Tag Archives: Blondie

Turkey egg 2024-05-17

A turkey egg is somewhat larger than a chicken egg.

Turkey egg and chicken egg

One of our dogs brought it to us. We couldn’t find the nest to put it back.

No, it wasn’t that dirty when we first saw it. We were digging potatoes, so that’s garden dirt.

-jsq

Turtle 2024-05-10

What kind of turtle is this? It’s about 5 inches long, so presumably quite young.

Lively small turtle

The triple ridges with radiating patterns look to me like an Alligator snapping turtle, Macroclemys temminckii. I don’t see anything else among the 29 turtles of Georgia that is even close.

I don’t know what it was doing out in the open, 500 feet from the nearest water, which is our cypress swamp.

Anyway, it provided yet another opportunity to remind our dogs: no turtles!

-jsq

Morning in the cypress swamp with dogs 2024-05-05

To get to the other side.

Honeybun sunshine

Continue reading →

Snake in the leaves 2024-03-10

What kind of snake is this?

Snake with grapevine

Blondie alerted us to it.

Honeybun walked by it without noticing.

I wasn’t willing to get any closer for a better picture.

-jsq

Prescribed burn 2023-12-21

Update 2023-12-29: Afterburn 2023-12-22.

We got the band back together!

Pyromaniacs, prescribed burn, pine tree wedge, Blondie the Fire Dog, burned turpentine guide

Thanks to Abigail Barzallo for sending two helpers for this prescribed burn.

Here’s a video.
https://youtu.be/aEDwt6zVVgY

Those who do not live in a fire forest like ours, and who do not understand prescibed burns, please read this, Prescribed Fire, Longleaf Alliance:

Frequent, low intensity, and often large scale, surface fires were the dominant factor in shaping the longleaf pine ecosystems across the historical range. This frequent fire regime, over generations, selected for longleaf pine’s fire-resistant attributes.

Prescribed fire may be the best management tool that we have for attaining range-wide restoration and management of longleaf pine ecosystems. Increased frequency of fire leads to more diversity and abundance of grasses and forbs; seasonality of burn also plays a role but is secondary to frequency.

This wedge that I cut out of a deadfall pine tree that morning to get it out of a firebreak was fascinating to the helpers.

Max counted 92 rings. I counted 80. How many do you count? Continue reading →

Caught one possum 2023-09-07

Trapped one possum.

Blondie and the possum

There are more under the house.

Now to set the trap again.

And maybe the dogs can catch some.

The ones we trap, we take far enough away they won’t come back.

We can bring you some, if you like.

Fair warning: they eat insulation from electrical wires and cause shorts.

-jsq

Hurricane Idalia and aftermath 2023-09-02

A few scenes from during and after Hurricane Idalia.

We had many deadfalls, but no property or personal damage. So we were much luckier than many others.

Deadfalls, power lines, cooking, rainfall

This still just looks like heavy rain, but the video shows the wind was blowing. Idalia’s eye went a few miles east of us, but those were probably still 60 mph winds from the north. Continue reading →

Maypop, woods pea, pokeberry, dogs 2023-07-09

Along the back driveway one summer noon.

Maypop, Pea, Pokeberry, Dogs 2023-07-09

Continue reading →

Snake and dogs 2023-07-10

Calling herpetologists.

Snake and dogs 2023-07-10

It’s definitely not a rattlesnake. Doesn’t seem to be any sort of venemous serpent. Probably just a rat snake. Continue reading →

Pond, Dogs, Snake 2023-07-04

What kind of snake is this?

Snake on the lily pad

Probably not a moccasin, because it doesn’t have any stripes, and I’ve never seen one leave its tail sticking out like that. Usually a cottonmouth will face you and hiss.

The dogs found another snake earlier that probably was a moccasin, so we made them come along.

Blondie joins Arrow exploring