Happy Thanksgiving

From our family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving.

Here are the pies I made yesterday, pumpkin, apple, and butterscotch. Quinn helped me cut out leaves to decorate the apple pie with the left over pie dough. The butterscotch pie is my grandmother's recipe that she used to make for the holidays. It has been years since I have had it and thought it was about time I made it! The pumpkin come from my friend Tammy who grew the pumpkins, processed it and gave me enough to make this pie. She also gave me a whole pumpkin that I will process later. We tried growing pumpkins, Seminole pumpkins which are good for this area, that Tammy also gave me the seeds for. But we planted them a little too late in the year, and although they were growing great and producing beautiful pumpkins, our last frost killed the plant and my pumpkins weren't ripe yet. :(

We are spending a quiet thanksgiving at home. It would be nice to spend it with family, but that's not happening this year, maybe next. (Hint, Hint)

So, I hope all of you are enjoying this day of thanks. We have much to be thankful for, health, family, friends, and I am sure there is more if I let my mind ponder longer, but its' time to start rattling some pans. Wishing you all the best.

The Bellavigna Family.

Cute Kittens

This is what greeted me this morning. Three adorable little kittens in my hamper. I had to go grab my camera.


Here is those same three adorable little kittens snoozing on my chair. If you remember another post way back in the beginning of CasaBellaBella when I introduced our critters these kittens look identical to those kittens. They are little "minnie me's".

Here is the mama cat. Notice what she is looking at, the gerbil cage. I have been chasing her away from this every morning lately. Now those adorable little kittens are not always so adorable. Remember my last post where I said I couldn't turn my back for a moment. That's right, there's a story there. I left my post in the kitchen to take a potty break, a girl's gotta go, I returned to a screaming little Anna girl in the kitchen and next to her feet on the floor was a piece of the gerbil cage. Ahh! I frantically started looking for the gerbils who were not in their cage. And we had three adorable little kittens running around. Quinn found the first kitten with a gerbil in it's mouth. I was hoping that we were quick enough to get the gerbil out of it's mouth before any damage was done. Not so lucky. Onto finding the other gerbil. Again, Quinn found that one and again we were not lucky enough. Alex had to bury his gerbils. :(

A few days ago, Dom brought two new replacement gerbils home. One is black and one is gray. I then had to research how to tell the sex of a gerbil, because Dom didn't ask at the pet store. And I was hoping we did not have one male and one female. The kids of course where hoping that we did. I think, after much research and much fondling of the gerbils, that we have two males. Whooo! New names for the new gerbils, Zack & Cody. We had to stay in the same theme as the last two gerbils.

Quick Update

Yea, I know, there are still no "catch-up" posts. We've had a house full of sicky germs. The boys came down with a nasty cold last week and now Anna & I have it. But I have still been busy cleaning out my kitchen cupboards. It has only taking me three, going on four days to finish. I don't know why it has taken me so long, other than I haven't felt good and my children are major distractions. I have wiped them all inside and out and re-organized. It was overdue. I cleaned out the fridge yesterday, wiping it all down. I have one more cupboard to go, then I need to oil the outside of the cupboards with orange oil. I cleaned out my oven, which is easy since it is self cleaning, but when I was wiping down the door inside and out, a piece of a sponge fell into a vent hole on the top of the door and I could see it through the window. I tried to bang on the door hoping to dislodge it out of sight, but no luck. This thing was going to drive me crazy every time I looked at the door. I had no choice but to take the door off, which took awhile to figure out how to do, directions and all. Then I had to remove the screws holding the door together so I could get to that sponge. That accomplished, I put the screws back in and had trouble doing that. Although all the screws appeared to look alike, they weren't and I of course put the wrong screws in the wrong holes and couldn't get the last screws to go in. So I had to unscrew them all and redo that. This all took way more time than I had expected it to. But my kitchen is feeling good now. I should say, I am feeling good in my kitchen. I can ignore dirt for awhile until I can't stand it anymore and I don't feel "good" in a room with all that dirt that I know is lurking. Dom has this same problem although he can not ignore it as long as I can. I'm good at procrastinating, like right now, I should be emptying the dishwasher and wiping out that last cupboard, but I'm writing in my blog and drinking coffee instead.

The kids are so excited about today being Halloween. They have been counting down the days and can not wait to go trick-or-treating tonight. I hope Anna and I are feeling up to walking around. Hopefully it won't be too cold. We've had a cold snap this week with it getting down to freezing at night. It's nice to have a change of season compared to living down in Melbourne where you don't notice the change quite as much as up here in North Florida.

Dom's parents are coming for a visit and will be here next week. It is a nice motivator for me to clean those things I like to ignore, like kitchen cupboards. They will be here for Ethan's 5th birthday. Dom will be having surgery while they are here, so it will be nice to have babysitters available for me to go visit him in the hospital. I don't know if he really wants me to broadcast his surgery, but prayers for his well being are appreciated and if I didn't tell you about it, then you wouldn't know to pray. ;)

Well, I guess that is all for now. My cupboards are calling. Until next time.....

Momentary Insanity

Did that title get your attention?


