Early Morning Invasion

Jeanne may disagree with me concerning the events from last week, but right or wrong this is how I claim to remember how this all unfolded and sadly a good nights sleep was removed from my life.

It was the early morning hours when a black truck with dark tinted windows appeared through the thick fog in front of our house. As I peered out the window and attempted to focus my sleepy eyes on this mysterious black truck. The combination of thick fog and the minimal amount of daylight made it impossible to identify this frightening breach of our peace and solitude.

While the truck idled in front of our home, indicating they possibly planed a hurried departure, I could hear both doors open, and suddenly and quite to my surprise out jumped four intimidating Ninjas. Dressed in black from head to toe, including faces covered by a black silk cloth, they with great speed and precision emptied the contents of a cage located in the bed of the Ninja truck.

Because Jeanne would not go out and confront these Ninja fighters, I carefully got dressed and ventured out from the security of my closet.

Unfortunately by the time I was ready to approach these hooligans, they gunned the truck, and fled into the dense fog.

I searched the through the fog and soon located the cargo they were so eager to leave behind. I soon found that against my will, we have acquired 4 more noisy, irritating, roosters.

That is my story and I am sticking with it.

Now at 2:30 in the morning the rooster stereo surround sound begins. It only takes one to start the ruckus and they all join from the trees surrounding our house, including one white rooster that spends the night perched on a branch 6' from our bedroom window.

I never thought in a million years, I would hear Jeanne say, "can't the fox help us out here and take a rooster or five?"

On a personal note; To Earl, Jen, Dylan, and Gwen, if you should happen to hear the sound of a ear piercing chainsaw pumped through a bullhorn at 3 in the morning, All I can say is, "bummer."

First Time

I remember the first time I kissed a girl. I remember Max, my first dog. My 1972 VW bug was my first car. I remember my first shotgun that my father who never hunted, bought me for Christmas, I also remember watching it sink to the bottom of a lake after it fell out of my boat.
I remember feeling like a man when I bought my first wheelbarrow. I remember the first time I saw an alligator. I remember my first and every other heartbreak.
I remember my first home. I remember my first job paying $2.11 per hour. I even remember my first circular saw, and my first six dollar socket set from Kmart.

Today is a day of jubilant celebration, I now have successfully grown my very "FIRST" beautiful Moonflower. This morning glory like flower has eluded me for many years. I don't know why I have never had any luck with this awesome 6" white fragrant flower before. They are said to be extremely easy to grow, but I had given up many years ago. This year I decided to throw some seeds in the ground with my morning glories, never expecting I would be rewarded with such spectacular beauty.

Unlike the Morning Glory which blooms in the morning hours, the Moonflower opens up and releases its beauty in the evening so they can be pollinated by night-flying moths

Camera Or Gun

Jeannette S Ferguson writes in Gardening With Guineas,
"When a predator is spotted near the farm, whether it is on the ground or overhead, every person and every farm animal will know. the guinea fowl will alert all within hearing distance, making such a racket it can cause a dog to howl and people to hold their ears.

A couple of afternoons ago, the guinea alarm sounded, joined by chickens, turkeys, and geese, all sounding off with their version of the predator alarm. The ruckus was the unmistakable avian scream, "something is here to eat us".

As I ran for the window, I observed my guineas running straight at a fox which had a chicken in it's mouth and was attempting a getaway. I turned toward the door and thought to myself, camera or gun.

I chose camera. My way of thinking went something like this. The chicken was most likely dead or near death and I would be forced to dispatch it. So shooting the fox would not save the chicken. Ever since man has kept chickens, it has been the foxes job to steal one now and then. The fox was only doing what foxes are trained to do. I do feel really bad for the chicken, and this is exactly why I don't name my chickens anymore.

If I had chosen to shoot the fox, and it would have been a very easy kill, I know I would question myself for days whether or not it was truly necessary to end the foxes life simply for being a fox.

So the fox was granted a reprieve, and I do not need to experience the anguish for taking his life.
But! and this is a Big "BUT", If the fox choses to come after Bob or Hope, my turkeys, or if he comes near Wilbur my beloved goose, it will be a sad day, and it will be his last day.

The quineas appeared to charge forward in an attempt to chase off the intruder.

The Dude

The third largest land tortoise is the African Spurred Thighed, or also known as the Sulcata. According to "The Tortoise Trust", they can surpass 100 years and the record is 240lbs.

I obtained my first 2 Sulcatas approximately 15 years ago. Today Custard and Pudding are a couple of big boys at 30 and 35lbs.

