Crazy!

It's been kinda crazy around here.  Good and bad stuff happening but I want to show you what came to visit me today.  Ha, ha! 

A squirrel also came and was looking through the patio door.  I grabbed for my phone to take a picture, unfortunately that scared him and he took off.  Oh well, at least I got the rabbit.

Last deer picture, ha!

The deer was at our house for over 24 hours just eating and resting.  My neighbor that lives on the next street came over yesterday with someone and they got a really great picture of it, although that made the deer leave, ha!  He did come back last night for a while.  It was like a nature preserve.  Besides seeing him, I also saw a skunk eating something out of the grass (no picture of him though). The deer was gone this morning.  I'm not sure if he left because of the skunk or he was just carousing.

He's back

I'm not sure if it's the same one but I'm thinking probably since he made himself at home.  It looks like he bulked up, ha!!  (Excuse the blurriness)

Eventually, he laid behind the grill and relaxed for a while. 

In the daylight

Our guest came in the daylight yesterday, not sure if it's the same guy or not.  We noticed him around noon.

After he ate some, he decided to stay a while.

By a while, I mean until 6:30 p.m.  We were surprised he stayed that long.  He would get up every now and then and eat some tomato leaves or green beans and then go back to laying in the garden.  He even hopped the fence and ate the green beans he couldn't reach from the garden and then came back over to lay some more. 

I had to laugh no birds or squirrels went to the bird feeder while he was there.  One time I saw a squirrel coming down the tree and it sounded like it was chastising the deer to get the heck out of there.  Then it went back up and was on a branch and I could hear it again loudly but the buck didn't move.  Finally a way to keep the squirrels out of the bird feeder but too bad it means less vegetables for us, lol.

Summer pests

A few weeks ago, my neighbor/friend that lives behind me called.  She had a big swarm of bees in her yard that had eventually congregated on one of her bushes in the back.  She called the city to see if they would do anything but no- since it was private property they wouldn't come.  They wouldn't even come to verify if they were bee's or wasps, REALLY??   One of her other neighbors came over to look and verified they were honey bees.  They knew someone that could come get the bees. 

The guy came after dark (I didn't go watch - it was the finale of The Voice, ha) but he brought a box with honey in it and when the bees went in he covered it with newspaper.  Put it inside his vehicle and took them home.  I've seen bee keepers come to get honey bees before but I've never seen this method.  Seems kind of scary but the guy did make it home, so whatever I guess.  He did have to come back the next day for some more though.  

The next week I saw hippie looking at what I thought was the roof.  I went out and there was a little wasp hive/nest only about 2 or 3 inches big by our gutter where the patio guys had added a piece when they had to cut the gutter off. Hippie put some stuff he had in the gutter and he thinks he got them but with all the rain we've had who knows.  

Yikes anyhow I hope no more bees or wasps.

New crew at the bird feeder

Click on pictures to enlarge

Turkey

I thought I saw just about everything in our yard up until today.

I was going to look out the patio and saw a HUGE bird whiz by the windows running out the opened gate.

 I told hippie and we ran to the front window and it was a turkey, LOL.  It ran across the street in the peoples backyard.

I went to the patio and the lady next door and the neighbor behind her were outside.  Apparently, the lady next door saw the turkey in her yard and yelled.  The turkey flew over the fence to our yard and high tailed it out. 

I live pretty close to a few woodsy areas.  I didn't even know we had wild turkeys around here.  Unless it's someone's pet, who knows.

Nature

So, I'm sitting on the patio minding my own business when out of the corner of my eye I see  what looks like a BIG bird fly into the evergreen.  I get up and look out the window to see if I could see it.  Then I see a hawk on the roof and it flies away when it spots me. I go in and tell hippie and he looks out and sees the rabbit in our yard.  I didn't even notice it was there.

I think that hawk was scouting out his next meal. UGH!!!

I felt like I had to stay out there and watch the rabbit.  Hippie said I have to let nature take it's course.  So I left grudgingly.

I went out a couple hours later afraid I would see rabbit fur all over the back yard but hippie said he had seen it in the garden.  I stayed and waited for a half hour and finally I saw the rabbit on the other side of the fence. I think it was going to come back in our yard.

I have a feeling the hawk will be back.  I just hope I'm not around if the hawk gets the rabbit.  That would be so not cool.

