For whatever reason, we have an overabundance of very large acorns in our yard this year.
Not just your average acorn.
They are very large acorns. On this one particular piece of lawn (about 10′ x 20′), it was like walking on marbles. Very large marbles.
That acorn is about 2.5 times the size of this frog!
If you click on the next picture, you’ll probably see the acorns all over the ground. Coverage is heavier in the grassy area though.
See the acorns on the ground?
The good news is that deer love to eat acorns. The bad news? This is the Maryland yard I’m talking about. There are lots of critters here, but no deer.
So I decided to gather up the acorns to take to the WV place. Only from the grassy area where it’s a pain to walk. The ones in the flower bed just got raked back into the trees.
My wheelbarrow full of acorns.
I did say there were a lot of them, right? That one tiny area yielded about five cubic feet of acorns.
That's a lot of acorns!
And they’re still dropping.
Hubby dumped them into a big garbage back for ease of transport. That was the idea, anyway. Now we have about a 50-pound bag of acorns that we’re afraid just might explode when we lift it.
I can see the acorns rolling down our very steep driveway now…
That’s just the sort of goofy thing that would happen to me.
Maybe we’ll have Eric lift the bag into the truck the next time he’s here. He doesn’t read my Blog, so he won’t know the bag is fit-to-bursting.
I’ll make sure I have the video camera rolling, okay?
Yesterday while I was doing some lawn chores in the back yard, K was in our little patch of “woods” (a small stand of trees) doing something. I wasn’t sure what. When I called her and she came to see what I wanted, I noticed a bunch of dirt clinging to her chin. That told me she’d been digging. As long as she wasn’t digging in the middle of the lawn, that was fine.
Before long, Belle realized K was digging and she went back to help. They were both back there for quite some time. Hubby went back to check on them and told me that he could hardly see Belle. I think he said something like, “If you hear a crash, that’s the shed falling into the hole.”
I just had to go see what they were up to.
Hubby was right. It was definitely a Belle-sized hole.
If you look closely, you’ll see the dirt on both of their noses.
The hole was several feet long, about eight inches wide and about a foot deep.
These two were determined. I had no idea what they were after. My guess was a groundhog. There’s one of those that hangs out in our yard periodically, usually under the shed.
The main hole.
K did most of the work. She really was back there for a long time. At least an hour, maybe more.
After taking the pictures I posted above, I went back to what I’d been doing. Shortly thereafter, K came flying out of the woods, shaking her head wildly.
She’d caught something. I didn’t see what it was before she dropped it. She couldn’t find it, so she tore back into the woods.
Belle, in the meantime, had circled around behind K and retrieved the prey.
I didn’t want either of the dogs to eat whatever the thing was, so I had to pick it up.
This is what I saw…
A small, dead mole.
Let’s take a look at that hole again…
The main hole.
A hole several feet long, about eight inches wide and about a foot deep. For a small mole.
The girls checking out the prize.
They were both very excited. I let them sniff the thing a bit before I shut them in the house and tossed the mole far back into the woods.
That's my glove on the table.
A little while later, I was sort of amused to see K and Belle under the table sniffing at my glove. I guess it still smelled like mole. One glove was on the ground already.
Our Maryland house is located in a very populated suburb pretty much smack in the middle of the state between Baltimore, Washington (DC) and Annapolis. It’s not the sticks. We’re surrounded by houses and roads. Knowing this, you wouldn’t expect to see a lot of wildlife, right? Wrong. There are all kinds of cool critters here. Not big critters like bears, moose and mountain lions. You have to look a bit closer to see the kind of critters I am talking about.
There are even smaller critters, too. Not all of them are what I’d call cute, but they’re definitely interesting. Like this colorful girl…
An orb weaver.
Hubby spotted her first. I checked on her periodically over the span of about two weeks. Of course, I can’t just show you that cool spider picture without telling you that it is a Black and Yellow Argiope spider.
It wasn’t until the other day when I checked that I realized she was gone. I thought maybe she might’ve just relocated, so I looked around the spot where the web had been. That’s when I saw this.
Egg Sac
It’s her egg sac. I only know because I looked it up on the Internet. It’s about an inch and a half long. Apparently, there are about a thousand baby spiders alive inside of that thing. They’ll stay in there until Spring. Unless some bird or other critter finds it.
On the not-so-interesting front are the gazillion stink bugs that have surrounded us this year.
Stink Bug
They’re all over this area. They’re in Pennsylvania, too. Until I saw this news video, I thought we had it pretty bad. Only a couple have made it inside so far. There are a whole bunch of them outside though.
We also have some cute critters. Some really cute ones if you ask me.
Like this guy I just happened to see on our patio table when I took a break from some yard work yesterday.
Well, hello little guy!
Can you tell what it is? I knew immediately, of course. At which point I gasped, because these things are rarely seen. Not because they are rare, but because they are so well-camouflaged.
Remember, if you click on an image, a larger size of the image will open for you to see.
Look at the size of the thing next to my camera lens.
Still not sure what it is? Okay, let me crawl under the table for a better shot.
Gray Tree Frog
It’s a teeny tiny tree frog.
In this picture someone else shot (of a different frog) you can see the sticky toe pads that allow the frog to climb.
