11-25-15 Crooked Acres Wednesday

Posted on by Robyn

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Look who it is!

I KNOW you recognize that sweet face – it hasn’t been that long! That’s Peanut, formerly known as Pattypan, who was one of the Squash Bugs.

Kim said: She follows us everywhere. I have always been a dog person but I couldn’t help but fall in love with her.

Thanks for the update, Kim! You know we love seeing that girl!

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Sights from around Crooked Acres.


See this? You know what you’re looking at? You’re looking at thousands of Asian Lady Beetles piled up under the windows of the garage. Every year, they do this.

Asian Lady Beetles are different from Ladybugs. Asian Lady Beetles are pests – every fall they show up, usually sometime in October (most often within 24 hours after I’ve said “Hey, I haven’t seen any of those horrendous Asian Lady Beetles yet. Maybe they won’t come this year.”). They come into the house around the window in my bathroom and the window in the stairway landing – we don’t get as many in the house as we do in the garage (the garage is more open to the outside than the house), but we probably get a couple thousand over the course of the fall and winter. I really hate them because they stink, they draw little designs on the wall to entice other beetles into the house, and just as the weather turns cold and I think they’re done coming inside, we get a warm day, and they come crawling out and stretching their stupid little wings, ready for summer. I HATE THEM.

This year, while frantically searching for a solution to these evil things YET AGAIN, I came across a suggestion I had never seen before – taping around windows with painter’s tape. (We have sealed around the windows as much as we could, but this is an old and crooked house). I gave it a try, and it completely stopped them from coming in around the window in the stairwell. They’re still coming around (much more slowly) around the bathroom window, but a few dozen of them in the house is far better than a few thousand.

At some point this winter, I’ll go out to the garage with the shop vac and vacuum up the piles under the windows.

Did I mention I hate those things?


What the garden looks like now. Those tall plants over to the center right are the okra plants. That big bushy plant on the left is a habanero plant.


Habanero plant, up close. Still producing, even though it’s gotten down below freezing several nights. We’re going to pile some leaves around the bottom of the plant to insulate the roots, and then see what happens. I don’t expect it to make it through the winter, but you never know!


The Rock Star, looking fabulous.


Old Man Georgie, with mud on his nose as usual.


Cruella and her fabulous ‘do.


Gracie’s stone. This is the spot where she liked to snooze her days away.


I love the look this Brahma hen (the white and black one in the middle) is giving the other hen. “You gots a problem?”


Rooster keeps an eye on his wimminfolk.


The ducks, looking for trouble.


That mass of weeds and shrubbery in the middle is what Dirt Mountain looks like now. Someone ought to cut all that stuff down… but I don’t think anyone is going to!


The pond has gotten pretty low in the past couple of months – instead of running water into the pond, Fred has let it get low (there’s still plenty of water in there for the catfish, worry not) since the rains this winter will fill it up again. See that dug-out spot on the right side? The catfish did that. The water’s usually up to where the weeds are.


I know it looks like George needs brushing, but I swear Fred JUST brushed him! His heavy winter coat came in, and he looks a bit scruffy, is all. Also, he loves to sleep in a pile of leaves, so he’s always got leaves stuck to him.


While I was in the back forty taking pictures, Archie and Stefan were facing off just outside the fence. I went over and spoke to them, and Archie backed off, but you can see that his tail is still floofed.


Birds of prey, circling over the back forty. A minute later George walked out to the middle of the field, and they vamoosed.


“You gots a snack for Georgie?”


The ladies, hanging out in the coop.

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Archie and Alice pretty much time-share this bed. There’s plenty of room for both of them in there at the same time, but I don’t imagine that’ll ever happen.


Rough life, Archie.

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Previously
2014: TC coming out from his hidey hole under the doll bed.
2013: Too much helium for Adriana this morning.
2012: No entry.
2011: ::smack::
2010: No entry.
2009: Pink (Milano) is too important to hang out with the little people.
2008: There’s just nothing like having four warm little kittens flopped against you, purring to beat the band.
2007: I CANNED TURKEY BROTH.
2006: No entry.
2005: Yesterday marked six years since we adopted Miz Poo.

Comments

29 thoughts on “11-25-15 Crooked Acres Wednesday”

  2. Smooches to PattyPan…my favorite Squashbug.

    Smooches to George, too. Gracie’s stone sorta choked me up. sigh….

    Your chickens are all looking fabulous! They make me smile!!

    Asian Lady beetles…thousands…gross. Painter’s tape away!!!! I wonder why you have them there and we don’t have them in Florida…?

    1. I think it’s mostly the lighter-colored, older houses that get swarmed by them – before we moved here (our previous house is located 20 minutes from this one), I had no idea that there’s an Asian Lady Beetle problem. If we planted a tree to shade that part of the house and also painted the house a darker color, it might cut down on the infestation (but I’m having no luck convincing Fred that we should do that!)

    2. Because some idiots, in their infinite wisdom, thought it would be a good idea to fly over north Alabama in an airplane to release millions of them to supposedly kill the aphids. Thanks. I hate them, too.

    2. I was about to post the same thing!! Though I thought it about the first picture. I guess he’s a lion in both 😀

  5. Peanut Pattypan!! That girl is soooo pretty. I’m glad Kim came around, I mean, how could PP NOT turn someone into a cat person? Pfft. Just the thought is ridiculous. That girl has POWERS.

    Ha! I had no idea that was Archie in that bed. I was saying to myself “Wellllll, who’s THAT cutie-patootie?”, thinking maybe you had a single foster. Silly me!

    1. I’ve had a lot of people tell me that they weren’t cat people ’til they adopted (or someone in their home adopted) a cat. I say there’s no such thing as “not a cat person!”

      1. Everyone I know who “hates cats” has never owned one. (So how in the heck would they know if they like them or not?) Anyway, the minute they get one….they l-o-v-e cats!!!

        1. My husband said he wasn’t a cat person when we first met. Then he met my two and said well they seem pretty cool. A few weeks into our dating he bought me a coffee table book of cat breeds and saw a picture of a gorgeous Abyssinian and said he had to have one of those. 20 years and 10 cats later he’s a cat person. Although he did finally convince me to get a dog as well.

          And a lot of the people I meet that say they’re not cat people or they hate cats are allergic. So just because you’re allergic you have to hate them? I’ve never understood that logic. Although I do know a few people who are allergic and like them, have even had some over the years and just put up with the allergies or taken meds.

          1. I’m allergic but I don’t care. I manage my allergies just fine, rather than deprive myself of the company of cats!

  6. Hi George!! Does your extra shaggy coat mean more snow this winter? 😉

    And I had a sad when I saw Gracie’s stone, too…

  7. We loved the previous post (2014: TC coming out from his hidey hole under the doll bed.) it’s hard to believe it’s almost a year since sweet TC and adorable Jethro came west to our home in Oregon. We’re putting together a year in review to share with Love and Hisses fans.

  8. Aw, I loved seeing Gracie’s marker. And, even though I’m not normally into blonde dudes, I think I’d make an exception for Mr. Man himself George.

    Question regarding the hens. It’s seems you’ve had the Rock Star and Cruella and the Brahmans for ages, (and the ducks, for that matter) – so, what is the life span of these birds? I mean, barring any predators or freezer camp.

    (The fact the catfish dug that hole creeps me the hell out! Just imagining them all creepy and hiding in their creepy hidey-hole…)

    1. They burrow out holes for shelter and for hiding their eggs. Now if Fred’s a noodler, he’d have it made.

  9. I think you need another one of those beds..

    that lady chicken in the middle reminds me of a monarch butterfly.

    George does look like an old man in that photo

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