2018 Mar 17, & 2016, 2015 My thoughts

March 17, 2018. Today, I went to the Florence Lauderdale Visitor Center, where I saw a little Bird (Killdeer). As I started walking past her, the little Killdeer's feathers flared out. I took my cell phone and took a couple of pictures. I noticed 4 eggs were lying on the ground near her. She had made a nest in the grass near the sidewalk at the visitor's center. That was why there was an orange cone sitting there. I hope she guards them well.

Killdeer 

March 17, 2016: Today was a beautiful day, and the sunset was fantastic. I did a little work outside this afternoon. I sat looking out my window, watching all the varieties of birds eat from the four feeders. My husband said to look, and we saw a long-eared rabbit sitting in front of the tractor, eating grass. I looked out the window on the other side of our RV and saw a groundhog waddling down the field, looking for his dinner of fresh clover. Well, I lay on the sofa watching Wheel of Fortune (we watch it every night), and when it ended, I went to work on my computer. Every evening, I check to see what color the sunset is, and tonight it was awesome. I will post some pictures later. While taking photos of the sunset, I turned around, looked behind me, and saw a herd of deer (doe). I counted at least eight. They just stood there while I snapped their picture. I was careful not to make any sudden moves. I have not seen any deer for some time. This warm weather has brought out all the animals, and climate change has caused us to have such an incredible sunset.

Rabbit 

March 17, 2015, was such a beautiful day; the sun was shining, and there was no rain, snow, or sleet. I enjoyed it very much; we didn't go anywhere, just worked a little in the yard. The older that I get, the less I want to do any manual labor, for it makes me hurt all over; that is old Arthritis working in my bones.

2021 Feb 2, Day trip to Guntersville, Alabama & Ground Hog Day

Hubby and I rode to Guntersville via Hartselle. We were in Muscle Shoals, so we took 72 to 157 through Moulton, then turned onto 36 to head to Hartselle. We saw OH'Bryan's is my Hubby's favorite place to eat. We had planned to eat at Libby's in Priceville, but since we had taken a different route and would not go past Libby's, we decided to stop in Hartselle. The food was excellent and reasonably priced. We prefer to take the back roads when traveling, as you never know what treasures you may discover. I loved the way that they had decorated OH' Bryan's. At the front, where you check out, was the front of an old car (a '57 Chevy), and not far away was the back end of two other vehicles used as waiting benches. If you ever are in Hartselle, you need to check out OH'Bryan's.

 OH' Bryan's Hartselle 

Eating steak, sweet potato, and toast

Salad Bar food

I ordered the sirloin steak with sweet potato and a glass of water with lemon. Hubby ordered a Delmonico steak, a baked potato, and salad. After lunch, we rode to Guntersville State Park, where we saw several deer. Stopped at the pier in Guntersville, where we saw hundreds of Double-crested Cormorants and Sea Gulls. We stopped at Ollie's in Madison and bought a couple of scissors. We stopped at Russell Stover's in Athens, where Hubby and I both ordered a small waffle cone with ice cream. (Rockie Road). Then on to Aldi for a few groceries, then home. The sun came out, but the temperature hung around 42 degrees all day. After a long, cold outing, I was ready to warm up, so I climbed into my warm bed and fell asleep.

flock of birds

Deer

The Groundhog mishap

We had planted our vegetable garden in the early spring of 2013, and it was growing and producing nicely.

I started noticing leaves and beans were missing, as if someone was picking them or something was eating them.
Early one morning, I saw a groundhog, and later that evening, I saw him again. Now I know where my vegetables were going, down the mouth of that groundhog.
Hubby and I both knew that groundhog had to go!

Hubby went to the gun shop near our home to buy a pellet gun in hopes of frightening or even killing the groundhog. 

After sitting and waiting every evening to kill the groundhog, he decided to borrow a cage.

Days went by, but no groundhog. 

It has been almost a month since we last captured the groundhog; he is too smart for us.

I decided to put some onions and carrots inside the cage.

The next morning (May 10, 2013, Friday), I peeked out the window to see if we had captured the groundhog. I couldn't see clearly because it was foggy due to the rain that had fallen the night before.

To my amazement, there was an animal inside the cage.

I called Hubby on my cell phone and said, "We have got him!" We've got what? The groundhog, I said.

Later that day, after the fog had cleared, I decided to go visit the animal. 

The first time I saw him, he was curled up in a ball, so I could not see his face.

Later that day, I went back to the cage. I wanted to take pictures of him,

I frightened him because he hissed at me. 

He had a long tail, a pointed nose, and fur.

I thought to myself, he doesn't look like a groundhog.

I emailed the picture to Hubby, and he said it wasn't a groundhog but an opossum. Hubby said opossums are not a danger to our garden.

That night, when he got home, he opened the cage door to let the opossum out.

The next day, the opossum was still sitting inside the cage with the door open.

That evening, when Hubby came home, he went to the cage to see why the opossum was still sitting inside the cage. 

The opossum's tail was caught in the latch of the door, and he could not get free.

Believe it or not, Hubby reached inside and untangled the opossum's tail. The opossum just sat there, for he did not realize he was free to leave the cage.

When he realized his tail was no longer caught, he scurried away. 

We never saw the opossum again.

We did see the groundhog now and again, for he had moved his burrow to the field behind our house. The field behind our house is covered in clover, which the groundhog feasts on every day. 

Not to say the groundhog did not occasionally visit our garden. 

Hubby never tried again to kill the groundhog.

On May 1, 2014, Hubby was looking out the window, and guess what he saw? Another Groundhog.

We just planted our garden, and he is scouting it out for future food!!!!!!!

The groundhog Hubby saw may have been the same one from last year or one of his offspring.

We attract groundhogs, as evidenced by the fact that the first year we planted a garden, in May 2005, we had a groundhog encounter.

2005 was the year that Hubby borrowed a shotgun and was going to shoot the groundhog. The groundhog was cute, but working in the garden is hard work. 

Hubby would sit by the window every afternoon, waiting for the groundhog to appear. Every time Hubby shot at the groundhog, he would miss. 

So after many tries to kill the groundhog, to no avail, Hubby was ready to give up. 

But to our dismay, on that day, as we were leaving the house, we saw the groundhog lying on the road. The irony of the story was that the groundhog was too fast for a shotgun but too slow for a fast-moving car.