Black Racer

According to the CT DEP, "Racers are a declining species within the state, having disappeared from many areas".

It doesn't help the species when something bites off their heads. This one would have measured about 5' if it was still intact.
I found these remains out in the field, and I am no CSI, but the wounds made me think a hawk tried to take this one. We do have some Red Tails nesting in the area, and they have been spotted carrying snakes.

A few years ago when Eric, 'our plumber' was working on the house, he told me he went to reach for, what he thought was a 10' piece of black pipe he had in the back yard, and it moved.

This was a beautiful animal, and I really prefer to find them alive.

Future Scientists and Inventors

When I was in grammar school, I entered the school science fair. I remember it involved a snail, some water plants, and a small glass bowl. Today I can be honest! I only did it because I wanted a pet snail.

Tommy and Jordan entered projects in Vinton School’s Invention Convention and Science Fair. Jordan did an experiment testing incandescent vs. compact fluorescent lights on plant germination. I worked with her on this project and my main goal was to teach her how to do an equal and fair evaluation.
Tommy did a display about dinosaur fossils. We made some footprints in Plaster of Paris and destroyed one of Jeanne’s new cake pans. With him my main goal was to do as little damage to the house as possible. I get such a chuckle hearing the boy pronounce “extinct.” I believe it is something like “onstink”

All the kids are very proud to be participating in this event. You can see it in the faces of each one. When you give them a “Great Job” their eyes light up a bit.
I liked the Volcanoes, The Doggie Slicer, The Egg In A Bottle, Miranda’s ‘OOBLECK’ and I really liked Nibbles The Cat.

All the kids that participated in Vinton’s ‘Invention Convention and Science Fair; did a outstanding job, and to me, it doesn’t matter what the project is, “it is all about the participation.”
Mrs. Barrows should be proud of her young scientists and inventors, and next year, I hope they have a Snail Project.

To the 2nd grade student who extracted DNA from a Grapefruit, when I was in the second grade, girls were gross, frogs were cool, and I don’t think I could tie my shoes.
Great Job!!

Attack Geese

A pair of geese decided to build a nest under the back porch. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons this was not a good idea, so we moved the 5 eggs to the incubator with our Guinea Fowl eggs.
Reasons,
1- Geese are large, strong birds. When protecting a nest they can be intimidating and vicious. Kopper is a 100lb Labrador Retriever and the geese did not hesitate to let him know he was trespassing. If they had teeth, he would have lost a nice chunk of skin.
2- The kids could be the next victim of a Ganders sneak attack. They already ask to go out the front door instead of the back. I think being attacked by a goose, could land a child in therapy for years.
3- A raccoon, skunk, or possum would eventually get the eggs. It never fails. I had a favorite Muscovy duck nest in a open shed. I put on a door and closed it up every night. I forgot to do it once, and both duck and eggs disappeared. It never fails.
4- We are raising this porch with the rest of the house, and I would hate to take out extra insurance to cover death by goose. Our Fed-Ex driver sits in the driveway and toots the horn if the Guinea fowl are in the front yard. I tried to explain they only eat UPS drivers. I don't need contractors afraid of my backyard.

So the geese will hatch in the house and we will give the job of "foster mom" to Jordan. At least she won't attack me. I hope!

FossiI Tip

Tip of the day.
When using Plaster of Paris, to make a dinosaur fossil for a school science fair project.

Never use Mom's new cake pan!

Hellgrammite

This creature could be the source of nightmares for some.
The Hellgrammite is the larval stage of the Dobsonfly. This one is about as big as they get and is the largest I have seen.
Dobsonflies spend the first few years in the larval stage as Hellgrammites. Once they pupate they only live 7 days.
Hellgrammites live under rocks at the bottoms of lakes, streams and rivers, and prey on other insect larvae.
They are a prised as bait by trout fisherman and I remember catching much smaller specimens during my fishing days.

They also are a good indicator of a healthy stream, and if I plan on staying healthy, I better remove this one from Jeanne's kitchen.

Not Sure Why

We received 35 Guinea Fowl eggs from Willie. We loaded our trusty, Hov-A-Bator Incubator and after 26 days we will have a new flock of Guinea keets. If all 35 hatch, and if you add the 10 we have already,

10+35= enough noise to rupture a ear drum,
= enough noise to drown out the loudest train,
= enough noise to turn neighbors violent,
= enough noise to make outside conversation impossible.
= enough noise that the Hubble Space Telescope would pick up the sound waves leaving earth.

