Tomato Damage

The Farmer had a bowl of tomatoes setting on our dining room table.  He loves garden fresh tomatoes – just slices them and eats them right up.

Yesterday I walked by his nice bowl of tomatoes, and noticed there was a problem.

There were little bits of the tomatoes on the table top, and a couple of the tomatoes had gaping holes where something had eaten part of them.

Now you expect that to happen now and then when the tomatoes are still in the garden.  Turtles like to munch on tomatoes.  Rabbits might take a nibble.  But these tomatoes were in pristine condition when they were placed in the bowl inside the house, away from those critters outside.  So what happened?

This happened. . .

Yep, our parrot decided she likes tomatoes.

I’d went off to the office and forgot she was loose. When I walked back into the kitchen later, she was sitting on the back of the kitchen chair furthest away from the scene of the crime. I think she was trying to disassociate herself, like “I had NOTHING to do with it!”

The Farmer now calls her “that tomato-eating bird.”  He wasn’t pleased to find a couple of his tomatoes partially eaten, but I think even though he won’t admit it, he thinks it’s kind of funny.

I know I do.

“What Doesn’t Belong?” Contest Winner

All right people, it’s Friday, and I said I’d announce the contest winner today!

For all of you who looked and looked and couldn’t find the “thing that doesn’t belong” in the first picture, I’ll admit, that one was difficult.  All you could see was the top of her head and one eyeball peering over a picture.   Here’s a closer view, with the culprit clearly marked.

Yes, the thing that didn’t belong was our ornery little parrot, who took a notion in her head to fly in there one day.

I figured when I gave the clue of:

There are three of these things in the picture.  Only one is real. .

. . that it would make it easier to figure out, since there were two fake parrots in the picture, while number three was real.

And of course, you can see more of the REAL parrot in this picture than you could in the first picture!

So there you have it, the thing that didn’t belong was the REAL parrot.  She’s not exactly part of the racing memorabilia, family pictures or fake bird stuff.  Okay, so the peacock feathers are real, but they’re no longer attached to the live bird!  The parrot was the only LIVE thing in the picture.

As for the winner, well, some sent emails and some commented.  However, it was Amy over at Amy’s Corner who was once again the speediest to reply with the correct answer.

Congratulations Amy! Send me an email and let me know if you want a picture or a magnet.

If you missed out this time, stay tuned!  Something else crazy will happen around here, or I’ll otherwise come up with an idea for another contest.  You’ll have another chance!

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are!

Seems like a lot of the critters around here like to hide. 

Our parrot loves to hide under the couch and behind the curtains.

If she can hurry into the kitchen and get in a cupboard before I close the door, that’s one of her favorite hiding places.

She gets in all kinds of hidey holes: under desks, in the pantry, in boxes… just any place she can find.

But many of the outside critters like to hide too.  For instance, can you guess what’s hiding in this can out in our feed room?

Did you guess a mouse?  Naw, come on now, that’s too obvious.  And it’s not a snake either, though it’s happened before and I’ve reached in and grabbed one by accident.  (Trust me, I wouldn’t grab it on purpose!)

Well, think about it while I show you some other animals in hiding.

Our cat likes to hide under shrubs or other flowering plants.  Here he is hiding in one of my flowerbeds under some hostas.

Toby would like to know what the cat is doing in there.

However, the cat is unconcerned with what Toby wants to know and ignores him.

He continues to peer out from under the hostas totally oblivious to what the dog is doing.

Sometimes animals can hide in plain sight.  You know, blending in with the surroundings, a sort of camouflage kind of thing.  Just look at this picture:

Maybe this rabbit figures if it grazes with the chickens, the dogs won’t notice it’s there and chase after it.  Frankly, the rabbits around here seem to think this a safe haven anyway, and don’t get too excited when we’re out walking around.

Of course, little chicks like to hide under the Mama Hen.

You can only see one little derriere still sticking out, but there are 5 little chicks under the hen.  Here they are before Mama settled down so they could scoot under her.

My favorite hen, Peepers, has a little chick peeping out from under her too.

She had 4 little chicks last year, but for some reason, only came out from under the shed (her nesting place) with one this year.

The adult hens like to hide under The Farmer’s utility trailer.

 Toby occasionally likes to hide out under the back porch.  The goats hide behind the llamas at night.  There are even little Southeastern Five-Lined Skinks with their bright blue tails hiding in the crevices of the retaining walls around the rosebed.  Critters are hiding all over the place!

Oh, and as for what was hiding in the can. 

Did you guess it was a rooster?  He jumped in there while I was getting feed, and managed to knock the lid back over top of him on his way in.  When I took the lid off, he was contentedly munching up on all the cracked corn.

You just never know what you might find hiding around here… so come out, come out, wherever you are!

Bird’s Eye View

Sometimes things get pretty fowl around here.

For instance, you can’t be here very long before you’d notice there is always some kind of fowl racket.  There are chickens clucking, bird song, peafowl screeching, and always, always, always, guineas making noise of some sort.

Continue reading