My Knights and Maidens: Animals

Some of these pictures have nothing to do with animals, despite the title of my post. Unless, of course, you put my kids into the category of animals and then we are covered, sort of!

Smaug has figured out that he likes helping me unload the dishwasher. Unfortunately, he unloads clean and dirty dishes indiscriminately. And let me tell you, finding a dirty fork in the drawer when you expected a clean one is not very fun.

My bathroom work week started out with tearing out the old bathroom towel bar. Ta Da! I did it all by myself (huh) and patched the wall... which I did not take a picture of because I forgot and now that wall has other stuff on it and has been painted, so you will have to wait for the end product (I'm sticking my tongue out of you)!

J had to chop the tips of the old carpet tack nails off... for some reason, when I tried to pry them up, their rusty little heads just flew through the air... funny how that happens sometimes :) Again, I will post pictures of the new floor when it is all done (it's only mostly done now)!

Now, the animal section. TW and I were pulling some honeysuckle off of a fence when I spied this little man. I was only mildly shocked. I did have the calmness of mind to send for the camera so we could look him up. He's an eastern corn snake (aka chicken snake) non-venomous. We left him alone!

At the same time I was getting surprised by a snake, TW was spying on this little nest with two eggs in it. We think the snake got the eggs later, because they were gone the next day... the circle of life strikes again!

The very next day, J let me mow the yard with his totally awesome mower (it's the truth). He started gesticulating (it's a word) wildly at me (and TW who was on my lap). We raced over and he showed us this (whom he'd almost stepped on). We were 75% certain he was a venomous snake, so J pinned him and separated him from his head. Once the fangs attacked the shovel, we were 85% certain it was venomous. After a little computer hunting, we confirmed it was a cotton mouth and were 100% certain it was venomous. This one was right next to the driveway!!!

J let the kids sleep in the tent Memorial Day Eve... no, I slept in my bed, it was comfy and cool.

While J was waiting for the kids to calm down, he went fishing in the pond. 10 minutes later, he showed up to show Smaug and me his catch :)

Memorial Day we got an unexpected phone call. Some friends called to tell us they had bought us a goat... I like friends like that :) We think she is a pygmy. TW took to her immediately, unfortunately, so did Mamie... we've had to separate the dog from the livestock until they can butt some sense into her :) So, poor Morning Glory (the goat came to use as Glory) needed a friend. Literally, goats are social animals, they don't do well in ones. Fortunately, we were able to find a goat locally, unfortunately, it cost us money this time. Our new goat is an alpine, our first dairy goat :) But, he's a he. He's don't give milk. I am currently searching for a she. She's give milk. But, she's have to have babies to give milk. So, we need a he. So, in essence, our he can give us milk... eventually, it's so complicated.

Added to the complication is the fact that our chickens have taken over the garage and desperately need a coop. But, now we have goats, and a lean too will not provide adequate coverage in the event of a hurricane (it's that time of year)!

Luckily, J has work friend who had a spare Friday evening lying around. So, he came over last night and helped J with this creepy, scary, rickety "shed" which will become the combo chicken/goat building. I've been pulling vines and weeds off around it all week, too bad I didn't take a picture earlier this week!

Now you see it...

... now you don't! Yes, that is a Red Rider Wagon in the background. That's the goat pen... TW put the wagon in there for the goats to play on, they also have our old slide ;)

There they are (there are two there)... Smokey is the boy, he's white... he likes food!

Totally unrelated, but we made our very first "green" smoothies for breakfast this morning. I made a big non-banana version for J and the kids (he's allergic to bananas) and a banana version for me. Mine was great... the other one... is not a keeper!!!