They are said to do a excellent job eating ticks and other insects, and I once was a true believer.
I now have my own theory on tick control.
They don't eat enough ticks to make a difference. Instead the ticks are driven off the property, and vacate the surrounding areas to escape the noise.

So we will keep some of the 35 that hatch, and give some to people we don't like much.

Female Intuition

I wake up in the morning, I make a quick phone call, and I say to Jeanne, "I have to run a errand" Her instant response, " what are you bringing home now, and is it a indoor or outdoor critter?"
I do not know how she did that. How did she know I was bringing a critter home? She and Jordan laughed when I said, "maybe I am going out to meet my other girlfriend."

Well she was right, may I introduce, Jesse Katsoplis, the Fire Bellied Toad. Jordan is on a kick naming critters after characters from the TV show "Full House". Jesse was the pet of a 11 year girl from Coventry, and came with the name Fatso. I do not think anybody will be offended with the name change.
And for the record, I wanted to name it Margaret.

I need to know, how is Jeanne able to read my mind?

Running A Trapline

We decided to set out some Havahart traps,("live box traps") so that we can see some of the creatures of the night. We set out a small trap with the hope of a Weasel or Mink, and a large trap with the hope of anything but a SKUNK. We baited both with a chunk of bluefish.
Now before school, early in the morning, we bundle up and venture out to check our traps, and we will check them once in the evening.
The kids appear to enjoy our latest endeavor.

When I was a youngster, there was the one time, while staying with my buddy at the Cape, we caught a skunk before church. His dad was not amused sitting next to us during the service.

I promise, I will not send them to school smelling like a skunk.

NO TV WEEK

I will admit it.
I am a TV junkie!
If I had my way, we would have a TV in every room, including the bathroom. I would even mount a TV on my lawn tractor, and put one in the chicken house.
Some might think that man walking on the moon was a memorable experience for my generation. But to me, it is the advent of Cable TV. This rates up there with the invention of electricity. I remember the days of black and white TV, 3 stations, and no remote control.

The school sent home a flier, This is "NO TV WEEK," Or you could say, it is torture the TV junkie in your house week.

The kids do not have a problem with it. I think they would be ashamed to go to school and admit they watched TV, so they don't even ask for it, and now I live with the TV police. I must sneak around to get my quick fix of TV time. I get up early in the morning and secretly watch the morning news. The first sign that the kids are waking up I immediately switch it off and pretend I was busy with something important. The second I drop them at school, I rush home and turn on all the TVs in the house, so that my TV starved brain will get some relief. I tried to sneak in some late night TV when I thought they might be sleeping, but when I heard the boy say, "do I hear a TV on?" for a moment I thought it was my fathers voice from the great beyond.

During No TV Week, the school offers evening events up at the school. The first night was bingo night. One of the prizes, was a coupon to have lunch with the Principle at Vinton School, Dr Palmer.
Unlike when I was in school, and you did everything you could to avoid being anywhere near the Principle, Tommy wanted to win that coupon. He came home from bingo so excited because he was going to have lunch with Dr Palmer. I asked him what do you think you will talk about? He thought for a moment, and replied, " my behavior?"

My understanding is, the lunch went very well, they did not talk about behavior, Dr Palmer spilled yogurt on his shirt, and the boy has a new best friend that he plans to eat lunch with more often.

And Jordan? She loves to read. She always has a book in hand, and she knows I am taping Full House reruns for her.

For Me.... Jeanne is at work, the kids are at school and I have the remote control in my hand.

Life is good.

Unknown Gem

In my quest to know our land, I try to identify the native wildflowers.
I can not identify this flowering little gem. Someone might tell me, it is the family "Sisyrinchium," but that is like saying "Malus domestica", instead of "apple," and not telling me it is a Macintosh or Granny Smith. I need a common name. It is growing at the edge of the field near the stream.

Marsh Marigold

Trout Lily

It takes seven years before the tiny Trout Lily blooms.

A Different Type Of Nest

Today we set out our experimental snake traps/nest. The word trap may not apply because the snake can come and go.
We buried a plastic nursery pot in the ground with the holes just above the surface. We filled the inside with leaves, grass, soil, and small sticks.

The idea is, the snake will enter when searching out a nest site. Some snakes lay eggs and others give live birth. In both cases they look for the same type of environment our nest sites provide. Then we check them from time to time in early Summer.

We set out 6 so far, and Jeanne can hardly wait to help us check them.

Summer Tease

Early April and we had a enjoyable, brief, and very welcome preview of summer. The temps hit a record high of 93 degrees.

The high temperatures allowed me to turn our 2 African Spurred Thighed Tortoise out to pasture. They absolutely love grazing and the freedom of their large Summer home.

