Sights from around Crooked Acres.
George and Gracie get VERY excited when they see me walking toward the back forty in the morning. They know they’re about to get snacks!
The chickens get kind of excited, too.
“Hand over the scratch and no one gets hurt, lady.”
Molting hens are a sad, sad sight. And when they molt, they don’t lay (all their energy is directed toward growing new feathers), so we’ve been getting one egg every other day. NOT ENOUGH, HENS.
Fabulous feathered legs.
Pretty girl.
Cruella, high-stepping it ’cause she heard there might be some scratch over this way.
Shnout.
“Treat, please. Make it two.”
Ducks on the pond. Remember how hard it was to convince them that they wanted to be out there?
Now they’re out there most of the time.
The Rock Star isn’t ready to come out of the coop yet. It’s cold out there!
Rooster keeps an eye on his wimminfolk.
We have come to the section that some of you hate hate hate – the BUG section! Click here to skip it.
And we’ll put a little space in here.
And more space.
A little more.
More?
Yeah, more.
And.
A
Wee.
Bit.
More.
LET THE BUG PICTURES BEGINNNNNNNNNNNNN. What says “Merry Christmas” more than spider pics, I ask you?
This is apparently a Spiny Orb Weaver spider. I had never seen one before, and then all of a sudden it was in the house, on the floor in the front room. Maybe a cat brought it in? In any case, I took it out onto the porch and set it free. It didn’t seem very friendly.
That’s an Assassin Bug nymph sitting in an egg shell half. We seemed to get a lot of them in the house this fall, for some reason. I put this one outside on the fence (I don’t kill them, because when they grow up, they eat flies and other pests) and it wandered off.
Wasp on the front door, just hanging out.
This was Jean-Ralphio. He was a jumping spider, which is my favorite kind of spider because they are so frickin’ cute. He hung out on the ceiling over my desk for about a week.
And then Fred called him my boyfriend and joked that he might have to challenge him to a duel. Jean-Ralphio moved THAT DAY across the ceiling so that he was hanging right over Fred’s head. I kid you not.
Then he just disappeared without a trace. RUDE.
This praying mantis showed up near the side stoop one day. I could have gotten closer for a better picture, but praying mantises (mantii?) scare me. They’re very scowly. She hung there for several days and I thought she might have died (but didn’t want to get close enough to poke her and find out because NIGHTMARES)(yes, I could have used a stick, but she would have flown right directly at my face, I guarantee it), then one day she was gone. I don’t know if she wandered off or something got her.
Another Assassin Bug nymph, on the counter again. Why do these things find my kitchen so fascinating?
I escorted this one back outside as soon as I snapped pictures, too.
It’s possible you’ve noticed how many close-up bug pictures I’m sharing. Is that because I got a macro lens a few months ago? It is indeed. This spider – possibly an Orb Weaver? – was actually on the outside of the kitchen window, and it was small – maybe the width of a pencil eraser, legs and all – and I was trying to figure out what it was doing. Because there’s that clump of web there, that it kept hiding behind. Was it hiding in wait for prey to come along? I don’t know, and now it’s gone.
The two egg sacs that Dolores left on the side of the garage are still there! I check them out every couple of days, but I know they’ve got a while to go before they hatch.
I think this is one of those fuzzy brown caterpillars that cause a rash if you touch them, but I can’t swear to it. Kinda looks like one of those droopy-eared dogs, doesn’t it? Or a guinea pig!
Stink bug. We saw more of these this year than usual.
Ant, doin’ ant things. Did I mention I have a macro lens now? I love it. I probably use it too much.
I did this the other night, to amuse myself. And I was very, very amused. (It doesn’t take much.)
“HO HO H—WHERE YA GOIN’?”
Okay.
Need to put space.
For the bug haters.
And spider haters.
Haters gonna hate hate hate.
Or maybe more likely,
spider haters gonna shudder shudder shudder.
Is that how the song goes?
Is that enough space?
Maybe a little more.
A little more.
A liiiiiittle more.
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TC’s all “Come here, bro! Gimme a hug!”
“I SAID, come HERE!”
“UGH, boys. Am I right or am I right?”
Six of the seven (Pat was hanging out in the closet, of course.) I love how Lita is totally using Lizzy as a pillow, and Lizzy couldn’t possibly care less.
With all the soft, comfy places to hang out, why NOT hang out on top of the wooden box, Stevie.
Lita is such a little lover.
Someone pointed out on Facebook yesterday that Stevie always looks very smug. Yes. Yes, she does. VERY smug.
“What? Is comfy!”
Lizzy, havin’ Deep Thoughts.
Stevie is a little fascinated by Lizzy’s half-tail.
“This smells FABULOUS.”
TC thinks Stevie is CRAYZEE.
Jethro likes to make sure, every so often, that everyone understands that the track toy is HIS.
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Is that a smug, comfy looking loony Jake, or what?
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Previously
2013: “What? Am gettin’ snuggles from Uncle Tommy. Am very pleased with myself, too.”
2012: That stripey boy can FLY.
2011: I just got the word – BUSTER WAS ADOPTED TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2010: “Santa! I been good! No, really!”
2009: From us and all of ours, to you and all of yours, wishes for a happy, safe, healthy holiday!!!!
2008: No entry.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.