Wordless Wednesday - You know you live in the sticks when.....

Roadkill

The other day, a snowy day - I was slowing down towards the bottom of a hill so I wouldn't slide onto the upcoming intersection. There was this little chickadee in the road - it must have been aerodynamically challenged because it didn't lift quite high enough into the air and sort of tumbled across my hood and into the windshield wiper. I got out to see if it would be OK. A couple of days earlier I had been at my friend's (she teaches a wildlife class at a college) and a chickadee flew into their arcadia door and knocked itself dizzy. She said that if we left it outside it would freeze to death because it wasn't moving - so they brought it inside and put it in a cat carrier until it was back up to par - about 20 minutes. They put it back out side and away it flew. Sooooooo - I picked it up - it didn't appear to have any broken legs or wings but was way too docile. So I held it and drove to our office. Of course I had a hard time getting in because the overhead door was frozen shut - but I managed. I put it in a box with paper towels and an old torn bath towel over it - and went about my business. I had to make a trip to the new apartment complex we bought and I got a little feed from one of the tenants. The sweet little bird started hopping around and scratching to get out - so I stopped where I picked it up - thinking it probably had a nest nearby. I carried it up over the snowbank (with no boots on) and gently set it down. It flopped and wobbled and scurried away from me. I was a little alarmed at his lack of steady mobility, but he manage to hop up on a tree branch, and then to another, so I left it and went home for lunch. I took these pictures when I dropped him off.

After lunch, I had to drive past him again and he was still on the same branch, with it's little head tucked under it's wing. I was feeling guilty about hitting it and worrying that it would become fox or eagle lunch - so I climbed back over the snow bank and farther - and picked him up again. He didn't really try to get away, but seemed fairly alert. I put him back in the box and picked up the seeds I had left for him in the snow. I went to the office and planned to go to town to get a cage to keep him in until I was sure he was OK. When I came out of the office 10 minutes later - he was dead. But - surprisingly enough - I didn't cry. Almost though.

Home

Well, I'm home in Maine and very glad to be here. The children were ecstatic to see us. And we were glad to see them too. We got here on Friday the 20th - went to dinner to celebrate and then got a huge welcome back to Maine snowstorm - we got 12-18 inches of snow on Saturday. Back to shoveling. The Captain went back to Virginia for another unsuccessful squid trip - and is now switching gear to go scalloping instead. Yahoooooo! I am keeping really busy with the new (to us) apartment complex we bought (borrowed for). Right now my "job" is to manage 18 apartments, 2 mobile homes, 3 houses, and 37 storage units. There are 2 apartments that are vacant and need extesive work to get them ready to rent - and there are a couple of acquired tenants that we need to move out. I didn't think it would keep me that busy, but I run all of the time. The office is located in the basement of one of our apartment buildings where we also have the storage units. There is an overhead door that we access with a security card - it seems like I'm always having to work to get in - either the door is frozen to the ground or blocked by snow falling off the roof. Post office runs, bank runs, collecting rent runs. But I feel so alive and energized by it all.

Virginia

I made it to Virginia on Wed. 02/04. Mika and I picked up the Captain at the train station - she was sooooooo excited to see her "daddy". I was glad to see him too - I was tired of driving. lol

It took us until the 13th to get the boat ready for her first excursion with her new Captain. We had to get the gear ready to go "Squidding". It was quite the experience. Mika loved being on the boat - while we were docked anyway. The weather was wonderful most of the time. Shirt sleeves.

Then we were off - it kind of stopped being fun and started being work. I had to do all of the cooking, most of the dishes, and also worked on the deck. I didn't have to haul back or set out the gear, but I did sort fish. It was a good thing that Mika and I took motion sickness meds - we never found our sea legs. One of the interesting things I found out was that the squid were not as big as I thought, but we couldn't keep anything under 4" or the price would go down. So, the guys told me that if I lay the squid across my gloved hand and it covered it, that would be long enough. See - size does matter. In other words, "under a handful - throw it back" - for gals "over a mouthful is waste"for guys. You have to see the squid to get a clear picture. The picture I'm showing isn't really a good one. Some are really limp, but other's are a little more "sturdy".

We didn't make any money that trip - we had a fire on the boat (more about that later) and had to go back to the dock without a complete trip - so what squid we got didn't even pay for the fuel or groceries.