At the back of the woods

Lord of the Flies

Out in the woods today we found a skull. I'm thinking cow, because the teeth are very flat. It is rather large, and still has most of its teeth.

Here's Pudge, the dog Santa brought for Christmas.

Late December

I went to sign up my daughter for speech therapy, and my son for school. All my ideas of a rural school were crushed. The school is small, but has three computer labs and a great school library. I thought it would be like the city public schools, only not as big. Shows what I know.

Also, I had been gearing up for a major battle with the steel factory near our home, but it seems that has been postponed. The privately-held company wanted to rezone the field across from my house from rural/suburban to industrial, but at the last minute they rescinded the request. Big relief - Many of my neighbors depend on this factory for thier livelihood, but the company has done so much polluting that I would have to argue against any expansion. However, I think this issue will come up again, so I'm using this time to learn about fighting rezoning.

The creek across from our house has the woods flooded. I saw a wild rabbit last night, but no other critters lately, except those who live in my house.

Going Postal

Mark visited our new post office in Saint Joe. He was there to pick up 2 registered letters. One had been sent back because it had been a few weeks since it arrived. Mark explained that he works full time, and it was hard for him to make it before 5pm. The post office worker then told him to call ahead, and she would keep the post office open late for him if needed.

Take note, legions of city-dwellers, there are kindhearted postal workers out there.

Smug

I fear that I'm coming across as . . . smug. While I find lots of amusement in my new surroundings, I do still find lots that's amusing about me and my ignorance as well. My neighbors know how to do things that can sustain them, and I'd like to learn some of those things.

The Smart Shopper

We get a free publication once a week, The Smart Shopper, and it came today, oh happy day! The Smart Shopper has great classifieds (like free chickens), and an advertisement for The Rural King. I haven't actually found The Rural King yet, but they have the best stuff for sale. Kerosene sold in a 5 gallon can (did you know you could get it in cans?), and liniment for horses, and coveralls. It also where I learn about what's happening in town. I found out the secondhand store is open Thursday and Fridays. Saved me a trip on a Monday.

the video store

We wanted to watch a movie, and decided to go visit the new video store we'd seen advertised. The sign we saw was one with a built-in arrow, and movable letters, and even though the arrow pointed to a cornfield, we understood it was in town.
Both of us were a little afraid to go, so we went together.
We found the video store, which is also apparently a pizza delivery place, and, get this, a tanning salon. Yes, the sign on the window says "Videos, Pizza, and Tanning." We rented a few movies and forgot to ask when they were due. A couple of days later, we go to take them back, and there is no dropbox and a note on the door reads, "Closed due to emergency." So we go back again the next night. I tell the person there that we tried to bring them the day before, but the store was closed. She's very flippant and takes them from us. So we're not sure they really had a due date. Maybe we just bring them back when we are done?

Our First Month

For about a month, we've been living in a rural area for the first time. By rural, I mean that I drive to the neighbor's homes rather than walk, that I get my mail from a box by the road, that my neighbors have animals like horses and cattle, and that I see fields all around my house. Living here is an experi/ence/ment, because it is both experience and experiment, in a grand sense and also in a very everyday sense.
For instance, we have some type of creature living in our attic. We don't really know how to deal with this, but we're experimenting and experiencing. We started with poison, little green balls of something toxic that my partner put in the area where we hear the critter(s). That night, as I lay in bed, I listened to a "poison party" as the little balls were rolled around one way and then the other. Some of the balls were found the next day in our basement. Keep in mind that this is a 2 story home with a basement. When we found them in the basement, we did what anyone would do, we looked up. There was a space between the walls where a cottony material was stuffed. We knocked it down, and we're pretty sure it was a nest. Groooooss! Then we went out and bought glue traps. The next day, there was a paw print in the glue trap, but it was basically where we left it. The day after that, the glue trap wasn't there. It wasn't anywhere to be found. This tells us two things:
1. A large creature, larger than a mouse, stepped in it.
2. Some large creature with a glue trap stuck to its ass lives in my attic!
Next we went with a live trap. In the last two weeks, we haven't caught it.

Again, experience and experiment, all rolled up into one.