This ‘n That Saturday

Not a whole lot going on this week at all. I’ve been mostly working outside, taking advantage of our gorgeous summer this year - I only have boring things to blog about…

• I’ve been enjoying some nice bonfires…

• Cocoa is definitely over her broodiness and is back to laying eggs

• I came home one day this week to find a couple of Mama turkeys and their broods hanging around the chicken coop. I wish they weren’t so shy and had waited around until I could get my camera and take some pictures…

• I am sooo happy with my garden this year. Right now seems to be cucumber season – I’ve been picking tons of the beauties. I’ve given away over a dozen and I still have bunches…

I’ve made a bunch of bread and butter pickles and have been eating a lot of creamed cucumber slices. I was going to make some cucumber sandwiches, but when I found the cream cheese in the back of the drawer in my refrigerator was dated November 2009, I put that idea on hold until I go grocery shopping…

• I’m glad I didn’t tear out my green bean plants – they put out a ton of new flowers and I’ve been picking beans left and right. I’ve frozen a ton for the winter and hope to freeze a whole bunch more. What a difference when there aren’t any Evil Baby Bunny Rabbits eating the stuff in my garden!

• I’m trying something new – someone told me that Brussels sprouts are easy to grow… my Mom likes Brussels sprouts, so I put in some seeds in some of the bare areas I have around my strawberry plants and around my watermelon plants. We’ll see what happens…

• I don’t know why I didn’t notice earlier, but I had a pumpkin plant mixed in where I put my watermelons…

Pretty obvious, huh? They’ve pretty much filled in the bed since this picture was taken. They aren’t producing anything, but they are keeping the weeds down in the bed,so I’m happy with that.

• The inspection for the Jillmobile is due. I have an appointment to get it done this week, but who knows how far it will get. I’m having ‘Check Engine’ light issues, which are always a pain and expensive, plus my ‘Service 4-Wheel Drive’ light went on. I am not anxious to find out how much this is going to cost me and how long it’s going to take to fix. Not having a second vehicle, I have to rent a car every day my truck is in the shop

• On the brighter side of things - I’m not a huge fan of Geico, but I do enjoy some of their commercials. I like Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel and couldn’t help but laugh at these – I thought they were great!

  

And then there was this one that I couldn’t embed – it’s short and definitely funny! I’ll bet the Hillstrands never saw insurance commercials in their future when they signed on to their TV show

Wild Things

I used to have a bat problem. I thought I had it taken care of, but they came back. They were back in my eaves :(

A face only a mother could love

This week I put bird netting around the eaves of my house. This allows the bats to fly out at night, but because they aren't as good flyers as birds, they can't navigate the netting to get back in. It seems to have worked, as I haven't seen any bats coming out of the eaves since the netting went up.

A bat heading out for the night - notice the full moon :)

This weekend, the project for me and my posse is to seal up the eaves so I can take down the netting and the bats (or starlings!) won't be able to get back in.

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The Stupid-Garden-Eating rabbits in my yard are getting bolder and bolder. As much as I try to scare them so they will stay away, they just don't scare.



This is what my corn looks like, thanks to them:



Every morning and every day when I get home from work, at least two of the three Stupid-Garden-Eating rabbits are hanging out by the chicken coop. For some reason, they seem to like the chickens.



Yesterday I had let The Ladies out for a little while and one of the Stupid-Garden-Eating rabbits hopped on over to the chickens. It was funny, because the chickens went over to see the Stupid-Garden-Eating rabbit - they've only seen the Stupid-Garden-Eating rabbits through their fence. It must have been too overwhelming for him, because when Stupid-Garden-Eating rabbit saw six chickens coming towards him, he took off like a shot. Maybe when The Ladies start free-ranging, they will protect my garden too :)

The exciting thing today tho', was when I got home from work and went to check on The Ladies, there was a Mama Turkey and little baby turkeys by the coop! I have never seen wild baby turkeys before - it was so cool. Mama Turkey took off pretty quickly when she saw me, but I think she must have had five or six babies with her. I would think that it was too late in the season for any kind of wild babies, but I guess not.

I see wild turkeys all the time in the farmers fields around here, but I rarely ever see any in my yard. Much less a mama with chicks. I really hope they come back!

The Ladies love to go out exploring!