by Pa Rock
Farmer in Summer
The tax preparer doesn't like for me to refer to my small rural acreage (10 acres) as a "farm" because it isn't fenced and I don't use the land to produce and sell anything. So it is just a lot of land to keep mowed, and lots and lots of trees to mow around. The trees are tall and mighty and beautiful. Well, some are short, like the dogwoods, figs, and paw paws (Ozarks bananas), but more are bigger. I have one walnut tree that produces well and feeds the squirrels, and a peach tree that feeds the local deer. There are also several hickory trees and beautiful big oaks that attract squirrels, and a dozen or so pines that all exceed forty feet in height. The "Roost" is also home to many soft maples, trees which spread quickly if not judiciously kept mowed down during their sapling phase.
When I am not mowing, much of my time is spent walking around thefarm acreage and picking up sticks and limbs that have fallen from the trees. I currently have two enormous brush piles which, like the trees, tend to become homes to various forms of wildlife. One brush pile is currently hosting what appears to be a small colony of ground hogs. The other is attracting rabbits.
There is a large oak tree about twenty-five feet outside of the back door that I am beginning to feel may have some mystical qualities. The old oak is forty or fifty feet tall and the first big limbs are a full twenty feet or so off of the ground. When I first moved her six years ago I put up several birdhouses and feeders. I placed a rough, older birdhouse on the trunk of that particular oak, about five feet off of the ground. One day during a sudden storm it blew down just as I happened to be nearby chasing lawn furniture. When the birdhouse hit the ground, out climbed a mama flying squirrel and her juvenile offspring, and both winged rodents quickly scurried up the tree and beyond my curious gaze.
Later in the summer, after I had put the birdhouse back up, I noticed that Mother Flying Squirrel and her baby were back in residence - and they stayed in that little house the rest of the summer.
That bird house was worn out to begin with, and by the next season it had completely fallen apart. This spring my son made a few new bird houses, and he put one back in that same spot on the backyard oak. A couple of weeks ago we were out on the back deck and noticed that some creature was inside of that birdhouse with its head sticking out through the round opening. At first we thought it was a snake, but Nick got out his binoculars for a closer look and announced that it was a toad. A toad in a birdhouse!
Yesterday Rosie and and were walking quietly out across the back yard while she looked for the perfect spot to do her business. Suddenly, without realizing it, I was standing next to the oak tree about a foot from the birdhouse. I noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see a small gray or silver frog with black spots on its face hanging out of the entrance. We stared at each other for a moment or two, and then Rosie and I moved on. When we came back by a few minutes later he had either left his home or gone back inside.
Today I have spent some time looking up frogs on the internet and have determined that the fellow I met yesterday was either a "Gray Tree Frog," or a "Cope's Gray Tree Frog," both of whom apparently live in this area. And while this brave creature may be genetically programmed to climb trees, he at least has the good sense to seek comfortable housing when he does.
There are ten acres in my little patch of the Ozarks, and all of God's creatures are welcome. And if a flying squirrel or a frog occasionally claims a birdhouse, so be it!
Farmer in Summer
The tax preparer doesn't like for me to refer to my small rural acreage (10 acres) as a "farm" because it isn't fenced and I don't use the land to produce and sell anything. So it is just a lot of land to keep mowed, and lots and lots of trees to mow around. The trees are tall and mighty and beautiful. Well, some are short, like the dogwoods, figs, and paw paws (Ozarks bananas), but more are bigger. I have one walnut tree that produces well and feeds the squirrels, and a peach tree that feeds the local deer. There are also several hickory trees and beautiful big oaks that attract squirrels, and a dozen or so pines that all exceed forty feet in height. The "Roost" is also home to many soft maples, trees which spread quickly if not judiciously kept mowed down during their sapling phase.
When I am not mowing, much of my time is spent walking around the
There is a large oak tree about twenty-five feet outside of the back door that I am beginning to feel may have some mystical qualities. The old oak is forty or fifty feet tall and the first big limbs are a full twenty feet or so off of the ground. When I first moved her six years ago I put up several birdhouses and feeders. I placed a rough, older birdhouse on the trunk of that particular oak, about five feet off of the ground. One day during a sudden storm it blew down just as I happened to be nearby chasing lawn furniture. When the birdhouse hit the ground, out climbed a mama flying squirrel and her juvenile offspring, and both winged rodents quickly scurried up the tree and beyond my curious gaze.
Later in the summer, after I had put the birdhouse back up, I noticed that Mother Flying Squirrel and her baby were back in residence - and they stayed in that little house the rest of the summer.
That bird house was worn out to begin with, and by the next season it had completely fallen apart. This spring my son made a few new bird houses, and he put one back in that same spot on the backyard oak. A couple of weeks ago we were out on the back deck and noticed that some creature was inside of that birdhouse with its head sticking out through the round opening. At first we thought it was a snake, but Nick got out his binoculars for a closer look and announced that it was a toad. A toad in a birdhouse!
Yesterday Rosie and and were walking quietly out across the back yard while she looked for the perfect spot to do her business. Suddenly, without realizing it, I was standing next to the oak tree about a foot from the birdhouse. I noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see a small gray or silver frog with black spots on its face hanging out of the entrance. We stared at each other for a moment or two, and then Rosie and I moved on. When we came back by a few minutes later he had either left his home or gone back inside.
Today I have spent some time looking up frogs on the internet and have determined that the fellow I met yesterday was either a "Gray Tree Frog," or a "Cope's Gray Tree Frog," both of whom apparently live in this area. And while this brave creature may be genetically programmed to climb trees, he at least has the good sense to seek comfortable housing when he does.
There are ten acres in my little patch of the Ozarks, and all of God's creatures are welcome. And if a flying squirrel or a frog occasionally claims a birdhouse, so be it!
1 comment:
Fiona's daughter brought your frog's city cousin inside the house a couple of weeks ago. Bryce took it from her and came to show it to me. That frog jumped from his his hand onto the table, my leg, and then under the bed. A few minutes of bedlam ensued as Bryce chased the frog from one side of the room to the other. We had a hearty laugh and frog was released from custody into the great outdoors.
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