Critter Day

These were taken over the last few days. Here's my local woodchuck. They often take very human poses, and this one was standing upright for quite a while before s/he saw me and scooted away. Just needs a vest and tophat!

This is author friend Jean with one of her chickens that helps her sell books. This is Jelly.

Here's a Margined Blister Beetle. There were a bunch in the rock garden. I'm not sure what they were eating. Web says they eat alfalfa, but probably other things too. If you squish them the "juice" can give you a blister.

This is one of the red meadowhawk dragonflies. But it's smaller than the ones I usually see. Not sure which of the meadowhawks. This was also in a flower bed.

Here's the best one, but I couldn't move fast enough to get the best picture. There was a very large spider climbing up a rock in the rock garden. But it didn't look right. Then I realized that the spider was dead and it was being carried by about 5 ants that were probably taking it "home" for dinner. I don't think I've ever seen ants capture anything this large. You can see one ant hanging on the lower leg of the spider and one pulling at the very top.

Today, I worked my little part-time job, did some volunteer stuff and some gardening. Took a road walk after dinner- 4 miles.

Miles walked in 2026: 273.1
Onekama Challenge: 84.9 miles

See Ruby Meadowhawk

Salad for the Baby Charlie?

I did work in the rock garden a little more today, but I'm going to wait on the report. I got sidetracked with other things that needed to be done.

Did I tell you about my baby woodchuck, er charlie? (My friend, Chuck, prefers that friends not take his name in vain.) A couple of weeks ago, there was a baby woodcharlie hiding under the edge of a blue tarp on the porch. I scared her off into the pine trees. On the way, she ran the gauntlet of all my wire cages around my plants. Not that she went around the cages which are primarily to deter deer. No, she just ran through them as if it were her own personal fun house. I have no idea if it's a girl or boy, but I'm going to call her Charlotte.

Last night she was camped in the flower bed. See her hiding?

Hiding turned out to be a big joke. I yelled at her and told her to scram. I clapped my hands and stamped my feet. Here's what she thought of all that. No, her head isn't striped. Those are shadows. I had to actually come at her with a stick in my hands to get her to run away.

Segue to today. I had to do errands. Blech. But one of them was to go to Tractor Supply and use a $10 credit before it expired. I figured I'd roam the aisles until I found something I wanted. Who knew they had plants? The remains of their inventory was on a clearance table in front, with gallon plants marked down to $1 each! Now, the selection wasn't huge, but hey.

I won't show them all today, but I got 6 perennials and 5 annuals for $1.06. (Had to spend OVER $10 to use the card.) At basically "free" I'm willing to add a little color to the front flower bed. There are 4 New Guinea Impatiens (will tolerate sun), and in the other pot there were 3 Gazanias and a surprise Coleus. None of the plants were super end-of-season stressed. There is still plenty of summer left that these should have nice blooms.

Well, that is, if I can keep Charlotte from eating them. She (or perhaps her rabbit friends) have eaten all the leaves off the wild violets. This isn't a huge problem. They will come back, but I was thinking they'd make nice foliage cover instead of bare dirt. Not if they are all stubs. Hmmm.

So, I had to deploy more wire cages to cover all the new plants. I now have so much wire draped over plants it's a little ridiculous, and I'm running out of scraps of wire. I'm considering a low fence that will keep Charlotte and her friends completely out of this bed. I have a roll of 4-foot chicken wire, but I decided I wasn't willing to have everything look quite that ugly. And it would be really difficult to get inside to weed. I've priced 2-foot wire, and it's not bad. I can still cover the hostas inside, which is the main thing the deer eat, and 2-foot should keep out the small critters.

My other big project of the day which kept me out of the garden somewhat is that I've made the final transition to the computer David gave me last year. I've really pushed my luck keeping the other computer alive. It's way past time to switch. I'd already gotten all the software updated and all my online accounts synced. Today, I did one more backup of all the files on the old computer and I'm blogging from the new one.

Whew. My usual MO is that the current computer crashes, and then I'm paying someone to try to recover things since the last backup. So I get a couple of points for doing it right this time.

See Snaky/Sneakey

My Woodchuck Again

  I'm sure most of you are tired of woodchuck pictures. Especially my friend Chuck, who takes offense at the name and calls them woodcharlies. You can also go with whistle-pig.

But except for the fact that they eat my plants and dig holes where I don't want them (oh, yeah... and caused such havoc with the well pit), I think they are incredibly cute. I'm pretty sure this one was looking right at me, even through the window.

Guess she doesn't think much of me!

I got some of the things done that I had planned for today. I woke up tired, and actually fell asleep again. Did get my quota of editing done after I woke up for the second time, and then I wrote a chapter. That is all.

See Waking Up Hungry

8.5 Hilly Miles

  Cathy and I went for a hike today. We were in the Udell Hills section of the North Country Trail. This is quite hilly, but it's very hard to take pictures that show it. The brown just stretches out flat in a picture, and the sense of elevation change is lost. In this picture, you can at least see some of the curvature. This actually overlapped slightly with what I hiked on Thursday.

Worst news of the day- someone has stolen the NCT emblem that is supposed to be at the top of that post. The bolts are removed and the sign is just gone. People can be so selfish.

The pileated woodpeckers have been tearing the bark off dead trees. Could be porcupine, but several with similar damage higher up seems to confirm the woodpeckers.

Last year's squaw root. Guess I showed you some from this same section a year ago. Apparently it grows profusely there.

North Country Trail miles for 2021 is at 163. Cathy's miles toward Hike 100 is at 30.

