Green Jay

Green Jay. ©Teresa Shumaker

Green Jay. ©Teresa Shumaker 

My favorite bird of South Texas is the Green Jay. Luckily for me, they are fairly common, so I get to see them often.

I have a pair that visits my bird feeder in the front yard every day.

My bird feeder is finally generating a lot of interest and today a line formed of birds waiting in the wings (pun intended). 

The birds have created an orderly way to share the feeder amongst themselves, and no fights have ensued, yet.

Green Jay. ©Teresa Shumaker

Green Jay. ©Teresa Shumaker

First month in the new place, highlights from my Facebook page.

This morning I walked into the kitchen to find a new species of cockroach dying on the floor. (That makes 4 species so far.) 

This one looks like its daddy was a grasshopper, and I hope to hell its kind aren't hoppers. I will spare you the photo —you're welcome. 

This newest bug gave me the idea to pull together posts from my Facebook page, highlights from my past month of bug battling. 

(P.S. I am  terrified of cockroaches. Give me a mouse or a snake to deal with, and I'm fine, but I will break bones to avoid roaches.)

(P. P. S. Sam is my dog; Matt is my husband. It could get very confusing if you think it is the other way around.)

Jan. 31:
Our first night in our new home was an adventure. 
First, about an hour after sunset was the attack of tiny cockroaches. Hundreds had just hatched due to the recent rain. 
Sam, my protector, attacked back. Then he thought it was a fun game and tossed one at my head. Ack!!
The rest of the night I looked like a cat walking on a tightrope, and I would jump at anything that moved.
Finally, we decide to go to bed when hear some strange noises and we remembered we left the gun in the car. So, out we went to get it and check the house. (To add to the creepy noises, Sylvia was skulking around and would sneak up on me in the dark making strange sounds.)
Sam was sound asleep so we left him in bed when we went outside. (Big mistake.) Upon return we discovered he had peed in the bedroom. He flooded the room with urine. (I am not exaggerating.)
And the bed spread. So I sopped it up with the bed spread, cleaned the floor, and we all went back outside.
When we came back in another tiny cockroach ran toward my side of the bed. I gathered courage and stomped on it.
He then got stuck to my shoe. Panic.
Then he disappeared, so I thought he was still on my shoe, but alive and crawling on me. Triple panic.
I started hyperventilating, and crying, AND laughing because I could see I must have looked insane.
Matt, bewildered by my insanity, just hugged me until I calmed down.
But, whenever we would go outside the view of the Milky Way uninterrupted by city lights made it all worth it. 
Update: Our landlord is awesome, he gave us some bug spray and is getting an exterminator out ASAP.

(Later that night, when I was writing this post on my phone, a roach ran across the screen, and I almost broke my phone with my moderately terror-stricken reaction.)

Feb. 3:
I turned on the heater today, and dead bugs shot out of the vents. And that was one of the highlights of my day - because they were dead! Yay! The worst part was when Sam peed on the top of the stairs and made a waterfall down the stairs. SMH, puppies.

Feb. 14: 
(This one isn't from FB, but it should be included.)
While on the phone with a friend one night, I was sitting in the living room when a huge, fat mouse ran across the living room and into a hole in the wall. My first reaction was to scream, because I first thought it was a roach. (Anything that moves is first labeled a roach, for safety reasons.)
This mouse was so chubby, my next thought was it was a hamster. 
My mom told me peppermint oil soaked cotton balls, placed around the house will deter mice. 
As I was making this concoction, Sam stuck his nose into the jar... then reeling backwards spent the next ten minutes sneezing and rubbing his nose. Poor thing. Turns out this trick works great on mice, and dogs too. 

Feb. 22:
Today's crazy country adventure is brought to you by the letter C... As in centipede. 
There was a baby centipede on my dish rag that I didn't discover was there until I felt it wriggle in the palm of my hand. Good news, it was a baby, it didn't sting me, and Sam is lightning fast to get by my side when I scream. Lol.

Feb. 23: 
My bedtime adventure: kill the giant hornets in my bedroom.
I'm getting really good at murdering bugs. 
However, sometimes all these adventures get me down, and I think maybe we should move somewhere else... But I have grown really fond of the place, and I have acquired many skills.  sigh.
I think sleep is in order, then I'll be back to feeling better in no time.

A list of the bug guests we have had so far (in the house only, I don't have time to list the ones outside):

• 3 different species of wasp

• 4 different species of ant, including cutter and Texas Ants (which are 3/4 of an inch long and stand over a 1/4 of an inch tall. Think about it, that's huge!)

• 4 species of roach

• 8 species of moth

• 5 species of spider (the jumping spiders are the cutest)

• Earwigs

• Rollie pollies

Thankfully, the exterminator finally came out and majority of the bugs we now see are dead or dying. Majority being the operative word. 

House warming visitor

Black-crested Titmouse. ©Teresa Shumaker

Black-crested Titmouse. ©Teresa Shumaker

 One of the first interesting birds to visit my new yard in South Texas was seen by my mom early the second morning when we were moving in.

She saw a whole flock, but since then there has been one feisty little lone who hangs out in the live oak tree letting everyone know he has dibs on the bird feeder in the neighboring tree.

The other day, I saw him scold a male cardinal as he was eating. As the cardinal is twice his size, the red feathered guy ignored him. But once he moved on, the little titmouse landed on the feeder chirping to himself, almost in a fussy way complaining about the nerve of that impertinent fellow.

A couple days ago, a fellow titmouse has joined him. I cannot tell their genders as both sexes look alike, but I am glad to see that the tiny, vigilant feeder-guard has company again.

Black-crested Titmouse. ©Teresa Shumaker

Best Dressed Duck.

Harlequin Duck. ©Teresa Shumaker

One of the last spectacular birds I saw in Northern California was this male Harlequin Duck at Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, CA.

Apparently there are two pairs of these ducks that prefer to hangout at this beach throughout the year, but you have to look for them, as they prefer to stay out of sight.

I return, at last

The past two and a half months have been... an adventure.

Some fun, some good, a lot that was stressful and some bad. And what cross country trek isn't complete with one person getting deathly ill, right? (That was me, I caught the flu for the first time in my life and let me tell you, I am not a fan.)

Overall though, I am happy where we have ended up.

We moved into a neat old ranch house with lots of character (oodles, really) after spending weeks trying to find a place and commuting from San Antonio to the Rio Grande Valley, a four to five hour drive each way.

However, the move hasn't been a smooth one. The house was being renovated and wasn't done when we moved in on Jan. 30 (it still isn't done) and has some pest problems due to the previous renters trashing the place.

On the plus side, I have lost ten pounds from all the stress and physical labor I have done! (Always a silver lining.) And at this very moment I am discovering that I have lost my typing muscles, as my fore arms are protesting writing this blog.

But with difficulties come great blessings. If this place didn't have its downsides, we wouldn't have been able to get it so cheap. And it has taught me a lot so far about the trials and tribulations of caring for a home. (We are renting, but the landlord is wonderful and wants the place fixed up. So anything we do to improve it, he reimburses us the cost.)

This is in our front yard. It's pretty peaceful out here. ©Teresa Shumaker

Hopefully, this weekend I will have a new kitchen. They are gutting the old one due to water damage from the previous tenants. (They apparently had a tree fall and knock a hole into the house near the kitchen and let it stay that way because they didn't want to tell the landlord and let him see how badly they had destroyed the house. They had over 20 cats and were hoarders. Who knows how long it had been like that.)