What's in our jar?

It's been upgraded to an official bug box now. Sorry the glare is bad on a few of these. I refuse to open the lid to snap a quick photo, so it is what it is. :)

A bright green lizard! These things are fast - we were lucky to snag this little guy out of the smoker box!
A walking stick! One of the cooler bugs we have captured lately. The kids were fascinated with this little guy!
A Texas Spiny Lizard! James caught this with his own hands! It was trying to burry itself under some mulch. He snatched it up by the tail, dumped it in the box and put the lid on! :)

A Few of the House

Here are just a few to get you started. More to come!

The yard.

Living Room

There is a fireplace behind that large tv. The plan is to get a size smaller, and mount it above the mantle.

View from above
Dining room
Entry from front door
Yard from left of front door
Yard from right of front door
Moon rising.

What's in our jar?

Look for this to be a recurring post...... *

One of many....
And THE BIGGEST bull frog I have ever seen in my life!

* All creatures were returned to the wild! (Far, far from the house!)

Back on the Bandwagon

Ok folks. This city girl is back on the love for the ranch. The first couple weeks were ... well an adjustment. Not really. Mostly I just had issue with all the bugs and mess and stress from moving. Now things are under control and I'm back onto what I expected out of country living.

First off, I'm happy to report we have gone 2 days without seeing a live scorpion in the house! This is huge people. I think the home defense and the boric acid really may have done the trick. With those gone, I am feeling a TON better about everything.

Also, critters in general are starting to retreat back into the woods. I think having so much activity back in the house has driven them far far away (back to where they belong!)

The dogs are keeping all remaining large varmits at bay, so no bumps in the night as of late either. Just crickets, birds, wind, and other such lovely night noises.

I think the biggest factor though is the house. I am happy to report that ALL MOVING BOXES are emptied and put away in the house!!! Pictures are hung on the walls, drawers are organized as they should be, kids rooms are working great, and things are calming down. I plan to take a bunch of inside/outside shots of the house probably tomorrow to post on the blog. So be patient, you will see pictures soon - promise!

In the meantime, generic's will have to do :)

Two nights ago, we heard from this fun little guy:

Chuck-will's-widow. Not much to look at, but boy does he sound nice! Related to the Whip-poor-will.

And yesterday evening, just as the sun was setting, out of nowhere this beauty sprang up:

Evening Star Rain Lilly. We were fortunately enough to finally get a GOOD rainstorm 2 days ago. Our property is now FULL of these lovely gals!

Hawk or Owl?

Last night just as dusk was coming on, Grandma and I spotted a beautiful whitish/grey bird circling the yard. It was close to the tree tops and very agile/quiet. I thought at first it was an owl, but after some research this morning I have decided it was one of these little guys:

Cooper's Hawk
It landed in a tree top near us and I was able to watch him for a long time. Beautiful bird! He was about medium sized for a hawk and the most beautiful color! He caught himself something at one point and came back to his tree to eat it. I'm glad to know the bird population is doing its part to keep our ranch free and clear from critters!

PS - In a slightly related story: We armed the house yesterday with our scorpion weapons. Here is hoping!

Add to the list....

This fun little guy:



So far, we have: (well, at least this is what we have seen in just the past 10 days)
1. Scorpions
2. Black Widows
3. Fire Ants (although, not many - and these are common everywhere)
4. Tarantulas (Did I forget to blog about those little guys? Well, they are anything but 'little')!!
5. Giant crickets
6. Roaches
7. Snakes (Again, I forgot to blog about that one!)

I don't really have a problem with most of those critters. The scorpions are my #1 enemy at this time. Mostly because they are all too common INSIDE the house. I nearly stepped on one the other day. Grammy and I have devised a plan that we will set into action tonight.

We've armed ourselves with Ortho Home Defense, Boric Acid, Weatherstripping, and caulk. I'm going to seal up, spray, and defend any and every last spot I think those evil things are coming in from. I want them OUT!

Black Widows aren't exactly my friends, but we have only seen the one and it lives in the pump house. Plus, the scorpion defenses are suppose to defend against widows as well. So, we'll count them good (for now.)

Tarantulas and snakes are hideous, but they don't bother me for some reason. I think because the chances of them getting inside and actually doing harm to me and mine are so slim. They are both large enough I'm sure I'd see them pre-strike.

Let's pretend I would anyway. Otherwise I won't sleep. Like ever again.

This Morning

James came to me this morning (4am) to tell me that Wyatt was stuck in his bed. Not Wyatt's bed - but James' bed. As in - the upper bunk. I didn't believe him, but sure enough there he was. Happy as a clam. Sleeping in brother's bed. No idea how he got up there. Well, obviously I know HOW he got up there. I'm just shocked he could.

