She Grew From A Seed

Seven years ago this tree started growing inside my chicken pen. As the pen evolved and grew, it also grew, at one time it became entangled in the fencing and I had to cut the fence from around it. I never knew what kind of tree it would grow up to be but I knew I didn't want it to die. My husband and I eventually moved the chicken pen so it could grow outside of the pen.

This spring my husband asked me how old this tree is...."seven", I said and as he walked around her he found blossoms! We were so excited, but still had no idea what kind of tree she was. An orange tree? A lemon tree? A tangerine tree? A grapefruit tree????


My husbands brother lives next door and has a grapefruit tree that he grew from seed, it's a beautiful tree and delights us with white grapefruits every year! Since our bees have been visiting her, her fruits have become so sweet you can eat them straight from her branches! But we hoped beyond hope that it wouldn't be a grapefruit tree.....not a white one anyway.

For a couple of years now my husband has been wanting a pink grapefruit tree and when the blossoms turned into fruit (she only had five fruits) we hoped if she was a grapefruit tree that she'd have pink fruit. It was very doubtful that it would be so, so we forgot about it.
About a week ago my husband picked the largest of them, and tonight I cut it open. Can you imagine our delight when we saw that she's a pink grapefruit tree!!!! From a seed!

We each had a half and it was so good! Oh, and the seeds you see on the side....that was all that was in this one and they aren't actually seeds that will produce. I am amazed and can't wait to see how the other ones are. We are even more excited about the amount she'll produce next year! I love happy surprises!

TTFN!

Until Next Time!

Julie

Crossbeak And Three Lazy Boys

I have been so neglectful about posting to my blogs and to my one and only reader.....;) I apologize. ;) I will try to do better.

Back in January of this year, three of my hens went broody. They hatched out
an assortment of sweet baby chicks. A few weeks ago I noticed something odd about one of them that I hadn't noticed the day before. I'm not sure if it came on all of a sudden or if it was a gradual thing because to me all of a sudden it was just there.I have been around chickens off and on all my life and have been keeping them for 30+ years and have never before seen or even heard of "Crossbeak" before. (not in a chicken anyway)
I watched her and she was doing great, she ate and drank just as good and vigorous as her siblings and over the next couple of weeks she became my favorite in the chicken yard.

(please excuse the dirt under my nails ;) I had been planting)
Crossbeak comes on when the chicks are somewhere around 8 weeks or so, and no one is sure of the cause. Some say it's hereditary and others say something happens during the incubation period. I tend to go with the latter, because I have both parents of this little chick and neither have even the slightest cross. During the incubation (which was done under a live hen and not in an incubator) I did move the mother hens and eggs during the last part of incubation. I moved them each to their own secluded box away from the other hens.

I'm not sure of their life span and I'm sad to say that this little one didn't make it.
These are just two of my boys (still living at home anyway) ;)

Tigger and Oreo.......two of four siblings we rescued. They are Polydactyl cats, each have seven (fingers ;) *toes* on their front paws and six on their back paws.
This must be so nice ;)

These three are males (brothers). Their sister is lounging somewhere......not sure where though. They are always within sight distance (where they can see me that is) when I'm outside. They're laying on an old piece of carpet I threw out, to lay in various parts of the yard to kill the grass, so I can plant. ;)

So much to do.....so little time......

Take Care!

TTFN!

Julie ;)

Snakes, Spiders and Other Small Creatures

Can you see the little creature using it's camouflage abilities, in the pictures below?
This is a Click beetle. We used to play with them when I was a youngster ;) They are harmless, we used to (I still do) get a kick out of how they jump and click when they're on their back. They do this because they can't turn over with their feet, so they arch their back and flip over making a click sound, they can be scary looking with those big false eyes! ;)



A baby praying mantis....waiting for a meal to happen by.

(Upper pic) A small blue tailed skink....trying to get a sweet meal :( If you look to the right you can see an anole lizard trying to do the same.

(upper pic) A garden spider in my chicken pen

A garter snake that was hiding under a bucket in my chicken pen. This isn't the one I was after, but I'm glad I caught her, she was way over five feet long, I took her and the one below far away in a much wooded area and released them. They are totally harmless, but they were eating all of my chicken eggs! I rearranged the coop and so far no more snakes have been in there. ;0)
(upper pic) This little one is the one I was trying to catch, when I discovered the larger one!
(below pic) The release.....I still worry about them being in a new location :(  

(upper pic and below) This little guy is a bluffer! Poor thing, it's a baby/juvenile black rat snake and it's trying to make us think he's a bad poisonous snake, so we'll leave him alone. The sad part is most people kill poison snakes and even sadder is they kill any and all snakes they see. Last week I posted about adult and baby black rat snakes, this one is most probably related to the one that was in my yard. My husband and I had just finished up working in the bee hives when my adorable neighbor called me to come over and help identify a snake they had just caught. At first I wasn't positive that it was truly a black snake until it flattened itself out like a cobra and hissed at me. I've ran upon the adults before in the woods and they will act just like a cobra!

