Pepé

 

          We had another visitor to our kitchen patio this week. I knew Pepé Le Pew was coming around a couple of days before I ever saw him. I don’t know what upset him enough to leave his calling card but skunk scent is so strong I could smell it while I was still in bed. The place I detect the odor strongest is in the cat room. Then a few days later I could smell it faintly on the kitchen patio.

          “Peg, what do you know about skunks?” you ask.

          I’m sure glad you asked! A male is called a buck, a female is a doe, and the babies are kits. They can weigh up to fourteen pounds and live about three years in the wild. Does give birth every year to between two and ten kits. Babies are born blind, open their eyes around three weeks, and are weaned at two months. Skunks have a good smeller and hear-er but their eyesight-er is poor-er.

          Skunks eat just about anything and are a bane to beekeepers. They’ll break into the hives and eat the bees!

          “Don’t they get stung?” you ask.

          Skunks are immune to the sting of bees as well as the venom of snakes.

          Skunks are nocturnal and generally solitary but if you see a group of skunks, they’re called a surfeit.

          Skunks are not aggressive and won’t harm people unless threatened. Once threatened, a skunk will try other means before firing off his load of stink juice. He’ll puff himself up to look bigger, stand on his hind legs, charge, stomp his front legs, slap his tail, and hiss.

          Skunks can control how much they spray and can spray eight to ten times. Once empty, it’ll take ten days to recharge. They can spray accurately up to ten feet. I thought it interesting that they never take their eyes off their ‘victim’. They bend themselves into a kind of horseshoe shape and spray.

          One website says the odor of a skunk spray can be smelled up to a mile and half away, another website says if you’re downwind you can smell it as far as ten miles.

          Tomato juice is not the thing to use for skunk spray. It can be neutralized with a combination of peroxide and baking soda.

          And did you know that some people cannot smell the odor of skunk? I know, right! I didn’t know that either!

          At the end of the day, just before we go to bed, I’ll pitch the leftover cat food out for the critters. I’m not talking about dry food; I’m talking about the mixture of soft and hard food I make them for breakfast. If they haven’t eaten it by bedtime, they’re not going to eat it. It’ll still be sitting there in the morning. Sometimes they eat all their food and sometimes they won’t eat much of it at all. There’s no rhyme or reason.

          Friday night I flipped the light on to take the leftovers out to dump and caught a glimpse of a white fuzzy leaving the patio. “Wow,” I told Mike. He was sitting at my desk checking the email before we retired. “That was a big possum.” Possums are chickens and run off so I didn’t think anything of it when I went out. Halfway to where I wanted to be, I saw Pepé — and he saw me! He was facing me, his tail was raised, and he started hopping backwards. Since the business end wasn’t pointed my way, I quickly scraped the plate and hightailed it back inside. Pepé must’ve hightailed it too because the food was still there the next morning — which means I didn’t have any other visitors either!

          I found this guy in my house and he was on his last legs — actually, not on his legs much at all. He kept falling over. And that’s likely the only reason I was able to catch him and take him outside. This is a False Bombardier Beetle and they’re very fast — and they can spray you too!

          I didn’t know that when I picked him up.

          The real Bombardier Beetle, also called Blister Beetle, has a much stronger mixture than the False Beetle does and can rapid-fire or pulse spray six to seven times before his tanks are empty. Once empty it takes him five weeks to completely recharge. These guys are the only known insect to have a pulse-jet. They keep their arsenal in two separate tanks and mix them just before firing. Whereas you wouldn’t want one of the real Bombardier Beetles to spray you because it can be painful, these False guys don’t pose any threat to humans. In fact, these guys can even benefit us in that they eat other insects.

>>>*<<<

           Mike and I got on the roof to prepare a section for when the material would be delivered.

          We got the purlins down and while on the roof, I spied a tree with little red flowers! How had I never seen it before?

          I showed the picture to my Miss Rosie. “Do you know what it is?” I asked.

          “No, I don’t.”

          “Well,” I told her, “I’ll Google it.”

          This is a Red Maple Tree! The male and female flowers look different and from what I can tell, these are male flowers. Male and female flowers typically occur on separate trees, but can be on separate branches of the same tree. And it is the female flower that produces the ‘helicopters’.

          The crocus has been blooming for more than a week now but I’ve resisted taking pictures of the neighbor’s pretty crocuses in favor of showing you mine. I don’t know where these volunteers came from but every year they sprout in the weed line between the neighbor’s house and mine. Crocus normally propagate through corms, or bulbs, so how these guys came to grow here, across the road, is a mystery. And as you can see by the sad shape these are in, I waited one cold night too long before discovering they were blooming!

