Hunting was not as productive this year. Yet for the first time in his hunting career Jay sighted, stalked, and shot this 7-pt yearling buck the Thursday afternoon before gun season ended in a fallow huckleberry field a tenth of a mile from our home.
The ancients were correct that this time of year is transitional. Just in the past week the weather has changed: snow twice, hard freezes. Those freezes mark the end of raspberries from the garden, ferns near the house, bright leaves on the trees.
The rest of the apples need to be picked, and the stems of wild rose hips for bouquets. The lst hydrangeas picked before the snow:
The girl spent more of her birthday money on a new haircut: a long shag. Almost half her hair was cut off but it is hard to tell, she has so much!
And I am readying for a trip to visit friends in a far off land, my first visit to the Mediterranean and the Mid-east. Pounce looked last night like he was waiting to be packed!
He has been joining Hawthorne and me on our morning walks.
The four-foot-long orange Corn snake, Goldilocks, who lives here and helps by eating rodents we catch, went on a field trip last week. A young lady from the local herpotology club picked her up from Jay’s office and then brought her back home after she had visited the local middle school. She is a perfect color for a Halloween visit!
When the young lady learned that we feed Goldilocks live and freshly dead mice and voles, she was alarmed. It seems to her captive snakes should be fed only freshly dead captive raised mice! When I inquired about the reason for her belief, she said that “wild rodents carry disease and may bite the snake”!
Umm. Yes. We think that God designed snakes to deal with bites and germs.
Now I am assuming, which is not a wise thing to do, but it is to make a point. Why would a good Darwinist not want a snake to be challenged by live prey? Survival of the fittest, and all that.
For my part, I think it is cruel to keep a snake in a tank all its life and never be able to constrict its own prey, never able to hunt, however artificial it is in the confines of the tank, never to eat “natural” food.
For a similar reason I take Goldilocks outside and let her slither around. Under observation. Perhaps that is not “safe” either, but, gee whiz, life is not all about safety, even for a pet snake!
The forefinger largehairy caterpillar eating on the Milkweed fell off the plant I picked so it did not come home to be photographed. It sure was not a monarch larva. It was a caterpillar.
The red darning needle dragonfly was rattling under a piece of grass. Freeing it, holding it in my hand, wondering if I should set it free or keep it for cards. It was a spectacular bright red. It flew off just then and I was happy the decision was made for me.
The Black Swallowtaillarva went back out into the dill and promptly disappeared. It overwinters as a pupa so perhaps it got ready for winter.
We found one Katydid still alive and kicking in the long grass verge on the side of the corn field.
Earl and Merle Squirrel have increased their range dramatically. They now go over the lower roof to the west side of the house, they meet us at the door, and this afternoon Earl was on top of the freezer in the back room; I gave him a chestnut, got hold of him and he jumped onto the door and up over the roof.
Jay took Isabelle hunting Saturday and they came home with one goose.
And while we were cleaning up the garden, we thought maybe the answer to higher food prices is to feed out the turnips. One of these would feed a family for a couple days. Or even longer if no one likes turnips! Turnips as large as your head.
Yesterday morning stepping outside in the predawn was like stepping into a refrigerator. There were still a few intrepid insects singing. A couple early birds. When the sun came up the crows, squirrels, chipmunks all started their morning calls. We walked to within 100 yards of a buck feeding on the corn left in the field. For breakfast: my mother’s homemade blackberry jelly on home made toasted bread.
Yesterday during the day the east cornfield was harvested. It was clear sky all day and into the evening. I harvested the rest of the peppers and most of the tomatoes. Jay covered the red raspberries with a tarp. I cut dill. And while doing so came upon the first (for us to see) Swallowtail larva of the year.
The dill plant with it attached was brought into the house. The green-red blown hydrangea blossoms were picked and hung.
The Monkshood was just coming into bloom:
Easy to see where Aconitum got its common name, eh?
This morning was like standing in front of the open freezer. The grass and gardens were covered by thick white frost. No insects singing. Birds were, though, in a frantic “Thank God for the sun” kind of way. Geese were landing in the newly harvested field. We walked fast. How did the spiders work so quickly since the field was harvested yesterday to string innumerable filaments of fine silk down low to the ground amongst the stubble? And what happened to the spider which had strung a heavy thread of tough silk right at head height on one corner of the field?
Isabelle discovered a large nest of yellow jacket waps in the ground while she was shoveling manure this summer. Jay killed a colony dug in the blueberries.
Then this week we went down to see the gigantic nest made by the white-faced hornets in a maple tree behind Cherry’s shed. We call them white-faced hornets. Their real name is Bald-faced hornets.
While gathering maple seeds from a different tree for the squirrels, behold, another large nest:
Those photos, though poor quality, are an indication of my increased lemming-like-ness. They were taken with a phone. And I actually was able to download the photos to the computer.
with flowers and Monarch larvae. A variegated Physostegia, also called Obedient plant because supposedly it will stay where you carefully bend its stem in a bouquet.
A few Monarch larvae:
It has been in the high 4o’s F the past few mornings. Jay told me it will only get in the high 60′s later this week. The flannel sheets are back on the beds.
The Sweet Autumn Clematis and fall Cyclamen are both in bloom also.
Earl and Merle are weaning themselves. They only wanted milk twice today, between 4 and six ml. apiece. They each weighed about 150 grams this morning. About 5 ounces. They are becoming more vocal. And have personalities. Jay made them a box.
