Sticking the tractor

Perhaps winter, and my hibernation from blogging, is over. Dismal cold weather produced nothing but mundane thoughts in my head and severely curtailed my activity, which was frustrating to the extreme. Mundane thoughts and feelings of frustration are two things I do not care to share. Today, the sun is shining and it is HOT outside. Somewhere along the way between now and last October, when we started down the path of 30 inches of rainfall, a big chunk of the driveway near the house here caved in. It was on the edge of the driveway, and far enough over that none of us regulars were likely to drive into it, but close enough that a delivery truck or some of the folks that drive in to look and see what is blooming could definitely find it. For several weeks we have been tossing chunks of concrete, broken brick, broken flower pots, and assorted other non-biodegradable stuff in the hole. The fill had just about reached the top. I had put the front-end loader on the tractor a couple of weeks ago in anticipation of getting the dirt to fill in the hole and some other tasks that the front-end loader make easy. I decided today was the day I could finish filling the hole. I planned to go down the to the bottom of the slope below the washed out place and get some of the dirt that is constantly building up as it is washed out of the hill. I headed down the trail with the tractor. That path involves crossing a ditch in two places to reach the area that I can access the fill dirt. I didn't have any problems going down, of course. I got a bucket full of dirt and started back up the hill. I did a little slipping and sliding on the steep part in the layer of oak leaves that covered the path, but made it up to the top and dumped the dirt in the hole. I figured the path was good for one more trip and went back for another load. Coming back out with my second load, the rear wheels began to spin on those oak leaves and the wet slope underneath. I maneuvered around, trying to find a spot I could get a grip on without success. Now this steep spot is just above one of the ditch crossings. The trail is a loop, and I decided perhaps I could just back down the hill a ways and bring the dirt out the other end of the loop. Everything was fine for a few feet--after all, gravity was my friend going down the hill--until I reached the ditch. I got the back wheels across, but at that point, I was parallel to the hill. Slipping and sliding around, trying to use all the tricks I had, I managed to get a front wheel off of the ditch crossing and into the ditch. At this point, it crossed my mind that I might have to summon the backhoe to bail me out. Then I remembered the the first three people on my list of backhoe-drivers-to-the-rescue were kicking up their heels in California wine country, ostensibly shopping for equipment to bring all communications to my house via fiber optics. I had to dig myself out of this hole on my own. I had already given up on moving the dirt and dumped it out of the bucket to get rid of the weight. I was already getting tired. Driving this tractor, you are straddling the stick shift, with your right foot on the brake and left foot on the clutch. The brake is separated so that you can brake only one wheel, which is very useful when one has a good grip and the other wheel is spinning. No help at all when both are spinning. The brake is not a power break and at times like this I end up standing up to put enough weight on it to hold the tractor in place. When that happens, I also am standing on the clutch. Doing that puts it all the way to the floor, and in that position, the hydraulics don't work, so I can't operate the bucket. The bucket is what has to get me out of the hole. It is quite a wrestling match, mentally and physically. After several instances of bringing the lip of the bucket all the way back and down to the ground, then straightening, causing the front of the tractor to lift out of the hole and be shoved backwards I was able to once again get an a position where gravity was my friend. I headed to the other end of the trail loop with an empty bucket and the knowledge that the hole would not be filled today. I breathed a sigh of relief when I reached the top of the hill since there was some spinning climbing on that end of the trail also, but nothing major.

Species-type daffodils are in full bloom this week at Kalorama. I noticed the snowflakes, which are not nearly in full bloom were looking wilted in the hot wind. Got to be the sunshine and heat. They have plenty of water. The bulbs pictured are called Texas Star or Tazetta. They are a natural cross between Sweeties and Paperwhite types.

This week was the first time this season that the temperature dipped down into the twenties. Around here that means it is time to drain the water lines. I was a rookie at outdoor plumbing fifteen years ago when we began laying irrigation lines here at Kalorama. Our friend, Rector, directed that project. It was his idea to put a drain in a box in the ground at the lowest points on the water line. The man that ran the irrigation supply store that I did most of our shopping at sold me drain valves that could be turned on and off with a special tool without having to get on my hands and knees and sticking my hand down in the hole. That is really a fine thing indeed, because critters love to hang out in those drain boxes. The last drain on the north side of the driveway has had a rough green snake living in it for the past two winters. A rat snake lived in it before that.

I gathered up the tools necessary for the job and along with Dixie, headed out on the BadBoy to drain the lines. Everything went just as planned, and the green snake didn't seem to mind being bothered, though it was way too cold for it to care. It had wrapped its tail around the valve handle, so I had to be careful to keep from pinching it. While we were out, I took a few pictures of what I knew would be the last of the pretty leaves.

The red leaves and berries on the dogwoods were spectacular this year. The little silver buds are next spring's flowers. The yellow-bellied sapsuckers are in the trees all the time eating the berries.

