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The little chucks love their carrots.
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And there’s one baby who holds his high in the air.
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So high it tips him off balance.
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I never manage to get a picture of him falling over while nibbling …
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But trust me, it happens.
😊
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Every spring Maine has a pollen problem. The trees explode with new growth and yellow powder covers everything. And since winter hung on a little longer this year? The pollen season has stretched into summer.
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This was I-295 southbound a week ago.
Not fog. Not smog….
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Pollen. Choking the air.
Makes me glad I don’t have allergies.
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It’s rare, but woodchucks do climb trees. As evidenced by this photo I took of a youngster checking out our apple tree branch.
Even rarer?
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Capturing a picture of the young woodchuck kamikaze diving off said branch.
He was fine and wandered off shortly after the drop.
😳
Warning – little bit of grossness ahead.
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I bought a rotisserie chicken for a chicken and dumpling casserole recipe the other day. But as I started carving it?
Eewww …
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I can honestly say I’ve never seen whatever the hell this was before.
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A big blood spot on the breast and something disgusting that looked like pumpernickel bread in the meat.
What the hell!
Was it an infection? A tumor?
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Either way, it was disgusting and completely off putting.
Needless to say we ordered pizza that night.
🤢
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It isn’t often the entire woodchuck clan shows up for a nosh at the same time.
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But I managed to snap a few quick shots of momma and siblings vying for carrots the other day.
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A bit of squabbling took place among the kids.
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But no one got in mommas way.
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😊
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When the weather is perfect?
It’s time for walkies… with a nod to Barbara Woodhouse.
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But when you harness His Lordship? It’s more like sitties.
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And when he spots the red b*tch in a tree?
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It’s a half hour of reclinies.
On another note, WordPress continues with its sometimes pointed congratulations.
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Was that a compliment?
It’s getting hard to tell.
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Since Maine legalized marijuana use? Pot stores are everywhere…on every corner, in every little town. Rural hamlets that don’t even have a gas station will have 3 or 4 weed distributors. It’s bizarre. And with the influx of chronic suppliers I’ve noticed an increase in magic herb related products as well.
Hemp shampoo? I don’t know.
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But Grateful Dead gummies seems a good fit.
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Two baby chucks.
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Squirrel included for size reference.
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In posting about our storm door replacement, I realized I forgot to include the before and afters.
Before. ⬆️
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After.
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Before.
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After.
😊
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Momma chuck and one baby snacking on some carrots is a sweet sight.
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But when she turned around?
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All I could think of was that awful song from the 90’s… Baby Got Back.
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Even when another young chuck showed up.
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Yup.
Momma got back.
🤣
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Just when I was getting worried we hadn’t seen any baby woodchucks?
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One brave little guy followed momma out of the shed.
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At first he didn’t know what to make of the carrot buffet…
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And wanted mom to feed him.
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But momma chuck isn’t exactly a hands paws on parent…
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And let him figure it out for himself.
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Before long he was happily munching alongside her.
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Our new barn porch furniture has arrived.
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And it’s a whole lot bigger than our old ancient set.
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I can’t say I’m overly thrilled to have an outdoor recliner, but my husband sure is.
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You may notice that something is missing.
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And by missing, I mean on a table inside the barn.
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You’ll see there are five throw pillows. The set came with six. But the day after I set up the furniture and went outside to read?
There were four.
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I retrieved number five from under the barn.
Number six seems to be gone for good and I’m sure Momma Chuck is to blame. She’s been on an insane search for nesting material this year and it seems our porch furniture is irresistible.
😡
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So since I can’t have color contrasting pillows due to thieving critters, I’m thinking of adding a rug .
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Even she won’t be able to steal that.
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As seen down the road from our house.
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This giant skeleton was installed last Halloween and has been making me laugh every holiday and season since.
He was a pilgrim for Thanksgiving, Santa for Christmas, Cupid for Valentines Day, and a very large leprechaun for St Patrick’s Day, For Easter he wore colossal bunny ears and now that summer is near?
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Someone sewed him (her?) a seriously plus sized bikini.
🤣
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Proof positive tequila and online bumper sticker shopping are not a good mix.
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Momma Chuck.
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She takes her carrots seriously.
And speaking of chucks, we noticed our grill cover had been looking a little worse for wear…
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We have hellacious wind here and if it’s not tied down? It’s going to blow. If it is tied down? It’s going to flap.
So we figured this cover had seen one too many N’Or Easters over the winter.
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Until….
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Damn.
Stealing the seat cushion off the barn porch clearly wasn’t enough nesting material this year.
🥴
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This first one is slightly exaggerated, but not by much.
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And by the looks of things in the backyard?
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I think there are baby woodchucks in our future.
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Remember the days of mixed tapes?
I stumbled across a few of my old ones and had a flashback of sitting on the floor by the stereo manically timing the recording sessions.
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Some of the songs are questionable, (Richard Marx? 😳) but I’ll stand by the Fleetwood Mac and Neil Young.
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A lesson I learned early in childhood that still holds true today.
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Worst. Coffee. Advertisement.
Ever.
🥴
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The barn porch rotted wood replacement project continues.
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Or rather, it continued without me noticing and is now complete.
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(Yes, the left hand post still dips… but that’s a frost heaving, ever shifting Maine ground problem.)
And while my husband used similarly weathered boards…
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They still don’t match the existing and stick out like a sore thumb because he refused to replace the entire length of the boards like I suggested.
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This anomaly doesn’t bother my husband, but will drive me nuts for years to come.
And did you happen to notice anything else amiss on the porch?
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Perhaps the furniture that I had recovered a few years back at a rather large expense?
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A cushion is missing.
As in… gone.
We noticed the other chair cushion had been torn, or more precisely… chewed. And there was stuffing blowing here and there around the bottom of the barn so as crazy as it sounds, we think it was stolen.
By the critters.
Most likely the by Momma chuck who nests and has babies under there every year.
Ordinarily this would piss me off to no end, but I’ve been wanting to replace this set for some time so now seems as good a time as any.
😊
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River's world..... 