Things that happen on our Lanai

Sometimes we don’t even have to leave our couch to see wildlife in action here. At the same time I heard a loud thud against our lanai windows I saw this little bird falling to the ground .

He looked stoned. He just sat there in a daze with his little feet looking all crinkled and broken. Jewel immediately went into little mama mode. I immediately went into wanna be photographer mode.

Jewel didn’t like that one because it didn’t show the bird good.Much better, she says.

She then set him on the railing, but he wasn’t looking too strong at first. 

Not too much longer, though and he started to gain his wits about him again

and boy were we relieved! Uh hmmm……..and so was he.

(For the record, Joey said “you are not putting that pic on the web?!”

"Oh Yes I did!

He’s alert and trying to pick up his feet at this point, but still not going anywhere

“Are you my Mama?”

He sat there for so long the sun started setting and the porch lights clicked on.so Jewel took it upon herself to get the little guy a drink after only a few sips he flew right to my arm, freaking me the F out, throwing my arms up in the air and forcing him to fly to the trees. And that was it. Our job was done.

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A few days later Joey calls me to the lanai to look at the carnage in our backyard.

Before I completely freaked out, he let me know that were all just catching some rays.

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never a dull moment

never know what we’ll see

Pet goat named Makaha, but answers to Honey

Sunbathing sea turtle

 

Nosey peacock at the mailbox

Recon ducks that made it past security and followed me until I became paparazzi

All unexpected little things, and all reasons why Jewel says I am not allowed to leave home without her anymore…….apparently, I have animal magnetism

Houseguests

  Walking up our outside stairwell in the evenings all we have to do is look towards our porch door lights to see handfuls of these, creepy, almost see-thru lizards. When they’re climbing the off white walls, they are off white, but in Jewel’s hand they start to get some color in them. The first time I saw a five inch lizard run across the floor I immediately thought it was a mouse, but just shrugged my shoulders as soon as I realized it was just a lizard. Why mice are worse, I don’t know…but I don’t mind living with these creatures. 

Jewel hunts for them. She often finds babies along the edge of the carpet and I’ve even found one on the kitchen counter.

The best place so far was the one that was hanging in Jewel’s hair, and would not let go. 

This is what they mean when they say he’s hanging on by the skin of his teeth.

Chickens 101

*New Update Below*

When we got the chickens the day after we got here in Texas, I was hoping we'd be here to witness the first egg laying, but doubted we'd actually be here THAT LONG.
Ta-da:


That poor hen, too, she can't get away from that ruthless rooster. He grabs the back of her neck all day long, briefing squatting on her back, causing Jewel to say matter of factly, he's taking a baby.

We never planned on letting them raise their chickens but now there's no choice. The kids will not let us eat them!

Jewel's even numbering them. We're not quite sure why, even she doesn't know, but it's good she did because from now on the ones that aren't numbered are getting stolen before she knows they're laid. She's going to grow up thinking chickens only lay seven eggs, but until we can think of another way to not get run over by chicken poop, we have no choice!

We're not too sure how these chicks will turn out, really. She spends hardly any time during the day laying on them. Instead she roams the yard being pushed around by the rooster or RUNNING AWAY FROM HIM. If she could speak, she'd say: Polygamy!

UPDATE: I spoke with Jewel about gathering any and all new eggs for our consumption, and explained to her that we'd be buying them from the store anyway so why not use our own. She agreed and has now added Official Egg Collector along with her duties as Official MailGirl

If you stay in the Fairgrounds....

The Fair may just come to town. What are the odds? We are actually here for the County Fair, and my kids just happen to have never, I know never been to a Fair. This one even happens to be .....free gate! How do I get so lucky?

We went to the stock car races on Friday night and quickly learned that I DO NOT like the races. Besides the fact that they were excruciatingly LOUD, it's B.O.R.I.N.G. Then my butt revolted against the metal benches. Going home and doing dishes sounded like more fun, and Jewel was right there with me. We left the boys on their own.


