles actually did grow into adorable frogs…
…but, sadly, none of the frogs grew into princes.
We’ve had nocturnal visitors actually knock on the door looking for a handout.
We’ve found surprises when moving things around the yard.
The King of the Woods has stopped by once or twice.
Swarms of unexpected guests have visited.
And those are just a few of our adventures.
Welcome to my wild, wild life.