I'm doing better, it's only been 4 days since my last post. I know that I need to do "catch-up" posts, but this isn't one of them.


This one is about my momentary insanity. You see, I have this cute little 7 year old boy. Pictured here.

If you notice he has a butterfly (a real actual living butterfly) on his head.

Well, he loves animals, all shapes and sizes, even the butterfly variety. He has been wanting a bird now for a couple of years and we have this wonderful porch on the front of our house, that for some reason attracts birds. A week or so ago, a bird flew onto it and got trapped as usual, and of course my sweet little boy wanted to keep it. He even called his dad at work to ask him to bring home bird seed for his new found pet. Well this poor little wren didn't last long, only a couple of hours. Unlike the times Quinn has caught hummingbirds in the same manner, trapped on the porch, whom lasted a least a day.

Here is one he caught. He made this elaborate "cage" for it from a sheet attached to his bedroom ceiling.

So, after this little wren died, I told Dom that I think we need to let him have a bird so that he will quit harassing the wildlife. Dom then told me that someone offered him a couple of gerbils that day at work, cage and all. I was thinking, "hmmm, maybe that would sustain his love for creatures for a little while and, better yet, they're free." So I said to Quinn and the other kids, "how about some gerbils, instead." Alex was all excited about the gerbils, he definitely wanted those. Quinn wasn't so sure. He still really wanted a bird. So, being the clone that he is of his father, he came up with this idea. "How about I get the gerbils, keep them for 10 days, then sell them and get a bird," he says. Anyone who knows Dom, knows that sounds awfully familiar and at the same age, no doubt. (Dom & I have this running joke where everything he did as a child, he was 8 years old. Because when he would tell stories about his childhood, he would always say that he was 8 years old, and I would say "oh, come on, you couldn't have always been 8." So now, it is a joke between us.) Anyway, Quinn still really wanted a bird, and now Alex really wanted the gerbils. So what are we, as parents, to do?

We let them have both. See my moment of insanity! I had a bird as a child and I always told Quinn, "no, you can't have a bird." Not because I don't like birds, but because I don't like the mess that they cause. But I just doubled my mess. Two cages, two sets of messes to clean up. What was I thinking? I know, I was thinking that I love my children and I want to give them some pleasure and memories in their childhood. I guess I will survive the mess.

BTW, the two gerbils have been named London & Maddie (think Disney's Zack & Cody show) and the birds are Bella & Bud.

I'm Still Here!

Have ya missed me? I have been busy. Sorry for no recent posts! Meg in Tally finally prodded me into, at least, sending a short post to let you all know I'm still with ya. Thanks Meg, for showing that you care! I was waiting for someone to poke me and say, "hey, where ya been?" I don't know what is with me today with all the "ya's."

I truly haven't meant to let almost three weeks go by with no post. I can't believe it has been that long. I won't have time to write all that has been floating in my head during all this time, but I wanted to write a short post. Now, if I could telepathically write my blog posts, we would be in business. I can draft a post in my head, while in the shower, but can't find the time to physically sit at the computer and regurgitate it back out of my head. (I think I watch too many sci-fi shows, Dom's favorite.)

Last post, I mentioned my goals of getting things done with homeschooling. Well, I have been working very hard on that and I don't get much spare time after everything is said and done. I haven't even been reading my friend's blogs and there is some sort of "blogging contest" going on, so they are writing a lot. Good thing I didn't join that contest, although no one asked me too. :( No, I'm really not sad over that. Who has the time? Not me!

Our tenant finally moved out of our rental property, so any "spare" days that I've had, I was cleaning and painting over there. Cleaning someone else's dirt, really isn't any fun. Good thing I'm not a maid by profession. But wait, I am, but it's my own dirt and that of my family's. That's a little different, plus, I really do clean behind my refrigerator more than once a year. Oh, you wouldn't believe what was behind the tenant's fridge. Ick!

With Dom's furniture leasing business, we went to Panama City Wednesday. I think that is the only time since I last wrote. So there is another "spare" day swallowed up.

I have been meaning to post pictures from a "field day" that the Monticello homeschoolers had a week or so ago. But those pics are still on my camera. Hopefully, I will get those pics to you soon with Alex and Quinn coming in first and second in the potato (or really feed) sack race. They had fun.

We have more babies at our house. My mama cat had kittens again, making it twice this year. Which is a first, she usually only has them once a year and that is in the spring. She's been busy. We have three look-a-likes under the house (where kittens have always been born here). They look just like our current Tiger, Princess, and Friskie (which isn't a stretch since we have three solid gray cats. Make that four). The kids have been under the house to see them, I haven't. I really don't want to belly crawl under there, not a pleasant thought. But maybe, I'll get the kids to take my camera under there for pictures. See, another exciting blog post in your future.

Well, that is a quick wrap up for you. I really will try and do better! I just haven't figured out where to pencil that time slot into my day yet, but I will work on it.

Disappointment

I was so excited about having a brooding chicken. I put books on reserve at the library to read to the kids about the developing baby chick inside the egg. I went online to find out how long a chick needs to be inside the egg, 21 days, and marked the calender accordingly. I cleaned an old chicken water container and food dispenser, in anticipation for the chicks arrival. I "made" the brooding chicken safer by putting her inside a dog carrier, or so I thought.

