Venture's Return

It was a couple of years ago when Jordan adopted a newly hatched orphan Canada Goose that Auntie Peggy, and Uncle Willie found abandoned on their driveway and brought over. Peggy and Willie named this little adventurer, "Venture", now every time the Boy spots a flock of Canada Geese, he refers to them as Venture Geese.

Up until this past Spring, Venture was a regular at feeding time and would call out to us if the corn we put out needed replenishment. As Spring had sprung, and Summer approached we saw less and less of Venture, and I could only fantasise that the pair of geese flying over the homestead and landing in the river every night was Venture.




Finally Venture came around no more, and we could only imagine he was off on a new adventure and living up to his name.

A couple of days ago, we experienced a extraordinary heartwarming occurrence when Venture returned to the homestead, and with him he brought along his new offspring.

For me it was a amazing and unforgettable moment when six Canada Geese approached me on the driveway looking for some corn.

Welcome Home Venture!

Scary Stories

When I was young, which was a very long time ago, I remember camping out with friends and telling scary stories. I remember being very scared when a neighbor called my mother and said to be sure to lock all your doors and windows because the town had just experienced a murder in our quiet, "Leave It To Beaver" neighborhood.

I also remember the legend of a old women who lived in the woods at a quarry near our house. We were not allowed to venture through the woods to this quarry, and after hearing that this strange women spent her time putting little sneakers on rattlesnakes, I had no desire to disobey my parent's rules on this one.

I recall sleeping with a light on after watching "The Wizard Of Oz," and I thought this movie with those flying monkeys and the green faced Wicked Witch of the North had to be the most terrifying movie, until I watched Alfred Hitchcock's movie, "The Birds".


We occasionally have scary story time just before bed, and I was informed early on, if the stories wake the kids with bad dreams at night, it would be me sitting up with them.

So our stories start with a flashlight held under the chin, and go something like this:
Once upon a time a long long time ago, there was a little boy, and a little girl who went for a walk in the deep dark woods. As the night sky grew darker and darker they found themselves far away from home and when they heard the Midnight Ghost Train coming they ran deeper into the woods. after a while they came across a small run down scary looking cabin, and in the cabin was a evil witch and when she tried to get them to come into her cabin for supper they started to run away, and they ran and they ran until all of a sudden they came face to face with the Ghost Train, and when they started to run from the Ghost Train, the boy stepped into, and got his foot stuck in a very large gooey pile of COW POOP, and when the train came upon them, it stopped, the door opened slowly, and suddenly, Casper the Friendly Ghost jumped out and gave them a ride home.

We each take turns at a version of this story, and I don't need to sleep with my light on.
Ok...maybe only a small nightlight!

Anaplasmosis

Never heard of it and at times I stumble when I say it out loud.
Anaplasmosis is another wonderful gift from ticks and it really knocked Kopper for a loop.

If you want a real tongue twister try reading the following description of the disease from Critterology.com

Anaplasmosis in dogs is caused by a rickettsial infection with Anaplasma phagocytophilum or Anaplasma platys, which are both obligate intracellular bacteria. Both of these bacteria cause a separate disease syndrome. A. phagocytophilum was previously known as Ehrlichia equi, and A. platys was previously classified as Ehrlichia platys.

Thankfully after weeks of antibiotics, and a lot more pampering then I ever receive from Jeanne and the kids when I am not feeling well, he now is back to his normal self.

Gotta Have One!

Not sure why I wanted one, maybe it is my love of the sea and all things nautical, or maybe I was in a folk artsy mood, or it could be my New Bedford family roots.
But the way I see it, if I want a whale for our front porch, I will have a whale for our front porch.

Yesterday while working on interior trim, and pushing myself in some extremely uncomfortable heat and humidity to finish the new playroom for the kids, I could not stop thinking how nice a whale would look on our porch.

I took a quick look online and immediately knew that there is no way I was going to spend $150 on a whale for our porch, not if I want to continue sleeping in the house.
Because I could not get this whale thing out of my head, I took a break from doing interior trim work and found my self a board and carved out my whale, so now I can officially say I have a whale on our front porch.

Now its back to trim work and painting, and I will do my best to ignore the vision I have of a six foot long wooden dragonfly with a Partridge Family bus color theme.

Flower Power

I am not sure when I first experienced the power of flowers, and the soothing effect their incredible colors and delicate shapes produce.
Maybe it was 30 years ago when I spent a bit of time tied down to a hospital bed with a broken neck. A friend brought in a purple Mum plant and I found myself staring deep into the beautiful purple petals. I found myself in a very relaxed state of mind when my eyes absorbed those intense colors. Or maybe that relaxed state of mind came from the 3 months of maximum allowable dose of Demerol they injected into my body every 3 hours.

There are very few things I would rather do than to work on and in my flower gardens, and this year I have started to build the flower gardens I have always wanted. Sort of my version of a cottage garden style.


Piece by piece I am slowly filling in my first perennial flower bed in front of the house and yesterday I was very excited when I found this stunning Cone Flower called,"Harvest Moon", I think peaches and cream when I look at it.

But one thing I am quickly realising, gardening with free ranging geese and chickens has become a giant challenge. I built a couple of large flower boxes at ground level and every plant I planted has been sat on, pulled out by the roots, eaten, and destroyed.

Because I enjoy free ranging poultry, I now find myself wracking my brain to come up with a solution to the problem. One way was to build and install flower boxes up and out of the reach of my flock of fat geese.


I have moved a couple of tons of rocks, many loads of soil, built and hung flower boxes, carefully planted some beautiful specimens, watered and dead headed the spent flowers, negotiated (begged) "Little Miss we are on a budget" for just one more plant this week. So it is very rewarding when a passerby stops and takes the time to tell me to tell Jeanne is doing a great job with the flower beds.

The Big B

I have waited a long time for the right time to hang our Big B.

After my mother passed away, and before we sold her house, I removed the Big B from her house and I thought I would hang it on our house once all the work was finished.
Because it is highly probable that the work to finish will continue over he next 36 years, I decided to give myself a little shot in the arm, and low and behold we now have our Big B.

Visitor With Attitude

When describing the Common Snapping Turtle, someone came up with, "belligerent disposition". I can not think of anything better.

Tommy and I came across this beauty searching for a nest site to lay her eggs, and I would say she was about 14 inches of attitude. I believe the state record for this extremely common turtle is approximately 18 inches and a bit over forty pounds.

For reasons I don't understand, and cannot begin to explain, In my younger days I would not have been able to resist capturing this snapping turtle. I have handled some extremely large snappers in my past, but as I get older and slower I appreciate the fact that I have managed to keep all my fingers for the past 50 something years.

Maybe when the boy gets older I will teach him the fine art of Snapping Turtle wrangling.
Or maybe not!