Poor, Poor, Smudge

          Boy am I in trouble this week.

          "Why's that Peg?" you ask.

          Well, I have 46 photos in the file that I wanted to use last week and didn't. Now that file contains more than 150 photos. Some of them I can just plain forget. I was going to show the workers on our bridge. This week I have more pictures as the work progresses. I can skip the earlier ones and show you the ones from this week. Come to think of it, I had a small story there. I may have to rethink that.

          I was going to tell you that the work on our bridge is expected to be completed in November. Two weeks ago, they installed traffic lights. Everyone's been complaining about the wait times. When Mike and I pulled up to the light for the first time, I expected we'd have to wait too.

          Off to my right, just inside the field were a few Black-eyed Susans. Two weeks ago, they were just starting to come on and I hadn't seen a lot of them yet. "Do you think I'd have enough time to jump out and get a picture of them?" I asked.

          "I guess so," Mike answered.

          I got out of the car and just as I get to the edge of the road, I see the edge of the field is full of water. No way was I getting across that in my tennis shoes. I got back in the car just as the light changed to green.

          Crossing the bridge, you can see they have all the tarps hung on the outside.

           This week they have the inside ones hung too.

          I took several pictures of leaves I recognized without the flowers blooming. Showing you some of the more distinctive ones would have been informative for you as well as help me fill pages, should I have needed it — I didn't. So we can skip those.

          I was going to show you three different swamp grasses we have growing here, but I think I'll skip those. This week I have better pictures to show you.

          Cattails or some call them Bulrush. So much is known about this plant that it would fill a book! Although it's so useful, it can often be invasive. Its hardy nature allows it to crowd out the native wetland grasses. Even the dead stalks of the cattail are capable of transmitting oxygen to the root system.

          Many parts of the cattail are edible to us as well as the wild critters. Muskrats especially eat them and use them to construct feeding platforms and dens.

          Cattails can be used to make a raft or for stuffing a baby's cradleboard. It can be made into fiber, biofuel, and paper. In 1853, due to a shortage of raw materials, New York produced considerable amounts of cattail paper.

          During WWII the Navy used the down of the cattail as a substitute for kapok (a silky fiber from the seed covering of a tropical tree) in life vests and aviation jackets. Tests showed that even after 100 hours of submersion, the buoyancy was still effective.

          Another one found beside my pond is Blue Vervain also called Swamp Verbena. It's been used for thousands of years for its health benefits which include its ability to stimulate the liver, soothe the nervous system, detoxify, reduce stress and inflammation, eliminate pain, lower inflammation, protect the immune system, alleviate chest congestion, and increase milk production in mothers.

          I've branched out and started walking Ginger down our dirt road. But I confess. Besides walking Ginger, I have an ulterior motive. I wanted to see the fox pups. I haven't had any luck with that but I have taken lots of pictures.

           Here are a few pics of the Robinsons' barn. Someone stuffed a knothole full of twigs. I wonder why.

          Sweet White Clover.

          Hardhack. "It's not good for nothing," Momma told me once. I think that's because it's invasive and took over the grazing fields for the cows. But the Indians found a use for it. They made brooms out of it.

          Lots of ferns in the shade. Ferns first showed up in fossil records 360 million years ago.

          This is Coltsfoot after the rain has washed the dust from them. It lines our dirt road. Early in the spring, its one of the first to flower and it looks like a naked Dandelion. The leaves come on after the flower is gone.

          Use your imagination. Can you see a critter with a mouth full of ivy?

          I walked up around the Robinson's beautiful pond one day and admired all their beautiful wildflowers and pond lilies.

          Ginger didn't stop at the edge of the pond, she was hot and went right on in.

          This is Pickerelweed another pond plant.

          I don't know this one.

          Orange Hawkweed.

          Both the yellow and orange hawkweed are also known as Devil's Paintbrush, Golden Lungwort, Rattlesnake Weed, and Mouse-ear. Hawkweed is in the sunflower family and in holistic medicine it was used for edema, kidney stones, and to ease a cough.