She made her nest in the barn, not inside the chicken coop. It was open to any would be predator and I was worried something might come and get her. I even lost sleep one night with that worry (a little bit of sleep, I still slept but did wake up on occasion and thought about her). So one night, the kids and I went to her spot and moved her and her eggs inside a dog carrier. We placed the carrier into the same spot she had already chosen. By day, the door could be opened and left open for her to venture outside. By night, it could be closed to keep her safe.

Yesterday was an exhausting day for me. Let me back up, last week was an exhausting week for me. It was "back to school" week. I decided I would get up every morning by the alarm clock!!! I know, that is a novel concept! Being a homeschooling, stay-at-home-mom, has some advantages like not having to get up at a specific time each day. But that can lead to laziness and I have been prone to just that. So I decided to get up everyday at 7:30, get in the shower and actually get dressed before noon!!! I had the kids start setting their alarms also, so that they would be up and dressed to eat breakfast all at the same time and not staggered through out the morning. I decided to start treating my homeschooling like it is my job, so that maybe, just maybe, I will feel like we are actually accomplishing something this year. You see, I have all this guilt that I'm not doing enough with them. After Anna was born, I had this whole health issue with my thyroid, and it has been a struggle for me to get back on my feet. This just happens to coincide with our first few years of homeschooling. Anyway, back to my point. Getting up early everyday, and setting goals (I have never been a goal setter) that we would get certain things done each day, and then actually meeting those goals, well, it exhausted me. So after doing our school work each day, and making three meals a day (why do we need to eat so much) there really wasn't much time for housework. I managed to get a load or two of laundry done each day, but not much else. So I decided Saturday would be the day we clean the house. I had the kids help me (hard for the perfectionist in me, but I'm trying). At about 3:30 we were done with the house, and I knew I needed to go out and clean a spot in my car that had started to mildew. So outside I went with our small steam cleaner to clean the carpet in my car. I thought it was just one spot, but on closer examination, it was several spots. I ended up cleaning the entire car, even removing the back seat and a plastic strip that was under that seat, so I could clean the mildew that was growing under that. I wiped down all the seats, etc,. etc., etc. During all this, I kept running back into the house to finish making a batch of bread, and to start dinner. I had Alex and Quinn stir the Sloppy Joes I was making for dinner, while I went out to finish the car. I was truly exhausted by dinner time when we finally sat down to eat. I told Quinn to go outside and lock our hen in for the night, along with a few other requests. I just didn't have the energy to do it. And I don't think I will allow kids to eat in my car ever again (famous last words).

This morning, Quinn comes in with all these broken eggs, saying, "you are going to be so mad." Yes, I was very disappointed to learn that my hen's house had been broken into last night and she and her "babies" were gone. I was very upset. I'm not sure Quinn managed last night to close the door to her carrier securely and I think a raccoon got her. So my attempt to keep her safe might have been the exact thing that got her killed. I had such high hopes for those baby chicks and their brooding mama. I was surprised at how upset I actually was about losing them. I have told my friend Tammy, who is new to chicken raising, not to get too attached to them, because they are easy prey and many get eaten by wild critters. But here I was, all upset over my hen. I had to remind myself, that it was just a chicken. My children are all well, my husband is all well, I'm all well. It's just a chicken.

This afternoon, I saw a raccoon on the back porch eating the cat food. I hollered "there's a raccoon on the back porch" for anyone who was in the house to hear. Alex said, "why did you say that so loud?" I hadn't realized that I had said it any louder than usual, but I replied, "because I could spit nails at it if it's the one that got my hen." Then Alex said, "Mom, there are three babies." And as I turned to look, not really all that interested, we've seen raccoon babies before, there was one that was tinier than we've ever seen before. It was so cute and adorable. I tried to get a picture, but they ran off before I could. How can something so darn cute, be such a nuisance when it comes to my chickens? I guess that is the cycle of life.

Birds, Birds, Birds

Today, was for the birds. Turkeys, humming birds, and chickens, that is. This morning, I looked out the kitchen window, because that is where I'm at most of the time, and I saw turkeys. I counted about seven of them. I, of course, called everyone over to the window to see them, Dom included. We all ohh'ed and ahh'ed, then Dom walked into the family room and said, "there's more out front." So we all moved to the family room window to see more. The ones from the back had met up with the ones in the front. I then counted about 19. As I was watching them, and Quinn was wishing he had a net to be able to catch one (which he does have, but I did not remind him about it), I remember my loyal readers (that's you) and went to grab my camera to snap a picture. By then they had made it over to the gazebo, as you can see here.


Not long after all that excitement, Quinn gets all excited again and runs out to the front porch. We now had another hummingbird trapped there.


Yes, we still have Christmas lights up. I'm not sure why, but Dom will take down all the lights from outside and store them until next Christmas, but has left the ones that border along our front porch, up. They have been there for about two years now. I guess we are not trying to impress the "Jone's" anymore since moving to the woods.

