Grandbaby break

We skipped a week of posting and took off to Illinois to deliver some furniture and see baby Bea(trice).  But we did come back in time to keep up a couple of features...first, "critters from the porch" and confirmation that some plans work as intended.

"Tibo's Trailcam Highlights" are from the last couple of weeks.  Not much new, but the blind can be seen in the upper right corner starting with the second shot.  The turkeys are coming every day, sometimes twice...there may be two separate groups.  Squirrels abound; the first shot shows the squirrel I've dubbed the Black Pig.  Lots of coons at night, but the pictures are too dark to tell much.  One of the Uvalde cams (with a flash) was deployed Friday night - we'll see if that delivers any more info.

The only other shots from the property shows a fall surprise - random spider lillies (naked ladies).  I say random because they're showing up all over, although there is a good concentration of them around the azalea under which the copperhead sought ill-advised refuge.

On to Illinois to meet Bea...

Wish I had that much hair.  We were also able to attend her baptism at a really old church in Champaign.  It was a beautiful edifice (and ceremony to match).

Of course, that's not all we did in IL.  We continued with our furniture rationalization plan, grilled white tail backstraps and watched LSU football, and let Maggie enjoy a little "gran time".

We really enjoyed visiting with Chris, Gabby and the newest set of Thibodeaux sisters.

We got a chance to visit the fabled Curtis Orchard one afternoon and had a really great time.  I got a sack of fresh apples and we picked out some pumpkins for the pending Halloween festivities.  (I think the goats had been fed by hand more than once).

This was a real pumpkin patch...the selection was hard, and the variety was also amazing.  There were a couple of specimens that looked like they would make a good witch-o-lantern.  Maggie was very involved in the search and selection.

Although I bought a bag of pre-picked apples, they would also let you pick your own.  Too bad we didn't have enough time to do that...they had a bumper crop of several varieties.

On our last day in IL, we went out to a county park.  The hardwoods were numerous and varied.  I'll bet it will be gorgeous in a few weeks when the colors change.  Anyway, after a short picnic, we did a little hiking and tried out some fishing.  Again, Maggie was eager to participate.

She especially enjoyed the reeling part.

Anyway, we had a great trip and look forward to their Christmas visit down south.

Just another weekend down on the farm

It was another warm (hot), late summer weekend.  We did get a good drenching rain on Friday night.  It was exciting on a couple of fronts - one, we really needed the rain and two, it led directly to the first porch-kill.  Before we get to that story, we'll start off with "Critters from the Porch".  Swamp rabbit in the yard, cardinals in the field, (big) swamp rabbit in the field, hummer at the feeder, and a big swallowtail on the lemon tree.

We wanted to get those cardinals a little closer to the porch, so we set up the birdfeeder between a couple of (drought-wilted) azalaleas and under a redbud tree.  I used the sign from the old Hollywood neighborhood where Maw-Maw lived; I'll always think of both my grandmothers whenever I see the "redbirds" chow down on top of the Madison streetsign.

I hand-watered the poor azaleas (along with buck's backyard and other randomly placed azaleas...they plumped back up, especially after the big rain.  I also took advantage of Jack's presence to clear out a little hole for the temporary blind.  Here's the before and after from the yard.  We cleared and also cut the old barbed wire fence to allow a stealthy approach from the yard.  Pajamas, slippers and a thermos of coffee is all you need if the urge to watch for deer strikes you while you're sitting on the porch on a frosty morn.

I snuck out there a little later in the afternoon and watched a giant black fox squirrel enjoying the corn, along with a couple of his cat squirrel cousins.  I do have one picture of him on the trail cam highlights this week - no deer yet :>(

Denise has been making steady progress on the house.  These shots show the contrast between the new, lighter color and what was there before.

Before we see who won the contest for the first critter shot from the porch, we'll look at this weeks' installment of "Tibo's Trailcam Highlights".  Turkeys and coons were very common, along with squirrels and one surprise visitor.

I guess this is a Beauregard Parish corn dog...

And here is a very large black fox squirrel...I saw him in the flesh this afternoon, and I thought it might be a skunk at first.

I don't think I'll get much in the way of night pictures until I go to the Cuddebacks with a flash.  The turkeys came at least once a day since last week, and the coons came every night.

And now for the porch kill story...it was well after dark on Friday night when the big rainstorm came through.  Denise had turned on the washroom porch light to see how the water was draining off and detected movement in the lawn.  It turned out to be a large snake on the move in the heavy rain.  She called for me to get my gun, and I obliged by selecting the 12 gauge with a full choke and a 3" magnum shell filled with #4 shot.  We went on the porch, and watched the base of the bush under which the serpent slithered.  She had the spotlight trained on the spot we last saw movement and said "there's the head" between peals of thunder and flashes of lightning.  I figured, close enough (about 15 yards away) and unleashed a little thunder of my own.  Denise donned rubber boots, an umbrella and the maglight and went to investigate.  She came back and said she didn't see anything.  I said, we'll look again in the morning.  She was up at the crack of dawn and re-visited the site with her snake chopper and this is what she found.

A big copperhead!  It was 34" long, and I was quite glad she didn't have me shooting a rat snake or some other beneficial species.  I think Steve Fell selected a snake as the first kill, but he chose a rattle snake.  Even though he wasn't spot on to claim the fabulous prize, he did pick a pit viper so I guess he qualifies for the second level prize.  Steve, call within 48 hours to claim your prize.