radio free mount airy

Inside Room 412 at the SWL Fest 2008

This set from our good friend David. Thanks!

Angel cat

We miss you, Joey.

Jane 12, Woodchucks 0

This creature was rather feisty when we relocated and released him, diving off a small bridge and doing a head-over-heels thing landing head first in a small pond of water, before high tailing it into the woods.

Jane 11, Woodchucks 0

Bad rodent, digging a hole under our front porch. Bad, bad rodent.

Money cat

This is George, our calico associate producer of the Lumpy Gravy Radio Show. Not only are calico cats considered by many to bring good luck, they're also the official cat of Maryland.

Jane 10, Woodchucks 0

Little guy found his way into Jane's trap today.

Jane 9, Woodchucks 0

This obese beast is Jane's third capture in this year's critter removal campaign and ninth in two years.

Jane 8, Woodchucks 0

Strike another win for Jane's Ground Hog War. Unfortunately for me and the poor animal, he was in the cage for several hours, it was hot as hell here today, he pooped all over the cage, and apparently injured himself slightly while confined. I noticed a few drops of blood when I was hosing down the truck after I set him free a few miles up the road. He was no worse for the injury, though, and hauled ass into his new wooded home given the chance.

Catbird leaves the nest

Jane 7, Woodchucks 0

Jane's war against the beasts who dig holes in her garden has resumed with her first catch of the season.

She's adopted us

This is George. She is a very friendly cat that, until today, lived under our porch. Today she became an indoor cat.

She was also responsible for producing our radio show on Saturday, even though she smells like a barn.

Updated, May 4, 2007: After a visit to the vet today, we found out that George is a girl cat, so I changed the article appropriately. PMLOL!

Saturday night in the hideout

Jane 6, Woodchucks 0

They stayed away for almost three months, but a couple of ground hogs were sighted here scoping out where it might be nice to dig a hole and take a nap for the winter. However those holes are damaging so the beasties must be dispensed with. Jane wants to do this as humanely as possible, so we trap 'em, and haul them a few miles away, and release 'em.

Jane trapped this beastie on Tuesday, October 9.

Peeper

Muffin rules the studio

What's in Chippy's Mouth?

Jane says it looks like a baby Chippy, but I'm not so sure.

Jane 5, Woodchucks 0

After a couple weeks of inactivity, Jane detected some evil rodents digging holes in her shade garden, so she re-introduced her simple mechanism for combatting them. Just a few hours later, she was successful in capturing the fifth rodent of the season. This little dude was quickly dispensed with at a secret location far, far away.

Jane 4, Woodchucks 0

Jane changed the bait to peaches and nabbed this little ground hog today.

Here is the beast looking a bit confused at the undisclosed location where it was set free.

Rain

This is what happens here when we get more than two months of rain in less than four days. Fortunately, this is as bad as it got and it didn't cause any damage besides making for a very squishy back yard for the frogs, turtles and snakes to frolic in.

I've read that the torrential downpours we've experienced the past couple of days only happens, on average, once every two hundred years.

Total rainfall measured here:

Sunday, June 25: 3 inches
Monday, June 26: 2 inches
Tuesday, June 27: 4 inches
Wednesday, June 28: 1 inch

Jane 3, Woodchucks 0

Another score in Jane's battle with the lawn rodents!

Jane 2, Woodchucks 0

Jane's continuing adventure against the Rodent Revolution scored another success this morning, as she was able to capture this big beastie, which promptly was relocated far, far away.

Note (especially to Commander Bunny and any other rodents who might be reading this): Although we have captured your Agent X and her family, you will be happy to know that we have not exterminated them on sight as many other monkeys would have done. Rather, we are enlightened ape-humans and we choose to simply relocate said Agents from our space. Please don't mess with the tires on our vehicles.

Jane 1, Woodchucks 0

Score one for Jane in her battle against the ground hogs which are destroying her shade garden. This juvenile was relocated far, far away after Jane enticed it into a trap with an apple.

Snake season

A ribbon snake, curiously snoozing in one of our wood piles, sits around long enough to pose for the camera. This is turning out to be snake season here. We're entertained by the regular appearances of the huge black snake, and in addition in another wood pile last weekend I came across a couple of small ring necked snakes. They didn't stick around for a photo-op, however.

Iris

He's back

This creature's been lurking around our yard for several years, now. Fortunately this time when he decided to show himself, I had a camera. Today he looked like he's been sleeping in a mud puddle. When we came across him last summer he was a sleek and shiny black. Usually we're tipped off to his presence by the birds screaming at him, but he was all alone in the sun this afternoon.

Ever since we lived near the deep woods in Laytonsville, I've had a habit of walking around the yard prior to mowing to make sure there are no creatures in harm's way. We had big box turtles there, and they had a hard time outrunning riding lawn mowers, so I always walked around to remove them from danger's path. We've not come across any turtles here, but occasionally we see this beastie.

Click on this picture for an expanded view, which will give you an idea how big he is.

Spring

After the snow

The snow's back

So much media, so little time

Morning mist

Sunset on Puget Sound