The Fox Family Is Back In The Hood... With 4 Fresh New Faces

If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time, you already know about our love for the
resident foxes here. So even though we don't see them on a regular basis throughout the winter, we are always filled with excitement when we find that they have returned in the spring. This year we've been seeing Mama Fox and Papa Fox on a regular basis.

Mr. Snooty was taking trash out to the dumpster yesterday evening, so he had to go to the alley through the garden (AKA The Fox's Lair). He caught some movement out of the corner of his eye and 4 (perhaps even 5) baby foxes were wildly playing in our garden. By the time he told me about it and I raced out with my camera, all but one of the babies had been shooed back into their den by Mama Fox. However, I did manage to get a quick shot of one baby playing on top of our covered lawn mower.

We have never been so privileged to see them this small before so we figure yesterday was the first day she really let them out of the den. You can cup one baby in two hands.

So, fast forward almost two months. The Fox Family took some sort of sabbatical and we didn't see them for awhile. Not sure why, but they are mysterious little creatures. Nonetheless, they seem to be back and the kids kits are, like always, wild injuns. Mama Fox looks spent and almost emaciated. Poor dear. She really is an attentive mother. It seems that all is well with our beloved Fox Family.

And, a nice shot of Mama Fox and her baby girl (we think). She sticks like glue to Mama.

Oh and here are two pictures, each one showing the different looks of Mama and Papa Fox. She looks sweet while Papa has a very intense gaze.

This Is Just Life's Way Of Telling Me It's Time To Move On....

Mr. Snoots called me from the office one morning last week to tell me that he thought he'd seen our baby girl fox laying dead in the next door neighbor's yard. I rushed to throw on some clothes and went to look. The fox was no longer there. We've seen no evidence of her since, so when I asked the neighbor, he said he called Animal Control and they disposed of her.

I'm just guessing that she was hit by a car and crawled up to the yard with her last breath. We experienced that with our daughter's favorite cat once. When I found her, I thought she was asleep, but alas, she was gone to Kitty Kat Heaven. Delivering the news to SD was even worse than finding the poor dear, dead under a bush next door. You'll think I'm crazy but I even tried to resuscitate her while following directions from my vet. Of course, I couldn't possibly have tried to help a feral fox, but this development has just crushed my heart. The thought of having no fox pups and no fox, is simply something I've never lent any thought to.

So, it looks like I'm going to have to concentrate on getting this house ready to sell instead of obsessing over fox pups... or even just a fox. Perhaps the house will sell faster without in-residence foxes running all about and wreaking havoc. Ya think?  We wouldn't want people to run away from our house screaming, right?

Some days I'm so overwhelmed with what all I need to do around here, I'll look to any distraction to keep me from doing anything constructive. However, I can't do much inside until it's been purged, then painted. There's no point in doing a *staging* until that's done. Frankly, the same goes for the outside. Other than cleaning off the dirt on a daily basis, I can't do much yet, until the painting is done. I know how painters are, so I'm not doing anything until they remove their messy selves from the property. It's almost a Catch-22, really. I'm pretty sure I might need Divine Intervention here.

Now, I'm quite certain that it wouldn't be a good thing to have foxes here while we try to sell this place, so perhaps this has all worked out for the best. Still, I'll never, ever forget the fun I've had with the foxes over the years and the sheer joy of seeing them raise their little families. It really has been an interesting ride but life is telling me that it's time to move on.....

Mr. Snooty Celebrates Another Birthday... Always A Good Thing

Yes, another year has passed and dear Mr. Snooty has just celebrated yet another birthday, and I thank God for that! We have another friend who shares the same birthday who invited us out for a night on the town last Friday, which turned out to be a blast and a half. I got kind of tickled when they said they would pick us up in a limo. They did this so that we could all party without fear of DUI or DWI, which was so completely thoughtful. Unfortunately, we were both tired and the band that was playing was so loud it made me nauseous. Yes, that officially makes me an *old fart*, but the band wasn't very good to begin with, which can also make me nauseous. After we ate what seemed like tons of food, Mr. Snoots and I were ready to go home. However, the limo wasn't scheduled to take us home until at least midnight, so (wimps that we are) we called a taxi, said our profound so-sorrys and thank-yous, and headed for home. It was 10:00 PM. Oh Yeah! We. Are. Party. Animals.



