Skeg?

A couple of weeks ago I tried out my new inflatable kayak on the Little Spokane River. It's a two-person kayak so I asked my sister, Gayla, to go with me. And I borrowed another one-person kayak from friends, so that Suzanne could go with as well.

With her set of oars, Suzanne manauvered her kayak with skill and sped down the river ahead of us most of the time. But for some reason Gayla and I could not get control of our kayak. It turned us around in circles during the whole journey. Nothing we did could divert it's determine course into bushes, fallen trees, sharp sticks, and sandbars. And the bushes we frequently became entangled in were full of aphids and spiders which we continually brushed from our hair and clothing.

We were exhausted from our four-hour trip down the river. And when we finally reach the exit point and were taking the kayaks out of the water and deflating them, I noticed that the one-person kayak had a little rudder, fin, or "skeg" on it's underside in the back, and that the two-person kayak DID NOT have one.

I have since bought a "skeg" that I can attach to my kayak and I hope to try it out soon. I may be going alone though... I doubt that Gayla will agree to another trip. If it works I'll be happy, if not I'm giving the kayak away. Any takers?

Zeke

A couple of weeks ago my sister Rosalin, who is also my neighbor, heard a cat screaming in the middle of the night. She said it sounded like it was being eaten alive...a sound that gave her a sick feeling. The next morning Zeke was nowhere to be found. I was saddened and depressed - positive that he had met a horrible death. But after two days Zeke reappeared...but not the Zeke we all know and love. Somehow his personality has changed. He is no longer the neighborhood bully and he no longer wants to prowl around outside all night long. He stays strictly inside the garage and will not go out. Even when the afternoon sun heats up the garage to a toasty 85 degrees, you can always find Zeke in there somewhere.

Yesterday I hauled the poor kitty outside onto the cool grass. He stayed there for a few minutes while I petted him, but when I went to inspect some flowers, he got up, looked nervously around him and made a mad dash for the garage.

It must have been a pretty traumatic experience in the woods that fateful night. And although Zeke doesn't have any physical injuries or scars, he does seem to have some emotional ones. It's been suggested that I take him to a cat psychologist...right.

The Year of the Sugar Ants

Every summer something decides to become the number one pest. Last year it was the wasps. They were everywhere...hovering around the flowers, making nests under the eaves of the house, trying to get water from hoses and grass. I suffered greatly from their angry stings.

Two years ago the number one pest was the frogs...croaking constantly, sticking to the windows with their suction cup feet and sometimes hopping right in through open doors.

This year is the year of the turkeys who make their rounds just about every morning, sitting on, breaking off and scratching up my petunias looking for bugs. Along with the turkey, this is the year of THE MOST PESKY OF ALL...the sugar ants, also known as piss ants.

First of all they figured out how to get into the humming bird feeder which is hanging by a wire from the eave of the house. And during ninety degree weather when our air conditioning stopped working, they were to blame. They had gotten into the inner workings of the heat pump, died there by the dozen and their little ant bodies piled up high enough to stop an electrical connection.

I've seen them all summer long marching in lines across the driveway, through the garden and along their own personal super highway...the hose.

Three mornings ago I was going to make waffles for breakfast, I opened my baking center cupboard where I keep baking supplies, mixer, blender, bread maker etc., and was horrified to see the whole inside crawling with sugar ants! They were scurrying around and up and down among the spices. They had found their way inside a bag of sugar...under the mixer, bread maker and toaster. I could see them scurrying up the walls of the cupboard and across the tops and bottoms of shelves...even under the shelf liner.

Needless to say, breakfast was late that morning as I vacuumed up, wiped down and cleaned like never before.

For the moment we are ant free, but you never know what they are planning, where they are heading or when they will next be discovered.

Gardens are great!

Zucchini

I can never get it right...I always end up with zucchini coming out of my ears in the summer. The first year I had a garden I didn't know any better and planted the whole packet of seeds. The huge plants took over almost the entire garden and demanded tons of water. The rate of grow was staggering...I could harvest at least a half a dozen zucchinis every day. We ate them, we gave them away we threw them out for the deer to eat and some just got left where they were. One time I didn't make it out to the garden for a about three days and when I did venture out there I came upon a zucchini that actually scared me and made me gasp it was so big. My first thought was that it was some sort of animal laying there.

Every year since then I have planted a few less zucchini seeds, but I still have tons of them. This year I planted two seeds and guess what...they are everywhere! I'm desparately looking for that zucchini relish recipe that my Mom used to use.

They're Bustin' Out!

The tiny occupants of the bird house I've been watching for most of the summer are ready to bust out! It took forever for the parent birds to build the nest in the first place; one of the birds was very fussy - I watched both of them spend their days hauling in sticks and fuzz, and occasionally I saw HER throw out some of the sticks and white fuzz that weren't to her satisfaction.

For weeks it seems like the pair was just using the house as their summer cottage but eventually I started hearing the tiniest peeping sound. And the parents began making frequent deliveries of worms and bugs. Each day the peeping became louder and more intense and the parents could barely keep up with the demand for food!.. more food!

Yesterday I started to see little heads and yellow beeks looking out of the round door of the house. I knew the time was nigh. And today I happened to be watching when one little curious head stretched out so far that the rest of the body came with it and the little bird found itself perched on the limb attached to the house. It teetered there for a few seconds before it lunged for safety and disappeared back into the round door.

I'm sure that it's just a matter of days or even hours before the baby wrens are out into the world hunting their own bugs and worms. Maybe they'll come back to visit the old homestead once in a while...maybe even spend the night?

I Saved a Life Today

If we leave our garage open during the day, humming birds fly in. The problem is that they are unable to figure out how to get back out - they fly around the ceiling and buzz around the windows until they are so weak they can't fly any more. And when that happens they become victims of the kitties.

I bought a butterfly net just for the purpose of catching these tiny birds that get trapped. And this morning I caught another one...taking it's picture before I opened my hand and sent it buzzing off into the sky.