A Picnic

Friday night brought cold temperatures, but by Saturday mid-morning, the sun was out, the skies were blue and it was WAY too pretty to be stuck in the house all day!

I packed the picnic basket, Devin loaded the cooler, we stopped and picked up Adam & Lauren and headed to the hunting camp. We thought the camp would be the best place for a picnic, just in case it was too cold under the shady oaks for Belle. If that was the case, we'd just go in and have an inside picnic!

No need for Plan B - We were able to eat outside after all...

Check out the antennas on that hat! (Belle's, not Devin's!)

We dropped Adam & Lauren off, but my outdoor-bug had not been satisfied. It's been a long week of being INSIDE and I was borderline having a Vitamin-D deficiency!! I needed MORE... I needed sun, fresh air, and, and, and....to SEE something! BUT it had to be something I could do in my "booty suit." (I better clarify that-- my "booty suit" consists of yoga length sweat pants and a zip-up hoodie.) Long random story of where the name came from and I'm sure no one's up for hearing it now... Like I was saying, I wanted to see something, but only something that didn't require me to put on makeup, take my pony tail down, or change out of my comfy clothes. With those stipulations, ANYTHING other than riding to the lake, in the woods or on the prairie was out of the question.
We headed out to the prairie.

When we got to the lake, someone else was taking advantage of the nice warm sunshine! We saw these four friendly faces....

I love it when we see gators-- makes me feel all brave and adventurous! Now it doesn't make me want to get real close or anything crazy like that, but I do like to see them.

I bet this here girl wouldn't be admiring her reflection in the lake if she had just seen what we saw!

Here's another couple cuties we ran into...

and...

I don't know what it is about a fox squirrel that I LOVE, but I just LOVE them. When we bought our first house we had two fox squirrels that lived there. They hung out on the fence and played in the yard, and even a rambunctious two year old who drove a Tonka dump truck like nobody's business could scare them away. I guess you could say they were part of the family. Kind of like pets. I guess that's why I like them, because I am NOT a pet person, and they're like pets without being pets. I don't want anything that I have to feed or clean up after unless it calls me, "Momma."

When we bought our current house, I was saddened to realize that the squirrel population up here is 0. I suggested that we go buy some bread and I would make a "Hansel & Gretel" type trail from our old house (it's next door) and up the drive-way to our new house for the squirrels to follow. Devin didn't act like he thought my plan would work and so he came up with an idea of his own. We'd get one of those wooden squirrel feeders (oh yes, I am serious, they really do make them) and some dried corn and "bait" them up. Well I was all over that. I mean WHO wouldn't want a squirrel feeder? Okay, I'll re-phrase that.. WHAT girl, who's desperate to get some squirrels in her yard wouldn't want a wooden squirrel feeder?!--- SOLD! We bought that thing, a big bag of dried corn cobs and we (well, Devin) hung it on a big oak tree in the front yard. In just minutes or hours I was certain that the entire squirrel population on our road would have their bags packed, and would be headed up our drive-way to move in. No such luck. Days went by. I checked the corn everyday, hoping for some evidence that a four-legged, long-tailed friend had been enjoying the new feeder and had taken up residence in our yard.

Nope. The only four-legged, long-tailed friend interested in our squirrel feeder were the dadgum cows! Don't even get me going on them cows- this past fall, they ate the arms and legs off my scarecrows that hang on the fence down by the road, they devoured the hay bales that were on the opposite side of the fence (woah, that's a long tongue!) that I had strategically placed complete with pumpkins and mums as part of my fall decor, AND they've even tried to chase me down the driveway while I've been walking!!! Whew- back to my squirrels--

By this point, I was about to give up. I had decided that we lived too far off the road for the squirrels to want to live in our trees. When I told Devin my conclusion, he informed me that squirrels in fact, do like to be off the road. Ohhhh, okay....

Well, what more was there to do, then wait....

Finally, after weeks of waiting, someone finally spread the word about our never-ending corn supply and finally some new tenants checked in! Now, I know beggers can't be choosers, and don't get me wrong, I love all of these "regular" squirrels, but I do wish some of their "fox squirrel" friends would move in, too! Maybe word will spread to the fox squirrel we saw out by the lake and he'll move to our house, too! And I cannot believe that I just wrote all of that about squirrels. Sorry! This blog becomes proof of my undiagnosed A.D.D. more and more with each post. BACK to Saturday.

....And this is why I love and forgive (for eating my fall decorations) all these cows around here... because they have BABIES!!!!!

How cute is he? We came up on him and his momma, not long after his grand entrance into the world... nothing like a brand new baby, even if it's a "cow-baby"!

It was a fun day and I certainly got my fill of sunshine & fresh air!

~annie~

By the way...I have some breaking news that happened on Sunday, but I don't have a picture yet, so when Devin gets home from work, I am going to have him help me, and I'll be posting it later tonight... Stay tuned!!!