Word is that our friends all stayed until the place closed down. The next day when we talked to them, they sounded extremely *rough*, shall we say. We were both immediately glad that we had taken a taxi home.



Since Mr. Snoots' birthday was really a day later, I made a meal for him that was exactly what he ordered. Lobster tail and Prime USDA Choice New York Strip (Surf & Turf, yeah) with garlic bread and Spinach Souffle. It all turned out perfectly. For dessert I made a Rustic Peach Tart that turned out especially well. He was definitely a happy camper when I tucked him into bed.



If you'd like any of the recipes, I should have them up on my cooking blog within a couple of days.



Meanwhile... Although I've been *missing in action*, I'm finally making great strides with the guesthouse as well as the main house. I'd show some pictures of the progress but it still doesn't really reflect the work that I've done. I think I'll just wait until it actually looks like I've done something. So far, I've just been cleaning out all the crap underneath the former work space (which is 10' by 10') and everything I've removed has been stuck as if it were glued, due to the wet carpet from rain damage. Even though the sanitation workers come twice a week to empty our dumpster in the alley, I always seem to find it full. Apparently someone else is as hard at work as I am and they are taking up all the dumpster space.



Last week was filled with workers repairing the many damaged areas of our cedar fence around the property. It took them four days & nearly drove me nuts. We were also convinced that the workers ran off Fernando & Felicia, but then we spotted her out in the garden this evening. We're thinking that when the roofing project begins, they will go screaming away forever, although I hope not. However, Fall is approaching, which is the time when Grey Fox families disperse and go their own ways until February/March, when Fernando & Felicia will once again unite, if they can. From my research I gather that Grey Fox can live approximately 15 years. If that's true, then Felicia should be around for quite some time. One year ago, I believe she was just a pup herself when she was spending so much time on our grounds.



At any rate, when the roofing is finally finished, the house painters will begin on the house & outer buildings. That looks to be fun... I'm fairly certain that it won't be but the outcome will be worth the headaches of listening to the painters scrape & sand for a week. I might have to make a road trip then. Uh-Huh.



With the absence of the fox clan lately, I've started preparing for the fall garden. When I complete the planting (which won't be much), I'll show the progress. It doesn't normally get cold here until late November, so I should have lots of yellow squash, spinach, beets and black-eye peas before then. These all do better in cooler weather anyway, so I'm hopeful.


I've sincerely missed reading everyone's blogs, but I am totally committed to this project (or should I say *these projects*) until I get them finalized. I assume winter will bring plenty of days just right for blogging. For now, I need to be outside and/or working on my projects, so please accept my apologies for my absence. I'm genuinely trying to prioritize and I think it's working!


Please don't think ill of me for being MIA. Instead, please just say a prayer that I can actually tackle these huge projects so that I can come back here and jump back into the groove of things.

I Might Be A Golfer After All... Who Knew?

First of all, I hope everyone has a fun & happy Fourth of July!!!

Yup. Go figure. Last weekend I looked like I'd never picked up a golf club in my life. This weekend I looked like a sand-bagger because I've played so well. I did not do a single thing (that I know of) different.

Yes, I admit it was nothing but ugly last weekend. I'm talking about my golf game. I played the roles of reigning Queen of Shankopotamus, ruler of bad putts and master of absolutely nothing related to golf. I suppose everyone has days, even weekends like that on the course, but I felt like the only person ever. Even though I shot a good round for me, a 95 (which gave me a 68 with my handicap), it wasn't even close to being good enough to beat the other duffers, or even half of them. It's hard to believe my partner and I got second place last year. Frankly, I was ready to go home, sell my clubs, and never play golf again.

