bat wings and cat things

We had a delightful little visitor at the apartment last week...a little brown bat!

Myotis lucifugus eats half of their body weight in insects a night so really great to have around.

I was curious about the etymology of the name. Myotis means 'mouse eared,' and lucifugus is a combination of two latin words that mean, literally, he who flees from the light.  I think I just found my next pet name!  :) 

We've gone on a few hikes this past week, seeing more bag worms...

...snails...

...and caterpillars (this is Spilosoma virginica, the Virginia tiger moth caterpillar)...

...but we don't have to go into the woods to see nature.  We see plenty at the Indiana University campus!  I lost track of how many rabbits we saw there this week.

We both agree that it's the most beautiful campus we've been to.  So many wonderful walking trails...

...beautiful buildings...

...and nice landscaping.

It has certainly welcomed us home!

Downtown is so pretty at night.

The cats are certainly making themselves at home...

...and Borga, too, is learning the ropes!

Have a great week!

twig sprigs and whirligigs

Despite needing to finish some important work (taxes, etc.) at the apartment, we've gotten away for a few nice walks this past week.

Water, water everywhere!

One of our hiking locations has iron grid steps down into a gully.  Borga was not a fan and needed a little help!

The weather has been amazing - warm, but not very humid.  Perfect for hiking.  I've seen a lot of insects, which is nice.  Box elder bugs...

Japanese beetles, which are destructive, but still beautiful...

Bees...

Our old friend, the woolly aphid!

Bagworms, who carry their houses with them, like snails.  They're quite destructive, especially to evergreens.  Each one of these little houses, when created, can contain over 1,000 eggs!

I even saw some new-to-me insects, like this Beautiful Wood Nymph moth.  Aptly named, I think!

I called these "water-churn beetles" until I discovered their true identity, the Whirligig Beetle.

They have compound eyes, so that one set is above the water surface and one set is below.  They use this superior feature, plus a primitive 'radar' with water ripples, to evade predators and find prey.

We didn't hike for more than an hour or so at any one place, but these little jaunts are great for stretching our legs and flexing our amateur naturalist muscles.  I'm looking forward to more lengthy hikes soon!

Meanwhile, I'll enjoy the short hikes and beautiful sunsets!

what a long, strange trip it's been...

What a strange feeling!  Instead of facing a bank of windows with a view of a tree-edged pond, I'm facing a blank tan wall as I sit at my computer desk.  Borga is chewing noisily in her crate at my right, instead of being on another floor.  Tall stacks of cardboard boxes clutter the room.  Still, I'm glad to be here.  We're finally in Indiana! 

I don't know how to do justice to the move itself, other than to say that nearly everything that could have possibly gone wrong, went wrong.  Movers called in sick, a major underestimation of the amount of stuff we had, a millipede invasion, mysterious power failures, terrible hot and humid weather, daily rain, injuries...ceaseless work, sleepless nights, sleeping on the floor, etc., etc.  After spending an entire week on the garage (where we kept a lot of our business merchandise), THIS is what it looked like...24 hours before the buyer walk-through, and 1.5 days before the actual closing.

But we were given a miraculous reprieve when, because of a bank error, our closing was delayed by 3 days, giving us enough time to finish up.  What a delight it was to see Todd carrying out the very last box!

I was too tired to take more than a cursory last look at our place.

Do you see Clotilde in the driveway? She stayed close to the Uhaul as we packed, sleeping in its shade or rubbing against our ankles.  I'm happy to report that several neighbors volunteered to take over the care and feeding of our little strays.  We'll miss them, though!

The long drive to Indiana!  We were completely exhausted and had to take at least one 30-minute nap, but didn't want to linger too long.  We wanted to make the trip in one day.

Because of road construction, it took about 13 hours to make it home.  But we made it! Todd had a helpful co-pilot...

...and we made sure to take a few silly pictures on the way.

For the first several days in Indiana, we were so exhausted that we spent a lot of time sleeping.  I don't ever remember being so tired after an experience!  But slowly, we're adjusting.  I joined the gym, Todd arranged his office space and made sure that all the trucks and Uhaul were unloaded into our storage units, and we're now looking for a house.   I think it will take a couple of weeks, at least, until we have some semblance of a normal schedule...but we're getting closer every day.  We took our first hike yesterday, too.  There's a nice trail about 5 minutes from the apartment.  What a great feeling to have a camera in hand again!

Looking forward to more hikes, kayaking, farmers markets, new experiences, and new friends!

Indiana wants me...

Moving is tough.  I'm not talking about regular moving, when you pack up your house, disassemble your furniture, and clean like a maniac once it's all done.  I'm talking about doing that, AND packing up a massive amount of business inventory.  We had three movers with combined 20 years experience yesterday, and they were all stunned.  They had never, ever seen so much stuff at a house.  They estimated that over 1,000 boxes were moved over the course of 12 hours.  And that doesn't take into account today's portion of the move, where they move out the furniture and empty out two completely filled storage units...filled with even more boxes.  Three ABF trucks have been ordered and they will likely be filled.

