Posts Tagged ‘Desert critters’

We found a new friend!

Friday, November 27th, 2009

Steve has been getting lots of practice with his snake stick…

Our neighbor called tonight to tell us about a rattlesnake he found in his driveway.

By the time I got outside with the camera, the snake was in the fancy orange snake bucket.

I’m so proud of him.

In that weird Tucson-wife sort of way.

CIMG3510

CIMG3506

CIMG3509

Yes, that is my living room.

And yes, the rattlesnake is still in the bucket.

I obviously haven’t processed this whole situation yet.

Bookmark and Share

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Ok – A few words…  It’s not a rattlesnake. It’s a bull snake -They eat rattlesnakes. Don’t you feel better now?

My favorite is the first picture of the fireman holding Jack back because he’s dying to get close. I bet Uncle Noah is proud :-)

Firemen_1

Firemen_3

 

 

 


Bookmark and Share

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

You guess the caption…

CIMG2270

Bookmark and Share

Can We Keep It?

Saturday, August 1st, 2009

Guess what we found tonight?

No guesses? Come on. I’ll give you a hint…  let’s take a stroll down memory lane:

Remember this guy? A baby rattlesnake. Right on our back patio.

snake in bucket

What about this nasty little thing? Eeww.

spider

Michael’s friend spotted this at the bottom of our pool a couple of weeks ago.

Can you imagine opening your eyes underwater and seeing this?

Oh yeah – in case you didn’t know – it’s a bark scorpion.

One of the most poisonous kinds.

And one of the most popular out here in the desert southwest.

scorpion

This baby rattlesnake? Totally different than the earlier baby rattlesnake.

Same bucket, though…  Slim pickins on the rattlesnake buckets out here.

2ndsnake

Steve and Jack caught this cute little lizard on the back wall.

I can handle lizards. Snakes and spiders? Not so much.

lizard

Is this a millipede? Centipede? Does it matter to me? Nope. Yuck.

Get it away from my house.

pede

This? It’s a wolf spider. How do I know that?

I found it in my pool and had to e-mail multiple pictures of it to the “spider lady” at the Desert Museum for identification (because I am kind of a geek like that. I like to know what’s in my yard).

Then she checked with several colleagues and got back to me about it.  Double yuck.

wolfspider

This thing? HUGE. With big, fat rattlers on it.

My neighbor almost stepped on it last week.

The fire department actually came out with their bigger, fancier rattlesnake bucket

and took it back to its happy place.

CIMG2177

So, any guesses yet?

A coyote?

A gila monster?

Nope.

Just a king snake.  A little baby king snake.

The kids were so excited to see it and pet it.

After a few minutes of oogling, you know what they asked, right?

CIMG2239

“Can we keep it?”

CIMG2240

And after thinking about all the gross stuff we could have found,

Dad and I said “yes… just for one night.”

CIMG2245

Then Jack asked, “Can we go get him some chicken to eat?”

Bookmark and Share

What a day!

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
Is this not the funniest picture you have seen all day long? Steve was working hard at getting whatever animal (we thought it might be a pack rat) that was under the pool equipment out so the dogs would stop digging around there. The poor guy was stuck like that for at least 30 minutes:

Riley helped a lot, too:

After Steve finally got the chipmunk out, Riley grabbed it, Steve yelled ‘drop!’ and Riley dropped it, then Gracie swallowed it whole…  She looks SO happy here:

and here she is after getting her well-deserved
drink of pool water after it all:

Just in case you needed a laugh…  This is our CERTIFIED pack rat
(and chipmunk) removal team in action:
Bookmark and Share

We have a problem…

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

If you haven’t yet heard, we have a small pack rat problem.  I guess they are common out here. Steve has been putting little poison packets out at night and we have been asking Michael to pick up the dog poop a little more frequently…  but we still have them.  Good news, though! Yesterday, Steve found a HUGE dead one out in the backyard!  I almost took a picture, but was trying to make dinner and didn’t really want to get that close to it.  Today, though…  I had to take a picture of what I found today.

A little massacre!  Three little dead rats that Riley and Gracie got… and Riley had another one cornered by the trash cans.  I haven’t figured out if I am happy about this or not, but wanted to share.  Oh, and the rocks? That was Jack’s contribution to the war.

Update: Upon further inspection, we believe these sad little guys are chipmunks and not pack rats. The one that Steve found in the yard was a pack rat, though…  the battle continues.
Bookmark and Share
Hey there. Thanks for stopping by!
UnbloggableMomentsbutton
Subscribe
Forever In Blue Jeans
Archives