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A buffet of carrots, green leaf lettuce and raspberries was laid this morning.
And before long there were two nibblers .
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Then there were three.
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And then things started to get interesting.
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Siblings.
Two legged or four, they rarely get along.
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Wild critters.
We love them, but damn.
This is our little kitchen porch, which is really just a covered landing.
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In the corner there’s a stand on which I place potted plants every year. It’s usually well balanced with one begonia on the top and one begonia on the bottom. Until the woodchucks discovered the bottom flower and started nibbling…
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Bottom flower was then moved to the middle shelf and middle shelf decorations were moved to the bottom.
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Which was fine…
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Until a chipmunk found the bird’s nest and decided he needed to deconstruct it.
And if that’s not bad enough?
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Something has started using our man cave/Barn Mahal porch as a toilet.
WTH?
😳
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We have a plethora of birds who visit our feeders.
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Flocks of starlings that devour suet and peanut nuggets in mere hours.
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We have cardinals and gold finches and rose breasted grosbeaks, orioles and sparrows and mourning doves.
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We also have a duck.
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A female mallard to be more precise, who comes early morning and late afternoon.
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I often wonder what the other birds think of her.
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And if they wonder why her bath is on the ground.
😉
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It was a relatively cool evening…. and even though I won’t be comfortably perspiration free until the mercury drops and the snow falls…. the husband and I headed out to the Barn Mahal porch for an adult beverage.
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I chose one of the local Wisconsin beers our neighbor brought back from her trip. And while the can was artfully decorated with birds in flight, the Central Waters brewing company’s mango wheat tasted nothing like mangoes and was a tad disappointing.
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But the baby chuckers were on the move and we enjoyed their evening antics.
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I believe there were five in this year’s litter…
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Though it could be six because they’re everywhere you look.
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With some of them head and shoulders above their siblings.
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😊
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Though we have not yet driven on our beautiful new driveway, we are walking on it.
Or rather, we humans are walking on it. Lord Dudley Mountcatten remains skeptical.
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Taking him out for a walk has meant strolling around the house on the grass and then watching him plant himself on the kitchen landing.
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Where he sits and stares.
Until yesterday…
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When he finally decided to investigate.
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Momma chuck was watching from the barn porch…
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As his Royal highness took to the tar.
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Not yet a fan of the new black expanse, His Lordship returned to the backyard and his favorite woodchuck burrow.
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This is a tunnel that runs under our bedroom bay window and I wish I was quicker with the camera because a baby chuck stuck his head out, spotted Dudley and let out a true whistle pig screech.
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As far as kitty entertainment goes, squealing woodchuck beats new driveway any old day.
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Because nonsense is everywhere I look.
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I have no desire to cuddle fake bread, but if that was real? Pass the butter baby!
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Fox and chucks are still munching happily together. Guess this is what happens when you lay out an ample backyard buffet.
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I’ve been getting hundreds of junk emails lately. Somehow, someone got my address and has been flooding me with spam. ‘Stuck poop’ is an interesting enough subject line but the fact that the word ‘solder’ is in the sender’s address?
Priceless.
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This is what’s left of the pretty yellow deer proof flower I planted out back. The deer may not like it, but clearly the woodchucks did .
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Ditto that for coneflower leaves.
🥴
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I had to dig up the phlox, lupine and mallow due to voracious woodchuck appetites….
So now they’re all crowding my deck table in pots.
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The neighbor I was cat sitting for returned from vacation and brought me a thank you gift from the Wisconsin Dells.
A bag of local beer! She knows I like sours and brought me a variety to try. Some of them are wonderfully bizarre. The lime green can? A pastry sour with peach, basil, graham cracker and vanilla.
Cheers!
🍺
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Our snow is gone and we’re beginning to see some green grass.
We’re also seeing a nightly herd of 10 who never get together for a group portrait.
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Young, old and the same harem master buck.
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They’re all kicking up their heels because spring is out there… somewhere.
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❤️
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Because I was waiting for my husband (to please stop talking and get back in the damn car!) the other day… I scrolled through my cell phone’s photo album all the way back to the beginning to find the very first pic I took.
(As of today, I have 16,999 photos there. I love technology!)
April of 2013.
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Meet Little Cheeper, a baby robin we found on our lawn after a storm. No nest or mother in sight so we adopted and raised him until he was old enough to release.
Did that little bugger poop? You betcha!
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We kept him in a cat carrier overnight, but let him fly around during the say to strengthen his wings.
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I didn’t want to hand train him as the goal was to set him free…
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But he was a sweetie who followed me all around the house.
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And helped me blog.
He was an adorable little guy, even if he did occasionally resemble a Starship Storm Trooper.
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We fed him canned dog food per the vet’s instructions, supplemented with live worms and fruit.
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Blueberries were his favorite.
All too soon (for me) it was time to let him go, and though I cried… it was the right thing to do.
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He was hesitant at first, but when he felt the gentle June breeze? He took off for the apple trees and never looked back. I kept my eye on him for a few hours as he explored our property.. but he took to the air like a pro and was gone to do what robins do soon after.
❤️
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I’m so glad winter finally showed up. Cold temps and snow! It warms my little menopausal heart, as well as cools off the rest of me.
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There’s the husband shoveling a path to the bird feeders so our feathered friends don’t go hungry. He’s such a good egg.
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We use this table as snow gauge. It piles up so perfectly, how could we not?
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Once the snow caps these boxwood shrubs, the birds take cover underneath. It drives Lord Dudley Mountcatten insane.
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Sunrise over the backyard reveals the deer superhighway.
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We don’t have virgin fresh fallen snow for long.
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❤️ 🦌 ❤️
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We have a group of sparrows that live to tease Lord Dudley Mountcatten .
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They perch on the deck railing and patio furniture… driving him absolutely insane when he’s on the back of the couch.
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So when we go outside for walkies? His Lordship is primed to hunt.
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Not that he ever comes close mind you. Those birds are too smart and too fast.
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But we chase them from bush to bush around the house and hope springs eternal.
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They know he can’t catch them, and seem to take great pleasure in the game.
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That sparrow is smiling. I know it.
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You can’t really tell from the picture, but trust me.. he was airborne here.
By the time we make a full trip around the house? They’re back on the railing…. and laughing.
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Lord Dudley on the other hand…
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🤣
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River's world..... 