It's just a scare tactic though......I usually run the other way ;) I have total respect for nature and that includes snakes. They are a vital part of our eco system whether humans like it or not. It's just not fair to kill something so natural and a part of God's creation, just to turn around and try to take care of things on our own with chemicals and such! Makes no sense to me how people think sometimes! I'm known as the "weird one" by most, and I love it! ;)

If it weren't for nature lovers like myself......this world would be SO EMPTY!!!!

(upper pic) A garden (banana) spider in my friends garden, the pic below is one on my Mom's porch, arent they lovely ladies?

I hope you will take the time when you're outside to stop and notice the little things God has created for us to enjoy. Don't be scared or afraid, learn about your surroundings, read about the things you find or see. You'll *bee* surprised at how much more you start to enjoy the great outdoors and the joys of nature that God intended for us to enjoy.

TTFN!

Until Next Time....

Explore your surroundings!

Julie ;)

Black Snakes/ Adults and Babies

Last summer I spotted this adult black snake crawling across the yard. It looks as though it just finished a good meal. Last summer I didn't know anything about this snake except that it was black and non-poisonous. It left me alone and I would leave it alone.
Snakes are really such misunderstood creatures.......

Sometimes I feel we have a lot in common. ;)

They don't bother anyone, as a matter of fact snakes are just as scared of us as we are of them. To them we are the predators, well I suppose we ARE the predators, as most people kill them rather eagerly. A couple of months ago I was weeding around some plants and noticed a slight movement.... this one really scared me because it caught me off guard. I just let it stay there and I went on my way..... Can you see it? (picture below) you can click on the pictures for larger viewing.
Then today, after gardening all day around this bush, something caught my eye. I thought it was a piece of dead knotty branch and when I got closer to remove it, I realized it was a snake! Had it been there all day?!? I ran to get my camera so I could identify it. Then I thought it would be better to catch it in a glass jar and bring it to the computer with me for better ID.
I searched for what seemed an hour or more. There just isn't a lot of photos or information on baby snakes. I surfed from site to site, Utube videos, blogs, etc. then I stumbled upon two really great blog sites and that's how I knew beyond a doubt that this is a baby black rat snake! I then remembered the adult black snakes I had seen in the yard.
At first it was a toss up because it looked like it could be an Eastern milk snake...or a King snake...so I was really glad to get a positive ID.

I would like to thank the authors and photographers of the sites, they were so helpful! Their pics were wonderful and clear.

Check them out sometime!

www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/black_rat_snake.htm

chiotsrun.com/2009/10/09/baby_rat_snake

I learned a lot about these black snakes today....I have rodents here that are becoming a pest for me and these snakes are here because they are hungry and the food is plentiful. They eat moles, voles, frogs, lizards (I wasn't to happy about that one) and other snakes, even the poison ones. So to me they are keepers and are welcome in my yard!

They are like any predator (in the natural world) they only kill what they can eat, no waste and no gluttons.
The baby snakes have marks on their underside, except for the upper inch or so, it's plain white.

This one is a little over a foot and as round as a pencil. It looks bigger in the pics but it is very tiny!
After identifying it I took it back to the bush where I found it and released it. I'll be looking out for it when I go out there from now on! ;)
Black snakes can lay up to 30 small eggs, in a woody area, but very few make it. I have lots of birds here and a few chickens so I'm sure they have a hard time living here.








I couldn't help myself from taking so many pictures of this tiny helpless creature. It stayed up in the bush for about an hour then it slithered down and on across my small compost pile.......

where it disappeared between the tarp. I'll make extra sure I'm careful out here from now on. You can click on the pics to make them larger.

I also learned something else about them, the pupils of their eyes are round not slatted meaning again non poisonous.

Please before you grab a hoe or shovel to kill something....look it up, identify it......after all, it has just as much of a right to live as you do!! Even if it is "just a snake"! Snakes are very beneficial to our environment.

I think we have thrown our planet life out of "kilter" by being so uninformed and afraid of things. We kill too many helpful things and suffer because of it. THEN pesticides and poisons have to come into the picture....GEEZE!!! Just let nature take care of itself, the rewards will be greater than our harmful efforts!

TTFN!

Until next time!

Julie