Wild kingdom in my back yard!
Posted By: Misha on 2007-04-26
In Reply to:
It's my day off, and I was standing at the kitchen window, noticing two thrushes (large reddish birds) all riled up. I was about to tell DH that how funny they were acting when I noticed a black lump on the tree that seemed to be the center of attention. There was a large snake coiled on the side of the bradford tree trunk! Not only were the thrushes yelling and jumping at it, now and then other birds were getting into the act, like a robin that would dive-bomb it. The yard was alive with chatter over the out-of-place intruder. Despite the fact that I was still in my jammies, I armed myself with a hoe and went out to fight the good fight. DH joined me. What was great was that the birds didn't mind how close we got to them. It was like they could tolerate anybody that was involved in the fierce battle against the invading predator. Since the snake wasn't wound around very well, and had most of his bulk on one side of the trunk, it wasn't too hard to dislodge him, but I took time to study his head shape, which was quite beautiful if you can appreciate a nice nonpoisonous snake. We decided it was the black racer snake rather than the rat snake we've seen before. So we and these birds were arguing with a very cranky snake, LOL. Once I had ID'd him we finished dislodging him. He plopped 3 feet to the soft pine-needled ground below and remained semi-coiled. The birds moved down to the ground and continued a fabulous display with cocked wings and upright tails and wide-open mouths, jumping and flying in the face of the enemy. As the black snake coiled and struck out at the birds, he revealed the ugly truth; his abdomen bulged with a recent meal. Apparently eggs or babies were already lost to the fiend!
We were sad for the birds, especially since we have made no attempt to discourage the snakes from living in our yard. They are supposed to control mice and moles - not birds.
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P.S. Also our back yard is fenced in
All our neighborhood cats seem to be indoor cats, and we have very few free-roaming dogs.
Can you tell I'm scatter-brained today? 
Bury it in a shoebox in the back yard. LOL. Seriously?? sm
I would put it into gold and precious metals. Gold at one time was the coin of the realm and will be again. Cash only will the the way go to. Especially with the economy tanking the way it is and the fact that our state has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 8%+. I don't trust anybody with my money.
No, my husband thought they would store the trailer with the quads in the back corner of their yard.
away from the road. The trailer that had been stolen previously was in their front yard unfenced. And you drive the quad off the trailer and that is it. Really, the reason it wasn't unloaded is because our garage was a huge mess and he was too tired to clean it late at night to the quads could fit in it. Unloading them and loading them wasn't the problem. It was the garage we have that looks like a tornado hit.
Kingdom of Heaven
Anything with Orlando Bloom is excellent. Seen this movie about 50 or so times and think I will watch it again tomorrow.
My llife is a magical kingdom
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That is so wild! sm
I agree with the comment on calling to ask a question. Keep us posted, okay?
I don't believe this. Dogs are not *wild*--sm
animals with denning instincts. they were meant to be every bit as free as humans were. As far as I am concerned, ALL animals, not just dogs, are *furry people* with a whole lot more loyalty, compassion, understanding of nature, and caring than a lot of people I know. They should be treated with respect, just as much as humans, because they were *created* just as much as humans were. If a human cannot or will not take the time to train the animal where it wants it to *do his business*, then that human should not have an animal as a pet at all. You would not treat your child this way, so why treat a pet this way? JMO.
wild animals
My fiance used to live in a subdivision in our small town. . every night, possums and racoons came up on his back deck and looked through the sliding glass door at us while we were watching TV in the living room. . We enjoyed seeing them and sometimes we would put food out for them. .
I have to share this also because I think it is a once in a lifetime thing - yesterday we were walking on my fiance's farm and saw a deer giving birth. . we got to within about 35 yards of it. . We only watched for about 10 minutes because we could tell we were making it very nervous. . I hope they both do okay. .