          Hawkweed is one of the rare plant species that prevents germination of seed and pollination of other, nearby plants. Kinda selfish, aren't they?

          Now that the Black-eyed Susans are out more abundantly, I've taken tons of pictures of them. I've narrowed it down from a ton to just three.

          Black-eyed Susan is also called Brown Betty and Yellow Daisy. Native Americans used it for colds, flu, infection, swelling, and to make a snakebite poultice. It's the state flower of Maryland and if you like to cut them and put them in a vase, they'll last 10 days.

           St. Johns Wort. There are two Katydid nymphs on this one. See them?

          St. John's Wort has long been used in herbalism and folk medicine to treat anxiety and depression. But you have to be careful with this herb as it will interact with other medications such as birth control pills. You could find yourself with an 'oops' baby.

         In large doses, St. John's Wort is poisonous to cattle, sheep, and goats.

          Mullen. Early Americans learned from the Native Americans how useful mullein leaves could be as toilet paper. Better than Charmin when used in the proper direction. I laughed when I read that. The leaves were used as bandages and the flowers used as a tea.

          I took Ginger and walked back to Vernon's pond one day. His driveway is a half-mile one way. I saw so many interesting things.

          The Forget-me-nots are blooming. They're Alaska's state flower.

          Morning Glory. Did you know that there are over 1,000 kinds of flowers we give that common name to?

          Morning Glory was first used in China for its medicinal properties. Its seeds would make you poop — and I don't care what anybody says, pooping is important.

          Hey! What are you doing on my Milkweed!

          Oh my gosh! They're everywhere!

          I walked past these twice before I stopped to look, which seems to be a habit of mine lately. In my defense, these wild strawberries were growing under an Autumn Olive bush and when I saw the red on the ground I assumed it was fallen berries.

          It would take a lot to make a pie!

          "What kind of berries are these?" you ask.

           I know, right! That's what I wondered too. 

          They're not berries. They're growing on the underside of the leaves and I'm guessing it's the home of a bug.

          "Cut it open and see what it is?" I hear Momma in my head. It's something she would do when she found something like this but I think I'll pass.

          I don't know how many times I walked past these yellow flowers thinking they were just Buttercups before it hit me. Wait a minute! Those heads are nodding! That just means they face down as you can see in this photo with a Potter Wasp. Actually, he could be a Mason Wasp. The two are almost identical.

          I plucked a stem and turned it over so you could see his face. I even knew what it was... is. It's Fringed Loosestrife. The most notable thing about this plant is it produces oil and not nectar. There's a certain bee, a Melittid that collects the oil to feed its young.

          This is another flower I assumed was something else until I decided to stop and take a closer look.

          I don't know what it is.

        

 

          It doesn't take long for our dirt road to dry and every passing car and truck leaves a cloud in its wake. The dust coats everything, including me.

          I decided to walk back to Vernon's pond one day. He's our friend and neighbor. I thought it would be a more pleasant walk if I didn't have all that dust to deal with and who knows, maybe I'll find more wildflowers.

           Rough-fruited Cinquefoil. This is one of the first wildflower I showed to Linda, my best girl in Missouri.

          I walked past the white Moth Mullein and never saw it despite its size. It grows quite tall. 

          I even missed the yellow ones until my return trip!

          This is another one that I don't know what it is.

          "Peg! What's up with that!" you wanna know.

          Well, I can't spend all of my time looking up wildflowers and bugs for you! As much as I'd like to do that, I do have other things to do.

          I was halfway around the pond when I notice these ripples coming right at me.

          "What's he got in that pond?" you ask. "Alligators? Piranha?"

          I know, right! Actually, Vernon feeds his fish so they're trained. They followed me around to the dock where Ginger decided to climb in and get a drink.

          I was standing there watching the fish when all of a sudden they took off. I wondered why then saw this huge fish!

          "That was one of the Koi," Vernon told me later.

          "There's a couple of 'em in there that are more than 30 inches."

          Wow! Just WOW!

          I saw a doe on the other side of the pond. She's looking to see if Vernon dumped out any corn.

          A close-up look at Wild Parsnip.

