Catching Up – Play Dates!

Here’s a little glimpse of what “play dates” look like at our house.

Nestlé absolutely loves hanging out and playing with the squirrels…

…In fact, LOTS of squirrels!

I wonder how many other people can have a squirrel, a rabbit, a chicken, and a dog, all in one shot?

That’s my idea of heaven!

A Rambling Update

Since my last post about the dogs, I’ve been feeling a little low and had the need to disconnect for awhile.  There were days that I didn’t even turn on my computer at all - no e-mail…no Facebook…no anything.  Although I have not been plugged in, things have been happening around here, so here’s a little update for anyone who might be interested:

Since my previous post, Molly has already moved to a new home.  The Golden Retriever Rescue Alliance did a wonderful job, and I can’t say enough about them.  (To visit their website, click here).  Due to a scheduling conflict, Ashley actually ended up picking her up on a Tuesday and by the next Monday she had been adopted!  Here is the cute little advertisement they had on their site for my big girl:

I don’t know exactly who adopted her, but I was told that she went to a more affluent part of the metroplex in which we live.  Her new parents are older (one of them is retired and one of them works from home), and they usually have three Goldens at any given time.  One of their dogs had passed away a couple of weeks before, so Molly joined the two remaining “kids” for romping and playing.  She is living in a big house, with a big yard and a swimming pool, so I’m pretty sure that I am missing her more than she is missing me.  And I would have it no other way.

 

I couldn’t bear to get rid of her bed right away, so it stayed in our room for several days:

After awhile, I couldn’t take it anymore, so it was gone, leaving me with just my memories.  It seems I was not the only one who was missing her; Nestlé used to sit on Molly every chance she got whenever we were hanging out in the family room together.  With Molly gone, Nestlé has taken to trying to cuddle with Cookie, but it’s not quite the same:

Toffee is still here with me; the Brittany Rescue has not found a home for him yet:

 

However, it’s okay because I will only be at peace if I know that he goes to the perfect home for him, and if that takes some time, then so be it.  Besides, it’s a long walk to the chicken coop from the porch, and what will I do without Toffee to protect me from “who-knows-what” as I go out to tuck in Opal Chicken each night?

The really big news is that my mountain man has gone back to Yellowstone.  I thought that it would get easier the more he comes and goes, but this time actually was the hardest of all.  It was more than just my son leaving home – my friend was leaving!  The only thing that makes it okay is that he seems so happy.  And this time, he actually scored a position as an Assistant Manager of one of the stores.  He won’t be at Old Faithful this year, but he will be in some other part of the park.  He also won’t be living in a regular dorm, but instead will be in a little log cabin with a wood-burning stove.  Before he left, he got to spend some time with his number-one girl:

 

With spring here, I’ve been paying more attention to the yard.  Well, I say spring is here; actually, we’ve been having spring during one part of the week, followed by a quick blast of winter, followed by a little more spring.  The plants and animals aren’t quite sure what to do!  I looked out one windy, chilly afternoon to see two little squirrels snuggled up in the jar in the squirrel feeder:

Despite the crazy weather, the scrawny little rose bush that Alan and I transplanted last year has been doing great:

And remember how we had those tents over the raised garden beds?  Well, the aloe vera and lemon thyme not only survived the winter, they had babies!  I have transplanted the main plants to a bed in the back and put some of the “babies” in little pots to give to friends:

 

I bought this little greenhouse thing at Tractor Supply Store for $20 and have been using it for rootings and seedlings.  It has done a really good job:

In fact, the lavender and the lemon balm are from some cuttings I did a little while back:

 

I also have some parsley growing (at Mom’s request):

 

Since it has been going back and forth on the temperature, it has stayed cool enough that my spinach and lettuce are hanging in there (I think Nestlé has eaten more spinach than anyone):

 

Here’s a look at the overall garden…some things are doing well, and some things are struggling against the surprise freezes we have experienced (as well as my “gan-green” thumb!):

Despite all of my effort, Robert still leaves me in the dust on vegetable gardening.  Before I even had things planted, he was bringing home more monstrosities from his community garden (Ugh!):

 

This year, I’ve added some more stuff to the yard.  I bought three rose bushes (and they have grown from tiny stumps to pretty decent in no time!).  The cute little “bug-eyed” critter in the middle is a little something that my sister bought for me when we were in Pinedale, Wyoming.  A great momento from that trip!