Of course, Quinn grabbed the first empty ice cream bucket he could get his hands on, and caught the little bird. I reminded him about what happened last time he caught and kept a hummingbird (see Joy of Living in the Woods) and Dom has told him, by the end of today, he will be letting the bird go.

Then to add even more excitement to the day (how can we contain our ourselves?) Alex tells me that he found the nest to my favorite laying hen. Since adding the chicken run to our coop, we have some chickens that fly the coop. Sometimes they go back in the coop on their own, some we catch and put back in, and some stay out most or all of the time. One of my best laying hens has decided to stay out. I knew she had to be laying eggs somewhere, but we hadn't found where yet. Until today. And not only did we find the eggs, but she has decided to brood.Here she is on her eggs inside the barn. Maybe we will have some baby chicks running around here soon. I'm glad God has provided my science for this homeschooling year! For a little while, anyway.

Streams, Birthdays, and Snowcones

Yesterday, we started drying out, somewhat. There is still much standing water in places and some poor people have evacuated their houses because of flood water. We are fortunate not to have experienced any major flooding at our house. Official count for rain in our area was 19-20 inches.
This is a picture from yesterday. You can see our driveway again, as it was covered with water, as shown in Fay, Fay, Go Away . Dom and the boys spent yesterday doing yard work. Lots of sticks and leaves everywhere. They did a great job cleaning up.

Our footbridge now has an actual stream under it. :) It is normally dry, so this kind of nice. I did not help with the clean up, being my birthday, I didn't do much of anything. I talked on the phone a lot to family (Mom & Alisha) and friends (Jenny & Tammy) calling to wish me a happy birthday.

Here is Dom slaving away at making me dinner. A week or so ago, he asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I said, "do I have a choice," knowing that money was tight. He said, "no, but I thought it sounded good." LOL! So I told him just to make me dinner. And breakfast in bed. And lunch. And.....

So he did make me breakfast in bed. I was already awake and waiting for it, so there was no surprise. But it was still nice. The kids came in and gave me their lovely home-made cards. Later Dom ran into town to buy me a cake. By the time he came back, he asked me what I wanted for lunch, but I had already eaten.

And here is me with my very special birthday dinner. Dom had the kids set the table and I sat down to an empty round plate. Dom whisked that one away and sat down this platter full of food. This is what I had on my plate: a t-bone steak (my favorite cut); kabobs with scallops, potatoes, onions; bacon wrapped scallops; corn on the cob; sauteed asparagus; crab legs and cold shrimp. I was the only one with a t-bone and crab legs which made it special just for me. You'll be happy to know that I could not eat all that food in one sitting. Leftovers always make me happy, because then I get to enjoy a good meal twice.

Dom bought a chocolate ice cream cake. He put the candles on with one on the side, you may be able to see it. I thought that would be tricky to blow out with one breath, but I did it. The only thing is that I forgot to make a wish before I blew out my candles! ;(

Today was the scheduled play date for Fun With Water at my house. I shouldn't have titled it that because I think Fay got the wrong idea! I wasn't sure if anyone would come today, but I welcomed anyone who wanted to get out, to come on by. We had one family come. They are new to this area, so it was nice to get some one on one time getting to know them. The sun actually came out and the kids were able to go swimming (we are still getting occasional showers from Fay). I forgot to take any pictures and I forgot to offer them snowcones, until it was too late and they were leaving. :(

But here is a picture of Alex, Anna, Ethan and Quinn enjoying snowcones after lunch. This snowcone machine is the one piece of equipment we have left from our concession stand/restaurant days. Dom loves his snowcones, so we couldn't get rid of this! You don't even want to know the recipe to make snowcone syrup. Not that it's bad, as in nasty, you just wouldn't believe the amount of sugar in it!!!!! It's what keeps dentists in business.

Fay, Fay, Go Away

Today we are getting blasted by Tropical Storm Fay. She has done her damage in FL, flooding large parts of the state. My Mom and sister, down in Palm Bay, have already experienced 20-30 inches of rain from Fay earlier this week. Now Fay is hitting us here in North Florida and actually might still be giving Central Florida a few more showers. This storm doesn't want to go away and it is covering a huge area. The last count we heard for our area, was 15 inches of rain.We lost power last night at about 10:00 pm. It came back on briefly during the night, only to go off again. Dom got the generator running this morning so we could plug in our refrigerators and freezer. Then he and the boys went to work. Anna and I stayed home to manage in a dark house. I sat on the front porch watching the end of our driveway get swallowed up by water. When it started to get a current, I called Dom at work to tell him, if he didn't come home soon, he may never make it back since we live on dirt roads and they will only get worse the more rain we get. But he wasn't at work, he was already on his way home. Before he made it all the way home, our power came back on. That is how I'm writing this now. :)

While sitting on the porch, I watched a utility truck get stuck in the road in front of my house. Without power to watch TV, that was my entertainment. They were stuck for about 40 minutes before another truck came to pull them out. But while they were waiting, they cut some tree branches down to pass the time. I figured after they got stuck, they would just head out of here. Who wants to get stuck again? But not a half an hour later, I had power back on. These workers are to be commended, coming out in all kinds of weather and all hours of the night, so that I can have electricity. One such person lost his life yesterday in Quincy, FL. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I think it was a tree branch that fell. They are risking their lives for us and we should thank them.