North Country Trail, Manistee County, MI, Skocelas Road north 4.25 miles and back for a total of 8.5 miles

In other news: I've been editing like crazy since I got home. And... look who woke up. Ms. Woodchuck. This is a whole month earlier than my first sighting of her last year. Of course, she could have been awake, and I just didn't notice. She looks fat and sleek this year.

See Udell Fire Tower

Just Chillin'

 
I'm still with Ester, and we mostly concentrated on not doing very much. That was perfect for me! I did take a little 4-mile walk around her country block. A lovely pastoral scene



I hope the kids are coming back to put the pony away. Meanwhile, it was waiting patiently.



And this smallish woodchuck was keeping an eye on me.



I have more pictures from the trail for you, but may need to get home with my books to nail down some identifications first. I think there is another day of chillin' ahead.

However, I am sort of beginning to think about it being time to get my head back into author mode. Sort of. I read the first five chapters of The Lonely Donkey to Ester, and she likes it. That may motivate me.

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Waking Up Hungry

 
I rarely wake up hungry, and today was no exception. However, as I was carrying the laundry basket to the clothesline, I noticed brand new diggings in the area where Ms. Woodchuck lives.

Pretty soon, Om called me downstairs to see her. Have you ever seen such a thin woodchuck? It seems awfully late, but the fresh dirt piles and the lack of fat make me wonder if she just woke up for the spring.


After standing up so nice for me, she went back to four paws and gave me the evil eye before scurrying down the burrow.



In other news: I did promotional stuff. I did laundry. I walked to the P.O. and the bank. Then I went and bought some cranberry juice. (I might be getting a little infection- we'll see if I can knock it out this way). And I worked on the current puzzle. It was a beautiful day- I wore shorts!

See One Cute Reason I Gave Up Gardening

Sky and Shy

 
I'll start with last night's sunset. These are always gorgeous over the lake, but I have a hill. The lake is seven miles away. Still, not shabby.



And the moon this week has been so bright. I wish the camera would capture the colors I could see. It wasn't quite dark yet, and the sky was a deep blue behind the clouds. If I knew how to use the camera settings better I probably could have gotten it.



This is the same woodchuck I showed you in May. She's still living by the house foundation. You can see she's getting pretty old, but not thin! And I dumped a bunch of stuff in the compost bin today, so that won't help her reduce.



In other news: I've been working on stuff for the Books Alive! event all day. Well, I did manage to write some this morning. That's not going to happen tomorrow. Lots of last-minute stuff to do.

	See One Cute Reason I Gave Up Gardening
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One Cute Reason I Gave Up Gardening

 
Look who owns the back yard. S/he was enjoying dinner. I was thinking I'll need to cut the grass soon.



She saw me and ran for her burrow (back by the house foundation... darn... that's not so good). Look at the cute little hand.



How's this for a "What do you want? This is my space" look?



In other news: worked on taking notes from the journal recording in the morning, and then kept banging away on my worklist all afternoon. Doesn't look like I did anything, but I keep trying.

There's going to be a fun activity coming up this weekend. Stay tuned.

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Breakfast and Dinner

 
Breakfast for the woodchuck. S/he was actually pretty cute, pulling stems in to nibble them.



Breakfast for me. Bran muffins.



Dinner for the deer. Something in those weeds (that need mowing). But she had a nice dinner on Tuesday. Ate the buds off ALL my day lilies. Not a quality part of that day.



Dinner for me. Bran muffins. (I had some help - I didn't eat that many all alone, although I probably could have.)



In other news: I went on the Mason County Garden Tour this afternoon and have a ton of pictures. I'll start showing you those tomorrow. We have some very nice gardens here for a mostly rural area.

	See Chuck Dives for Cover
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Around the House

 
This post is really full of odds and ends. I still have more plants from Ohio and Alabama to show you, but there were a couple of cool finds at home, and I also got another really nice birthday gift. So, you get odds and ends.

These towels are a gift from hiking friend, Loren. What you need to know is that she made these. She did all the machine embroidery on them and the applique. You should see the quilts she makes! Nice gift!



Next I have a very poor picture, but at least I got a picture. This was taken through my kitchen window screen. I opened the door and could see something dark in the grass but not what it was. I closed the door and got my camera, extended the lens, and took this picture. But when I opened the door again to try to get a better shot, it flew away.

It's a common black swallowtail (male). That said, any time I see a swallowtail butterfly is a good day. They are big and showy, and I see the tiger ones much more often than these. The link below is to a much better picture of one also taken in my yard, six years ago. Not sure I've seen one since.



Now, let's talk about field guides. I have a brand new one for butterflies of North America, by Kenn Kaufman. When we were at Butterfly Ridge in Ohio, I asked which guide the owner recommended, because I don't particularly like the ones I have. He said this is the only one he sells because it's the best. Works for me. I now own one.

Of course, there was also an amazing one for caterpillars, but I had to limit my spending to one.



Finally, I doubt he/she was watching the butterfly, but also in the yard, at the same time, was this handsome woodchuck. You know that all he wants to know about plants is how many to eat.



I'm closing in on the identity of one of my mystery plants. You may see that tomorrow.

In other news: wrote a chapter in The Bigg Boss, worked at Shagway Arts Barn all afternoon. They open for the season next week. I mostly cleared trails and lugged fallen branches from beside the driveway. Earned my supper!

	See Black Swallowtail
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Who's in the Tree?

 
Although I uncharacteristically started the day on 8.5 cylinders, work was long and stressful, and I have to be back there at 9 am. Going to do an easy post. And funny too, I think. You can laugh or not.

Instead of heading for cover, the woodchuck in my side lawn climbed a tree when he saw me! He looks fairly annoyed, too.



That's all for today!

	See The Local Marmot
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