One Of My Favorite Subjects

I'm back after having a few problems away from my blog. After many power outages over the last little while my computer's operating system became so unstable that I ended up having to reinstall the whole thing. After that I got a little sick again from complications from my old car accident. It happens every once in a while, so I just deal with it when it does. I just move on when I'm fine again.

So since I've been gone for much too long I decided to come back with a favorite type of animal of mine. When I was in Michigan I used to post about squirrels maybe more than anything else. Their feisty little personalities are just so great to talk about.

I only see fox squirrels here, like the big guy you see in my pictures, but back in Michigan I saw several kinds. There were these fox squirrels, gray squirrels, red squirrels, and even black squirrels. Each type of squirrel has their own personality traits. I've done in-depth posts about their traits in the past so I'll just let you search the blog if you want to know more. If enough of you are interested though I'll do a future post about that stuff.

Today I want to talk a little bit, just a little bit, about this particular squirrel in my pictures. There's one reason, and one reason alone, that I took his picture. This is the squirrel that keeps raiding my bird feeder.

So, you ask, if he's raiding your bird feeder then what's he doing in that tree? Well I'm going to tell you. It was only seconds before I took these pictures that I chased him away from the feeder. He ran halfway to the tree and then stopped, waiting for me to leave so he could come right back to stealing the bird seed.

I wasn't going to put up with that so I set the dog on him! Only to scare him away, of course. That's when he went up the tree. That wasn't the end of him though, no! He got up in that tree and stared down at me waiting for me to take the dog back inside. What a smart little jerk.

The squirrel maneuvered around the tree until he got a nice place to watch from. I wasn't defeated so easily though. I left the dog out there. She saw the squirrel up there too. She really hates that squirrel. They've argued constantly since I moved here. I even have an old video on the blog somewhere of one of those arguments, the squirrel chattering at the dog and the dog barking at the squirrel. I'm sure it's the same squirrel.

This time after a few hours of the dog waiting on the porch for the squirrel to come down the squirrel finally gave up and left. I won this time! That's something that doesn't happen often for most people. Squirrels are relentless little critters.

So that's the end. I hope to be a little quicker with my next post. While writing this one I realized that I have plenty more stuff to post. I just have to figure out what to do first after this one. I guess I'll just have to figure it out. I'll talk to you later.

The Only Wildflowers Around

I've given up! I used to try to limit the pictures in all of my posts to about three. That would keep the posts just short enough to match what I would write and also keep it short enough so you wouldn't begin to hate me. But I don't care anymore. I've begun thinking that people probably don't mind extra pictures as long as I'm not usually too long winded. So my posts are about to get a little different from now on.

So what I have for you today is the only wildflowers for very many miles around. Actually I don't mean that these particular flowers are the only ones, but what I mean is that this is the only kind I can find anywhere around here. I haven't seen another kind of wildflower for about twenty five miles. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough, but that's my story, until it changes.

According to some of the wonderful people who commented on these same flowers two years ago, these flowers are called Dame's Rocket. Without all of you I'd have no idea what these are. I'm terrible with plants. And yes I posted pictures of this same group of flowers before. They seem to grow in that same spot at the end of my property every year.

On the other hand I can't remember what kind of butterfly this is. I used to know very well the identity of this beautiful creature. A few years ago I was in a bad car accident, whacking my head pretty bad, and a few other things. Because of that I don't remember things like this so well anymore, I don't post every day like I used to before that, and I don't go on the long hikes I used to enjoy before all of that. I'm not trying to complain, I'm just explaining. It's been over for a few years.

I guess I could do a little research to find this butterfly's name, but I'm just too lazy to do it anymore.

Well, if you insist!

I decided to check around and found out that the name of this guy is a Red Admiral (Vanessa Atalanta). I knew that! At least I used to. It came back to me as soon as I saw the name. It's good to know the name. Now I'm happy.

It looks kind of like a pitiful little group of flowers in the above two pictures, doesn't it? Well this is the biggest group of these flowers I've found for miles around here so far. These flowers are actually scattered all through my property in little groups.

I keep the place looking like an unkempt jungle. The tall weeds hide the junk that my dad collected over the years. I'd get rid of the junk, but I have no idea what to do with it. I'm not exactly close to a place where I can dispose of some of these things. Besides I like everything looking like a jungle. It's so natury.

Some of my neighbors probably hate me for that, but that's okay because I'm meaner than them. I also have giant piles of firewood everywhere. At least one neighbor doesn't mind that because we share that part. My dad taught him to burn wood for heat several years ago and now he loves doing it that way. Maybe one of these times I'll show you my huge outdoor wood stove. It's a technological marvel that my dad built. I'll talk to you later.