Tomatoes gone wild
I have planted 4 tomato plants that have gone crazy. They are crowding out other things and the cages are barely holding them up. I would like to try to transplant them to another area. Anyone have experience with this with a fully grown tomato plant? They already have some tomatoes and lots of flowers. I am planning on starting this afternoon by pruning back many leaves and stems that are not fruit bearing yet.
Because wild birds are not usually fed
grain that has been tampered with by man and has all kinds of questionable additives, and even usually contains dead chicken waste. I grew up in the poultry capital of the US and it's a wonder I even still eat chicken!
Wild swimsuits
Pic below.
Thats wild! Would help too if mice were diabetics
.
wildlife should be left wild
I agree about the psycho woman, but this is about feeding wildlife. As stated above, wild should the left wild. It's become a romantic idea to feed the ducks at the lake. Because animals cannot digest all the synthetic crap we put into our foods, their digestive systems become blocked and they die. Human education is a very long haul.
JMO, but having been a very wild teen at one time...
you really should intervene. Your sister has a right to know, it is her child after all, and to turn a blind eye and pretend it does not exist does your niece more harm than good. Take it from one who has been there, if someone would have done the same for me I would have been angry, but looking back now it would have changed my life tremendously. A lot of young girls today really need some direction, look at the role models they have out there, most of them are nothing to brag about! Good luck to you, you sound like a loving and caring auntie!
Used to have one at Wild Birds Unlimited
think there is a web site - that was mirrored on the other side. It has been a while but they had one at their store where I shopped and the goldfinches were right there outside the window totally oblivious.
I am not saying it is okay to cage a wild animal
but these animals are not in little iron cages. They are living in open areas down in deep areas that have 15 to 20 foot walls. If there are going to be zoos, this is the kind to have.
Pretty wild posts
I was reading the posts below and some pretty heated discussions. Everyone seems to have an opinion and I feel bad for the people who give their opinion and then are jumped on by others. The only thing I could possibly add is do what you feel is right. Emotional scars go very deep, and its true that once things are said (or written) its very hard to forgive. I remember years ago (19 years ago) I got called into a room by my MIL who proceded to tell me how much she always hated me and if I turned her against her son she would find me and kill me - this was after I told my husband (not in front of her) we don't have the money to pay our bills and we can't keep taking her out to eat with unlimited pitchers of beers. He's the one who told his mom we couldn't go out to eat cos we didn't have money. Anyway...those words she said still haunt me and the memory is like it happened yesterday. Words hurt very deeply and the emotional scars will always be there. It sounds like you are getting counseling and that is good. Don't know if your kids are also getting counseling but that might help them too. Good luck to you.
Is it legal to keep a wild deer as a pet? sm
Someone has had a wild pet deer for a pet in our subdivision for a few years now. I am a serious animal lover myself, but it has gotten rather old having this deer roaming through the roads and, most of all, eating landscape plants down to nothing. We have sprayed deer repellent on nearly everything, but the one little area we miss will be chewed right away. Besides, we have to keep doing it over and over and this stuff is not cheap. Really getting tiresome. Do not want to be mean, but what rights do the homeowners in here have?? 
Are we living in the Wild West?....sm
I wonder that the police do not take more action against him.
Your mother has now to live imprisoned with a shotgun next to her bed?
She should make him institutionalized, declared incompetent and the property should become hers and yours.
Pretty wild about David Ducouvne
That's an addiction you don't hear very much about even though it is out there.
Don't forget the Wild Card Round
Any three of them could be back.
Actually, we bake cornish hens with wild rice.
Glaze is made with melted butter, brown sugar, worcestershire sauce.
Well, tigers in zoos now never knew life in wild and
x
the wild west of oregon! go east to see family...
every year. my sis brought me to NYC one year and that did it, i was hooked on handbags! originally from the big city and forgot how many good buys there are if you look for them!
Running wild all summer in the surrounding citrus orchards - sm
- Also the small town (which it isn't anymore) 4th of July parade, and how excited my dad would get about the fireworks.
