June and July at Crick Hollow

Note to Self:

Remember back in the day when you loved Jiminy Cricket? Well, you know what they say. Everything must come to an end.

JUST LIKE ALL OUR NEWLY PLANTED FLOWERS, TREES, BUSHES and GRASS which have turned into a buffet for the little gigantic monsters!

The grasshoppers are absolutely e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. When walking outside you have to keep your mouth closed and eyes partly shut, because they fly into your face. (My poor dogs are really not liking them either, although sometimes Abby does like to chase and pounce on them). They even fly into your hair and boots, and latch onto your clothes.

And never in my life have seen so many different species of grasshoppers. Living here has provided me with quite the education regarding Entomology.

Crick Hollow is definitely living up to it's name. (Of course, I think most of these are grasshoppers. Perhaps a more fitting name would have been "Hopper Hollow").


(Larger Pic)





In the pic above, on the glass and surrounding brick to the window I counted 15 grasshoppers total. (And that's just what I saw around the window from inside the house).


(Larger Pic)


(Larger Pic)

The grasshoppers here in Texas have been horrible this summer. You have to experience it to believe it.

My camera didn't do it justice, so here's a vid of the devils that I found on YouTube.



They look just as bad there as here. We've even ordered something to get rid of the beasts, but we had to cancel the order because the delivery was so backed up. It seems everyone is having trouble controlling them.

We finally discovered Neem Oil, and then spraying the plants with Murphy's Oil Soap. Miraculously, one of the two mixtures has kept them away from all out Chaste trees. (We've planted something like 14 of those trees and the grasshoppers were very, very VERY fond of them. Honest truth, there had to have been around 60 grasshoppers in each bush every time we'd go out there to water them). But having said that... there's still taking over everything else.

Okay, enough whining.



Henkel Square

Went to Henkel Square in Round Top a few weeks ago. I've taken lots of pics from there before, so I'll share those some other day. Until then, here's just a couple.







Longhorns and Wild Turkeys

Saw them when driving down the road a couple weeks ago. It was a nice surprise!




(Larger Pic)


(Larger Pic)


(Larger Pic)




(Larger Pic)


(Larger Pic)



Our new Gazebo / Tea House


(Larger Pic)









The dogs looove sitting in our gazebo, especially Maddie and Izzy.



A couple nights ago it was really windy, and unusually so NOT humid, so we all - including the dogs - stayed out there for about an hour. I tried getting a nice pic of the moon, but they all ended up blurry.





Besides sitting in the gazebo, the dogs also love the little bells we got for it back in Henkel Square. (I'm not a big fan of wind chimes, so I especially love how soft these bells are. They sound like Tinkerbell).







As for Abby, she just plain loves being outdoors. She's very hyper and very happy out there. It's her Zen place.



The Bunny Trail

We have 3 regular bunny visitors. Two babies, and then the older bunny we've named "Diana."

Every night the rabbits are eating around the house somewhere. Usually in the backyard, any side of the house, the vegetable garden and the front porch. (We've put old sunflowers there for it, which it loves).

Diana loves to sleep in the backyard most nights. It could be 3 AM, and still she's out there in the fenced in area.


(Larger Pic)










(Larger Pic)




(Larger Pic)




(Larger Pic)



Cattle

What post would be complete without a few cattle pics and video?

Unfortunately, I haven't seen them all week. It's been really hot so they're in the shadier pastures at present.


(Larger Pic)


(Larger Pic)


(Larger Pic)




(Larger Pic)


(Larger Pic)




(Larger Pic)


(Larger Pic)

I don't know for sure, but I think a new calf might have been born because one evening there was a lot of screaming from of the cows going on. It wasn't a familiar mother-to-baby cry either.



BIRDS


(Larger Pic)





Aren't they cute catching those bothersome grasshoppers?


(Larger Pic)

Ahh, nothing like a dirt bath.




(Larger Pic)



The swallows tried building their nests on the house again. Thankfully, their back porch nesting project was an epic fail for them.





More Longhorns

There longhorns are right near our house. I was so happy to see them so close to home!


(Larger Pic)




(Larger Pic)



Hummingbirds

We have two regular hummingbird visitors, and the other day I saw the cutest thing.

We have one of those plastic owl decoys, hoping to frighten the barn swallows away from our porch, and I saw one of the hummers hovering in front of the owl, inspecting it closely.

I wish I'd gotten it on film, but I just happened upon the scene by accident.



See all the holes in the sunflower leaves? That would be the grasshopper's calling card around here.

I h-a-t-e them!




(Larger Pic)



Dragonflies

The dragonflies have been regulars around here, too. I hope they'll make a comeback as they did last summer while I was living in Burton. (Last year, on July 30th, there were easily thousands of them coming through. I'll share the videos of them sometime soon).





Stick Bug and Froggy









Mister Ed

You never know what you'll see in town.





Sir Hiss



As for scary news to report, on Tuesday night I heard a loud ruckus in the garage. Guess what it was...

Another damned snake! (We are seriously pondering that country life just isn't for us. I can deal with pretty much everything around here EXCEPT for the snakes!)

We met our new neighbors last weekend and they've already killed at least 4 copperheads! (True story: When our neighbor saw the first copperhead, she pinned it to the ground with a BOW AND ARROW! It scared her so bad that she ended up calling her father to come over to the house to kill it for her. It was a copperhead after all and she has a 5 year old and two dogs to protect). Already, one of her poor dogs - the oldest senior - was bitten by a copperhead. She didn't think it was going to make it, but miraculously it did. The poor thing was deathly ill.

I'm just glad it's okay now.