Early in December the first narcissus begin to bloom. I don't know the name of this variety, but it is the earliest of paperwhites. It is very white, and has a lovely scent. I have a lot of interest and help when I get down to ground level to take pictures.





































The gingko tree was really pretty this year. It is one of the last trees to turn and is always bright yellow. The tree here at Kalorama doesn't have a great shape because it has grown up in the edge of the woods, but the leaves are especially pretty carpeting the ground.

















Several years ago we planted a Witch Hazel tree behind the Visitors Center building. It is a fairly common tree of southern woodlands. It has pretty yellow leaves in the fall, and very interesting yellow flowers November through January. I discovered it was blooming the other day.

After Thanksgiving

It has been a long hectic couple of months. I got so busy and so tired that I completely forgot about my blog. October was mostly a blur. House training a puppy is exhausting. That is done, thankfully, and it was comparatively easy. There were still many nights of hyphenated sleep involved. Also mixed in there were my son and his wife moving nearby, my husband's cataract surgery, and both my husband and myself having some sort of respiratory infection or virus involving several days of high fever and lots of congestion misery.

One of the high points was Dixie catching her first mole. She entertained herself for quite a while playing with it. I think she finally moved it to a spot with a hole in the ground and it escaped. I did get some pictures. Since then, she has been looking for mice and other varmints when she goes outside, which is exactly what she is bred to do.

The fall colors have been spectacular here at Kalorama this year. There are still some lingering on the trees. The whole hillside glows golden when the sun manages to shine. I hope to get a few pictures before they are all gone.

Dixie

We have a new member of our household this week. She is an Irish terrier puppy we have named "Dixie." She is 9 weeks old. Terry and I drove to Little Rock Sunday evening in the pouring rain and spent the night with our daughter. Early the next morning we drove to southern Missouri to the breeder and picked her up. Why would you go to so much trouble for a dog, you might ask. Well, we didn't think it was trouble to drive to the southern part of Missouri this time of year. Actually, we made a similar drive last year, just to look at the fall color and wildflowers. We were a couple of weeks earlier this year and the wildflowers were much prettier.

We lost our beloved Sadie, a sharpei-yellow lab mix this year. She was a wonderful, faithful companion for 16 years. She lost her hearing a few years back, and in the past year had really developed problems with arthritis. It was pretty empty around here without her. Dealing with Sadie's sharpei-isms and lab-isms led me on a hunt for a dog about the same size as Sadie, without the shedding and allergy problems that plagued her and us all those years.

There were a handful of breeds that fit my criteria, with the Irish terrier having the least amount of health problems within the breed. Of all the breeds I pursued, an Irish terrier in southern Missouri was my closest option. We were not eager for a little puppy to housebreak but the IT rescue folks would not place an adult dog in a home with a cat. Our cat is not thrilled with the puppy, but at this point, she is larger than the dog. She has swatted her on the head several times when she grew tired of the attention. The cat loved Sadie, and missed her as much as we did when she died. We are hoping she will grow more tolerant of Dixie and appreciate the company when we are gone.

Terry and I are getting a whole lot more exercise, walking a puppy every hour. Right now she gets tired way before we do, but it won't be that way very long.

From Mammals to Reptiles

The morning after in the pantry, I affixed, with nails and screws, the panel that blocks access to the area below the afore-mentioned stairs. I finished off the edges with caulk and Great Stuff (spray foam). Then I put everything back in the pantry. The cat is no longer interested in the pantry. Good sign. However, last night early in the evening, I heard mouse sounds on the other side of the wall when I was standing in the hall. I called out to the miscreant that I hoped it was gnawing on the tasty poison bar I had placed in there the day before. I have decided to clean out the other pantry to make sure it is still mouse-proofed. I am glad I live in the country and only have to deal with little mice. I have had to deal with rats once, when we lived in a subdivision in town. Rats are much more of a town problem. They got after the dog food in our garage store room, and transferring it to a metal can they could not chew through discouraged them enough to move on to greener storerooms. Rats are high on my icky list.

The title implies there were reptile encounters today, and there certainly were. I had a garden club come to tour the grounds today. They arrived around noon. I spent the morning doing the last minute stuff to get ready. I began by fogging around the Visitors Center building for mosquitoes. Mosquitoes love the Visitors Center building, with all the porches and the deep entry. After fogging I went off to do something else while it did its work. I returned an hour later and immediately spotted a medium sized speckled king snake up near the front doors of the building. I studied the situation and realized it was small enough to make it through the crack at the bottom of the door into the building. I really didn't want it in there. Too many hiding places. I tried scaring it away from the door on the inside, but it wouldn't move. I ended up with a broom, trying to encourage it to go out into the flower bed in front of the building. It really did not want to go. It fought me out the whole way, coiling and striking at the broom over and over. It was so determined, that for the rest of the day, I kept peering into the entry way to see if it had returned. I knew it would not be popular in there with the garden club ladies. Fortunately, it stayed out of sight, and I didn't tell them about it.

