NotKateHepburn Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 Dena,what part of 'Bama,if I may ask? I live in the last little town located on Hwy 90 before you cross the Mississippi line.I didn't really want to move back here last year,but I love the area we ended up in,wild critters and all! Kat I grew up in Walker County in a little town called Sumiton and Blount County in an even smaller town of Hayden, until I was a teen and we moved to Birmingham. Dh is from Atlanta and moved to Birmingham when he was a teen. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 One of the reasons that DH & I can never live in Atlanta is that he was born there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalesq Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 Love the spider story! :lol: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdlnpeabody Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 Loving all those "critter" stories! LOL. I have a few, since I have lived in Florida for most of my life. In 1997, a furry animal (I'm not sure if it was a raccoon or possum, it happened really fast) either fell or jumped out of a tree as I rode my bicycle under it. Luckily, I had been hit by a couple of cars a few weeks before and my broken arm was still in a cast, which is what the animal bounced off of. The temporary body armor I was wearing spared me from any risk of a bite from a possibly rabid animal. About a year later, I was riding my bike to work early one morning when I had a 2nd close encounter with a crazy animal. Part of the ride took me through a wooded subdivision before first light. While riding, I heard a scratching sound and had my foot pulled off the pedal. I looked down and saw an armadillo attached to my shoe! I shook it off and continued pedaling down the road, but that little thing chased me for a while. Later that morning I was picking up equipment in the E.R. where I worked and told some of the staff about my "amusing experience". One of them asked me if I called the police. I said, "what for? to report an attempted mugging by an armadillo"? They pointed out that it was probably rabid and needed to be caught. I hadn't thought of that at the time. The other story that was in today's paper was regarding an 11 year-old who was bitten by an Eastern Diamondback rattle snake about a week ago. He needed 66 vials of antivenin and will likely need a few more before they let him out of the ICU. The 5 foot long snake was caught and killed. The kid is talking about having some of its skin used to make a wallet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 Since the delivery men finally showed up, exhausted, at 10PM Friday with our new washing machine I spent most of yesterday playing with my new "pretty". Actually it's a behemoth; they complained how heavy our old washer was with the water we couldn't get to to bail out; apparently the brand new critter, empty, weighs more. I do know it runs SO quiet! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodland_miniatures Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 I have a couple of critter stories too from up here in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. About three years ago, right at sunrise and early summer like now, my cat Koko (my avatar) came blasting in the living room window, which I leave open cat-whisker width for him, and he was big-timed scared - his entire body was bushed! So I went to the door to my patio and opened it to see what I could see, and found myself face to face with a very large and quite lovely.....timber wolf. Apparently this guy'd had his heart set on a little pussycat snack....We both looked at each other for a what seemed like forever, to me at least, and then the wolf very gracefully loped off. Found out later there is a pack living a few miles farther up the road into the mountains - hey, to a timber wolf, what's three miles? Another one didn't happen to me, but to my now deceased next door neighbor. It's a hot summer night and he's sitting on his sofa watching TV in the living room, with the door to the patio wide open. He's fiddling with something on his coffee table and then looks back up at the TV and....there's a quite large and beautiful skunk standing there in front of his coffee table. My friend Doug told me he didn't so much as breathe for what seemed like forever, while he and the skunk looked each other over, and then the skunk calmly ambled back out the door. All I could say later was thank goodness Baby Girl, his cat who now lives with me, apparently wasn't in the room at the time..... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdlnpeabody Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 A skunk?!!! One more reason to keep the doors closed. Besides crime issues, there are too many reasons why all of our windows have screens, are always closed at night, and the doors are always closed and locked, whether anyone is home or not. The lizards here are large enough to make a meal out of a grown person, humans are on the menu for Florida black bears, which we have plenty of, and leaving anything open for more than a few minutes will guarantee insect problems. At the last apartment complex I lived at, we had a lot of neighbors from countries where A/C was unheard of. More often than not, they would leave their doors and windows open instead of running the air conditioning. I lost count of the number of times I saw one of the neighbors standing outside of their apartment, fear stricken, while Animal Control removed a snake, alligator or some other animal looking for a meal inside. BTW, most apartments here require the A/C be run during hotter months. If you don't, the heat and humidity will ruin the unit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdlnpeabody Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 Besides packing up for the move in a few weeks, I had to replace the battery on my motorcycle again. Everything seemed to be going well until I inadvertently made contact between the socket wrench handle and the bike's frame while tightening the positive connection. It was still throwing sparks after I hit the ground. Never thought my motorcycle could double as a $12,000 defibrillator, but the battery certainly had plenty of kick. Besides a numb arm and a very hot wrench, no harm was done. Worst part is, this isn't the first time I've knocked myself flat from grounding a battery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodland_miniatures Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 OY, Jeremy! And I'm so glad we only have to worry about skunks, racoons, wolves, coyotes, and bears where I am. Couldn't handle giganto lizards etc., not to mention everyone's favorite - cockroaches. Had the dubious "privilege" when I was 16 of spending a bunch of hours overnight at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport waiting for my morning flight out to Seattle (got there by bus around midnight - long, unsavory family story involved LOL), and was apalled and fascinated by the size of the cockroaches that crawled out of the woodwork