Dom had his fate with a tree on his way home. He was heading down our street and a tree was down in the road. He thought he could push his way through it, but upon doing that, a branch that he thought would push up and over his truck didn't do that and instead cracked his windshield. :( But I'm glad that's all that happened and everyone is home safe and sound now.

I always get to celebrate my birthday with hurricanes. I remember, August 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew was predicted to hit Melbourne on my birthday. Instead it hit Miami and I spent my 19th birthday scraping tape off windows. That's what you used to do, tape the windows in case they broke, the glass would stay together and clean-up would be easier. It is just a waste of time and you don't see anyone doing that anymore.

So tomorrow, on my 35th birthday, I won't be scraping tape off windows. But hopefully we'll have power for Dom to make me my birthday dinner. I saw crab legs in the fridge, not sure I was supposed to though. I'll act surprised! Yum, Yum. :)

I Did It!

I've been wanting to cut my hair because it is getting tooooooooo long. And I thought since it is so long, I would donate it to an organization that makes wigs from real hair to give to cancer patients who lose theirs during chemotherapy. I kept thinking that I would get online to see what I needed to do in order to donate it. But days turned into weeks, and so forth. Today, after taking my shower and fighting to get a comb through it, I thought, "I can't stand this hair any longer, I'm going to cut it." So I went online to Google "donating hair." At first I thought I would donate to Locks of Love. They wanted at least 10 inches of hair. I went and grabbed a ruler and measured out 10 inches. "Oohh! I don't know about that," I thought. I remembered that Pantene Beautiful Lengths only needed 8 inches. I measured out that and thought that was a little more doable. But here was my worry. No organization wanted highlighted hair, semi-permanent color treated was acceptable though. They take hair from about 10 different people, put it all together to make one wig and then color it all to match. If your hair has been colored often or highlighted, it won't accept the new dye very well and may not match the other donations. Well, the ends of my hair have been highlighted when my hair was nice and very short. So I was afraid of cutting 8-10 inches off my hair and having it rejected because of it having been highlighted. But I still wanted to cut my hair, so 5-6 inches came off.
Here is me taking a picture of the mirror with my reflection showing the length of my hair. It looks like 10 inches wouldn't be a problem, but that would put it above my shoulders and I didn't really want to go that short. I think this is the longest my hair has ever been. It's called, No Money to Get a Haircut Regularly, Look.Here is my 5-6 inches. I showed Dom these little pony tails without saying a word and his reaction was "tell me that didn't come from Anna!!!!"
Here is my after shot, that Alex took of me. I am being very brave posting this on my blog when I am not wearing any make-up in this picture!!! I still can't believe I'm doing it. I may regret it later.

The Joy of Living in the Woods

This is what greeted me outside my kitchen window this morning. It always bring me a little joy to see these awesome creatures in my backyard. This is part of the reason Dom and I always wanted to live in the country, to be able to enjoy nature and its wildlife. Of course, we didn't think about the deer devouring my rose bushes or tromping through the garden and nibbling on everything in sight. There were a total of five deer outside this morning. A couple of young bucks were part of the group, which is unusual. We normally only see does together and maybe a lone buck once in awhile. At first I saw two deer, one was grooming the other's ear. It was sweet. Then the groom-ee raised up on her hind legs to nibble on my crab apple tree. Once I hollered for the kids to come look, they discovered three more hidden in the woods. Then there is the pursuit of finding them as if we are looking at a Hightlights hidden picture book. And me hushing the kids and telling them that the deer can hear us inside the house.

We've also been seeing a lot of turkeys lately. They, on the other hand, don't bother my rose bushes or garden. Quinn has taken up the desire to catch a baby turkey. I don't hamper his desire, thinking he will never actually accomplish this task. But I also said the same thing when he wanted to catch a hummingbird. I said, "sure, if you can catch one, you can have it." Be careful what you say! We have since had three humming birds find themselves trapped on our front porch.Quinn has caught them and I had to eat my words. Hummingbirds don't make good pets, because they don't live long. They need to eat constantly and don't do that well inside a make-shift cage. But be happy to know, that I did not let him keep the first two birds, we released them. The last one, I finally gave in and let him keep it with the intention of letting it go, but it didn't make it even 24 hours. Poor thing. So, we'll see if he actually catches a turkey.

Thief

I have a thief. I went out to the chicken coop this morning to feed the chickens. I turned around to look and see if I had any eggs where a few chickens have been laying them lately, not in their nest boxes. And what do I see? A SNAKE!!! At first, I was startled, but then I let my brain start to process what to look for. Do I see a rattle? No. Does it have orange stripes, like the poisonous coral snake? No. That's all I could remember for poisonous snakes. I was pretty sure it wasn't poisonous and I thought it looked like an oak snake or rat snake, so I breathed easier. I then stood there and watched my dumb chickens. They were curious about it and just stood way too close, in my opinion, to the snake and watched it. I thought, "you know, curiosity killed the cat or the chicken in this case."

