August 17, 2011



Jesse's Bull Snake



Pack Rat's mushroom stash



Inside JB's shop



I am beginning to think that we will still be working on the deck as the snow falls. The doctor changed one of JB's meds, so another trip had to be made Down There yesterday. Since we always want to make the most of any trip, we decided that we would all go for the drive and take the rest of the recycle with us. So we hitched up the trailer and loaded it with cardboard - a LOT of cardboard, and a bag of tin cans. The dogs were very excited to be going for a ride. Not JB. This was his third trip down in five days. At least there is room to move around in the garbage/recycle shed now.

As we were driving down the dirt road, we realized that some of the tin cans were falling out. We only put up three sides on the trailer and thought we had everything strapped down really well. Unfortunately, the bag of cans was not tightly closed. I tied it up and walked back a little ways to pick up the cans. When we were driving back home, we discovered several more cans, one every few hundred feet. Kind of like Hansel and Gretel with their trail of bread crumbs. Hopefully we found them all.

By the time we finished following the cans back home, it was just too hot to work out on the deck, so we focused on the inside of the shop. We finished installing the window, then moved JB's work bench in, along with a small shelving unit. We discovered the late pack rat's nest under the tarp on the work bench. There was a lovely little nest made out of a woven strap, with a month's worth of dried mushrooms, leaves and flowers, in amongst which was a nibbled-on piece of poison. Quite the foodie he was. But he had marked his home with big puddle of pee. So once we got the bench situated inside the shop, we poured bleach on top of it. As bad as bleach smells, it smells a lot better than pack rat pee.

And speaking of odors, we haven't smelled the skunks for a few days now, so maybe the little pests really have moved on. We did see what JB thought were cat tracks on the road going down yesterday morning though. Very big cat tracks.

We plan to install at least 14 pieces of decking today. It is going to be a little tricky when we get to the wall of the house, as the deck will be a little too high to slip in under the metal siding. Had we known we were going to put in sleepers, we could have hung the joists a little lower. At this point, we plan to put a thick, wide strip of cold tar along where the wood meets the metal. It won't be pretty, but it will be functional. Next summer I would like to build a bench running the length of the deck against the house, that should hide the tar and shelter the seam a bit. In fact, I would love to have a bench all the way around as part of the railing.

When we were working on the deck on Saturday, I heard Jesse barking and could see him on the path going up to the south ridge. He was just standing there barking at something on the ground. My first thought was - snake. So I grabbed my gun and ran over to him. Jesse is our "snake dog." We had only had him about a week when, on one of our walks, he jumped straight up, did a 180 mid-air and hit the ground running. He had come across a rattle snake. That same thing happened a few weeks later. As it turned out, what he had found this time was a big bull snake. Interesting that Jesse knew it wasn't dangerous. It was just lying in the path ignoring him. I got my camera out and the snake immediately reacted to me by hissing, shaking its tail like a rattler, and partially coiling. Even though I knew it was a bull snake, that hissing and weaving back and forth like a cobra really freaked me out. I did get some good pictures of it though, then took a stick and put it way off the path so the dogs wouldn't bother it.

Mama wren and her family moved out early yesterday morning before we could say goodbye. So, once again, our front yard is quiet, with just the humming birds and nuthatches, but no frantic activity. Just a lazy August, at least for them.