Life On The Farm - Part 2

I Know, I KNOW! Time for ANOTHER posting about "life on the farm" already?

As they say on the farm, "Gotta make hay while the sun shines!" So, here goes:

I was telling Laura about all the critters that we have that come to visit us here in our house. She's a wee bit squeamish about bugs, 'specially spiders and such. And, she just couldn't get it through her pretty little head how I dealt with all these elements of nature.

"Easy," I told her. "Just one critter at a time!"

Why, I've showered with yellow jackets, spiders, beetles and lady bugs. So, I always look IN the tub before I put the mat down in the bottom of the tub - just to make sure I don't squash anything under the mat. So, I got in this morning to take my shower before Church. Mike was on the computer in the family room working on his lesson. I turned on the shower and out of nowhere appeared one of our friendly little critters - a lizard with a very long tail. I guess I let out quite an exclamation because Mike quickly asked me if I needed a shoe. I told him no and that I needed a cup. He dashed about and rushed in with a paper plate and a disposable cup. The lizard was captured in no time and transported outside to be set free with the other lizards that love to run around outside our house.

I mention his long tail because the other day, I moved the garbage can in the same bathroom and found another friendly little critter - this lizard was quite large, but only had half of his tail. He preferred to run around the back of the toilet and hid, wrapped around the toilet plunger. Not a very clever lizard, I must say! I had to use the toilet brush and the empty garbage can to catch, transport and relocate him to the front porch. He was greeted by a group of crickets trying to get into the house that night. Sorry, crickets! Not tonight!

I did have one jump up onto the laptop (just to say hello) while I was up in the wee hours of the morning. Surprised the heck out of me because it came out of nowhere. The least it could have done was give me a little warning that he was coming up, Right?!?

We haven't seen any baby lizards yet this spring. I suppose I missed them while I was away with Emily's baby. The first spring we were here, they kept trying to scoot under the front door because there seemed to be a gap that was just right for them to squeeze in through. Some would make it all the way into the kitchen. I'd find them and have to escort them back outside onto the front porch where some of their siblings would be waiting for them.

Sad story, though. A couple of times I found some of their siblings inside the little blue and white watering pitcher that is on the porch. They'd be dead because they'd have fallen in and would not have been able to get out. I finally had to tip the pitcher over and leave the little corpses in there as a warning to the other ones for them not to go in there again. They finally learned their lesson and didn't go in there again. Of course, it never hurts to give them a good talkin' to, also. I think that even though they were in the bushes, they heard me scolding them. They knew I meant business and they stayed out of the water pitcher. We've not had any more sad instances.

Just one more sad instance to report. I'm afraid both Mike and I are smelling a bad smell in the garage. This means that there's a dead something in my lovely boxes of storage. Somewhere in my fabric, scrapbook stuff, Christmas decorations, etc. is probably ANOTHER little dead field mouse - at least it smells the same as the inside of the car when they died there (see previous stories). I only hope it decomposes quickly before I find it and that the smell serves as a warning to all other critters to stay out of there. I suppose it's a losing battle...

Oh, bless this life on the farm......