Now back to why I have a thief. I am sure you can figure out why the snake was in the coop. I figured it might have eaten an egg. On closer examination, not too close, I see this egg shaped bulge in its middle. And I thought, "hey you stole my egg!!" The snake was trying to climb its way up and over a wooden wall. Here I thought, "can't you figure out how to get out, like the same way you got in. What, are you related to the chickens?" See previous post Chickens.

So I ran back into the house to retrieve my camera and a book to help identify the snake, hoping that the snake wouldn't get away before I got back to snap my shot. It was on its way out, but not before I took this picture.

It might be hard to tell, but in this picture, the egg is right where the snakes body turns around the wood on his way out of the chicken coop. I figure he might have a hard time getting through the chicken wire with that egg in his belly.

Before heading back into the house I opened my handy Florida's Fabulous Reptiles & Amphibians book and sure enough, I am correct, it is either a gray rat snake or oak snake, pictured here from that book.

I then looked through the venomous snake section of the book, and I was close to remembering all the poisonous snakes. I forgot about the copperhead. But I think if I had seen a copperhead, I would stay away. Pretty much anything with orange on it, I would stay away from. And definitely anything that rattled.

Chickens

I am under the impression that chickens really aren’t all that smart. We added on to our chicken coop so there would be plenty of room to make happy chickens and we also fenced off a portion for them to have day time play. In the morning we go out and open their little door to let them have some freedom out of their coop, it’s like recess. Well, a rooster flew his coop and can not figure out how to get back in. He has been on his own for several days now. Seems to me, he is not so smart if he can’t just reverse what he did the first time. He stands on the outside of the fence looking at all the other chickens. You know he wants inside with them, but he doesn’t attempt to fly back into the chicken run. I’ve tried to coax him into an open door, but he is too afraid of me to accept my help.

But not all chickens appear to be so mentally challenged. We at one time had a “pet” chicken. Not by our choice, we were chosen by the said chicken. As I’ve said before, we have had several batches of chickens that have gotten eaten by wild critters. One batch we had a couple of years ago was disrupted one night. When I went out in the morning to feed the chickens, I thought I had lost all of them, until a lone bantam came out of the woods. I could not figure out how this little chicken got out of the coop, but she did and she survived the attack. Smart chicken, right? Yes, but the story does not end there.

As the sole survivor of her flock, we did not put her back into the coop only to meet the same demise as her sisters. We let her free range and roost up in a chosen tree at night. Well, chickens are meant to be in a flock. They do not like to be alone and this chicken proved that. She started to incorporate herself into our family. She stayed on the back porch with the dog and cats. She ate the dog’s food. We even found her in the kids bathroom one night roosting up on the shower curtain. She somehow managed to get in when either the kids or dog came in (Dottie used to open up the screen door with her nose to let herself in). She even spent the night in the laundry room a few times without me knowing it until the next morning. She finally chose our front porch to be her roosting spot at night, right on top of one of my plants. I started calling her CC for Crazy Chicken.
CC and Dottie Dog on the back porch.


CC by the dog food, and she did eat it.


CC roosting on top of the shower curtain.


Quinn holding CC.


We eventually got more chickens and having “secured” the coop, reintroduced CC into the new flock. She even took charge in showing them how things were to be done. We let them out during the day and at night locked them back up in their coop. CC would lead them into the coop at night. It was so funny to see this little chicken leading them all in.

The story ends on a sad note. What we thought was a secure coop turned out not to be. A wild critter started getting in at night. She was the first to go as if she sacrificed herself for the other chickens. I was sad that she was the only one taken that night. Eventually we lost the other ones. This is why we started over with a new coop. It’s no fun to lose your chickens.

Family and friends told me I should write a book about CC’s adventures. I can see in my mind’s eye a children’s series about CC. But until then, blogging about her will have to do.

***UPDATE*** OK, I went outside to take a picture of the chicken addition and the chicken run. I was thinking as I took the first picture, “wouldn’t it be funny if that rooster was back in with the other chickens.” I took a closer look and sure enough, there he was. I couldn’t believe he was ruining my story! No, really, he just made it a happy ending. And I am happy that he is back in the flock.

Chicken Run. This is when I noticed that we again had three roosters back in the flock. They are in the middle behind the tree.

Three roosters by the door that lets them out into the chicken run. The middle rooster is the one that finally figured out how to get back in with the other chickens.

Dottie

Yesterday was a sad day for our family. Our beloved dog Dottie died. I wasn’t expecting to be so grieved by her passing, but I keep remembering her and tearing up. I’m also carrying guilt over how her life could have been better. You see, she came into our life BC (Before Children), when Dom and I had not even been married a year yet. So she and her sister Maggie had been our children and we spoiled them. Once our “real” children came, the dogs got a back seat in our life. I’m sure that is normal, but now that Dottie is gone, I feel we could have treated her better, that she deserved better.