Something just went off in his little brain and he figured he'd climb up and see what brother was up to. :)

Those two melt my heart. They love bunkin' together!

What was that?

Wanna know what I was doing at 1am this morning? Hunting R.O.U.S.'s! Or so I thought. Turns out, it was most likely an armadillo. Cute and dumpy and dumb as a rock. But, as it turns out, really loud!

Poor Pancho has been an outside doggie since we got here. He was silly enough to get himself covered in stickers the moment we arrived, and I just haven't had a moment to go out, pick them out, bath him, check him for bugs, and then bring him inside. Soooo - he's on guard out there in the night.

He's taken to ranch life pretty well actually. The other evening, he chased a Coyote. He's also rustled up some deer, a few squirrels, and heaven forbid a mocking bird try to land near him! But this..... this had him puzzled.

There's a screen door just off the master. It's been so lovely at night, that we've left it open. I love to hear the crickets and the wind in the trees - but I didn't exactly plan on this particular noise. It started as a rustle off in the distance. Pancho (who has taken to sleeping in front of the screen door so I can hear him pouting) immediately took off running and barking.

A few minutes pass. Nothing. Pancho returns - but he's dazed and looking a bit bewildered. Pretty soon there are some major loud noises coming from under the deck that connects to the back of the house. I figured it was Fergus, so I got up to yell at him. I nearly jumped out of my socks when I stepped out the screen onto the deck and something moved under my feet. And then a second later, another something moved just to the side of me. I squealed, jumped back into the house, and stared calling to JL. :)

His first response was - it's probably cats. But then the noise got louder and louder. It sounded like something was fighting with a plastic bag under the deck. Turns out - it was digging. Digging through a layer of dead leaves that crackled and rustled like a bag. Soon, dirt was flying up through the slats in the wood decking. At this point, we're thinking possum or raccoon. Thing is, the intruder isn't afraid of us at all. We're standing right atop of it, and it's not bothered at all. I would guess a possum would hiss or a raccoon would make their raccoon noise. But we got nothin' from this beast.

I stared thinking bunnies or (heaven forbid) skunks, but the thing seemed too large to be either of those things. So.... I grabbed my laptop, JL grabbed a flashlight and Grandma. I visited this site. We felt confident now, so we got brave....

JL approached the corner of the house where the dirt was flying and the noise was coming from and shined the flashlight right into a slat. At the same time, Grandma inched further out of the screen door to get a better look. Funny thing - our screen door needs to be oiled. Like really bad. So when you open it - it makes a terrible squealing noise. You should have seen the 3 of us jump! HA!

After we gathered ourselves, we tried to see the creature again. Suddenly there was a huge burst of running, digging and then silence. Whatever it was had gone deep underground and wasn't coming back out again. Infact, we didn't hear from our friend again until dawn. At that time, Pancho woofed, a rustling noise was heard, and then nothing. I don't know if it left, if it decided to ride out the daytime in the hole, or what. But you can bet we'll be hearing from it again tonight.

Anyone have any suggestions for getting rid of our fine friend? Any tested and true methods?


UPDATE (6:42am 5/7/11) - I just saw the little guy. Or should I say the little gal. Looks like a mom dillo and her babies. I was able to count 4 little ones until Fergus came over and scared them all back into the hole. He stood there and woofed at them while they kicked dirt up in his face. :) Pancho just observed.

UPDATE (5:30am 5/8/11) - There has been an incident. The great Dillo massacre of 2011. Turns out my old, arthritic Malamute Fergus loves a good dillo chase. He was able to take out 3 of the 5 this morning. Nothing like scooping up dillo's on Mothers' Day morning!

We took the opportunity to stuff moth balls down the hole under our deck just in case those cute (but stupid) remaining ones try to return. (As far as I can tell, the mom and one baby are still alive.) Shortly after clean up, the mother came back from hiding to look for her kids. Pancho and Fergus met her instead and she ran for the woods. Something tells me after this morning, the dillos won't be taking up residence again under our deck.

Playroom Makeover

Kinda. It's a start anyway. I wouldn't say this room is decorated or finished, but it's good enough for now.

This room was a wreck! A total mess! It basically was a huge pile of toys that we'd move out of the kids' rooms just so we could unpack clothing and essentials for them to survive. Now that their rooms are "done" for now (pictures of that to come soon) Grandma and I tackled the playroom today.

BEFORE. The room was just too cluttered. The kids wouldn't even step foot in there, let alone play. And it was becoming more and more necessary to give them a spot to go besides under our feet wanting to "help." So we bumped this room up in priority and made it workable.