I am very excited to announce the arrival of Dude, or I prefer "The Dude".

The Dude is a fabulous example of a Sulcata, and he came to us from Sharon and Paul, a couple of nice Folks from over in Rhode Island who did a outstanding job raising the Dude. They had many people interested in adopting Dude, and we are grateful they chose us. We will do our best to continue the outstanding care that The Dude is accustomed to.

If I would say we now have a heard of tortoises, I now know I would be wrong. To be correct, we now have a "Bale" or a "Creep" of tortoises.
No matter how you say it, we now have 3 very amorous boys, and maybe I should reconsider and find them some girlfriends.

Love In Vain

When I look upon my Heavenly Blue Morning Glories, I cannot imagine loving any other flower like I love this one.

Different cultures, different meanings. From, Genuine Affection, Serenity, Peace, Attachment, Instability, Night, Importance, Confidence, and what I think to be the most powerful meaning comes from the Victorians, "Love In Vain".

The Morning Glory is the 11th anniversary flower, and maybe the Morning Glory holds a little simple secret to a life long loving relationship. How many relationships fail and go away because one or both don't feel that spark or warm fuzzy feeling you get at the beginning of a relationship.

I really enjoyed the following from Origamidelight.com.

"The morning glory is a flower that blooms and dies within the same day. While the beauty expressed by this flower in full bloom is captivating early morning, sadly it doesn't last longer than a single day as the flower will die by the afternoon or nightfall.

Such a short lifespan is what led to associate this flower with the sometimes fleeting nature of affection; however as the vine give birth to brand new flowers every morning, the morning glory meaning also represents the renewable nature of love."

The Morning Glories in our life have not faded away, and its nice to know, "There is aways tomorrow."

Hurricane Irene

After 5 days, 9 hours, 48 seconds without power, I found myself staring at a light bulb in my ceiling fan. I don't know why I was staring at this light bulb, maybe I was recalling a better time in our lives when we turned lights on with a flip of a switch.
Maybe I was dreaming about flushing a toilet by simply pushing a lever instead of with a bucket of water.

I found myself tearing up when I thought about cable TV. The only station I could receive on our battery operated radio was a local station that was giving updates on some lawn furniture that blew into the road.

It also could have been a self imposed timeout after I beat Jeanne and the kids at Jr Monopoly and danced around calling them losers.

So I found myself staring at a dark light bulb, when suddenly it flickered. At first I thought it was my mind playing tricks, perhaps a mirage, then SHAZAM! we had power.

I stared at this illuminated light bulb as if it was the first time I had ever seen the miracle of electric lights. I then rose to my feet, and proceeded to preform the, "POWER DANCE". I think 88 percent of Connecticut residents know the Power Dance, although there could be thousands of different versions.


For almost a solid week before Irene hit the east coast, we listened to its progress on a daily basis. You would think we here in Connecticut were on the brink of Armageddon. The entire state of Florida was probably saying, "Welcome to our world".

Leading up to Irene hitting Connecticut we had warnings for hurricane force winds, tropical storm winds, tornadoes, severe flooding, coastal storm surges, and something new, warnings for Landslides. We might have trees, lawn chairs and maybe a rodent or two picked up by a strong gust of wind and crashing through windows.

I admit I was glued to the TV updates and I followed this storm with a certain amount of intensity. I will also admit I was a bit concerned.

We had moved the goats up on the porch, we brought the Tortoises into the house, moved the cars out into the middle of the field away from any trees that may come down.
We lowered the scaffolding we had setup on the back of the house, parked the canoe in the carport,and brought in many of our potted plants.
We had gas for the generator and I spent $70 on new chains and accessories for the chainsaw. Money well spent, but not needed. We had a barrel and many buckets filled with rainwater for the toilets, and I even went as far as boarding up some windows because of the threat of wind blown squirrels.

I suppose now looking back I might feel a little ashamed about the feelings I harboured towards Connecticut Light and Power for not restoring our electrical service sooner.I am sure the Line crews out in the field are working as hard as a person can. But I do feel with all the information and predictions that we had ahead of time for this storm, the management from CL&P could have brought in more outside help sooner. I am sure Ohio would have sent help. The people of our State should not be forced to put up wanted poster to locate a CL&P truck.


With all things considered, we did very well during this storm. If you think about the poor souls who lost their lives in this storm, and the folks that lost their homes, our little bit of inconvenience was nothing.


For the two boys below who love water, there is nothing better then living on a occasional island.