Animal encounters, or National Geographic in the backyard

Life in the country surprises you. You open your door at night, and AGH! surprise, there's a hedgehog on your doorstep. Daring you to step on him in his prickly armor. Agh! Get the camera, then get me to the safety of our home!



I was flinging out dead water lily leaves from our little pond (not the trout ones, the little cute one by the barn), and I finally grabbed the fish net that we use to catch fish, to scoop out the dead leaves. Why were they MOVING? After I thrust them onto the grass, I realized that there were salamanders squirming about with each netfull. Lots of them. They were small and their bellies orange. They bravely turned back toward water. I let them.

Then I noticed two other sea creatures, water grasshoppers and walking sticks. No idea what they really are, but they looked like underwater grasshoppers and sticks with hermit crabs in them. Altogether with our many many salamanders in this tiny pond.

Later a big old frog stuck her head out and glared at me. I do believe she thinks I stole her babies and put them in a bucket. She doesn't realize - I SAVED THEM! The neighbor threw the eggs on the shore, and I snuck down later to save some.




Now they're swimming around, my tadpoles. Hoping for a chance at life. That would help if I kept the bucket out of Baasha's reach, he drank some of it *gasp*!!!






Then I was dismanteling the old leaning-tower-of-compost-pisa in our yard, that the previous owner made over the years, and suddenly my shovelful was moving. What? Three bright gold and copper snakes looked up at me resentfully. What! I called to my man to come look. He was too busy digging out blackberries. I picked one up (I had leather gloves on) and brought it to him. Funny how a tiny spider in the bathroom can keep me from showering, but a snake, no problem. Rat, no problem. Possum, raccoon, hrmph. Tiny bug - I run for my life. Gotta get over that. (In the photo, you can see his glaring face in the upper right corner.)

Then we were down by our trout ponds, and suddenly FLAP FLAP PANICKED FLAP a mallard was trapped under our pond netting! We tried to free him, loosening the net in several places, but he stupidly kept trying to fly thru the nets, and the mesh at the banks, and then later he hid so well I thought he was gone finally, but no, FLAP FLAP PANIC! and it scared the crap outte me all over again. I have no idea if he's still down there. We made another "gate" for him, but who knows.

Then I discovered there's some rebel trout that has jumped free and has been swimming around all alone in pond number 2. When I first saw him, I thought, "Miracle" and ran to Gay-org, who was tending his trout babies. "WHAT!? How did that trout get there?!??!?!" and he said "OH YAH, I forgot to tell you. Apparently so did Mr. S. He got away. So he's been there for 6 months, just fending for himself. You should try to feed him, he's probably hungry." !!! So I threw some pellets by him, and he's just so clever, he won't move. He's not tempted, he won't budge, he's completely wild now. No blue heron is gonna get him! He hides in the plants and doesn't come out. I love his rebel spirit! His stealth! He doesn't even come for food anymore like his "tame" brothers. I am rooting for him, and he doesn't know it.

I think that was it for the day. But really, this was ONE DAY in the country. So many new animals, unexpectedly found. I tried to show Baasha the salamanders in the net, and he licked the net! I know why - I fished out several apples from that pond, apparently it's applejuice now.

He finally has picked up an appetite. I didn't know he didn't have it. But he's pawing and nickering for his mashes now, and scarfing them down instead of leaving them to go search for grass. It feels good to see him yearning for his meals. Of course he's always got hay, but it's not as interesting as grass.

One thing I love about living in Germany - things just get done. I mean, we didn't call to have the propane company come by and fill our tanks, they just did, automatically. And the chimney sweep - he just showed up. And guess who showed up yesterday - the propane tank company's clean/paint man! When he said, "I'm here to paint your propane tank," I hugged him as I would an old friend.


Oh, you've made me so happy! Do you know, in America, we have a term for such a thing - it's "Eyesore" and now, you're here, to make it all better!" He was taken aback. Really, like, who is this weird foreign chick hugging me for doing my job? But then I brought him coffee with cream, and he seemed better.

He had to sand it down completely, even the bottom of it, very thorough. The white bits of old paint blew into our pond and Baasha's water. I cleaned out his water and hope for the best for our pond. (You can see the white flecks in the pics of the frog and salamander.)

He made it SO MUCH BETTER, this eyesore. And my man had the wonderful idea to ask him to NOT put the company logo on it again. Just leave it light green (by law it has to be either white or light green. I always said "Dark green please" but that didn't work.) I tell ya, if you've gotta have an ugly propane tank in your yard, at least have it newly painted!

I made the regrettable error of grooming Baasha on our front lawn today. I looked around and realized I was coating our front lawn in a deep blanket of winter horse hair. Thick. For some reason I couldn't stop. I kept going. Then I asked my man for the vaccuum but, alas, it's Sunday. You can't vaccuum on a Sunday in Germany. (That is, you can't make loud, working noises.) The arab across the street noticed him for the first time, and was staring at us the whole time. My man threw carrots out onto the lawn for Baasha to find. Baasha just wanted to mow lawn.

I hand-picked up all the white hair. A whole persian cat's worth. When will this end? Really, I've forgotten, how long does it take? People in Germany feed "Shedding vitamins" - honestly, it's a tradition here to feed vitamins during shedding season. The horses here suffer some sort of depression during shedding season that shows they need them. Or something. I feed Baasha green grass and 20 carrots a day, that should do it: )

My man dealing with our blackberry network. If the Internet were so integrated and throughly networked, it would be a lot faster.