Rundown: WILDLIFE

This evening, Andrew was walking Farrah in the yard when she began barking maniacally at the bottom of the front hill. It was more intense, focused barking than her usual "I smell some kind of creature two miles away"--so Andrew went to see what was going on, and he saw a porcupine in the branches of a tree. Our cousin had told us there was a porcupine wandering around, and indeed, there it was. It stayed in the tree while we made a fire and burned some of our cardboard recycling. Who knows when it will come down. If it will. And if we'll have a run-in with it tomorrow.

Since our time here is winding down, I'll give a summary of the WILDLIFE we've encountered this month:

--Snapping turtle, large (pond) 

--Snapping turtle, medium (yard)

--Mice (bathroom and kitchen)

--Snakes (yard and woods)

--Deer (fields)

--Porcupine (tree by the barn)

--Ticks (field and woods)

--Red efts (road)

--Crayfish and minnows (lagoon)

--Frogs, tadpoles, and salamanders (pond)

--Coyotes (heard in the distance)

--Fisher cat (heard in the distance)

That's a lot of WILDLIFE. I've also heard children laughing in the woods, and last night, in the middle of the night, I heard some metal objects moving around a surface and then heard a child's voice in our bedroom. I sat up, expecting to see one of the kids, but no one was there. This afternoon, the girls and I were walking along a path in the woods when it started to get windy, and all three of us heard a weird, creaky moan--surely, a tall tree moving; but it freaked us all out and we hurried back to the house.

The less creepy part of our day consisted of the girls and I making a final trip to Books-A-Million and Walmart, plus Joann Fabrics, where we each picked out new fabric to make reversible tote bags. I chose houseplants; Lucia chose mushrooms; and Greta chose woodland animals. We have so many crafty things to do once we get home. 

What We're Reading

Lucia - The Cousins

Greta - Greenglass House

Andrew - Hanged

Margo - I'll Never Tell (one of Lucia's YA thrillers, because I *ran out of books*)

Read aloud - Little Women (five chapters to go)