Intrusions at the Hacienda, Redux

Lately several people have given me a hard time for not posting on this blog, so I guess I need to bring you up to date on the creatures that have been visiting our house over the last month or so.

This seems to have been a good year for reptiles of one sort or another. Some weeks ago Susannah reported that a lizard had skittered in through the front door and sequestered itself under the bookcase that stands next to the door. Not a problem, I just opened the front door and slid the bookcase in front of it so that our invader could escape. The only problem being that there was no invader under the book case.

For me, I wasn't too worried. I just figured that some of the spiders and other bugs that had been sneaking in to find a snack would find themselves on the the other end of the hunt. I did worry about what might happen if said lizard did not get enough to eat and expired under one of the cabinets, that could be a stinky situation.

Well, the spiders, the bugs, and I were all saved when I saw the tail sticking out from under the baseboard. A little prompting and said lizard ran under the bookshelf and then outside and off to the woods. Maybe it had noted our two cats that prowl the house and decided that there might be easier, or at least safer pickings elsewhere. I am still not sure what kind of lizard it was, certainly not one of our normal rail lizards. A friend said it was most likely a western skink that could grow as long as two feet. It certainly had a sinuous way of moving as it took off.

Speaking of rail lizards, would anyone like a few? Seems we have had a successful breeding season and everywhere I look there a one to two inch long rail lizards taking off for shelter. Cute little things. Guess by next year that will be considerably bigger.

Susannah is (IMHO) a bit of a mail tape freak. You know, that transparent tape about two inches wide. She patches everything with it, including ripped paper grocery bags which she keeps in the kitchen and uses for trash bags. That's for background. About a week ago I was working in the shop when she stuck her head in and innocently said, "when you come in, would you mind checking the birdbath and telling me what kind of snake is there?" It took a second for that question to register but I still caught up with her before she got back to the birdbath where a little, about 10 inch, garter snake was curled up in a bit of water. The story is that Susannah went to get one of the bags and apparently the snake had gotten into it, tried crawling over the sticky side of the exposed mailing tape and had its chin stuck to the tape. Susannah thought it was dead until the tail moved. Since it was obviously still wiggling she got a pair of gloves on, carefully peeled the snake off the tape and then decided it was probably dehydrated and so took it to the birdbath, turned it loose and added water. She says the snake seemed to enjoy the water and seemed to be drinking for quite a while. She also claims it had probably been there for a week because the cat had been nosing around that area with great interest for that long.

At any rate a small garter snake has now joined the bull snake released by my shop to chase mice. They should eat well.

Speaking of mice, we have finally begun to allow our younger tom cat to join our female cat for nightly hunts. The results have been interesting in the number of mice that have appeared on our door step. I never thought house cats co-operated in hunting, but I may have been wrong. Most nights they leave at least on, on often two midnight snacks on the welcome mat for us. This must be doing something to the mouse population. I also finally had to bend up some wire mesh to make a ladder out of the water bucket we leave out for the dog. Without that too many mice were falling in and drowning. The water bucket was in competition with the cats, and was coming in a very close second. I don't have a problem with the cats hunting them, but I didn't like the thought of them slowly downing when they couldn't get out. Guess I have been there once or twice and didn't like the experience at all.

So why no posts? Well, I do have a good reason. I have been feeling considerably better over the last couple of months and have been spending a lot of time in the wood shop getting it back in shape and starting on a few projects. First we had quite a bit of foam insulation left over from building the house, and I have been using it to insulate the shop. Then I started using some of the black walnut that I bought dirt cheap a couple of years ago to build a decent workbench. Yeah, I can hear the screams from those of you that know what 2 inch thick black walnut sells for when they hear I am making a workbench from it. But I managed to get 1,500 board feet at a dollar a foot, so it is the cheapest wood that I can get my hands on. Still, a black walnut workbench :).

I had to finish the bench because I had been using a stack of 4 X 8 foot foam insulation as a work bench, and I got a new table saw. The saw is bigger than my old one, and if I wanted to get into the shop and USE the new one, the foam had to go to give me space. The foam was supposed to go up into the rafters on the roof of the shop. However, I am facing the ridiculous situation that I can move a 400 lb table saw off the back of my pickup into the shop by myself, but can't hold a 4 lb piece of foam up on the ceiling long enough to secure it. Ripped rotor cuffs are a real pain even if not in the a*s!

So! Even though I am recovering from my various surgeries and beginning to do things again, I do end up very tired after just a few hours of work, and just haven't been able to generate the energy or enthusiasm to write for the blog. Actually, right now I am on vacation and sitting at my daughter's computer in Northern Virginia. Susannah and I will be out here for a bit over two weeks ending with a trip down to Norfolk for my 50 high school reunion. Good grief, a half century since I left high school. I don't guess I would ever have imagined what all would happen in those years, mostly because I never much thought about what might happen. Such is life.

Oh yes, one final critter invasion. A week or so before we left New Mexico, I notice that every so often a humming bird would stick its beak inside the shop door, not see any flowers and take off. Then one day one came in to really take a look around. Maybe it was my red shirt? Anyway it fell into the trap of thinking that escape meant go up, which does not work well in a building. I tried to chase it out to no avail, and eventually it arrived at the highest point, that being inside of the turbine vent in the roof. You know, those kind of round things that are on roofs that help pull the hot air out? Luckily it wasn't turning very fast but the poor critter looked a bit forlorn up there sitting on one of the struts slowly going in circles. So, go get the tall step ladder, climb up holding onto the loft structure and finally stick a hand up in the turbine, stopping it. After several tries the hummer landed on my index finger and on the first try I managed to grab him. One wing, one foot, and a long beak sticking out from between my fingers as I worked my way back down to the floor. Surprisingly not a wiggle out of the little creature, not a bit of a struggle. I kind of wondered if it had run out of fuel. Sometimes you find them sitting in the grass, exhausted, but if you pick them up and set them where they can get to some sugar water they refuel and off they go again. Not this one, I got to the door, opened my hand, it it was a straight 45 degree climb into the nearest tree! Good deed done for the day I went back to making sawdust :). Guess all the hummers will be gone by the time we get back to NM.

Well, that should catch everyone up with what is going on, and I will try to do better in the future, although I doubt if anyone will be seriously injured if I fail :)

Happy first day of spring, and peace to all.

Hugs,

Mike L