The larger of the 2 weighs in at 27 lbs, and when they reach their his full size, ( not in my life time} they could weigh in at over 220 lbs.
As soon as the kids are strong enough, it will be their chore to carry them in on cold nights.

And then it will be their children's chore. and maybe their children's-children's chore.
Now that is one way to be remembered by decedents.

Flying Flowers

I do not remember when I witnessed the spectacular beauty of the Bluebird for the first time. I know it was sometime in my late 20s, or sometime in my 30s.
From time to time, over the past 25 years, I have built Bluebird boxes for others, never needing one myself.

That all changed when I moved here. We enjoy Bluebirds year round, and over the years they call our Bluebird boxes home.

I treasure their beauty, and consider them a true gift.

Bufo

Eastern American Toad,(Bufo a. americanus).
I love the name Bufo. I do not know why someone stuck this animal with the name Toad.

I once was in a remote, but nice bar in Costa Rica, and I could not speak spanish and the bartender did not speak english. It was just he and myself in the bar that night, and both of us chatting away, when he mentioned the word "Sapo", he recieved no response from me. Next he said, "Bufo". I knew what he said, and he knew I knew. So he pointed behind the bar, and sure enough, there was,(Bufo marinus) The Giant Cane Toad. We don't have Cane Toads in Connecticut, which is probably a good thing. They can get big enough to eat a small Volkswagen, and people have been known to lick them for the hallucinogenic experiences.

We do have 3 Species of toads, The American Toad, The Fowlers Toad, and the endangered Eastern Spadefoot Toad.
Here on the homestead we have an abundance of Toads. So many Toads, I at times have been forced to halt mowing areas because of all the frogs and toads hoping around.
I don' expect to see a Fowlers, but I will keep a eye out for the Eastern Spadefoot.

I will be sending 8X10, framed prints of this to my sister.

Let The Sunshine In

A whole lot of folks in
NEW England are currently struggling with the aftermath of some of extreme serious flooding, not seen in the lifetime of many.
As someone who has first hand experience with the damage created by a 100 year flood, and many smaller, but powerful floods, I really feel for them.
The total hopeless feeling that fills you when you watch everything you own, and have worked a lifetime to build and acquire is underwater, can be emotionally overwhelming.
To them I can only say, FEMA has always been great to me, it just takes time.

Considering what others in the region are coping with, and because we relentlessly fought this one, we got through with only 3 minor issues, One, was my sleep, or lack of it. Two, we had some sump pump issues, and without a sump pump we would have filled the basement with water. Jordan thought that might be cool if we could let the ducks swim down there. Spending $105 on a backup pump was what allowed me to finally relax a bit and sleep. Three, Jeanne lost her living room. It was not lost to flood damage, but it is currently filled with all my tools and other items from the basement.

Family and friends called often, and I always knew all I had to do was pick up the phone and anyone of them would have been here in a second to help.
Ron and Wendy offered us a place to stay if we should get wiped out, and that was very comforting when the thought of losing your home races through your mind, and you have 2 kids that need a safe and warm home. I thank them for that offer, it took a load off my shoulders knowing it was there.

Peggy and Willie spent hours here helping to empty the basement, and securing the rest of our belongings in the event the water rose up into the house like it did during the flood of 2005. It was very comforting to have them here. And when I was exhausted, their son Bill and his pal, Cameron arrived and took on some heavy loads. They both are built like rocks, and it was great to have that amount of strength here.

Peggy And Willie took Jordan, Tommy, and Kopper home with them on Monday night, the most critical night, and that was a major relief to both Jeanne and myself.
I am sorry Dale, he snapped something in his back loading a canoe to bring here, and I think he might still be recovering, and my mouth is starting to heel from the burns I received when Peggy tried to feed me what she called cooled tea for my cold.

I live with 3 amazing troopers. Jeanne, Jordan, and Tommy, (aka: the Boy). We all love it here in spit on the flooding. They take the entire situation in stride. When the kids got home from school Monday, they immediately went to work emptying the basement and doing whatever was asked of them. I have never seen such hard work and was impressed, and very proud of both of them.

Jeanne is my Rock, and going through these floods with her by my side lowers the stress level. Plan for the worst, do all we can to protect what we can, and what happens-happens, and we will get through it. That is her attitude, and she keeps me strong.( sorry about posting a picture of your living room)

And one finale thing that helped me. During my constant monitoring of weather, and river related web sites. Tuning into Channel 3 live Doppler, and while watching the weather channel. They had a story about Tornadoes. I would pick everything getting wet, over everything you own being shredded into splinters.

Keep things in perspective.