Saturday was actually the first day of the Fair, we didn't check it out until Monday, but were treated to a concert by Trent Wellman on the first night, without even leaving our yard. I don't know who he was, but he sounded really good. We also saw some of the beauty pageant winners, and since Jewel has been saying lately she wants to be in a pageant, I asked her if she wanted me to put makeup on her. Of course she wanted to! It was a little tricky getting the mascara on, but she was happy with the results.


Monday while the boys were swimming Jewel and I decided to check out the Fair to see the animals. First thing we see when we get there is this Wildlife Encounters presentation going on. It ended up being a not for profit organization that takes rescues exotic animals, and they brought a bunch of them with them. We barely sat down to watch the show when I got called up on stage to be a volunteer......I was not volunteering, but I couldn't say no, so I put down my camera and went up. Then they brought out a bear cub, and I was to feed him! It was pretty neat feeding the bear, but I hated being on stage. Then when I got back down the teenage girl next to me said

I hope you don't mind but I took some pictures of you with your camera while you were up there.

Mind? I wanted to adopt her.



They also brought with them a swimming pool full of alligators and for just five dollars they'll take a lovely polaroid of you with the gator after you've caught it. We've got to get the boys for this, so we leave and wander to the kids barn where Jewel loved up on some more baby chicks. If you ask her what her favorite activity is she'll tell you it's "petting baby animals". In fact if you meet her, don't be surprised if she asks you what your favorite activity is...Just so she can tell you hers.

We came back later with the boys and headed straight for the gators. The boys got right in and quickly caught their gators. They were a little hesitant at first because they all scattered to the bottom of the pool which meant they were harder to get to. Jonas went for the only one that didn't have it's mouth taped up, and Jake went for a mid sized one.

They were ecstatic! They were high for hours after that and immediately want to do it again. Instead we walk around the midway and buy a family pack of tickets for the rides. That family pack got us all on ONE ride. One. One ride that nearly gave me whiplash and almost resulted in tetanus shots for the boys. It was fun, but what a rip off.

The next day is Kids Day so we go a little earlier because Jewel wants to wrestle a gator now, and we want to beat the crowds. That's funny if you've ever been to a small town fair. Beat the crowds, that's about 20 kids. Anyway, Jewel wanted a gator and since I'm paying for the lovely polaroid, all three kids can go in at once, and I'm allowed to take as many pictures as I want, and they'll take their one polaroid. Good deal if you ask me. Jewel catches her gator after just a short time.

He may look tame here, but he was a wiggler. She held on tight though and wouldn't let him go. The boys went for the biggest alligators in the pool.


The only problem withthat was they were too heavy for them to pick up once they caught them! Gator Jim helped them lift one up so they could get their photo.

We watched another one of the animal shows, and this time Jake got called up on stage.

To have an African Serval stand on his back.
For another donation the kids had their picture taken with the world's smallest fox, one that not one of us can remember the name of.


We waited an hour and a half to get Jewel's and Jonas' faces painted.

To just go to the pool afterwards and have it all wash off.

Today's the last day of the fair so we'll be going back to use up all the free ride tickets they gave us on Kids Day. What a nice way to enjoy the fair. We can go for just thirty minutes to see something, instead of being there all day really wearing ourselves out. We get to enjoy it a little at a time, that's nice.

Life is good.

Traffic Jam in Custer State Park

That's how they roll in the SD.

Directly below Custer is Wind Cave National Park where we finally got to see prairie dogs.


We didn't go to the cave, just stopped periodically to view wildlife, trying to make it to Joey's brother's family in Cheyenne. We stopped in Hot Springs, SD for a fabulous Mexican lunch. If you find yourself in Hot Springs, we highly recommend Mi Cocina, directly across the street from an unexpected waterfall and cute little creek.

It was dark, but we made it to Johnny's. We hadn't seen each other in almost four years so it was a much needed visit. John had just taken his family on the road a little over a month ago so we're so excited at the prospect of being able to do a lot of traveling together in the future. It's really good to reconnect, love you guys!