Squirrel Family Robinson

For some reason I've had the phrase "Swiss Family Robinson" stuck in my head for a couple days even though I had no idea what it refers to. Thank you Google once again for not only transcribing my voice mails and texting them to me, but letting me know that its a 1960s movie about a family that is actually Swiss. Maybe it is my subconscious telling me to add it to my Netflix cue....


Enough about the movie.... Look at this little Squirrel family we found this weekend as we were driving in! We call our land a "Nature Preserve" so we get to see lots of squirrels, birds, butterflies, lizards, toads, cotton tails, and jack rabbits. We think there are about 3 in this clan. I'll be ticked if a stupid snake comes along and eats the babies like I saw on some NatGeo videos on YouTube....

Awwww.....  Don't you just wanna go find them some nuts or something to eat?

Ssssssnakes!

Luckily, I only have two snake adventures to write about, and hopefully that will be the total of all I have to write about. Ever. 


The rattlesnake one was pretty cool. Husband was leaving for work at "Way Too Early" 'o clock when he randomly stopped and started walking back to the house. He asked me for a shovel so I ran across the yard barefoot to get it for him. Next thing I see, Husband is taking the African Warrior stance and throwing the shovel into the brush repeatedly. Like this...

(This is perfect! Thank you Google Images!!!)

In no time, rattlesnake went bye-bye and we put the rattles in salt so we can fill them and add them to the collection. I wasn't allowed to go looking for it after he left though since the head can still bite and he didn't have time to take care of that. I love my husband!

Later was a bull snake, who is Rattlesnake's secretly sissy cousin. It looks like a rattler, sounds like one too, but it's not. 

Unfortunately, for this guy, he was so good at it and mom-in-law was so traumatized from almost sitting on it, that he had to take one for the team. Sorry. But on the happy side, now all his little friends are on the no-kill list as long as they aren't too close to the house and husband is home. 

Horse Dog

I need to thank the cosmos for waiting until my husband is either home from work for the day or off for the weekend to send random creatures into the yard. I'm sure about 80% of these I wouldn't be able to handle on my own. Especially snakes. Ick again. This is the first back tracking adventure to tell you about the horse.


Sadly, I don't have a picture since it was late, thus I was tired, it was dark, and the flash would have probably scared the buhjeezus out of the horse. So I'll find one on google....

He looked kinda like this, slightly different. Point is - there was a horse running up and down the fence for a couple hours before dinner and by the time we finished dinner, we found him grazing along the fence that goes around the grassy yards. Luckily, he was a sweet thing and was eating the weeds for us and let us come up and pet him. We went to his owners house first, but since it was late, we weren't sure if they were asleep or not there. So we got back home, and we decided we might as well just take him home and put him in their front yard so they can get him in the morning. My husband remembered that there was a really long dog leash in the shed, so we looped it around its neck and led him home. 

Really good horse to be honest. He stayed right behind husband, quite often bumping his back with his nose. He was just as scared as I was of the guard dog that came out to greet us, but luckily his owner was awake this time and got him back to his pen. Apparently the horse isn't too smart, but he's currently in the process of getting ready to be ridable. Not sure if there is any technical term.

It was like walking a giant dog, except a bit bigger. I was actually surprised how small it was. Granted, last time I saw a horse, I barely came up to its shoulder (about 8 years old); so being able to easily see over its back was quite a shocker. I guess things got smaller as I grew up. 

Vinegaroo

Recently, my sister started a blog called "Leah Can Cook!" which is AWESOME since I can't ever think of anything to cook for dinner. My darlin' husband suggested I write a blog too, but about all the joys of living in the country that just don't come up when we're living in the city. 

So today's adventure - Vinegaroon. Consult Wikipedia - the source of all quick knowledge. I call it a Venegaroo since I forgot what it was after I found the last one. I killed it, thinking it was a scorpion, but after looking closer, we realized that the dogs killed it and that it's actually harmless, so they got added to the "no-kill" list along with Gopher Snakes. Ick. 

Meet Joon. She's some sort of terrier that showed up about a year ago and is a combination of duck, wiggle worm, and blood thirsty hunter. She goes after just about everything which isn't bad when its a frog or bug or something simple, but recently she took out 6/7ths of a skunk litter, but that will be another post. 

Today, I heard her barking like a maniac and went outside to see what it was. At first I thought it was a giant tarantula which would have pretty much ruined my day. I hate getting anywhere near them. Luckily it was a Vinegaroon. I remembered that it was on the "no kill" list and that my husband told me to blog about this kind of stuff. So after getting the blog all set up and researching Wikipedia. I realized I didn't get a picture. Back out to the yard to find it, and right when I was about to give up, I found it by the front steps. 

Note the giant whip at the end and its deceptive pincers that make you think it's a scorpion at first. Deceptive little brat. But the picture was taken, the blog was written, and now I can do something productive. Yay. 

If there is anyone reading this, I have previous adventures to write about including...

-walking a horse

-rattle/bull snakes

-skunk week

-squirrels