Rules of the Woods

Ok Ok so last night mom and I were listening to our book on tape.  Right now we are listening to Rules of Civility by Amor Towles.  I had read this book before and just absolutely loved it.  So I ordered it for her. It’s hard to know what to get her.  She likes the murder mysteries but then says she gets tired of all the blood and guts so I thought why not get her a nice book.  This particular book we got through her blind library.  When she gets books through them she can insert the cassette into her blind person recorder and knows how to stop and go and all that.  When I get audio books from the regular library I have to put the CD’s in the old boom boxes because she can’t tell one CD from another and then if we have to stop it for any reason I need to be able to see what track it’s on so when we get back to it I know where to get back to.  We haven’t been getting much from the Blind Library lately so I’ve been getting some books on tape from the regular library.  I got The Shack – although I know she’s heard it before she doesn’t remember and I would like to hear it again.  Love that book and can’t wait for the movie.  I also got The Help – figured she’d like that and that is something she can listen to without me since I’ve read the book.  Even though I’ve read the other’s as well.  Anyway, I also got Goldfinch because I read a review somewhere that it’s a good book and thought we can listen together.  You know there’s no TV here so our routine is I make dinner, she does the dishes, I get the fire started and we sit down and listen to a book together.  However, with the Goldfinch I can’t stand the guy’s voice. So I got the book book out of the library and I’m reading it.  The voices in my head are much better than some of these readers. Also mom will make these faces listening to that book and I’m like “turn it off” and then she says it might get good again so she’ll suffer through.  Good grief… So anyway anyway, I really got sidetracked here because what I wanted to share was last night while listening to Rules of Civility I heard screaming coming from outside.  Loud screaming.  I asked mom to turn off the book, jumped out of the chair, went to the porch door and opened to hear.  She didn’t hear it but started telling me to lock the screen door.  It was a bit unnerving to say the least.  So then I called Brenda, our neighbor on the other side of the woods because the screams were coming from that direction and fortunately she answered the phone very calmly.  She also did not hear the screaming but informed me that she is hard of hearing.  She called back in a little and said they had not heard any more screaming but her husband, Danny, was outside keeping a watch for a little bit.  So then we talked about animal sounds.  I had looked up what animal makes a sound like a scream, and I came up with foxes (and cougars)  It says “The cries of the red fox can sound surprisingly similar to a human in distress. Males give a short “scream” in aggression, and females “shriek” as a mating call.”  Brenda said she thinks Coyote make a screaming sound as well.  So that was the excitement for the night.  Took awhile for my heart to calm down as that screaming was very very unnerving.

So today I’m up and about.  The babies and I Facetimed.  Mom was playing the drum for them and they loved it.  She wants to do a drum circle with them next time. The babies are 6, 4 and 2.  They got out the pots and pans but my sister (their grandma) said enough of that and hung up.  So we’ll just have to have a drum circle another time.  That call sure did perk up my mom though.  The kids wanted to see the house so I walked around with the phone and showed them all the rooms.  When we got to my room Mya (the 4-year-old)  said “I hate your room” – dam kids – she got real quiet after that and wouldn’t say why.  I mean it’s a little messy, laundry day and Saturday and all – but not that bad.  She’s seen worse, but she’s funny.  Who knows why she hates it.  She misses her Aunt Lynn and gets very confused that I’m not in Florida and wants to know where the pool is.  :-/

So after that phone call I was looking out of the kitchen window and what did I see?  Well I wasn’t sure, at first I thought it was a dog.  Rather big, a little bigger than Max (my old dog) very fluffy and the same coloring as Max, tan and white, and in a split second I realized it was a fox!!  I know right!!  So I grabbed my phone (camera) and opened the back door and off it ran.  I couldn’t even get a picture of the tail as I couldn’t get around the tree in time.  Sooooo, I came upstairs on the upstairs porch and thought maybe I’d wait around and be quiet and see if it might come back and then get the picture.  Sure enough I open the door and it was already into the middle of the yard and ran off again…dammit…when it heard me.  Then I heard some walking around in the woods in front of me (the fox was to the side of the porch) and well anyway with all the leaves in the woods we often hear squirrels and birds and anything you can imagine walking around – so I assumed it was a squirrel that I was hearing BUT BUT it was NOT!  It was another fox!!  This one was smaller and redder and it took it’s time meandering around the woods working “her” way back over to find her mate.  I tried to get a picture but the screen on the porch got in the way.  It was so very cool though and now we know what was going on in the woods last night.  They were hooking up.  I feel better knowing that my neighbors weren’t screaming for help but still I think I will always call just to be sure.

After the fox siting I put on my work clothes and gathered some wood.  We are out of our split wood that I buy but I wasn’t in the mood to go over there and fill up the car and buy it.  I want to see how long our own wood will last.  Probably a day or two.  I should probably head over to the wood guy tomorrow since who knows what next week will bring.  Well anyway, I cut some of the smaller stuff by hand.  Wayne had cut some of the bigger pieces with his chain saw.  I am always wondering if I should put a “small” chain saw on my wish list (vision board)  I like the exercise of the pruning saw I use and I do believe my arm fat is disappearing…not by a lot but enough – and if I got a chain saw would I get fat arms again and then maybe lose a leg at the same time?  I’d like to think that I wouldn’t hurt myself but I don’t know that I want to tempt fate.  But anyway, if I did have a chain saw there are a lot of little trees I could cut just to clear out the woods. I could see myself getting carried away with cleaning up the undergrowth.  But I also like my arms and legs so I’ll keep mulling it over.

So I did my yard chores, cleaned up some leaves and pruned some of the dead branches off of some of the shrubs.  At some point I put on the Fitbit (yes Amy I charged it!)  Since 3:00 pm I have walked 5118 steps.  Just since 3:00. (it’s now 6:00) I also walked to the creek when I had it on and it counted 183 steps to the creek.  A little further than my 150 steps to the beach.  Walking back up from the creek back into the house it counted 600 steps though.  Guess I went in a circuitous route.  Well anyway, I did not spy any foxes during the rest of the day.  Nothing around the house and nothing at the creek.  However tonight, when I hear screams I will give them some privacy.  I wonder how long it will be until we see some baby foxes roaming the woods.

I’ve been loving the outside air.  Only 49 ish degrees but there is something about this fresh air that I just can’t get enough of. And all I had on today was a tshirt and sweatshirt, well in addition to pants, but you get the point.  It’s this sunshine that keeps me going. I’m doing okay!

Ta Ta for now,

xoxoxo