
Do you see him?

They really do blend in.

But the little chuckers are in there.

Destructive…. but too damn cute to stay mad at.

Yes, you.

And your five furry little brothers.
(Two chucks in this photo)

Do you see him?

They really do blend in.

But the little chuckers are in there.

Destructive…. but too damn cute to stay mad at.

Yes, you.

And your five furry little brothers.
(Two chucks in this photo)
Flipping through O magazine the other day (I get it free, don’t judge) I realized Oprah and I disagree about a few things.
Most importantly, her list of must have items.
She might find these necessary and affordable, but I don’t.

Seriously? Bragging about your house manager Eddie and his cocktail mixing prowess is bad form. Especially when we peons are occasionally forced to drink cocktails from can.
Let’s forget the revolting sounding ‘flavor capsule’…. why in the world would I pay $350 to have a machine mix my drink.
My local pub’s bartender does a fine job and he never expects that big a tip.

$70 for a bottle.
To put alcohol and fruit in.
Call me classy, but a mason jar works just as well for a lot less.

Good grief.
$195 so my selfies can be better lighted?
I’m 55 and menopausal. No one wants to see that any more clearly than they already have.
Oprah redeemed herself slightly with this last pick.
It’s been a while since I shopped at Talbots, but I could probably rock a pair of these.

Cheers!
While relaxing on the barn porch the other afternoon…..

Our peace and quiet was disturbed by one very perturbed rodent.

Momma squirrel was back and chattering up a storm.
She was scrambling up and down the posts.

Running back and forth along the eaves.

And most definitely making her presence known.
Her memory is long.
And apparently all has not been forgiven.
In life, symmetry is rare.

So when you see a baby woodchuck….

In the woodshed?

You reward him with an apple.

Because he’s just that cute.
And he doesn’t always get along with his family.
I think we can all relate to that.
And on the ground.

It was a meet cute.

And apparently they hit it off.

She was a foxy lady after all.

A little snuggling.

A few nips behind the ear.

And viola.
A happy couple.

Or not.
What do I know?
The baby woodchucks are everywhere.
Behind the barn, in the rock wall, on the porch, under the deck.
Which means….

They’re going to be saturating my blog for a while.

Because really….

If there’s anything cuter than a mini woodchuck eating apples?
I don’t know if I’d survive it.

No, not the Hendrix kind.

The Japanese Iris kind.

They don’t last long.

But they sure are pretty while they’re here.

Especially after a rain shower.

At night.
Our resident buck with the felt covered mini rack has flown the proverbial coop, which is a shame, because I think most of you…. some of you?…. alright, at least one of you… was enjoying the fuzzy updates on antler growth progress.
But never fear.

Our old doe, who we call pregnant because she always seems to be, has last year’s progeny with her on a daily basis now.

So we’ll start from scratch.

Baby buck antlers.

At this point, they’re just little nubs that he keeps rubbing on trees and rocks.
And can you blame him?
The poor little guy looks like a four legged Frankenstein.
At least that’s what it looked like in the field across the street.

(Pardon the picture quality, it was far away and my zoom was maxxed out.)

I thought it was a dog…..

But it wasn’t a dog.

It was the often heard, but seldom seen coyote.

And while I recognize his necessary part in the eco system…..

I admit I was a little nervous seeing him cross the street….

And head down into the woods where our deer, fox, raccoons, skunks and woodchucks live.

But what made me even more nervous?

Was realizing there were actually two of them.
Don’t get excited, I’m talking about deer antlers.

And as I was filtering through my hundreds of shots of our buck the other day….

I thought some of you city people might get a kick out of this.

After the fall rut….. (read: deer orgy, where size does matter) ….. the buck will drop his then useless horns.
It’s a slow process that sometimes takes all winter. The blood supply is cut off and they slowly loosen. You often see bucks with one side hanging crookedly… and they’ll rub against trees, fence posts, picnic tables or whatever is around to knock them off.
When this happens, it does look a little bizarre.

And painful, though they assure me it’s not.

But how do the proverbial ‘they’ know?
I doubt anything has fallen off of them lately.

It certainly doesn’t look like fun to me.