 

I’m always on the prowl for new planting containers.  Here is a party tub that I picked up at Wal-Mart for less than $5.00:

 

I bought three of them; I filled one of them with lemon thyme and another with moss roses.  I put them on the ground with the idea that they belong to Opal Chicken for her snacking pleasure:

Robert loves to go to auctions and brought home this cute little wagon.  It sat in the yard, leaned up against the house on its side, until I snatched it and filled it with some extra plants:

The wagon is truly a blast from someone’s past.  There is an inscription on the bottom that says,

“To Ryan

From Granddad &

Grandmother

1978”

We attend a free gardening education meeting at our local library, and Russell Feed store is one of the sponsors.  There are drawings each meeting and I won this little cloth pot…my squash plant seems to really like it:  

I was really thrilled with this little beauty.  I have come up with a way to make self-watering planters out of 2-liter soda bottles.  Even though it isn’t an issue now, I’m hoping that they help keep my new strawberry plants safe and happy once the blast-furnace that is Texas summer arrives.  I asked Robert to make a box to hold all of them for me, and I must say, he did a really great job!

A friend of mine showed up at the house last week with a really neat thing that she had bought at a craft fair, just for me!  She was excited to give it to me, and I was very excited to get it!  Isn’t it cute?

In addition to planting things, I have been doing a lot of yard clean-up.  It is getting a little aggravating, though.  Just as I get everything perfect, I come out and find small branches everywhere:

The squirrels are making nests, and apparently they like clipping off more than they need.  But, sure enough, the jar in the squirrel feeder has been filled with leaves, making it comfy-cozy:

Nestlé loves the fact that I am in the yard more often.  With better weather and me outside to protect her from hawks and other predators, she gets to spend more time hanging out:

She also gets to run around in the large area (with the make-shift fence) that we call the “big girl” pen when I am outside.  The little pen in the back left area of the picture is her “little girl” pen, and it is covered so she can be out there when I am not in the yard:

One of her favorite things to do is to “taunt” Opal Chicken whenever Opal gets close to the fence.  She darts back and forth, and I swear I can hear Nestlé saying, “You can’t catch me!  You can’t catch me!” in a little sing-song voice:

As for the rest of our little family, Mandy and her crew are doing fine.  Our baby boy will be here in a couple of months, and Paisley is talking more and more about her “baby brudder”.  They recently enjoyed a Texas tradition - bluebonnet pictures:

Well, there is more going on, but I won’t prattle on any more.  There are more posts coming soon, including an update on (P)Earl chicken (yes, I got to see (P)Earl today!).  I’m also going to be catching up on a little blog reading, too!

A Hole in My Heart

There’s a hole in my heart today…our darling Chewka Marie Woodbury has gone over the rainbow bridge. We found her when she was about four weeks old and she lived in our house with us for four years (which is quite a good run for a squirrel from what I understand). (You can read her full story in “A Squirrel’s Tail”). She had not been feeling well for about a week or so; during the time that she was out of her nest she didn’t run around. There was a lot of time with me just holding her and snuggling her. When we went outside, she didn’t run around the yard either; we just sat on the back porch, listening to the birds and watching the party that was going on at the squirrel feeding station. Mostly, she just wanted to sleep.

I can’t begin to tell you what she meant to me. I once read a saying, “Our friends see the best in us, and that very fact calls forth the best from us.” Chewka Marie had lived with us for quite some time when I was researching something squirrelly on the internet and I read something else: a squirrel rehabilitator warned that you should NEVER, EVER keep a squirrel as a pet. According to this person, squirrels were vicious little critters that could never be tamed. I’m so glad that I didn’t read that in the beginning. My ignorance allowed me to just go forward, building a relationship with my sweet Chewka Marie.

She really was something. She often rode on my shoulder as I walked around the house. She not only let me hold her and pet her, she actually let me kiss her neck and “gobble” on her belly. Even our veterinarian said that he had never seen such a tame squirrel. I loved our relationship, and I must admit that I loved the novelty of it, too. I have always had a soft spot for animals, and I often suspect that I don’t see them quite the same way that a lot of people do. Chewka Marie proved to me that my assumption that animals are more than we give them credit for is right. She was certainly more than just some rodent!

