Tackling the Jungle, Part II

This is what I started with Sunday....there's shed behind all that. no really, there is! Took me an hour and half, whacking through the overgrowth slowly, revealing t-posts, a roll of fencing, and some old feeders and shovels I haven't seen since spring, but I found it!

Well...I found PART of the shed anyways! Not all of it...oh no, that's gonna take a bit longer to get to! But, hey, I'll take what I can get :P It's too hot to get as much as I want done...wait...scratch that. There's too many WILD CRITTERS to get everything done! Stinging, biting, jumping, moving, rustling in the leaves, scaring the beejeebies outta me critters!

I stuck with it, hot or not, through the first buzz by a wasp....the frog who poked his head up and gave me a scare because my first thought when all I saw was his eyes was SNAKE....yeah, okay, I can hang in there...but when the little green lizard abandoned ship (his home on a tall weed) by jumping on my arm THAT WAS IT! I was done for a while! I cleaned up what I had, and called an end to the days work!

A girl can only handle so many surprises I tell you....I was never a fan of toys like Jack in the Boxes. Things should not just jump up outta no where and spook you like that! BLEH! UGH! Makes me shake off imaginary bugs as I think about it! Just YUCK!  I'm not gonna be too happy with the cold weather, but you know, once winter gets here at least most of the random wildlife will go away for a while...and I am already looking forward to that!

Goose Palace...or is it Goose Jail?

I'll let the geese be the judge - I intended for it to be a palace of sorts, but I am sure they think they are in jail. Until today, I had been locking them up in a tractor at night (for safety's sake) and letting them roam about during the day.  Which is all fine and dandy except for a few minor issues...

The geese have to be put up when company comes over - they don't attack people, but they DO make stupid choices. Like walking in front of tires - ON MOVING VEHICLES! And my all time favorite is how they flap up into truck beds and poop - A LOT! Yeah, no, can't be having that happen to my company.

Then, last night, they decided they wanted to lead a merry round of chase through the property instead of be put up.  Yeah, once again, NO I said! That's it, enough with the niceness, they had to go on lock down!

So up I got bright and early and off to Home Depot I headed - I had almost everything I needed EXCEPT a little bit of cheapy plastic fencing....

Part of a tank of gas in the lawn mower (had to clear the way since I am over due for a date with Murray), 15 t-posts later, 2 50 foot rolls of cheap plastic fencing, 98 out of 100 zip ties, an old table and slightly holey tarp, one of my old step in posts for electric fencing, and 2 bungee cords scrounged up from the depths of the shed and VOILA! Goose Lockdown Facility is complete!

Of course, in the midst of my morning of outdoorsy fun, up wanders and stranger....apparently, my moat only stops vehicular traffic, but bold morons on foot will wander past it...bless his heart, he was lost looking for the neighbors house....and he found me. In all my glory, sweaty, nasty, smelling rank and ripe, fighting with a t-post....bet that's the last time he braves a driveway like mine on foot to ask for directions! Come on people, there is a REASON for the moat! All I need is an alligator or 2.....

Anyways, geese all got a wing clipped this afternoon - and tossed out into their new jail, with their pool freshly filled and everything. So far, they haven't figured out their little lean to shelter thing, but they HAVE figured out where the gate is....and they have spent most of the day standing there and waiting for me to open it...yeah, NO I said! There they are and there they shall stay! The goats were glad to see them on lock down I think - I bet they were tired of being harassed by them, and I KNOW the horses were glad to have their bossy goose antics locked up...

Let's hope they stay put - I love my geese, but they have to do geese things in goose territory and leave the other critters and visitors alone!

My date with Murray...

Actually, it kinda sounds like a man, but it's just the mower :)

I like mowing - I really do. Except lately I have been getting attacked while I am on the damn thing! Apparently, the bugs here do NOT like the fact that I mow! I mean, look at the "lawn" - ankle deep in grasshoppers, wasps, and GIANT hornet things!

A little over 2 weeks ago now, I was dive bombed by a GIANT stinging thing! I almost ran into the damn house with the mower, while my husband watched no less! Honestly, I don't think he was paying any attention...but still. I was swinging at it with a towel, no hands on the wheel, not even thinking to break, and almost ran into the house!

So....2 weeks go by and it looks like this again:

Not good, not good at all! ANYTHING could be hiding out there! So back out I go, for my date with Murray...only this time I KNOW to watch for the giant hornet stinging things (which I have potentially identified and are another post yet to come).

I head on out, and when I near the same spot as the last attack I see them, TWO of them, waiting on me! I swerve around them, avoid them, and safely manage to finish the job! I actually waited until it was almost dark last Saturday to finish!

And the freaking GRASHOPPERS! THOSE damn things! I SWEAR, they all run towards the stuff I haven't mowed yet, slowly growing in numbers as I circle round closer, closer, and ever closer still to the middle then BAM! THEY HIT YOU! Actually, they hit ME! They ALL come flying out, jumping at me ambush style when I get to that last few patches that need to be mowed! I HATE the jumping bugs almost as much as I loathe the stinging bugs! Seriously, I could do without them....