          In Roman times the parsnip was considered an aphrodisiac. Our cultivated ones come from the wild variety and you can eat these. They're like a carrot only sweeter. You have to be careful though because the sap is toxic. Getting it on you can cause contact dermatitis and the resulting skin discoloration can last up to two years.

          Mike brought the golf cart out and picked Ginger and me up. We were on the way home when Mike spots this.

          "What is it?" you ask.

          It's a bunch of feathers — mostly baby ones. I'm wondering if the mower or hay rake didn't catch a mother bird on her nest of youngins. I looked for blood and guts but didn't find any.

          Speaking of which...

          Mike and I spent several hours watching the Walker's bale the field next to us — Vernon's field. Mike does like to watch machines work.

          The Dock is turning red.

          A click beetle.

          It looks like someone made a nest in this unused (and dusty) newspaper box.

          Bittersweet Nightshade.

          Staghorn Sumac. You can make a lemonade-like drink from them when you soak them. In folk medicine the staghorn was used for coughs, fevers, diabetes, to aid digestion, and stop the poopers. I could have said diarrhea but I wanted to see if you were paying attention.

          It was strange to see two tacks lying in the middle of the road.

          I got a pretty decent shot of a Crane Fly. Some people call them Mosquito Hawks because they think these guys hunt and kill mosquitoes. But these clumsy, long-legged critters are among the gentlest of insects. Some of these guys sip nectar, while others of the species don't even have mouth parts. Their only purpose is to mate. If you find one in your house, do him a favor. Gently cup him in your hand and put him outside. They're a food source for the birds, small mammals, fish, and spiders.

          And I did it again.

          "What's that, Peg?" you say.

          I walked right past this one many times thinking it was a mustard plant with the leaves falling off. When I realized I was making bad assumptions about some of the wildflowers I was walking past, I decided to check it out. It's not mustard! It's White Avens! I've never seen this one before but I'm sure it's because I never took the time to look.

          Avens comes in other varieties. There's Mountain Avens, Water Avens, Yellow Avens, and my White Avens. A general overview says this is an herb in the rose family and is also known as Herb Bennett or St. Benedict's Herb.

          Avens has a long list of medical uses that include antibacterial, anesthetic, to stop bleeding, and aid in digestion. It's also good for skin irritations.

          In the kitchen it was used as a supplement for cloves. The young sprouts could be used in a salad.

          Around the house, Mike put two more supports in for our sideways growing tree.

          And we pulled a bush from the middle of the yard. It wasn't anything special and it was in Mike's way.

          Guess who got the mower stuck not once, but twice this week. We had so many dry days in a row that Mike took a chance and tried to mow some of the more neglected areas.

          "Do you have to take my picture every time?" he whined.

          "Well, yeah! They like to see what you get into!"

          This time I wasn't prepared for what faced me. It's like a swamp where he's stuck. "I don't have my boots on!" I called. "Only my house slippers!" and I stuck my foot in the air to prove it.

          "I'm not getting my shoes wet!" Mike called back. "Take yours off."

          I did. It was sorta fun to slosh around in my bare feet.

          "Watch out for snakes," Mike cautioned.

          "I ain't scared of no snakes. They're more afraid of me then I am of them."

          As for me? When they cut down a maple tree that was growing too close to the foundation, the guy cut me a piece for a keepsake. That was more than a year ago. It's good and dry now. The Kipps stopped for a visit on the way home from one of their morning walks. I had something to ask Miss Rosie so in my delicate and tactful nature, I asked. "Miss Rosie? Will you paint me something for my birthday?" I love her paintings.

          "It's already done," she told me.

          I was crestfallen. "Oh."

          "But how about for Christmas?" She said and I brightened. "What'd ya have in mind?"

          Miss Rosie only paints on her unheated back porch cause, "I'm so messy," she told me once. So if she's going to paint me something for Christmas, she has to do it in the summer. "The piece of maple from our tree. I'll sand it down for you."

          "All right," she agreed.

          Mike helped. He got the angle grinder out and took the worst of it off, then I went to work with a palm sander and finished it. I didn't take all the character out of it.