It all began when Dom and I, along with Dom’s niece, Jessica, went into a pet store in Elmira, NY one day 12 years ago. We were not intending to buy a dog. We said that we wanted to wait until we had a place with a yard before doing that because at that time we were living above our restaurant in Watkins Glen, NY. Our back yard was a parking lot and our front yard was the main street in town. We didn’t think that would be fair for a dog. But you know the story, we went into that pet store and fell in love, with not one dog, but two! I had been wanting a Lab and Dom had been wanting a Dalmatian. The pet store had both! The lab looked so adorable with her blue eyes and white stomach. I still remember her in the corner of the store looking at me with those blue, blue eyes, and I fell in love. Of course Dom wanted the Dalmatian, but I remember holding her in the pet store, and she curled up on my lap and fell asleep. From then on out I was hers. She claimed me, and she never really was Dom’s dog, she was mine. She only ever wanted to be near me, everywhere I went in the house she was my shadow. And normally, she was just in my way and annoying (reason for my current guilt).

But on the way home from the pet store, we were discussing what to name them and Jessica came up with Dottie. We liked it and it stuck. She had wanted to call the Lab, Coco, but when Dom’s mom took one look at her she said, “no she’s not a Coco (a very popular name for Chocolate Labs), she’s a Maggie." And so she was.

It was hard having the dogs in the apartment, just like we thought it would be. Soon we bought a house just a block away from the restaurant that had a nice big yard for the dogs. That first year was an adventure with those pups. Maggie loved leather and ate every pair of shoes I owned that were made out of it. I had a set of books that had belonged to my grandparents. They were the one thing that I had wanted to take from their estate after my grandmother passed to remember them by. Well Maggie got a hold of one that had a leather cover and ate it. I still have the book, minus the cover (At least I thought I did. Upon writing this I went looking for it and can‘t find it. I‘m afraid Dom might of got a hold of it and tossed it thinking it was no good. Hmm…). It’s the one thing I miss from her puppy chewing days (and maybe more if I can‘t find it). Dottie on the other hand loved my canvas shoes. So between the two of them I had no shoes left except maybe the ones on my feet.

The house where we lived barely had any grass and the first winter we had the pups the weather was unseasonably warm. So any snow we got melted right away and so the ground was always a big muddy mess. We would put the dogs out and immediately upon their return inside we marched them to the bath tub to wash their feet. They got so used to this they automatically went straight to the tub when they came in. One time they came in and I didn’t need to wash their feet so I didn’t march them to the tub. But later I realized that they were “missing” and went looking for them. There they were both patiently waiting in the tub for me to come wash their feet. Precious.

Dottie loved bread! I could not leave anything on the counter in the bread family and leave her in the house alone and expect to come home to find it again. So I got into the habit of always putting the bread in a safe place. During writing this I was baking bread and as I took it out of the oven, I thought “I need to put this someplace where Dottie can’t get it before I go outside to help Dom with the chicken coop (we are adding on)." Of course the stark reminder of her no longer eating my bread came to mind, a sad thought. When Dom came home last night after I had already dug a hole for her and I hadn't covered her yet with dirt because I wanted to give him the chance to say goodbye, I went outside to be with him and looked in the hole and there was a piece of bread beside her. I said, “who put that bread in there.” I was of course thinking Anna or one of the kids did it, and Dom said, “I did.” So she is buried with one of her favorite things.

Dottie turned 12 years on June 10. Maggie’s B’day was just two days before and they were both born at the same kennel. They were truly sisters. We had to put Maggie to sleep about 4 years ago before moving here. So when Dottie was dying, I told her to go be with Maggie. Quinn asked me yesterday if dogs have spirits. I told him I really don’t know, but I hope she is running in an open field chasing a rabbit with dear old Maggie dog.

We love you Dottie Dog and we miss you.

***********************************Maggie too!

One More Thing!

Oh, I forgot to add this to my last blog! Thursday before we went to Boston, Ga, I ran out of water. My well stopped working. I called Dom at work to tell him we “had a problem.” He said he would come back home to take a look at it. In the mean time, I wanted to take a shower to get ready to go to Boston to see the magician at the library. What was I to do? I had no water. Or did I? Yes, I had a pool full of water (not the turtle pool!). I went outside in my bathing suit with my shampoo and soap and bathed with the chlorinated pool water!!! I’m glad my neighbors can’t see me! Dom came home, after I was all “cleaned” up and went to work on the well. He had it working again in a matter of minutes. Yea, Dom saved the day! Although I kind of wished he did that before my pool bath, but that’s OK, we still made it to see that magician and I only smelled a little like chlorine.

The cool thing about this (besides my husband being incredibly handy!!) is he already had the part to fix the well. He told me that about a month or so ago, he was at Lowe’s and he felt the “urge” to buy a pressure switch for the well. He started to resist this “urge” because he didn’t need a pressure switch. But he decided to listen to this “urge” and he bought the switch and just tossed it into the well house once he was home with it. He even thought about returning the switch, but did not and it turned out that this is exactly what he needed to fix the well. Isn’t God awesome when he “urges” us and we listen!