Then, there's the small, innocent, STUPID frogs! I have no idea how many frogs I have killed, but it's not my fault I swear it! They just jump out in front of me as I mow! Frogs and field mice....I've killed a few these last couple months and I wasn't even trying - it was accidental frog slaughter I promise!

The sad part is, both times I have mowed lately and wanted to get "after pics" it has rained :( So, before I could even enjoy my manicured lawn for a few days it has already sprouted back up! Looks like this time, I may need to get out there again in one week and not my usual 2 weeks :(

Really, I think that is my most favorite part - how it looks when it's all done. Nice, even (mostly, I miss stuff), bright green and pretty....sure, riding the actual lawn mower is entertaining as well....it beats the heck outta pushing one that's for sure! I do use the little push mower to get up around the house and all. No weed eater for me - that's one piece of junk I can NOT conquer! So, the closest I am gonna get to weed eating is pushing the little lawn mower around stuff. It's not my fault I can't figure out how to work that stupid thing, but I just am incapable of running a weed eater.

Anyways, that's my dates with Murray - my lawn mower - he makes every other weekend entertaining thats for sure!

Conquering the Jungle - Part 1

I know, no one has to tell me, I let stuff get away from me at times. Take for example the Jungle right outside of the front door:

This little patch of my own personal hell started out with good intentions - and was actually useful for the purposes it was intended for, for a short while.  The very first year here it held a SMALL and barely successful "winter garden". I got ONE SMALL "crop" of turnip greens out of it. Then, being the bad gardener I am, I gave up on that. But there was already a bit of (weak) fencing in place. At that point it became a holding area for poultry soon bound on a voyage to Camp Kenmore. Turkeys, chickens, ducks - anything meant to live a short (but full life) was housed there until it was large enough to roam a bit, then allowed to sleep there and be out in the day time. Often times, I have a few friends who send me extra birds after their kids are done showing them. They would be brought home, placed in lock down right there, and then the next day taken off to camp....freezer camp....but still..

You can see the last of the fence still standing here:

I never intended for it to be "long term" as far as the fence goes - it was just cheap plastic stuff put up with the intent to keep rabbits (and that freaking armadillo!) out when I had my tiny garden there.  Being as it was just zip tied on u-posts, it sagged over time, then the rains came....and being less than vigilant, with an ever present meaning to clean it up but lacking the get up and go I needed, it grew over into the mess in the first picture.  And the farmer was sad :(

I knew last year it was going to be a pain to clean it up. I DOUBLE knew this year I had to get it out of there and looking good if only because I was going nuts looking at it! THEN I saw a little snake crawl into it and I had enough! I seriously was well over having a wild life sanctuary right by the front door! There's enough woods around this place - they need to stay in the damn woods I said! So I woke up yesterday not sure what I wanted to get done, until I walked outside and saw my own little piece of hell waiting on me....

The porch swing, relocated since that is where the hay now goes, was not relocated to a spot to swing in, but hurriedly tossed aside one day. Many a string from a bale of hay found it's way down there. Before I located a trash can for the hay strings, let's just say many a string found it's way ANYWHERE it wanted to go - BUT where it belonged (in the trash!). There was even the tarp, which once protected poultry from sun and rain, buried under all that green weedy bits! No seriously, look VERY closely in both pics above, and tell me: DO YOU see a TARP??? No, really? Well look...it was there:

Note all the dirt and weeds still stuck to it....I'm still shaking my head about it, I had almost forgotten that was there too!

So, yesterday afternoon, I tackled it SLOWLY - it's hot you know! I pulled all of the old fencing, dug out a MILLION hay strings, found a few toys left over by the previous owners (I SWEAR that wasn't my Spiderman  action figure in there!), raked out the hay which had fallen off of the porch, and mowed it down!

It took all afternoon, and a short little bit of effort this morning even, but, drum roll please...

IT IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!! I had 2 giant spiders come flying up at me - they got squished, a mouse tried to escape my pile of raked up hay - by flying out at me! But Snowball II got it and saved it for me:

And some small snake, no positive ID but I am fairly certain it was nothing major, got brave enough to slither out to see what was happening. I did threaten to introduce him to the sharp end of a shovel, and he headed back under the house!

So, with that all done, off I go to finish mowing. Trying to keep the place looking good this summer - I let it get away too many times last year and I am fairly determined not to allow it this year... It just looks so much nicer when it is all manicured and pretty!

Don't worry...I have a few more jungle spots to tackle up around the house before I feel like I am done....a few more spots where I am sure mother nature will send her minions to try my nerves. UGH! I can't stand bugs tot ouch me, I don't appreciate freaked out mice and snakes headed my way at faster than light speed, and I really don't like not being able to see in the jungle while I am watching for all that stuff!

So...off I go to complete my mowing. Stay tuned as always...