- First trip to Yosemite & Lake Tahoe in 1960. Back then the park was practically empty in late August.
- Neighbors who showed Disney movies for all the kids in the neighborhood for free on summer Sat. nights.
- Halloween when I was 10, and trick-or-treating with no parents along. Kids sure can't do that now.
- The nearby thoroughbred horse farm, where we used to sneak into the *old guys'* pasture, climb aboard, and ride them around. It's a wonder we weren't killed...
- *Sledding* down hills on dried-out grass on big pieces of cardboard.
- Tire races! (Put small kid in large tire at top of hill, roll tire down hill. Resulting dizziness of said small kid was VERY funny. Tire & kid that go the farthest before falling over is the winner.)
- Building our own wagons, go-karts, tree-forts, stick-horses, bird-houses, etc. without adults to tell us the *right* way to do it. Much more fun our way.
- Playing in construction sites. We once found a HUGE beam that was eventually going to be a main ceiling beam, and with about 15 kids' help, were able to drag it to a spot where we could turn it into a GIANT see-saw. You could put about 8 kids on either side, and it went REALLY high.
- Going to my friend's house on Sunday nights to watch Bonanza - in COLOR! (Everyone else in the neighborhood had blk. & wht.)
Cornish hens with a glaze and a wild rice stuffing? nm
s
roasted veggies and sauteed tofu with wild rice, and salad. nm
s
Then they can get right back on their tires and rafts and float on back to Cuba! nm
nm
Use beans to stabilze blood sugar, yams, brown and wild rice, hearty
s
groundhogs,squirrels, wild turkeys, rabbits, raccoon, goat and deer meat..sm
Some folks just take for granted that they can walk into a market and shop for meat...We've done the same for similar reasons as you and nothing was wasted. At least you're self sufficient!!! And, I bet you've put up/canned/frozen all the vegetables from the summer/fall harvest.
Didn't mean to be flippant in my earlier post...whack it, hack it, pack it and stack it...  Cat
so, did you bring the dog to your yard?
nm
yard sale
It's not junk.....They're treasures! Trying to gear up, wash, tag and display it all is quite a task....But, you'll have cleaned out your garage and/or storage unit, enriched someone else's life with your old treasures and made a neat profit.
ps-.Watch out for the earlybirds in their fancy cars,,,,they're ruthless. Cat
Maybe the dog got out of the yard by accident. You don't know
all of the facts, so I would think it would be hard to blame the owners right off the bat.
Yes you definitely MUST have a fenced in yard....sm
They are the absolute worst to wander off because they just want to sniff and sniff for rabbits. I have a fenced in back yard so she can't wander off.
at a yard sale
met my fiance when my daughter and his niece were having a yard sale in his front yard - they called me to come and bring them blizzards from DQ - they had a feeling we would hit it off - been together ever since - almost 4 years. .
Having my first ever yard sale..
//
at a yard sale! nm
x
Have you mowed your yard yet?
We haven't, but it needs to be. DH has a new mower, well, new to us; his dad bought a new one and gave him the old one. It needs a belt or something, so he has to get that done before he mows. The old mowers are junk! We mowed them to death!!
Lots of people mowing around here already though, and the air has the nicest smell in the evenings! When we go anywhere, I roll the window down so that I can smell the cut grass throughout town. Such a fresh springy smell in the air!
it is called a yard
wait until a common pay day and haul your stuff in the front yard!
Did my fall yard work!
I took out three evergreen bushes that for some reason developed fungus. I replaced two with the round Little Giant arbivortae bushes - so cute. I couldn't do three because the third would have died from too much shade. I did put a Japanese iris in that spot. I put in a cute ornamental pepper plant. It has tiny peppers on it that are purple, red, orange, and yellow, so it's pretty funny. I surrounded it with purple pansies and orange pansies. I had to remove some sod to make room for these in my central bed. (Stupid Bermuda grass). I tidied up some other bushes, but was afraid to prune the azalea because I think it might be the wrong time. Besides, it is guarded by a huge yellow and black spider. I allow her to live because she never moves since DH explained to her that she can't live by the light at the front door. She is HUGE.
