Rattlesnake Bite or Broken Bone: You Decide

So hubby and I are on one of our thrice weekly bike rides down the American River bike trail, and for the second time in a week we see a rattlesnake sunning itself on the trail. We energetically veered around it. I wish no harm to come of it for it is the great consumer of pestilent rodents, however I wonder to myself to what extent I would inflict self harm in order to avoid the deadly Western Diamondback.

Next thing you know Pepe la Pew crosses our path. So again I wonder, what would I do to avoid being sprayed by an angry skunk? So I posed the question to my tandem partner. Here is what we decided:
To avoid the rattlesnake bite on the bike trail we would both be willing to lose some skin or break a bone.
To avoid the odoriferous renderings of Pepe, we would both be willing to suffer road rash. I went the additional measure of breaking any bone reasoning that skunk stink would make me throw up and I really hate to puke.

A few days later I'm reading the paper and I say to hubby, "OMG, there's an outbreak of rabid bats". He looked at me and asked, "Well, rabid bat or broken bone?"

Aw, hell no!

Thank you to the Lone Grey Squirrel for my first ever award! *blushes with delight*

Bombina orientalis

This post is for the Electric Orchid Hunter who requested pictures of the fire belly toadlets.
If you click on the first picture you will see mosquito larvae in the water. The babies gobble these up like candy. The biggest one is about the size of a quarter now. They are just starting to get their colors. I'll be glad when I can put them back in with their parents because that is a much bigger habitat and I can stop fishing for insect larvae in my turtle pond.

Plus:

I must have the ugliest hummingbirds in the world in my yard. They are quite simply, drab. I like them anyway.

Mini Book Review: Lavinia by Ursula LeGuin

Lavinia is a work of historical fiction, I think, by an author best known for her science fiction writing. We also have the ghost of a dead poet, oracles and ancient pagan rituals. The main character, Lavinia, tells us her version of her part in the tale told by the poet Vergil from The Aeneid. In Vergil's version she apparently only gets a mention in passing. Ursula LeGuin breaths life into Lavinia in such a way that you feel you are her closest confidant. These are the days when Rome was simply known as the place of seven hills and the Greeks had just recently won the war with the Trojans who are now scouting out locations for a new settlement. The arrival of the Trojans in Latium (Lavinia's hometown in ancient Italy) proves to be a major turning point in the novel. I liked the way LeGuin takes us back in time and inside Lavinia's head, so that we don't doubt her decisions. We have confidence in her trust of prophesies. She is steadfast, even stubborn and that is admirable because young beautiful women in her times are often used as political bargaining chips. This is not a complex story, it is easy to read, yet I know that Lavinia's story will stick with me and I will think of her for a long time.

No BFD

"Mom, my swim coach said 'bitch' today!", said the Warrior Princess.

"Would that be as in 'quit yer bitchin' or 'you are such a bitch'?" asked the mother (who has heard it all before).

"It was, 'quit yer bitchin'"

"Ha!, I bet a bunch of parents will call and complain about it. "
(Poor guy, he's kind of young, but otherwise doing a good job by my estimation)

"Nah, he said it to us 12 and ups and we already say bad words!"

Good to know, good to know...

Ducks Part 2: Pictures!

These pictures belong to the previous post. Mary emailed several pictures she took, so I thought I'd share. Three of the eggs hatched: SUPER CUTE!

Mary's dog Dexter didn't like having a duck in 'his' pool. He got his yard back July 4th.

All's well that ends well now that they are swimming free.

Make Way (for Freedom) for Ducklings

Jeez, I wish I had taken photos. I even have a new camera, but...

My neighbor called and asked for my help with a mama duck and three ducklings in her pool. The mom had built a nest in Mary's yard and three of the eggs hatched on July 3rd. That's no good because there is no food in a backyard swimming pool for ducks. We had many ideas. We tried capturing the babies, hoping that their peeping would cause momma to follow us as we walked to the reservoir. (side note on capturing newborn ducklings: They instinctively dive to the bottom of the pool when chased. It's very cool to see these little guys swim underwater. Also, on land, they will lay down flat, stay silent in the leaves and are very difficult to see) But as soon as we put the babies in the carrier they hunkered down and didn't emit a single peep. Back in the pool!

We settled on catching mom with a pool net. My son, FPM- home from college, was along to help with his finely tuned hand-eye coordination. We managed to scare mom into another neighbor's yard and scatter the babies into hiding.

Mary went to the other house to herd mom back to her yard. FPM and I gathered the babies and put them back in the pool, where they helpfully began peeping. Mother duck returned and joined her ducklings in the pool.

FPM and Mary, with dueling pool nets came at mom from opposite sides of the pool. Got her! -but how the heck to pull her out without letting her loose or drowning her? That's where I came in. I jumped in the pool with my clothes on and carefully extracted mother duck from the net. I put her in the pet carrier. FPM scooped up the babes with the net and they were reunited with mom.

Mary, FPM and I hopped in my car and drove to the "No Trespassing" Baldwin Dam reservoir. We had to hike in to a spot where we could get underneath the fence, then hike to another area of the lake where we could actually get to the water. The lake is low and there are a ton of reeds along the shore. Finally, we found it- a place where the reeds were mashed down! We set the carrier down, opened the door and moved away. Mother and her babies walked out, went to the water and swam away. Happy ending for ducks and the humans felt good too! Darn, I wish I had thought of my camera...