On The Grill

And that my friends is the answer to the question posed at the end of What's In Your Dishwasher post.

We decided on steak for dinner and when I took the cover off the grill, who should I find but my good pal Froggy.

I don't know if this is the same one from the dishwasher or the deck chair, we do have quite a few about the yard. But it is a Northern Gray Tree Frog.

It seemed content to hang out on the shelf, but I would need that space. And it was gonna get bit warm. So when it didn't move I tried to help it along, picking it up and giving it a lift to the garden.

But it decided it liked my foot better. And hung out there while I put the steak and potatoes on the grill (they turned out very yummy). Eventually it hopped away.

#Who'sReallyPiousNow!

Last Friday I traded in my 2010 Pious for a 2018 Pious Prime Plug-in (hereafter referred to as the "Pious Prime Plug-in", aka P³).

Out with the old and in with the new!

The Prius was first manufactured in 1997, but did not hit the US market until the early 2000s. They quickly became a popular green car. So much so that in 2006 South Park made an episode about hybrid cars entitled "Smug Alert!". In this episode "The citizens of South Park resolve not to drive hybrids, since they can't do so without being smug." The hybrid car in the show looked exactly like a Prius; however it was called a "Pious".

It is pretty cool to plug in my car and use solar power to charge it.

And MIKE DROP ...

My mileage this past weekend. I'll let you know when or if I ever have to put gas in my tank. 😉

🚗🚗🚗🚗🚗

Thanks to guest blogger Patty Rehn. The words and images are hers.

What's In Your Dishwasher?

I was loading up the dishwasher this past Friday morning and when I closed the cover to the soap compartment I found this had been hiding under it:

A Northern Gray Tree Frog.

I have no idea how it found it's way into the house. Or once in, why it chose the dishwasher as it's hiding place. How long had it been there? How long had it been in the house? (See below for a possible explanation.)

I caught it and released it out on our deck. Note the color difference. It seems they can change their color based on the background. Which explains the scientific name, Hyla versicolor.

Although why it choose this color is not obvious.

🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

This is a decorative pitcher.

And it is very likely the vehicle by which the frog entered the house. We keep it outside on our deck with cut flowers from our garden. Thursday evening Patty brought it in the house, rinsed it out, and put it upside down in the dishwasher to dry. I surmise that the frog was clinging to the inside all the while. As we have three cats it was smart to hideout in the dishwasher overnight.

🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

Saturday morning I took a cup of coffee outside to enjoy it while sitting on our deck. We keep our deck chairs covered, so as to protect them form the dew and provide for dry seating first thing in the morning. Apparently the tree frogs appreciate this as well.

Had I not been paying attention I would have sat on it.

I wonder where I'll find one tomorrow.

We So Need A Fence

Damn Deer.

There were FIVE of these garden destroyers in the yard this morning.

GRRR!

They walked up and started munching on the plants. So I changed form photographer mode to "get the hell out of my yard" mode.

🦌🦌🦌🦌🦌

We've spoken with several friends who have installed deer fences who are very happy with the results. As noted elsewhere in this blog, we've had success with the Wireless Deer Fence, but there are just too many deer in the area.

A logistics issue we face is that we don't want to change the look and feel of the yard, so we'll need to  put the fence through the woods.

🍺🍷🍕🌭🍔

So stay tuned for the invitation to the fence hanging party!

Yard Critter of the Week - Oblong-winged Katydid

Oblong-winged Katydid.

One of the many insects that serenade us to sleep every night here at Piney Place.

This is obviously a green individual, but they come in a variety of colors including pink, yellow, tan, and brown. My goal now is to collect then all!

🐞🐞🐞🐞🐞

Thanks to John Maxwell for help in identifying this species.

You can find all of the Yard Critter posts listed here.

Stumpy Junior

In the prior post I noted the trouble the young tailless Northern Raccoon, that we called Stumpy Jr., had climbing the tree up to the flying squirrel feeders.

Things deteriorated over the next couple of days.

We noticed that Stumpy Jr. was by itself in the yard, mom and siblings nowhere to be seen. As noted in that previous post we were putting peanut butter closer to the ground. And one night Junior came but didn't eat the food. It seemed very frightened.

Patty and I figured that we would need to catch it and take it to the Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge rehab center if it were to have a chance to survive.

And yesterday I as I was sitting in my home office I spotted it out by our fish pond. And as can be seen in the image below* I was able to catch it.

It wasn't hard. Using a blanket and a cardboard box I calmed it down and scooped it into the box. The poor thing was weak and scared. I snapped this one image, gave it the blanket to snuggle under, and closed up the box. As Cedar Run was already closed for the day it needed to spend the night in our care. Fortunately Cedar Run has instructions on their website for this situation.

Our garage has two small side rooms, one of which has a freezer in it, which keeps that room nice and warm. And with it in the garage no other critters can get in at it. Nor could it get out, which was important because, despite considering and then determining it was too weak to break through the cardboard, it broke through the cardboard. So when I went to check on it in the morning it was gone.

However, we quickly relocated and recaptured it, put it in a plastic storage container, and loaded Junior into Patty's new car (more on that later) and headed off to the rehab center.

There it will join ten other Northern Raccoons also being cared for. Raccoons are resilient critters and the prognosis for Junior is good. And we know we left it in good hands.

👁👁👁👁👁

* Red-eye reduction does nothing for blue-green eyes. 

Stumpy Junior

In the previous post I mentioned how we'd not seen the Baby Bandidos for several days. Of course they showed up that very night.

Mom was there too. And, as is her custom, tends to stay toward the back of the garden.

Unlike the youngsters, she is much more wary of the house environs.

Recall that in the Baby Bandidos post I noted that when the group came back there were only two babies, one was missing.* As you can see there are now again three. But there is still something missing. Look closely at the raccoon with its back to the camera in the image directly above. It is missing its tail.

It is also noticeably smaller and weaker than the other two. It was sad watching it struggle to climb up and down the tree to get to the peanut butter (we've since made sure to put peanut butter closer to the ground). We hope it survives out there.

This was at least the third raccoon in the yard with tail issues. We had one last year with an obviously broken and mis-healed tail, one with an unnatural kink in it. We wonder what it is that is causing such damage.

~~~~~~~~~~~
* Of course, it could be that there are two family groups, one with three pups and one with but two.