For someone who feels almost desperate to downsize...downsize the house, downsize clutter, downsize possessions...the sheer volume of stuff dragged out of closets and from shelves is overwhelming.  I feel like I'm drowning in a sea of cardboard.  I can't believe how exhausting it is.

It's not the work of packing it - it's the work of living with it!  Don't get me wrong...the packing was tough.  The sweatband came out after only a few minutes!

At our last two houses, Todd lined every available wall - closet, basement, garage - with shelving and added rows and rows of wheeled shelves for merchandise and personal stuff.  Here, he excavated huge portions of the crawl space, poured cement, and put up more shelving.  I would say that we have surely used over 2,000 square feet of this house for storage...and we still have additional storage units!  For someone who was able to fit all of her possessions in the back of a pick-up truck for a cross country move about 15 years ago, it feels a little overwhelming.  But we have big plans for our next move.  No longer will we co-exist with flaking cardboard, rows of shelves, and towers of plastic tubs.  We are going to build a massive pole barn (or expand an existing garage structure) for the merchandise.  Then our living space can be for, well, living.  I can't wait! 

But for now, we just have to get through the next few days...contractors, electricians, buyer walk-throughs, movers, packing, cleaning, running endless truckloads of broken-down cardboard to recycling and donation boxes to Haven of Rest.  Friday, we'll be Indiana-bound!

it's like a heat wave...

Another 95 degree day, and with frequent cloudbursts, everything is growing like you wouldn't believe.  We have a vine on our outside deck railing that grows inches every day.  Inches!  I want everything to be caught up for the new homeowners, so I spent most of Saturday working in the yard, weeding.  With some good company.

It's exhausting to keep moving preparations going on within the house and also deal with a very needy yard, but I would be ashamed to leave a mess behind for new people.  I learned a painful and valuable lesson when we bought this house.  Under South Carolina law, water cannot be transferred into your name until you have the house deed...i.e. after closing.  Despite grudgingly agreeing to leave the water on for a day to give me time to make the transfer in person at the downtown office, the former homeowner called the water department first thing the next day and told them to shut off the water immediately.  I will never forget how that felt:  being in a new state and new house, surrounded by contractors and stacks of boxes, and NO WATER.  I felt so unwelcome and I couldn't believe the insensitivity and meanness behind it.  But it really brought home the value of the Golden Rule to me, and I'm determined to never be like that woman.

So, 95 degree yard work.

I did find some interesting insects while I worked.  This red-sided flat millipede was happy to pose for pictures, since he was long deceased.  These are also known as almond millipedes, since they secrete benzaldehye, which is a chemical note in the scent of cherries and almonds. 

I also saw one of my favorite leafhoppers.  They're all pretty, but this one has red eyes!  It's also one  of the larger leafhoppers.

The finch babies are growing quickly, but so is the cowbird.  It's hard to see from this photo, but the cowbird (on the right) is much larger than the other two.  I see that he has smothered the third finch.  I definitely detected an odor, which is unusual for these nests.  Or could they all be finches?? Only time will tell!

Here's the father, bringing a meal.  I love hearing them sing on the front porch!

Day in the yard aside, most work is being done indoors.  Moving prep is tough, especially since we have so much business inventory!  The good news is that a contractor was able to saw the wooden grids off of both the broken and unbroken doors...

...and the whole glass unit was able to be removed.  Our repair will be under $2000, instead of $8000 or so.  Huge relief! 

It's hard to believe that we're moving in 11 days.  It just doesn't feel real.  Still, I'm going through the motions of this move is really happening, even if it feels like each day will be much like the prior day, just like it has for the past six years.  Part of going through the motions is planning for things that we're excited about doing, and one thing we're both excited to do is to buy bicycles and start riding.  There are lots of bike shops and trails in Bloomington (home of the "Little 500" bike race), and I regularly ride 50 miles a week...in a gym, anyway.  So I had to buy these shirts to commemorate our inaugural ride:

I found a dance studio and a gym.  Different knitting clubs that meet three or four days a week.  Book clubs. Quilting.  Gardening.  Bird watching. FOUR farmers markets. A massive continuing education program at Indiana University, just down the street from our temporary apartment.  Opportunities for all the hiking and kayaking we can handle, just minutes away, and of course we have lots of friends in the city.  Maybe it doesn't feel real is really I'm afraid this is too good to be true!  I believe in preparing for the worst while hoping for the best, so I suppose I won't give in to excitement until we're pulling in our new driveway.  I've definitely got plenty to keep me distracted until then! 

Have a great week!