On Living in the Country

You can shoot as many rocks with the slingshot as you want and you can shoot them as far as you want (just not toward the house, of course).

You may find frogs in the cat water. NOTE: the food container is in a frisbee filled with water to keep the ants out--they can't cross the "moat" to the food. The fancy cat food containers that I bought when we first moved here died a long time ago. Give me an empty handi-wipe container and a frisbee any day! I thought at first that this frog had been dragged in by the cats and was dinner-in-waiting, but on closer examination I noticed he still had all his limbs and was unharmed. The cats were both in there looking at him with me, but neither of them seemed interested in making a meal of him. So I determined he needed rescuing and called Cliff in to do the actual handling part of that (ugh. slimy froggie). But apparently the frog found the flash from my camera irritating and he jumped out of the water and moved on. I guess he was just taking a pool break from his travels.

There are never enough landscaping rocks to cover 6 acres of land that is reluctant to support pretty plants and that is host to deer and squirrels and gophers. See our terraces and the little dry streambed? In the winter, we hope the water will funnel down the streambed and into the drain below it. We followed the natural path that the water has taken for the last several winters. Soon we'll plant some stuff in each terrace (all that dirt is really topsoil and manure). Yummy! Later we'll add one more terrace big enough to build a smallish deck on. This is right outside (and to the left) of my bedroom window/door.

Insects abound. This praying mantis was in the garage. Obviously, he got lost. Ugh

This huge spider web is not unusual in my home. When I saw this one, this is how the conversation went:
Mom: "Honey, when is the last time you vacuumed the windowsill?"
Child: "Just a few days ago."
Mom: "Hm. Come here a a minute."
Child: "Just let me finish--"
Mom: "Come here IMMEDIATELY!"
There follows a full hour of screeching, sweaty Mom moving furniture and directing all children to vacuum under every table, every couch, every chair, every bed, in every corner--windows, ceiling, floors, etc, all the while knowing that all the spiders will return within 24 hours to rebuild their mansions (like this one), their apartment complexes (I swear there were 4 spiders all living together in the corner by the laundry closet) and pitching their tents (a web in my sandal that I took off by the bookshelf LAST NIGHT!?!).

You can lay on the trampoline at midnight and watch meteor showers. They're clear and bright because there is so much less ambient light out here. I've got no photo of this one, but we had a peaceful hour or so, Cliff, Allegra, Isaiah and I all cuddled up under blankets watching for shooting stars. Isaiah kept count: he said he saw 16 shooting stars.

Snakes are cool. One afternoon we found one of these little snakes sitting at the edge of the driveway with a big lump in his throat--he had just eaten and was slow and satisfied. He didn't choose to be observed by us for long, though, he waddled (can snakes waddle? Maybe he crawddled) back into the blackberry bushes to digest his dinner. This guy, however, we found heading towards the garage. Obviously his snake radar was messed up. Cliff called us out to look and then redirected him to the hillside.

There are A LOT of mice and other rodents. Ally and Zay found this little one and were trying to decide: keep him as a pet (I voted against that one) or feed him to the cats (I voted against that one too). In the end, their tender hearts won and they released him into the weeds.


The nights are cool and breezy and quiet. Sometimes we can hear coyotes. Often we see deer and wild turkey. We can see forever. We worry about wildfires. We would be surrounded by weeds and dirt (well, more than we already are) with no hope of gardens or landscaping without the tractor. It is so peaceful. I love it out here. Come and visit!