          After all the big winds that we’ve had, Mike and I took the golf cart up to the hunters cabin behind our place to make sure everything was okay. It is, and it’s where I took this picture.

          Other people’s junk fascinates me.

          Our roofing metal came late Wednesday, too late for us to put it on. The forecasted rain, along with the accompanying winds, had already moved in.

          Mike had the guy take the forty-foot-long sheets around to the back of the house so we wouldn’t have to carry them as far.

          “What is that on the ground?” I asked Mike as we helped spot this guy.

          Mike doesn’t multi-task near as well as I do and was intent on making sure this guy didn’t hit anything.

          “It’s insulation!” I exclaim and I know where it’s from.

          That stinker! That Starling that’s been making her nest in the eave every year found a crack Mike missed when he boarded it up and is determined to have her babies there again this year.

          I’m not going to let Mike kill the babies. I’m not going to let him tear the nest out and destroy the eggs and he knows it. “I guess she’s going to have her babies there again this year too.”

          “I guess,” Mike agreed.

          Once the babies are gone, we’ll try to seal it up so she can’t get in there next year.

          When Mike made the material order to do our next section of roof, he didn’t order corners.

          “Call and add them to your order,” I suggested.

          “Nah. They’ll bend’em up. We’ll just go get’em. You can make pictures.”

          I didn’t want to go. I was in the middle of a project and I get a little obsessive compulsive. I want to keep working on what I’m working on. But I reconsidered and we rode out to CC Allis, the lumberyard out in the middle of nowhere. Here’s your pictures.

           Sometimes, on new roads, I’m too busy gawking to remember to take pictures. Then, when I see something I want to take a picture of, it’s almost too late. My picture will be crooked or slightly out of focus. That’s what happened here. By the time I realized these birdhouses were unique, we were almost past.

          “Did you see that sign‽” Mike was incredulous, and so was I when I saw it on the way home.

          Hmmm. I don’t care what you think of our president, this is just rude and I’m offended.

         Wednesday’s rain turned into Thursday’s snow. I know everyone’s tired of winter. Me? I smiled when I woke to see this beautiful sight and went out early to take pictures. I could hear it was starting to melt from the roof before it was even light enough to take pictures and they said the snow would be gone by the afternoon, and it was.

          Daffie buds.        

           Red Maple flowers.

           Bradford Pear buds.

           And my little bud. Smudge followed me on my walkabout.

           Up on the hill, the dark barn against all the whiteness struck my fancy and I took its picture.

           “Did Smudge follow you the whole way up there?” you ask.

          I had to turn around to see if he was still behind me. Yep. There he is.

           The grass growing in the middle of a puddle was adorned with white hats and captured my attention. It was strange to see this in the midst of all the whiteness.

          I stopped to take pictures of the pussy willows dressed in blankets of snow.

           Smudge waited for me by the burn barrel and scrap metal heap. No snow accumulated on the concrete.

          I made a big circle around our place and coming back to the kitchen door, I see my other buddy is waiting for me.

          “Meow!” Tiger said.

          I reached down and gave him a quick pet. “Enjoying the snow?” I asked.

          “Meow,” he answered, flicked his tail, and walked over to take up his position for bird watching — or hunting I should say!

          ‘Do you think they won’t see you there?” I asked.

          Tiger turned his head toward me but deemed not to answer.

          Smudge was still with me, and I was getting ready to go in the house when Smudge headed for Tiger. Curious, I watched to see what he was going to do.  

          I don’t know who started it. I thought I was going to get a picture of them nose-kissing, which is how cats identify each other, instead I caught them swatting each other.

          Tiger’s got his eyes closed. I bet that’s to keep from getting a claw to the ole eyeball.

          I know everyone’s tired of winter and I know you know that I like the snow. But in this case, it was welcomed because it kept us from our roofing job and allowed me a few more days to work on my projects.

          “Peg, what are you working on?” you wanna know.

          Oh gosh. What am I working on? It might be a shorter list to tell you what I’m not working on! I’ve been perusing Pinterest and have new ideas rattlin’ around in my head! And that’s where those are going to stay, at least for now.

          Currently I’m working on pinwheels and whirligigs. And let’s not forget that I’ve got a couple of glass projects on the back burner. Glass will always be my first love and I’ll get back to it sometime.

           The other day on my morning call to Miss Rosie she told me her pinwheel had come apart. “Would you fix it for me?”

          “Of course I will,” I told her. “And is yours fading too?” My pinwheel is fading fast in the sunlight, the bright purple not so bright — and not so purple anymore!

          “I don’t think so,” Miss Rosie answered.