          "What would you like me to paint?" Miss Rosie asked.

          "Your choice." I'll know I'll love whatever she decides.

          While I was at it I went to work on a couple of gourds I had. Vernon gave them to me last fall and I'm sorry to say that I was neglectful in taking care of them. They got moldy. Mike drilled holes in them for me, and the insides were all dried out. I filled them with water and let them sit for a couple of days. When I dumped them out the seeds and fibers came out too. I used the pressure washer on them and it helped, but not enough. So I sanded them. Then I passed one on to Miss Rosie in case she needed something different to paint on — and she doesn't even have to give it back to me! It's hers to do with as she wishes.

          Speaking of Miss Rosie...

          I was on my way to pick her up for exercise class Friday night and I see these two turkeys running across the field, headed right for the road. They weren't slowing down a bit and would cross about the time I got there. 

            I had to actually stop for a couple of turkeys!

          That's not as exciting as what my friend Jody had to stop for the other night. She had to stop for a bear in the road! I'm so jealous!

          I know I've been making you wait a long time for the title story, but I decided to put it on the end rather than lead off with it. Before I get to that, allow me to tell one more little story on myself.

          Mike needed to transfer some money from one bank, where we have a small savings account, to the bank we pay our bills from. These two banks don't talk to each other so we had to physically withdraw the money and drive it to the other bank. In between, we had to stop at the pharmacy. I always wait in the car while he's getting his prescriptions. So there I sit, holding a wad of cash, so to speak, window wide open, and my imagination just running wild.

          "What if someone reaches in and snatches it!" Methinks.

          "Peg! I think you should put the cash away!" you think.

          I can't. When I put stuff down, I tend to lose it. I was going to hold it in my tight little fist until I handed it off to Mike.

          "If someone tries," I answer myself, "I'll just lean over to the driver's seat and keep it out of his reach!" See! I had a plan!

          "He'll just open the door, dimwit!"

          Boy! I know I'm a slow thinker, but really? Is name-calling really necessary? "I'll lock the door!" And that brings me to the embarrassing part of my story.

          I flipped the crazy lock mechanism on the Jeep and I'm looking at this thing that looks like a white key and I can't figure out if that means it's locked or not locked!

          Stop laughing.

          "Peg! Don't look at the white! Look at the black!"

          I know that now and now that I see it, I can't unsee it. When I realized it, I felt like a total idiot and it also reminded me of my cute little red-haired sister.

          "Is she an idiot?" you ask.

          NO! Not that part! She's actually a very smart, fun, and beautiful lady. But it reminded me of her because once, during a visit, she pointed to a wooden desk plaque. "Can you see it?" she asked.

          I couldn't. It was a cutout of the word Jesus but instead of cutting out the spaces they cut away the letters. Instead of focusing on what was there, which made no sense, you had to focus on what was missing, then you could read the word Jesus.

           And this? I can't even figure out what it is. I guess I'm not looking at it right either.

            Poor Smudge. Poor, poor Smudge.

          "Peg, this doesn't sound good," you say.

          I know, right!

          Mike bought a new antenna months ago but because of all the rain we never got around to putting it up. We saw our window of opportunity this past week and we went for it. "Rather than take the old one down," Mike says, "I'll just put the new one on top and change the cables."

          Up on the roof we go and Mike realizes he's not going to get that job done without a ladder. A man afraid of heights on a ladder atop a roof? Who thinks that's a good idea!

          While Mike was doing whatever he was doing, I was doing what I do. Take pictures. I see Smudge at the edge of the weeds but didn't think anything about taking his picture. A doe and her fawns came down from the upper hill and I did get their picture. Us being on the roof freaked her out and she left.

          It wasn't long until we heard the most awful agonizing screams coming from the weeds. "Oh no!" I cried. "The fox's got Smudge!"

