Settling In

Our rental house is somewhat of a "starter farm" for us, though we have no intentions of actual farming, or even gardening for that matter.  There is, however, a lot of lawn to maintain.  The overall property sits on about 8 acres, but we only have to keep 5 acres cut.  The other 3 acres are part of the "farm" that a local farmer uses and he handles all of the grass cutting around the adjacent barns.

The temporary homestead

The house is well shaded, especially with the huge oak in front.  The property is full of pecan trees.  There is also a wild cherry, a pear tree, some large pines, several large camellias, some dogwoods and a couple of grapevines (they appear to be scuppernong grapes).

As for grass cutting, when we looked at the place several weeks ago, we noted that the grass was quite high and asked if it would be cut prior to us moving in.  We were assured that it would be and saw some emails back and forth between the rental agency and the property owner, where he told the agency to have it cut and perhaps multiple times if necessary.  We arrived to a "field", some of it almost 3 feet tall.  Good thing the owner left us his lawn tractor.  After almost 7 hours of cutting (Robert helped) over the course of 3 days, we finally tamed the beast.  It should be much easier next time, though I will point out to the rental agency that they really let us down on the grass-cutting front.

A few other items of note, it's been cooler (off and on) than expected.  Oh sure, it's still in the mid to upper 90's everyday, including hitting 100 on Monday, but we've gotten a lot of afternoon clouds and storms each day, so the clouds make for a much cooler opportunity to be outside and cut the grass.  This weekend is shaping up for a cool down to the upper 80's.

Speaking of storms, we had the lights flicker off and on a few times on Tuesday.  This caused the not yet armed alarm system in the house to start beeping.  In the process or trying to silence it, it appeared that I'd armed it.  It told us we had 50 seconds to exit the house.  I wasn't worried that the place was going to explode, just that it thought we were leaving for a spell (note my use of southern phrasing).  Pushing more buttons, while silencing it, only seemed to add to the fact that things were not well with the system.  I called the alarm company and when they called back (I was outside) they had Neta "disarm" the system by pulling out a wire from the control panel.  We called the alarm company on Wednesday to get things set up, but he wasn't able to fix it and get it back online immediately.  He is supposed to call and return today to get things operating.  The landlord would like us to use it and it'll help with insurance rates (his and ours).

I wish I had some funny stories to tell about our wacky adventures, but so far, it's just been the normal, day-to-day stuff.  I do have some encounters with nature I can share.

He thinks he's a "ninja" turtle, but I could see him.

The other day while I was working, Neta and the kids came back from grabbing lunch and they walked out to the end of the driveway instead of coming in the house.  They'd discovered a turtle.  I went out a bit later to discover this:



He had buried himself in the tire tracks of the road in front of our house (yes, we live off of a dirt road, or "off the paved road" as they like to say down here.  I decided to "rescue" him and picked him up by the back of the shell, discovering that he was what appears to be a Florida Softshell Turtle.  I placed him in the grass across the road.

Be free!  Go play amongst the other turtles!

Later that evening, Robert and I discovered either this guy or another one just like it making its way across our front yard, heading again towards the road.  I figured that whatever happened I would let nature run its course.

Back to the grass cutting one more time.  As I was finishing up the lawn yesterday evening, I noticed a snake slithering away from the roar of my mighty lawn tractor.  I decided to investigate.  I wasn't, at the time, able to distinguish what kind of snake it was, but he wasn't aggressive as he was high-tailing it away from me.  I followed, partly to identify and partly to keep him moving away from the yard.  I took a visual note of what he looked like and managed to figure out (through the use of Google Images) that he was a black rat snake.

Not the actual snake that I saw.

As I was cutting grass I did not have my phone with me so I did not get a picture.  I'd pretty much figured that he was harmless.  He was between 3 and 4 feet long.  I figured he wasn't a cottonmouth and I couldn't see a rattle so I wasn't worried.  Not that I was going to check his dental work or see if he'd like me to hold him, but snakes in general aren't high on my worry list.  I may change my tune the first time I encounter my first poisonous one.

The next wildlife issue is figuring out a way to give our dog, Sammie, a place to run around in the yard without turning her completely loose.  We're working on it...

Feel free to comment, say hello, subscribe to this blog...whatever it is you can or want to do.  We'd love to hear from you.