          When I got Rosie’s pinwheel, I could tell the colors were fading. I researched it online and found out alcohol-based markers will fade in the sunlight. They make a marker that won’t but they’re like fifteen bucks a four-pack. I don’t have any and I’m not buying any either. Acrylic paint is also fade resistant and I had plenty of that. It’ll scrape off the plastic if you’re too rough with it, but maybe a spray coat of sealer will take care of that, and I know Miss Rosie has some of that.

I started painting the yellow before I thought to take a picture.

One problem down, one to go. What to do to keep the vanes from coming apart. My handsome husband solved that one for me. He ordered me a grommet kit.

          I spent two glorious days painting Miss Rosie’s pinwheel and I couldn’t’ve been any happier doing anything else. When it was done Mike helped me put it together. He held the grommet in place while I spaced the vanes, then he pounded the two-piece unit together.

          The new fastening system works great to hold the vanes together but created another problem. Now the hole was too big and the pinwheels wouldn’t stay upright. I dug around in my treasures and found an old straw to use instead of the pen barrel.

“That’s not very stiff,” Mike said. “Can you put the pen barrel inside it?”

And that’s how I did Miss Rosie’s.

The next one I had to work on was my aluminum pinwheel. I already had it colored with permanent marker and I don’t have any sealer, but I’d heard someplace that hairspray would work and I had that. I sprayed my vanes and let them dry. If they fade, they fade. It’s just for me so it won’t matter as much.

          Whereas I can put all twelve sheets of plastic in one grommet, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to grommet all twelve sheets of the aluminum together, and didn’t even try. We used two grommets on this project, putting six vanes together in each.

          For the aluminum pinwheel, with two grommets instead of one, the tension pushed the sides apart. With it all pushed out it sits against the post and won’t spin. I’d have to figure out a way to keep them together.

          Wire wrapped around the barrel as a stopper? Hot glue?  And image of a lynch pin came to mind. I’ve seen Mike use that kind of a pin when he hooks up implements to his tractor. If I drive a nail through the center and bend it or hot glue it, that’ll work, I think.

          “Peg, if you do that then how will you put the nail through it?” you ask.

          Yeah. I thought of that too — AFTER I DID BOTH SIDES!

          Grrrrrr!

          I pulled the nails out and opted to try hot glue instead. We’ll see how long it holds. If I were going to make a business of this, I’d definitely come up with metal tubes and stop washers or something but for the few I’m going to make for friends and family, this is good enough.

          Putting the first couple of pinwheels together showed me where the design could use a little improvement. The vanes are so thick at the base it makes them hard to put together. For this next one I slimmed it down and didn’t realize until this moment that I’d put it up the opposite way as the others. I also didn’t color it; I just stuck a few stickers on it.

          Now I have three large pinwheels in the yard and one small one hidden behind the formerly purple one in the middle. They’re mounted on opposite sides of the same post.

          And Miss Rosie is right. Just watching them spin makes me happy too.

          The ground is still frozen and I can’t drive my stakes in very far. The wind’s been gusting and knocking my pinwheels over. Every other day or so I have to go out and stand one or two back up. Tiger followed me out this day and sat looking at the pinwheel as it caught the wind and spun. I thought he might jump at it but he didn’t, he just walked away. But he sure looks cute sitting there staring up at it.

          Speaking of Tiger and all his cuteness… if he’s not out hunting birds, or laying on my desk, he’ll sometimes get in my chair behind me.

           I got up to get coffee and when I come back to my seat, I see this.

          Cuteness overload!

          Tiger, trying to wiggle in between me and the seat back had managed to get inside my lap blanket and he looked as content as Baby Roo peeking out of Kanga’s pouch.

>>>*<<<

          Today is Easter Sunday and my Miss Rosie gave me a fabulous gift! A pair of bunny socks and a plaque she painted for me. I love this! It’s beautiful! I can see all the love she put into it, all the little details she added that must’ve cost her a lot of time, and she even made it my favorite color. I hung it in my kitchen to be treasured forever. I smile every time I see it. Thank you, my Miss Rosie, you rock!

>>>*<<<

          We had a bank robbed in our little town. The guy rode up to the drive thru window, passed a note inside saying he was robbing the bank and had a knife. They gave him two thousand dollars and he left. They knew who he was and he was arrested.

          Why! Just why! He’s on the other side of a window with only a knife — no threat to you at all. Why didn’t they just laugh at him and walk away!

          “They may be instructed to hand over the money without a fuss if they’re ever being robbed,” Miss Rosie said.

          I don’t care. Use some sense here people!    

>>>*<<<

           Let’s end this week with my first sunset picture of the year. 

          Done!