          The screams went on and on and my mind supplied images of Smudge locked in the jaws of the fox. I stood there paralyzed as the screams died down. When they started up fresh again I knew I had to do something. I scrambled down the ladder as fast as I could and went running for where the sound was coming from, yelling the whole way, "HEY! HEY! GET OUT OF HERE!" I'm looking for something to throw and it gets eerily quiet. My heart sank into the pit of my stomach as I realized we were too late.

          Mike had come down the ladder behind me and had the golf cart. "I think it's too late. I think he's dead." We drove around the weed-covered hillside looking to see if we could spot Mama Fox carrying her booty away, but we never saw her go.

          "I'm gonna kill that fox!" Mike was so hurt and so angry.

          I was indignant. "How is killing the fox going to bring Smudge back?"

          "An eye for an eye!"

          "Mike, she was just doing her job, feeding her babies! We always knew this could happen!"

          "I'm still gonna kill her!"

          "The only way we could have protected him was to keep him in the house all the time and that's not really fair to him when he's used to going out."

          "If I kill her we won't have to worry about our cats anymore."

          I knew this argument wasn't going to get me anywhere so I shut up. We went back up on the roof and finished hooking up the new antenna.

          I couldn't stop thinking about Smudge. The picture of him sitting on the turtle head is the last best picture of him I'll ever have. "I'll put on my boots after we get done here and stomp around up in the weeds and see what I can see," I told Mike.

          The new antenna didn't help a bit. The problem has never been the antenna. The problem is the leaves on the trees block the signals. In the winter, Mike gets all his favorite channels, not so in the summer. "We need a higher antenna," Mike says. "Who can we get to put a tower up?"

          I don't have an answer for that.

          When we had the old antenna hooked back up and all the tools put away, I put my boots on and followed a deer path through the weeds close to where we heard Smudge's death cries. I just needed confirmation — closure. A bit of fur, a drop of blood. I hadn't gone very far before I realized how futile my search was going to be. The weeds were too tall and too thick. Then I see movement out the corner of my eye. I look hard and realize there's a critter in the underbrush of a tree. It was Smudge looking to see if I was the fox. I'm not and he pokes his head out.

          "SMUDGE!"

          "Meow."

          "Come here, Smudge." I was afraid he'd be tore up and bleeding but when I picked him up I saw he was whole and healthy. "Your daddy is sure going to be glad to see you!"

          "Meow, purr, purr," says Smudge and I carried him home.

          I was right. Mike was really glad to see Smudge.

          "Let's keep all the cats in until the fox moves on," I told Mike. "Her pups are getting big enough to follow her and she has to teach them to hunt. I think it's mostly hunted out here so she'll move them on."

          Late the very next afternoon, I'm standing at the sink washing dishes and I see her. I grabbed my camera, wet hands and all, and snapped her picture.

          "Peg, can't the cats just climb a tree to get away from her?" you ask.

          Great question and it's what I thought too. As it turns out the gray fox is the only one of the foxes that can climb trees! Not only that but they love to swim too. They will often drive their prey into water then they will have the upper hand. Since they can run more than 20 miles an hour with ease they won't be tired when they get to the water but their prey will be. 

          Foxes also mate for life. If one or the other of them gets killed they will seek out another mate but only after waiting several years. Foxes live about 16 years and their biggest predator is the coyote — and we do have those here too! Most of the time it's the young that have been left alone while mama hunts and they can make a meal for bobcats, Great Horned Owls, and the Eagles.

          I had a piece of meat in my freezer that I'm never ever gonna eat. I know where the fox pups or kits (either is correct) hang out. On my morning walk with Ginger, I tossed it to where the pups have been going in and out. I know they'll find it. I was hoping they would find it by the time I finished my walk, turned around and headed for home. When we got back, the meat was still there. It was still there when I took Ginger out that evening. I knew it wouldn't be there in the morning because a coon, possum, or skunk would find it overnight and I was right. It was gone the next morning.

          I told Mike I think the fox may have moved on but we still kept all of the cats in for the next few days and boy were they unhappy.

          Well, my loves, I STILL have a bunch of pictures left. I think I'll do a posting with just pictures and no stories. That shouldn't take me too long to knock out.

          Until next time, you are all in my heart.

          Let's call this one done!