It's amazing how a bug found inside is met with shrill shrieks while one found outside is a fascinating treasure.Over the weekend we worked in our yard ripping out old shrubs and doing general cleanup. At the back of our property that borders our neighbor's yard, stacks of old split wood had been decomposing for who knows how many years. It was recently established that the wood was indeed on my property, as were the five dead shrubs behind it. In no time the pile was gone, leaving in it's place a very nutrient rich, bug filled playground for my budding bug collector.
Signe and her friend next door, Avery, spent hours digging around in the dark soil bug hunting. Very little hunting was required, and they filled Avery's bug house with all sorts of bugs, though clearly their preference was potato bugs. Those bugs didn't stand a chance.
All our rummaging around brought out more than the bugs. In the front yard we encountered two snakes while taking out some overgrown bushes, one by the side yard and one by the front drive. When we told the girls about the snake we didn't receive the reaction we had expected. Signe immediately named the bigger snake Jasper and began pleading with her dad not to kill her pet. She would stand beside the tree he was hiding under and call out in a voice worthy of Scarlet O'Hara, "Jasper, it's not my fault. It is my father's." Then she would turn to Rob and say with just as much drama, "If he bites you, it's not my fault." No amount of explaining could convince her that "Jasper" was not a fit pet.
But since he had hid himself under the pine tree and no one was willing to dig too much, he remains safe. . . .for now.
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