I'm very tired now and I think I have a sore throat, but hopefully the yard will look good when the kids and parents come trick or treating.
Anybody else do some good yard work? I suppose leaves are already falling up North.
Boy, I bet DH hopes it's the yard work! LOL
x
My community demands that we keep our yard
free of the bugs and weeds and we were infested with grubs this past year. We have spent a lot of time trying to rid our yard because they do so much damage. The management came by while this was going on and sent letter that we try to remedy the problem. I have to use these, sorry but I do like a nice lawn.
My community does not allow yard burials but
i have like a flower place in my back, no one can see from either side and if my pet dies, would definitely bury there and then have some flowers also there. No one can see into the back of my place, wooden area between me and the others!!
Had our neighborhood yard sale on Sat.
and while one Mom had her back turned her daughter sold a $118 Lee Middleton doll for $2. Guess the person knew what a find they had becuase they high-tailed it out of the neighborhood. What a rotten person!
Don't yard sale the Bakelite.
Bakelite is very popular and expensive to buy (unless things have changed in the last year). My husband got $500 for 4 bracelets and 2 pins.
There is a way to test the items without harming them using an everyday household product, but I can't remember what it is...I know, no help. Maybe you can Google and find it.
Yard sale, need pricing help
I have some paint by number pictures that I do not want to keep (these are the ones already painted.) These are the old ones, probably from the 50s. I had heard these were sorta collector items but has anyone sold or bought any of these and if so, what is a good price to put on them for my community yard sale coming up? Thanks.
Community Yard Sale
I posted earlier on here about ideas about having yard sale. Someone said for early birds to put sign out saying everything before 8 double the price. Well, that sounds good but in reality one of the first about 7:30 this morning before all set out got indignant that I would have a sign out like that, stating she had been to sooo many sales before and did I want to sell or not? Not was basically my answer. I did this because I had never been involved in my community yard sale but it was so much effort and very little return. I even had a Hispanic ask me would I mind if he used the bathroom in my backyard- told him someone back there and besides that my neighbors would mind. My community has high end homes and besides that, there are laws against things like that. Oh well, live and learn.
I've seen the red bellies in my yard eat
corn off the corncobs I have out, and they also even landed on the ground a few times to pick up peanuts.
My yard is a giant puddle.
It squishes like a wet carpet when you walk on it. I can't wait for spring! If those stoooopid squirrels will stop digging up my bulbs, the gardens are going to look great this year.
Not supposed to be my yard cat, feral?
I went yesterday to get some kitties and cats out of a humane society not too far from my home. I work with a rescue group. We have the animals fixed, get their shots and then the people I work with find them new homes, some are given away free just to get them a new chance in life. Ok, so my coworker and I are looking at the ones I got yesterday and 1 mama cat jumps out and goes absolutely wild, escapes out of my home and last night and this morning has been sitting out in the back yard, sometimes on my porch. I have taken feed and water out and I feel really bad about this furry. Has anyone here had any luck with feral animals in rehabilitating them? My coworker told me we can catch her and have her fixed but I would love also to find her a nice home. I have no idea why the humane society even let me have her. They told me she was not very nice. She almost tore the house down yesterday, climbing my blinds, hissing, just wild acting. Maybe we can get her fixed and then find someone who has a farm and make her a mouser. I am down in the dumps right now.
Is there a humane way (or not) to keep animals out of your yard? (sm)
There are at least 2 families with cats and they roam the neighborhood, choosing our front porch area to urinate and dig and dump. One side of the porch smells like urine and the other poo. I heard someone mention mothball flakes once, but then someone else say no, that doesn't work.
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