Creepy Crawlies and Things

Today was a day filled with wild life. Good thing for both Jayke and I, I grew up with a grandfather who taught me all about the outdoors so I am not afraid of the wild life. We started off our day with a funeral. Seems a bird has made her nest in my hanging fern on the front porch. When we got home from school one of the newly hatched babies was dead on the patio. Jayke thought we should take it to the hospital to make it better. I had a better idea and grabbed the shovel. We buried the tiny thing in the flower bed right below the fern where it's family still lives. As I started to cover it with dirt, Jayke started to panic. He cried and begged for me to uncover him. I had to explain to him that that is where he belongs now and he would go to heaven. Poor little guy, the tears just rolled.

I have already mentioned the snake that lives in the backyard by the creek and now there is a fox in the woods too. He ran out of the woods up in our backyard the other night sending The Boy flying into the house to crawl under the covers with his dad. He told me that "Big rustling dog gave him a heart attack!" I've heard rabbits, or something being killed in the night. Probably the fox having his dinner.

After dinner this evening, we went out to plant some flowers and spread mulch. Mike was using the push mower to trim up around the fence and found a turtle. We didn't know what kind it was at first so we googled it and found out it was a box turtle. He was terrified and wouldn't come out. I can't blame him with three huge heads hanging over the side of the cooler looking at him. He finally poked his head out after about 30 minutes and started making a weird noise at us. I asked Mike if he knew if they bite or not and Jayke decided right then that it was time for that turtle to go home. They took him out to the garden and set him free.





There were also several worms being carried around all evening until I finally convinced him to release them back to the hole they came out of. Remember yesterday when I said Jayke caught a toad and wanted to keep him in his pocket? Yeah, the day is coming when I find something either dead or alive while doing the laundry and I will not be happy. No amount of growing up with an outdoorsman will have prepared me to find something dead in my hamper.