history mysteries

(Sorry for republish...had to fix the video links!)

Really cold, but not much snow.  We did had a mini blizzard blow in last week!  I hastily shot a video (sound on!), but unfortunately, this only lasted for about ten minutes.  What a bluster, though!

Extremely low morning temperatures (7 degrees anticipated tomorrow) mean that Pepita isn't getting her regular walks...and she's become a little monster!  She has quite a lot of energy and spends a lot of time pestering the cats and invading their space...

"WHY is she HERE?!"

...and playing loudly with her toys.  She has a habit of dropping her toys off the couch and generally being too lazy to retrieve them, so she flops and grunts/howls until one of us obliges her, or she finally gives in and gets it herself.  This is a MINOR episode...she's usually much louder!

Meanwhile, the cats are being their usual rambunctious selves...

So these quiet winter days can actually be quite noisy!  Well...sometimes they're peaceful.

It's been so cold that I've been fretting about our outdoor animals.  We're keeping cat food in multiple locations outside for not just cats, but raccoons and other friends.

Bird feeders are full, drawing the usual crowd, including an unusual amount of cardinals!  A nice bit of color on grey days.

In my free time, I finished a puzzle this week...another one by Charley Harper.  I really enjoyed it and plan to get the whole series...eventually!  Right now, this is my only one.

I finished that embroidery project from a couple of years ago.  Regrettably, it is a little bit rough, but I'm pleased to have it finished and move on to something else.  Practice makes perfect!

I've been knitting again, slowly working on a sweater sleeve, and doing quite a bit of reading.  With Todd being sick/work flow interrupted, I've had so much more free time and have actually finished eight books so far this year!  The best has been I, Medusa, but my current book (The Buffalo Hunter Hunter) is pretty promising too (two thumbs down for the much-ballyhooed Theo of Golden).  I'm busting through podcasts and feeling very productive in general in 2026!

The old photo of Ruth last week reminded me of some other photos that I received in that batch of unwanted things from her son after her death.  Photos like this one, of my great grandparents, displaying their well-known love of animals and flowers.  I spent a lot of my childhood at their house and well remember the rose arch, the weeping willow, the hundreds of irises that my great grandma cultivated, and the big backyard, plowed up into rows for vegetables and flowers.

I have this letter from their son, who was my grandpa's brother.  He was a crew chief on a B-17 and a technical sergeant.  Many of his letters and telegrams were in this box.  Really evocative.  "I've toured England - seen all the things I studied in history etc. - and I've seen the horrors of war.  Death, destruction beyond comprehension, evacuees by the thousands, poor homeless kids and hundreds of things I never wanted to see hear or think again as long as life goes on."

I've read a lot about World War II and this is interesting on a broader level, but more specifically, it made me curious about family dynamics.  I was raised by my grandparents, with my great-grandparents just down the street, but my grandpa's brother Lawrence - "Lonnie" - was never around.  A rift had developed between the two brothers and Lonnie moved to Florida, never to return to Indiana.  I wondered at this letter.  Lonnie, the beloved older brother, had a rather glamorous role in World War II, living in England for years and working with war planes.  My grandpa joined the Navy as soon as he was old enough, but he was mustered out after basic training.  He had a heart murmur from a childhood illness, and he was deemed unfit, medically, to continue.  It must have been a crushing blow to the little brother who wanted to be a war hero.  Surely he was jealous.  Could this have led to the rift?  It's too late to find out...but I love these little clues.  This box of old family documents and photos is a real gift!  

I feel that even in these quiet months with many fewer wild creatures moving around, you can still be a bit of a "historian" about their past movements, just by seeing what was left behind.  Poking around the back barn while feeding the feral cats, I noticed a few interesting things.  Old wasp nests...

...and groundhog holes, although they weren't very visible this year.

Old barn swallow nests...

...and remnants of a hornet nest.

This was a pretty lively place last summer.  I'll have to pay more attention to it this year.

Have a great week!  

more tracks at BBB

Mid-February, we finally had snow...about four inches.  And now, just two weeks later, it's sunny and 76 degrees.  Indiana spring!  

I don't know why we draw so many cardinals, but I love it...especially in the snow!  They make such a beautiful contrast.

It was really coming down for a while...

...but as usual, our post-snow weather was bright and sunny.

A few bird tracks...

...and a peach splash of urine marked the progress of these deer.

Even with snow and colder temperatures, the daffodils were pushing through.

Just a week after this snow, more signs of spring.  Red maples were dropping buds...

...and we started seeing more green on our hikes.

Lots of animal tracks told us that these little guys were getting more active!

raccoon

Even in the brown of late winter, I love Bean Blossom Bottoms. 

Borga has trodden these boards for the last time, though.  She used to be a pretty intrepid hiker...

...but now she can't walk for more than five minutes without needing to be carried.

So we're hiking without her this spring.  She's staying home, catching some ZZZZZs

She's got good company.

Have a great week!  

Leave It To Beavers

We've had some pretty spectacular downpours so far this summer. 

It's slowed our progress of cleaning up the fireplace area somewhat, but we've entered a relatively dry period now.  The wood is drying and will soon be able to be cut and burned.

The nice thing, though, is that Todd and I have been able to spend some time there, playing Scrabble or chit-chatting after supper.  It was on one of those days when I discovered...we have beavers.

Two adults have set up shop across the pond.  I rarely see the female, but every single day at dusk, rain or shine, the male is out.  He stations himself at the foot of a downed tree and is very busy there, doing something.  He's an amazingly large beaver and we've named him Augustus, a fitting name for such a majestic creature.  Did you know that adult beavers can weigh as much as 60 pounds? 

He works busily at his log for a while, swims a few leisurely laps, and repeats.  Sometimes I'll startle him, and he slaps his tail loudly on the water's surface and dives.  But he's a pretty laid-back beaver.  It isn't long before he returns to work.

Last week, I saw a little one next to him.

That's right...our beavers have babies!  I've only seen two so far, and again, there's one that's much more visible than the other.  I've named her Pepita.

She's very shy, but also very inquisitive.  I just love watching their little faces!

We've discovered other creatures down there, too.  Barred owls have long been making their presence known here, with their "Who cooks for you?" calls.  But they're rarely seen.  However, we have a nesting pair with a fledgling that we've started seeing almost every night!  They've flown right at us and perched above our heads on low-hanging branches.  They seem awfully brazen, and we've hesitated to approach them!  The juvenile is the talker.  I usually hear him first with his loud begging call.  The parents aren't far behind...flapping from branch to branch, perching on fences and posts, and sometimes landing in the yard and surveying the landscape that way.  So many great opportunities, and I've never had my big camera with me when they've been out.  I've gotten a few blurry pictures through glass, though:

The crazy thing is that these big, powerful birds have a much smaller predator:  a mob of crows.  An owl can kill a single crow easily, but just like the case with zombies: one alone isn't an issue, but a big, worked-up group of crows is another story. We have a pair of crows that have claimed our yard as their territory.

They harass hawks during the day and owls in the early evening.  I've seen them chase an owl from tree to tree, then over the pond, until he was out of their territory!  It's pretty remarkable. 

Speaking of remarkable, and birds...Little Miss has hatched an egg.

I wasn't sure at first, but the other egg is still there.  It just hasn't hatched yet.

Hopefully it will hatch soon!

Meanwhile, our more familiar animals have been enjoying themselves at our rodent-proof feeders...ahem...

...and there's plenty of feline relaxation going on in the shade!

Hope you're keeping cool, too, in this hot weather.  Have a great week!