What a show

This evening around 7, I was sitting in the patio enclosure with all the windows open.  It was a gorgeous day (finally again).  It was in the high 70's but very breezy.

I don't know if I mentioned, before winter came, Hippie hung the bird feeder out again right next to the garden.

Anyhow while I was sitting there, the birds (sparrows, blue jays, cardinals) were eating out of the bird feeder.  There was a squirrel underneath the feeder eating the seed the birds flicked out of it.

Then lo and behold, the bunny rabbit came into the backyard.  He went and checked out the garden where the squirrel was but didn't find anything.  He ended up staying on the grass and eating the weeds.

I wanted to go get the camera but I knew if I did everyone would scatter so I just sat and watched.  I felt like I was in my own little nature preserve LOL. 

WTH

One day last week I was sitting in the patio enclosure and I noticed something on the garage door.  It sounded like it was making a noise.  I went out and looked.  At first it looked like a dead leaf that had blown on after the storm.  I almost flicked it off with my finger.  Luckily, I looked a little closer.  It was an insect that just looked like a dead leaf.  Ewwwwwwwww  Click to see it bigger

weird lightening

Hippie and I tonight saw a big cloud that had lightening in it.  It was so weird.  There was no rain or thunder and the lightening never came out of the cloud.  Crazy!!!

Squirrel

Hippie hung a sunflower out from last year and has been putting some seeds in this old Maxwell House container.

                   Squirrel digging in for the seeds (click on pictures to see)

                                         Squirrel eating the seeds

                                                                    
                                                  Had enough

Birds nest at entrance into the nursing home

Oh Deer

Monday morning I'm looking out the back patio doors and I see a deer in my neighbor's yard caddy corner behind me.  I tried to take pictures but it saw me and it went on the other side of their shed.  I called the neighbor and told her there was a deer in her yard and while I'm talking to her on the phone she looks outside and says the deer's leg is hurt.  Then it comes back where I can see it and it's limping.  The neighbor calls the police and the deer is eating but can't stand on the one leg.  The police come and my neighbor tells them not to shoot it in her yard just that she wanted it out of her yard.  The police start going back and the deer and the police have a stare off (kinda like me and the squirrels in that one AlphabeThursday post LOL).   They start going a little towards it and believe it or not the deer jumps over the fence on three legs and takes off.

The police said they were at an accident earlier where a car and deer had an accident so we're thinking this might have been the deer.  I went to the front and the deer was headed towards the woods.

Here's the one picture I got but you have to click on it, because I didn't have time to zoom in on it before it saw me.  I was so excited when I saw the police come then that I forgot all about the camera.  If I would have had my wits about me, I probably could have gotten a shot of the deer jumping over the fence.  Oh well, hopefully, the deer will be okay.  

Summer overview

I am not completely blind to the fact that we will still have some warm/hot weather but I can't help but relish the cooler weather we've been having the last couple of weeks.  I've had to wear long sleeve shirts when I go out and some days when I wake up, I put sweatpants on lol. I love not having the air conditioner on. It's going to save some money on our electric bill too.

Our gardens didn't do that great this year.  We had enough cucumbers although not as much as usual.  Green beans were good but one garden something ate them.  Our tomatoes were pretty much a bust.  It may have something to do with the gardens getting over run with weeds, ha.  Who knows.

The neighbor behind us sprayed his weeds by our fence/garden a couple of weeks ago, so me being the paranoid person I am, had hippie get rid of that garden.

We have some bigger tomatoes by the garden next to the porch but I'd be really surprised if we've gotten a dozen bigger tomatoes this year so far.

Our marigolds in the front did extremely well.  They are all tall and bushy.

Last year, hardly any of the mums came up.  This year a lot came up.   The mums got cut back a little later because they usually get so tall and spindly that the first big rain they lay flat.  I'm wondering now if they will be able to be seen from the street because the marigolds seem to be dwarfing them in size and buds are on them. If you click on the picture you can see the mums barely behind the marigolds.

 
I've been thinking though when they bloom I might just use them this year for cut flowers inside the house and take some for mom.  I haven't done that in a few years.

More and more trees around are starting to change colors.  Oh how I love that.

I know some people will miss summer but not me ;-)