The kids helped too. James sorted cars and train sets, Isabel sorted princess accessories and doll house furniture, Wyatt decided to sort himself into his own bin!
AFTER: We pushed the couch over to the side to give the kids more wall/floor space. We also cleaned up the toys and organized them into bins. I put down a rug I got from IKEA that has an image of a town with roads on it. The kids adored it! They played for a good hour before finally coming downstairs to hunt for food.
I decided to reuse an old media center we had as a toy bin organizer. We put the flat screen TV on top of the unit so it would be out of harms way, but still in the room for movie time. The bins are color coded and numbered for each kid (I also picked those up from IKEA.)
In the closet we organized miscellaneous toys into their own containers and arranged a few toys that aren't played with as often. I am hoping the kids will rotate through the toys and have easy access to whatever they feel like at any given moment.
This one I just threw in for fun. This is Wy Guy sitting at the top of the stairs saying "cheese" so I would take his picture. He is too adorable for words sometimes!

Once the house gets to a workable stage, I'll start planning paint and pictures and frilly stuff for all these rooms. For now, it's just nice to not see the brown of boxes and the maze of walking space.

A Step Back

Now that I finally have unpacked my camera cable (and found the charger for my camera battery) I'm finally able to post a few pictures of Buffalo Clover and our arrival. As we settle in, I'll provide a bunch more pictures, but for now these will have to do.

This is a picture of the side of the house from the driveway. We have a really long drive! At the street, there is a security gate that swings open/closed by the touch of a button (think garage door opener). Once inside, you drive around a curve, past a bush and up to the house. We have enough room so far to park the truck, the boat, and my van side by side and still have a spot for another car off to the side. Did I mention it was a huge drive?
About the first thing that happened when we arrived (even before a box came off the truck) was James and JL playing basketball. James has been so excited to have his own hoop! He would watch our neighbors play at the old house and long for the day when he has a flat drive instead of a steep one. Now he's over the moon and able to play whenever he wants. See that white house thing in the background behind the van? That is our pump house. We have a well. No city water for us, thanks. And I can tell you - well water tastes awesome! No chlorine or nasty chemicals. Just fresh (and really cold!) water. Ahhhh.
We also have a lot of trees and landscaping on the property. It's nice to be surrounded by green instead of concrete and bricks.

Weekend Report

We've been on the ranch now 4.5 days. I'm happy to report that it is better than I even imagined! It is so quiet here - no sirens, no motorcycles, no loud trucks. Just birds, and squirrels, and deer (not that they make a noise...) and rustling of leaves. And with no neighbors around, I am free to leave the blinds and windows open at all hours of the night. This allows me to gaze at the stars from my bed and hear the crickets. I LOVE THAT!

For the first day, I felt like I was camping. I kept thinking - wow we scored big time with this spot! It is nice! And then I'd realize that this is actually where I get to spend my days, and my stomach would get all excited as it all set in.

The kids absolutely love it! For them, it is like being at a huge park every day. They dig, they play in the treehouse, they play basketball, they run around chasing animals, they play cowboys/Indians. You name it - they play it. Meanwhile, I sit back and relax because the security gate keeps them tucked inside the safely zone.

The boxes are going away. Slowly but surely they will be gone soon. Grandma has set up my kitchen, so the heart of the house is full functioning. This is highly important when you have 3 little ones who demand food constantly. It's nice to know where stuff is again and be able to provide for them. I don't think I've had that feeling since before our old house went on the market!

The beds are all set up.* The boys are in their bunks, and there is nothing cooler! James LOVE LOVE LOVES being on the top bunk. And Wyatt is tickled to death to have a big boy bed that is right below his idol! It's fun to sneak in there late at night to see them both crashed out asleep. I smile every time. Isabel got her new, girly furniture and she is on cloud nine. She also got a pink flower lamp/nightlight that she is terribly fond of. She's right at home in her new setup.

The dogs took a day or two to adjust. For the first little bit, they wouldn't stray from the house. I think the new smells/critters were a bit much at first. But now they roam freely and seem to be doing a fair job of keeping the deer from totally eating all our plants.

Speaking of critters...

This city girl can't quite come to terms with one little pest that seems to be popping up a whole lot.


That's right. These little buggars are only about 2 inches long and terribly frail looking, but I can tell ya - I HATE THEM! They just look so ... icky! Ick Ick Ick! I don't want them anywhere near me or my gaggle! Supposedly, they are no worse than a bee sting, but it doesn't seem that way when you are trying to chase one down to squish with the butt end of a drill.

And then there was the discussion I had to have with my 4 yr old about never picking one up again. EVER EVER EVER! They don't seem aggressive, thank goodness, but it's the principle of the matter! ICK ICK ICK!

Ok, I'm over it. Now back to relaxing on the patio.

*Pictures are on their way. I have yet to un-box my camera cable!