My eldest, of the eagle eyes, spotted this year’s batch of armadillos foraging in the back meadow. Nine-banded Armadillos give birth to identical quadruplets. They eat insects, digging into the earth to get to grubs. They also eat ticks and other pests. They can contract and spread leprosy, so best just watched or only handled by trained professionals. They are fun to watch!
A friend invited us over to pick peaches! So many peaches! It was our first time picking straight from the trees. The air was full of butterflies. There was even a butterfly ball; a ripe peach completely covered with hungry butterflies. iNaturalist identifies the species as hackberry emperor butterflies, at least the one I took a picture of, separate from its kaleidoscope.
After picking the peaches, we brought them home, gave them a wash, and laid them out on paper towels on the counter to dry and finish ripening. To keep the flies off (there always seem to be two in the house), I laid some nylon netting loosely over the top.
As they ripened, we tried blanching to remove the skins. We weren’t successful with a quick blanch, so kept increasing the boil time. We ended up with cooked peaches, but the skin came off well. We made peach puree by adding lemon juice and sugar and blending it all together. From that we have made peach ice cream and peach smoothies! Yum.
So the chewing squirrel has continued to break sections off the bungee cord holding down the lid of the metal can where I store the squirrel food.
Time for a new tactic. I went to the hardware store and bought a length of chain. I replaced the chewable bungee material with metal.
I over estimated the amount of chain I needed, but that’s ok, because the chewer is also working on the knot in the rope that holds up the squirrel feeder.
Two young squirrels decided to both eat in our feeder together.
Then when one squirrel used the other as a support, by resting paws on the head, I knew they must be siblings.
Thor the foster kitten was meowing upstairs, so I went up and played with him, giving him his first silver vine stick. He loved it.
I do put the stick away when I’m not in the room because I don’t want him eating splinters. And I had to put it away because Izzy started meowing downstairs. Really? Jealous much? I went down to find that she had brought a frog inside. She was praised as a mighty huntress before I caught the frog.
The frog was let loose in the garden outside. I seem to encourage talkative cats.
Critters and Craft 