The picture above is my favorite picture of Chewka Marie because it captures the essence of who she was. She was a girl who loved to eat, and this resulted in a soft, cuddly little body which was just perfect for nuzzling (I often called her “My Little Plumpling”). She was a girl who had made herself perfectly at home inside our house. She slept in our family room, and she could snooze right through the noisy washing machine or a raucous debate on “O’Reilly Factor” on television. She loved to hide pecans and milk bones in our sofa cushions, and she could hop and jump from one piece of furniture to another like the best of squirrels. While the squirrels outside have a hard, harsh expression, her face was soft and gentle. She often had a little gleam in her eye and a half-smile on her face, as though she was up to something --and she often was! I'll never forget the look of total shock the first time that Chewka Marie snatched one of Toffee's milk bones, waddling away as fast as she could with her treasure. Toffee was too stunned to even give chase!

I will miss my Chewka Marie. She was the one creature on earth who truly, truly needed me, and she was such a special little squirrel, with a special spirit about her. I will always love her.

The Greener Grass on the Other Side

We often catch Molly sitting at our fence, gazing longingly into our neighbors' yard. It doesn’t matter what time of the day it is, you will often find her, watching and waiting for something.


Is she looking at their back porch, hoping to see some action in their little fish pond?


Is she looking at their perfectly manicured lawn and their bird bath, where an endless number of birds come to cool off?


Is she looking at their beautiful garden spot, complete with cute little windmill?


She might be looking at those things, but here is the true object of her affection:


This is Maggie, our neighbors’ elderly golden retriever. Dee Dee and I are convinced that Molly thinks that this is her mother, and she is waiting to be reunited with her beloved mom. Maggie, who is convinced that she is human, generally has no interest in Molly at all. But today, wonder of wonders, Maggie actually made her way over to the fence, and gave Molly a little sniff:


Molly was absolutely delighted, and I have a feeling that we will now find her sitting at the fence, looking for Maggie, even more often now!

Where’s Molly?

It’s hard to believe that Molly has been with us for only about three weeks now; she has made herself so at home that it feels much longer than that. If you have wondered, I will tell you: yes, she is just as soft as she looks, and yes, she’s even cuter than her pictures. We have certainly had a great time with her. We’ve even had a good time with her name. In addition to the obvious, “Good Golly, Miss Molly”, we have other silly things that we say that prove that we have finally snapped. When she’s being especially sweet and perky, we call her “Molly Anna!” (I’m sure Walt Disney and Haley Mills won’t mind.) Also, when she has been playing outside and it’s time for her to come inside, in a flashback to my playground days, I yell, “Molly Olly oxen free!” I know; we are easily amused at our house.

But most of the time, I am heard to ask, “Where’s Molly?” I get concerned when I can’t find her, because when she disappears, you just never know what she’s up to.

Is she plotting to take Toffee’s stick away while he’s still chewing it?

Is she stalking Dee Dee, hoping that my Mom will drop a piece of meat?

Is she aggravating Chewka Marie?

Has she parked her fanny in Dee Dee’s favorite chair outside, while she watches the squirrels and birds?


Is she attacking the water hose while Alan waters some plants, nearly drowning herself in the process?


Has another sandal lost its strap due to her uncontrollable need to gnaw?


Has she snapped another branch off of one of my beloved blue berry bushes?


Believe it or not, she isn’t always causing mischief. I have gained a healthy admiration for her ability to sleep just about anywhere.

So where’s Molly?

She might be under the snack bar in the kitchen…


She might be napping on Toffee’s bed in Dee Dee’s room…


And after watching Dee Dee cook dinner and hoping for a snatchel, she finally gives up…




In an effort to cut down on some of the mud in the yard, Alan and I “worked like dogs” to put in a mulch ring around one of the trees. And where was my little helper, Molly? Toffee pointed out that she was passed out by the storage shed…




And later, she had to try out our handiwork before we even finished!


After my long day of yard work, I’m tired and ready to go to bed. Where’s Molly?

Molly’s passed out behind the exercise machine/coat rack in Robert’s office!


I guess being so cute and cuddly is exhausting!