and ran all over this international airport. Being a Seattle kid, I'd never seen bugs that size before, and havce been frankly grateful to have never seen anything like that again. Honestly don't know how you Floridians deal, I really don't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 Lots of Raid, Mary; and when all else fails, an old, dispensible flip flop for the slower ones. I hate to say that over the passt 71+ years I've developed a rather cavalier attitude towards critters. When I was a little girl I got stung a couple of times by small scorpions, which is NOT fun and I learned that there's nearly no limit to how much a finger can swell... I can let out an unholy shriek when a large bug decides to dance up my arm or other exposed body part. Today we are getting ready to head East to Tallahassee to check on the old house and bring DS#3 back with us for the rest of the month in the AM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotKateHepburn Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 As usual I'm doing things now that I should have done last week. My youngest son and I are going to Pittsburgh for two weeks in July. Every time I've gone up it's been cold and I've needed to bundle up, now I get to wear summer clothes. So of course I've decided I need new clothes right? Clothes I'll sew. Never mind my craft room looks like a woodshop exploded and my fabric is boxed up with the sewing machines. And I have 3 weeks to do it all in. I got as far as partially cleaning the table off and said forget this, I'll go to J.C Penney's and Marshalls. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdlnpeabody Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 Mary, by "big lizards" I meant alligators and Florida Crocodiles. Living in an area with great weather comes at a price, I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodland_miniatures Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 Again, glad there ain't none of them up here in the mountains, Jeremy! YEESH!!! Of course, our winter does go from September to May, so..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdlnpeabody Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 Our winter was the 2nd Tuesday in February, if you count mid- 60's as winter. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morgansmith Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 I remember that day! It was dry outside here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 Well summer has finally arrived, it got into the 90s yesterday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathieB Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 Heat index heading to 100 here in the Big Easy. We planned to leave today for Missouri but Lloyd's meds-by-mail have not yet arrived. So, here we sit, held hostage by the US postal service. *sigh* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selkie Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 Finished replanting garden items that didn't make it the first time. We have an ongoing battle around here with the birds and our sunflowers. They continuously eat the seeds AND the seedlings !! We try to cover them with a variety of things and they still manage to get at them. Feisty little critters. Also transplanted the last of the smaller veggies into their permanent spots. Planted another round of red curly lettuce too cuz the first batch drown in the rainstorms. Herbs, peppers, and Chinese cabbage are all doing great. Tomatoes are still struggling some. Our weather has been so up and down with temps and rain, etc. the poor plants can't figure out how and when to grow!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 Kathie, I'm saying a little prayer for you & Lloyd; I'm on a roll, since one of DH's friends had to have an aortic aneurism repaired yesterday and we're waiting on tenterhookd to hear how it went. Also, wee want to take DS to Gautier SP for a week next week, but the camper went into the shop a week ago for a "couple of hour" repair and we still haven't gotten the call saying it's ready... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chapchap73 Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 I was finally able to get out of the house today! Fundraiser lunch for our local burn unit with a girlfriend and her kids. I of course ate too much, but a great time was had by all. Tomorrow is housecleaning and hopefully some Fling time! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KoalaSam Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Oh Sarah, I think I get it now, we are supposed to set aside time for housecleaning. Well that explains why mine never gets done! (Personally, I would skip the housecleaning and do the Fling!) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chapchap73 Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Oh Sarah, I think I get it now, we are supposed to set aside time for housecleaning. Well that explains why mine never gets done! (Personally, I would skip the housecleaning and do the Fling!) Wound up skipping both. Cleaning was really kind of pointless with workmen in the backyard, rain, and my kids half day of school. What I affectionately call MS coma took over after that so no Fling either:( Tomorrow is another day! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotKateHepburn Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Another 100+ heat index day today here. We are working on putting up the pool. We are putting sand down this time. The kids and I literally shoveled 1. something tons of sand, lots of it wet. I'm so tired I can hardly move my legs. But that water will feel so good! I thought ahead! I made gumbo yesterday so we could have leftovers today and I wouldn't have to cook. Thinking ahead rarely occurs to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathieB Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 We're back in Missouri. Two days of driving in the subcompact Honda Fit was interesting. Not nearly as much room as in our totaled Odyssey van, but I suspect we'll get used to it. The 40+ mpg was very nice, and we managed to get a lot of stuff packed in, including JoJo's large crate. There were some surprises in the garden. The weeds were not a surprise. I have my work cut out for me. Today we need to run seventy-'leven errands to catch up with local matters. It took more than an hour to go through the mail, which piled up over two months. And there is 2 month's worth of bookkeeping to enter in the computer, since we didn't have the desktop with us. Why am I sitting here reading the forum? I need to get busy!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chapchap73 Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 The forum gives you needed energy and inspiration to get through all the things you need to do now that you are home from your trip. I find eye-candy essential for those not so fun tasks like bookkeeping; it gives my mind something else to think about 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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