After snake wrangling, I wandered around on fire ant patrol, waiting for the ladies to arrive. Much to my dismay, I spotted a very large piece of scat, freshly laid, right up there by the building in the middle of the driveway. It was clearly from a large canine. I grabbed a shovel to dispose of it, wondering what on earth thought it needed to mark the driveway right there. Moving it, I noticed that there were some persimmon seeds (they are fairly large, so easy to spot) in it. I figured it must have belonged to a coyote. They have done that before in the driveway.

My husband had a more exciting encounter at work this morning. His secretary opened the back door to the office, saw something, and called him to come quickly. There was a live alligator, about three feet long right out the door. Someone had to have put it there. They called LDWF to come remove it. He said it was injured, like it had been run over or something.

Sorry I don't have pictures to illustrate all these encounters. I was really wishing I had my camera with the snake. It had recently shed its skin, and was very bright and colorful. I wouldn't have posted a picture of the scat, probably....

Mickey & Minnie

This past week I learned that I have a mouse problem in the house. Last Wednesday night, our daughter came in from Little Rock to leave for the wedding in College Station the next day. After she moved out, I transformed her upstairs bedroom into my sewing room, and I still had some pre-wedding sewing going on when she got there. She decided to sleep downstairs in her brother's old room. She was upstairs in our room sometime after 1:00 am that night telling me there was a terrible noise downstairs. Once I was awake enough to respond, I called the cat's name. She was nearby; not downstairs making noise. I scooped up the cat and went downstairs. I heard a noise in the wall between the back staircase and the hall to the downstairs bedrooms right away and knew it was mice. The cat perked up because she heard it, too. I put her down and she walked up and down the hall sniffing the wall, but couldn't do any more than that. I couldn't do anything about it because we were leaving the next morning. Now, I assumed this was a new event, with the temperatures about to change. We don't get evidence of mice every year in the fall, but it has happened often enough over the years to be half way expected. It is a big, country house on piers that turned 80 years old this year. Sometime over the four days we were in Texas for the wedding, our son and his new bride heard the story and chimed in with their own versions of hearing the mice while staying downstairs. I was appalled that it had been going on for that long and nobody had mentioned it. Can't fix it if we don't know about it.

Today I bought a supply of mouse bait. This evening, I emptied out the floor of the food pantry that has an access panel to the area beneath the stairway. The cat and I had heard the mice last night. I pried the panel off and saw where the little beggars had removed some of the sealant I had plugged holes years before with and had gotten in. I was expecting to see a whole mouse circus set up under the stairs when I opened the panel. I was relieved not to see much of anything. I had cleaned behind it years before and it still looked pretty good. I called the cat to come check it out. She walked all around the area for 15 minutes or so, sniffing and investigating. When she was done, I tossed in some bait and closed the panel. I will re-seal it tomorrow. I left everything out of the pantry so the cat can patrol it during the night. I will toss some bait up in the attic and between the floors tomorrow and hope that will work as well as it has in the past.

On the outside, I was glad to see the hummingbirds are still here. Below are some pictures I took last week. They are all over the red turk's cap flowers. Gulf fritillary butterflies also enjoy the turk's cap.

Road Trip

Today my daughter and I drove from Collinston to College Station, Texas. It was a very long drive--387 miles in 7 hours, including a brief lunch stop, a gas stop, and an after lunch pit stop. The problem is you just can't get here from there. A further problem for me was that we had a very long stretch from Henderson to Buffalo and there were no interesting grasses, no wildflowers, and the only birds I saw were crows and vultures.

Somewhere along the way, I noticed that we must have crossed a "frost" line because the trees were full of ball moss. That is a close relative of our Spanish moss that grows in tight balls in warmer regions on nearly any aerial surface. I have seen it completely covering utility lines in southern Texas. It grows in the Baton Rouge area in Louisiana and places south of there.

We drove a short ways on I-45, from Buffalo to Madisonville. Texas Highway 21 from Madisonville to Bryan had beautiful roadside displays of grasses and fall wildflowers and almost no traffic. That's my kind of traveling!

It rained on us several times, and is raining here this evening in College Station. We were very surprised at how cool it was when we got out of the car at the hotel. It was in the mid-60's, and was down to 60 degrees when we got in from supper.

Our hotel is full of police and firemen from New York City. They have been here all week at some sort of training seminar. Strange hearing those New York accents in the elevator. A big group of them came in the front door as we were checking in. I couldn't hear their accents, but they all had a look about them. I asked the clerk if they were having a Bubba convention, and he told me who they were, and that they were leaving tomorrow. I guess they will be replaced by Aggie fans, as this hotel and all others in town are full for the weekend because it is a home game Saturday.

Tomorrow I will go visit the florist and do some last minute gathering up for the rehearsal dinner Saturday night.