The heat and humidity were absolutely stifling and I was sure I'd die before we finally hit the 18th hole. Of course, I had my wide assortment of little tricks to keep cool with me, but they weren't much help in the triple digit heat & high humidity. If that wasn't bad enough, I'd also forgotten my hair dryer and my digital camera. The absence of the hair dryer alone would send me into frenzy, but the camera just took the wind from my sails.

Let me see if I can explain this. Whenever I play in a tournament, I must have everything go perfectly before the round. My outfit has to look great, my legs need to be shaved, my hair and nails need to look good, and I need everything where it belongs in my bag. In other words, I don't need any last minute upsets of any kind. Golf is a very unforgiving game as well as being a very humbling game. I want things to be the same every time, without fail. I am then able to focus on making every shot with the same set-up and same precision. When my pre-game organization gets screwed up, so does my game. Yeah, I know. Call me crazy, but that's how I roll. Oh, wait. It sounds more anal retentive than anything, doesn't it? Oy.

So, needless to say, my game last weekend was all out of whack and I wasn't a very happy camper. We didn't party with the other duffers and we didn't stay up late. Normally, I would have, with or without Mr. Snooty. Frankly, the heat just sucked the life out of me, so I retreated to the confines of our air-conditioned room while I licked my wounds. For once, the heat rendered me speechless…. Go figure.

Today, I played in a tournament called The Firecracker, which is another *shamble*. I am, of course, the D player in an A-B-C-D tournament team. This tournament is at our home club, so I was much more comfortable knowing what to expect. Besides, they had me pretty well padded with good players, so that I couldn't do too much damage to the team. Our team ended up with a 49 today, which put us in second place! I made a total of 5 eagles today and I was on Cloud Nine. What am I saying? I am still on Cloud Nine. It was an awesome day of golf with some really fun, good players, so of course, I'm not going to quit playing now. It seems I go through this sort of thing at least twice a year, so maybe I should just admit when I'm in a slump and quit saying I'm going to quit playing.

So, I shall leave you with a few shots of a hummingbird it took me a good 30 minutes of sitting still, to get a shot of. Tough little guys to capture, I assure you. Also, I've included a few new pictures of Felicia. The pups are as big as she is now and it's getting difficult to tell them apart...

Feet Don't Fail Me Now... Another Day In The Wild Kingdom That I Call Home

I've still been avoiding the garden until Felicia (our resident fox) gets her pups raised and off on their own. Don't get me wrong here. I'm not staying away because I'm scared of the foxes. I'm staying away so that she won't find it necessary to move them before it's time. If the mama fox feels her babies are in danger, she will move them to a new and undisclosed location, which I don't want to see happen. I like my little wards. I like them even if it means everything I've planted in the garden is going to die. I can replant soon for a late summer and fall garden.

However, yesterday I decided to go out and peek over the fence to see if they were all there. Sure enough, they were. All three pups were outside playing and as soon as Felicia heard me, she somehow related to the pups to get in the den… Pronto! This is the picture I got. I knew they moved fast, but you'll get a huge kick out of this picture of one of the pups, in full run mode. View the enlargement by clicking on the picture. You won't be sorry.

Did you know that the gray fox is the only member of the dog family that can climb trees? Yes, it's true. But, what I really find fascinating about foxes is that they are monogamous, which means they have only one mate for one mating season. Hey, that's more than I can say for millions of humans.

From what I've been able to read, The Grey Fox mates from February to March, bearing their young from April to May, having a gestation period of about 50 to 55 days. (Seriously, I would have had a lot more kids had my gestation period been that short.) They usually have between 3 and 7 pups that are dark brown in color. They are blind for the first ten days. They are allowed out of their den after about 5 weeks and are usually weaned by the time they are 10 weeks old. This is when the father stays gone a major part of the time, to hunt for food. The family remains together until late fall, then separates, spending the winter in solitary.

It's curious that we seldom see one during the winter months, which leads me to think they almost hibernate like a bear. I do enjoy them living on our property and having their babies here. It makes me feel like Snow White or Doctor Doolittle… You know, talk to the animals and all.... In My Dreams.