Gray Tree Frog
It could have been the same frog I saw on my office window recently. But I think that was a different kind of tree frog (there are nine different kinds in Maryland).
Most people would be surprised to know a lot of the “bug” noises you hear at night are actually frogs. If you want to hear what this one sounds like, visit this Web page and then click on LISTEN.
Gray Tree Frog
He sat there for the longest time. Even when the dogs were shaking the heck out of the table as they tried frantically to get at my gardening gloves.
Are you curious as to why the dogs would have been so anxious to get at my gloves? You’ll have to check back tomorrow to find out. Unless you have a weak stomach. If that’s the case, you might want to stay away for the day.
As turtles go, box turtles are not usually very exciting. I mean, they’re pretty common.
“Usually” is the key word here.
Today, I found a box turtle in our MD backyard that was super cool.
Even Hubby was intrigued.
Bad-ass Box Turtle
This was the boldest box turtle I’ve ever seen, that’s for sure. When we picked him up, he only retracted into his shell for a few seconds. Then he’d pop back out and wave his arms and legs around. He even let us touch his head.
Coolest Box Turtle Ever
Have you figured out what makes him so cool? What is it about this particular turtle that had both Hubby and me intrigued? I mean, I’m easy to impress when it comes to critters. Hubby is a harder sell.
Is it really a box turtle?
He’s a bit different looking than most box turtles, but there’s a reason for that, too.
Have you figured it out yet?
Young Box Turtle
It was an itty, bitty BABY box turtle! The smallest I have ever seen. Back in 2005, CeCe found a little one at the WV place. But it was considerably larger than the one I found today.
Apparently it is pretty uncommon to find them in the wild when they are this small. His shell is only about an inch and a half long, if that. (He’s sitting on a wide-ruled legal pad.)
I found him when I was outside cleaning up dog poo this morning. I was studying the grass pretty closely. Otherwise I never would have spotted him.
He was able to right himself in about half a second.
Really. Isn’t this the cutest little turtle you have ever seen?
Say cheese!
I knew I’d be letting him go. But not before I showed him to Hubby AND took lots of pictures.
I doubt he's more than a couple of weeks old.
From what I read briefly on the Internet, these guys are about 1 1/4 inches when they emerge from their shells. As I said earlier, this guy could’ve been no more than an inch and a half, which means he was pretty young.
Turtle with attitude.
It really was fun seeing this little guy. He was just so darn cute!
I know one person that will call me crazy for setting him free. But these guys can live for up to 40 years. And they eat bugs.
Most importantly, however, he deserves to be free.
So, after I shot about a dozen pics of him, I took him back outside and set him free.
Hubby and I each had some things planned for this weekend so we did not go to the WV place. The weather was probably perfect for motorcycling and there aren’t many weekends left, BUT I have planned a week-long excursion for us (coming soon) through the southern part of West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky that should top off our season nicely.
Anyway…
Gaige at football practice last week.
Hubby had to drive up to Central Pennsylvania on Saturday to get some things. I stayed home to take care of some stuff I had to do. One of the things on my agenda was kid sporting events.
I was hoping to get to Gaige’s football game AND Brianna’s soccer game, but the 8:00 AM football game didn’t happen. I would’ve had to leave my house at 7:15 (the time Amy had to have Gaige at the field). I had some other things to get finished before my road trip, so I skipped that one. I did make it to Brianna’s soccer game though.
Apparently, things have finally clicked for Brianna, who will be 10 in December. Not only did she seem to be more aware of what was happening on both ends of the field, she was running with gusto. It was a sight to see.
I’ll show you some action shots later. First, here’s one of my favorites.
Brianna Hamming It Up for Me
This was very early in the game. Brianna was playing fullback (defense) and her best friend Brooke was nearby in goal. Now, I could not hear what she was saying to Brooke, but I’m guessing it was probably one of two things…
“Oh, cool. G is here taking pictures of me.”
or…
“See? I told you if she came she’d take pictures the whole time. How embarrassing!”
I think it was the former, but who knows?
Now that is concentration.
As you can see, the weather was perfect.
Organized Chaos
This is my favorite action shot. Brianna was on offense at the time and the ball was headed toward the right side of the image. Seconds before this was snapped, the other team cleared the ball back toward their end of the field, which is why Brianna appears to be contorting herself in two different directions.
Brianna and the competition sizing things up.
I love the looks on their faces here. How intense! This is a 10 and under team, too.
Brianna on the Attack
I was quite impressed at the level of skill I was seeing. And quite disgusted with some idiot on the sideline who kept yelling at the ref. Said idiot obviously did NOT know what he was talking about.
A Determined Brianna
She is like a totally different kid, I tell you. From where she was last time I saw her play. This kid is obviously into the game.
Are you wondering where her brothers were while Brianna was playing?
The boys did a fine job of entertaining themselves.
They were off playing American football, of course. Click on the above image to see a larger view. I absolutely love the expressions I caught on their faces. Gaige playfully running from a laughing-but-determined Joe.
Game Over
Brianna’s team won. I think the score was 3-0. But it may have been 4-0.
There are quite a few more pictures from the game on my Flickr site. I posted them there for her parents to see, but you can feel free to have a look if you want, too.
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