Springtime Babies

And from that title I know what you might be thinking and the answer is no, I'm not. I have many baby critters. I haven't had the time to blog recently, so here we go. I've discovered that blogging is time consuming. I’ve had things to write about, but not the time. Oh, I could ignore the housework and the kids to write something, but that’s not fair to them or our house. I could write at night after kids are in bed and the house is “sleeping” and doesn’t need my attention, but I’m tired after taking care of those other things. So what am I to do? I haven’t figured that out yet. But here is a nice long blog for those who have been anxiously waiting for my next exciting entry. Yea, right!

After I blogged in "Meet Our Critters" and showed a picture of our "raccoon" I kept referring to the raccoon as a HIM. A few days after that I realized that HE was in fact a SHE by evidence of her nursing teats. Well today she brought her two babies to our back porch! There she is with the two little ones cautiously coming up the steps. I had to take the picture through the glass door, so the quality is not so great.
In the picture below you can see where we, "um," scared 'em up a tree. They are cuties!

A few days ago, Quinn came running into the house to tell me he saw four baby armadillos. I ran out to see them and didn't get a picture captured. But a few days later I accomplished just that and here is one up close. Don't tell this little armadillo, but the raccoons were cuter!

The baby armadillos went into this hole in our "ditch." I never saw a Mama armadillo, so don't know if they are raised by their mother or not. I should probably look into that since I am a homeschooling Mama myself. But like I mentioned before about the time issue....

Here is the foot bridge that goes over our "ditch." We like to think of it as a dry stream! Quinn and Anna are going over the bridge.

Here is a sweet picture of Tiger and Princess taking a snugly catnap on our couch. More cute babies!
The other day, Quinn came in with this funny looking "bug." For the life of me, I had never see something so strange. It had such a large body and these tiny little wings. Well after a few minutes, Alex said, "Mom, its wings grew!"

As you can see in this picture below, it's not a funny looking "bug" anymore. It's a butterfly and it must have just emerged from its cocoon and therefore its wings were still wet. Once they dried, its wings "grew" and were in the correct proportion to its body and didn't look like a funny little bug anymore. We saw many more of its kind flying around that same day. It must have been "emerging day" for them. I did try to identify this butterfly in my "Florida's Fabulous Butterflies" book, but it wasn't in there. So I always jokingly say then, that it must be a Georgia butterfly since we live so close to the Georgia border.

Here are my baby critters enjoying themselves in the pool on Memorial Day.

A little closer view of Quinn, Ethan, and Alex. Anna did join them during the day with Dom and I. We have water babies!

Meet Our Critters

I would like to introduce you to the critters who live at our homestead. You've already met the chickens, so here are the rest.

Starting with Dottie Dog who is not looking too happy with the chick on her back (thanks to Quinn). She is our oldest critter, turning 12 years in June.

Next is Ashley Cat, who had three kittens eight weeks ago. The little one in this picture beside her is Princess with a gorgeous white belly and gray stripes running through it. Who I am happy to point out to you is not all black or all gray. Our previous litters of kittens have been solid black or gray, so I am tickled pink (a color of kittens that we don't have, yet) that we now have kittens that have markings and down below you'll see one that is even more colorful (for us, at least). In front of Princess, is Friskie whom you will meet next.

Here is a closer look at Princess and her stripes.

Here is Friskie. He has a sweet personality and is most seen with one of the kids toting him around. Of course, he looks just like his mother and is completely gray with no markings.

Our crown jewel, Tiger. Look, she has markings! The kids were having fun with her last night by placing a tiny hat on her head. Her look reminds me of Dottie in the picture at top. Do you think they are thinking "these darn kids?"

This is Scat. He is the big brother to these kittens, being born last year by Ashley. He is very skittish, unlike his mother who is very loving and gentle. I was worried how he would treat the kittens, but he has been great with them. Last night I enjoyed watching him play with Friskie, acting just like a big brother while wrestling around with him.


I mentioned in my profile that we have a raccoon who thinks he is part of our family, well here he is. He enjoys coming up on our back porch to eat the cat food and drink or wash his hands in the water bowl. The cats ignore him and will continue napping if he comes while they are snoozing on the porch. He also is not very scared of us when we go out while he is there. He will go up a tree that is right next to our porch and look down at us, waiting for us to leave so he can resume his supper.

Here is three more of our critters with Tiger. Last night Alex and Quinn brought Anna in on her "Princess Bed" as we like to call it while she was holding Tiger (right before Tiger got her picture taken with the hat on). You can see they are supposed to be getting ready for bed, since they do have PJ's on, but they decided to tote their sister around before brushing their teeth.

There is a story behind the Princess Bed. Last year while vacationing in upstate NY, we were in Walmart and Anna spied this Princess Bed. I was in another part of the store while Dom had Anna and a few other kids (don't recall which ones), so the story came from him. Anyway, Anna would grab this bed off the shelf and then Dom would proceed to put back the Princess Bed and Anna would then march back to get it again. This happened several times, until Daddy gave into his little Princess and bought her the bed. It really did say "Princess Bed" on the tag, except it is meant for a dog! But don't tell Anna, she loves her Princess Bed and her brothers tote her around on it like she is royalty.

Now I have shown you all our critters even the three child critters above. But I couldn't leave out our Ethan critter. Here he is on his 4th birthday (Nov. 11) last year. Isn't he a cutie?