Observing nature

[trusk4u]

The scent of the bunnies remains for a long time and they can smell it. You will want fencing to keep out the dogs AND the bunnies. If you get the wire kind, bury the bottom several inches in the ground and at a curve so they can't dig under it and get in.

[trusk4u]

Our hawk friend is still hanging around. He likes the woods in the back of our house. Good hunting I imagine, since now that it's really grown in and the "threat o snakes is high, we rarely go back there.

[MakinTheBest]

We have a number of hawks that I love to watch circle around!


 Also, the other day,  I went to pick up a stick that I thought had fallen out of the woodbox and the darn thing moved!  Scared the heck out of me.  Turns out we have a 4 ft+ black rat snake living in the box.  He can hang out all he likes but I will be much more careful about the sticks that I pick up now.

[Larissa]

We have a number of hawks that I love to watch circle around!


 Also, the other day,  I went to pick up a stick that I thought had fallen out of the woodbox and the darn thing moved!  Scared the heck out of me.  Turns out we have a 4 ft+ black rat snake living in the box.  He can hang out all he likes but I will be much more careful about the sticks that I pick up now.

Hahahahaha!  I'd have the same reaction as you.

Meanwhile, while I've always been a fan of snakes, Eric is most decidedly NOT, and just discovered that there's one species of rattlesnake in this part of the country.  He's not ecstatic, even though we've lived here since September 2012 & have never seen a snake.

[trusk4u]

We have a number of hawks that I love to watch circle around!


 Also, the other day,  I went to pick up a stick that I thought had fallen out of the woodbox and the darn thing moved!  Scared the heck out of me.  Turns out we have a 4 ft+ black rat snake living in the box.  He can hang out all he likes but I will be much more careful about the sticks that I pick up now.

Snakes like to live in and around wood piles. Those rat snakes get pretty big too! I haven't come across any live snakes yet, but have seen several dead ones on the roads. An all too frequent thing here. I am not a fan of them, but I won't run it over .
 

[trusk4u]

Meanwhile, while I've always been a fan of snakes, Eric is most decidedly NOT, and just discovered that there's one species of rattlesnake in this part of the country.  He's not ecstatic, even though we've lived here since September 2012 & have never seen a snake   

You keep your grass mowed and you probably won't see any. In all our time here, I have seen 2 snakes in this yard, both black harmless ones. Farrah happened to find a copperhead out in the woods last summer and got bit. That was a major vet bill being it was after hours, emergency stuff.

[Larissa]

I'll tell him to get on that mowing, then! 

At least I know the boys can't get into the woods; we kept the electronic fence within the grassy area.

[trusk4u]

I'll tell him to get on that mowing, then! 

At least I know the boys can't get into the woods; we kept the electronic fence within the grassy area.

That's good. It's why we kept the weird little fence that divides our back yard in half. It keeps the wooded area separate from the grass area. It was really nice when Aslan went blind. And now with us selling, if a family buys, they can keep their kids out of the woods.

[Larissa]

LOL, as a kid I'd NEVER have been kept out of the woods!  My sister and I were all about playing "Explorer."  In fact, growing up, my parents' backyard was surrounded by a chain link fence, but all around the interior it was lined with evergreens.  Cara and I would go behind the evergreens (which in real life just meant we were between a single row of trees and a fence, and could see all our neighbors' houses on three sides; the plots of land were small) and pretend we were lost in the woods and having adventures.  If we had real woods?!  We'd have been in heaven!

[trusk4u]

Same here. We had woods behind our house so we were there a lot. Even had some trails to ride our bikes on . Across the street (dirt road) from my house was a huge field and we would go traipsing through there all the time too. In fact, we would go to certain areas to pick wild strawberries, blueberries, thimbleberries, etc. depending on the time of year. We were all over the place for miles and never had to worry about much except for maybe running into a snake or a bear. Never did come across a bear, but did find a few grass snakes. I think it's sad that kids now for the most part can't or won't do that kind of stuff. It's a different world now for sure.