Mud Slidders and more

This promises to be a lengthy post since (again) it's been a while since I posted to The Puddle Pond and there's been lots happening.  The first two pictures are of three mud slidders that we transitioned to The Puddle Pond.  A coworker brought them in to work a week or so ago.  The owners, who raised them from babies for four years, no longer wanted them.  This same coworker brought about one dozen baby turtles about a year or so ago that I brought home and released at The Puddle.  Turtles will crawl onto a branch or bank and sun themselves but quickly slide in the water when they detect someone is around.  Whether this is the reason or whether none of those little ones survived, they have never been seen but we do see activity of nesting and the egg shells so some turtle is reproducing at the pond.

These mud slidders were beautiful.  The markings on the bottom of their shells was unique.  They were all from the same "litter" (not sure what a group of baby turtles would be called) but one of the three was much larger than the other two.  One can surmise that two were one gender and the other one a different gender but I haven't taken the time to research this.

Anyway, they seemed to know where to head once we placed them on the bank and we watched them pop their little noses up for a while after we released them but then lost sight of them.  Hopefully, they can use their instincts to forage for food and prepare for cold weather.  Mr P was cutting the grass at the edge of the pond about a week after we released them and saw one of them on the bank next to a clump of cat-o-nine tails sunning himself.




 

D
Our house has an oil-fired furnace as a heating source.   When OnlyDaughter was three years old, we installed a woodburning stove as a supplemental heating source.  For years, the wood burning stove has been used as our main source of heat requiring what else - logs.

Spring 2011 a tractor trailer load of logs was delivered and unloaded along the side of our driveway.  These logs need to be cut into short lengths and split for use in the firebox of the stove.  The amount of wood that needs cut and split is huge and this backbreaking chore gets relegated to cooler weather.  All of the long logs have been cut into lengths ready for splitting with the hydraulic splitter and stacked in cords behind our shed.  After a hiatus since spring, Mr P decided to work on splitting wood on a weekday.  He made sure to set aside the snake skins he found as he worked on the pile that day.  They are all from black snakes and one of them is really, really long.  He's certain there will be more as he tackles more of the pile.

Speaking of snakes, when my walking buddies and I went for our morning constitutional today, the moon was full but it was still dark outside as we started out.  As we were walking, RA said the she had stepped in something soft.  We kept going but on the return trip, there was a big black snake smushed on the road and RA's footprint on its body.  Yuck!

The next four pictures show the continuing work being done by the power company and the replacement of those spidery towers.  We were off to the side of the pond looking at the lines that had been cut and were hanging down into the pond and on the ground along the far side.  While we were watching, workers cut a line at the tower at the top of the hill and the line thwacked down on the ground with such force we felt the ground shudder from the force.  

You can see the pulleys hanging down on the tower in the corn field which is the direction the lines were reeled toward once they were detached from the tower at the top of the hill.  In a walk to the pond today, the grooves at the edge of the pond and in the ground were evidence of where the lines were when they were pulled to the corn field. 

Since the lines were cut and pulled (not sure where they went), the towers have been toppled.  The "new" rusty poles have not yet been erected and the lines reattached at our two towers but they have begun to erect them in stages further down the road and will eventually make there way here.   I'm not sure if the field corn planted in the field will be able to be harvested or not. 

 

I took an afternoon off work last week and Mr P and I took a trip to the Harley Davidson plant near our home.  They offer tours and have a gift shop.  The trip was twofold.  I wanted to check out their gift shop to see if there was anything suitable for a birthday gift for OnlyDaughter and figured while we were there, we could go on the tour.  The day we went was a stupendously wet one with torrential rain which translated to lots of people doing indoor things, such as a tour of the plant.  We managed to get in on the final tour of the day and spent time before the tour looking at the display of bikes and trikes manufactured there.  Since shopping bags were not permitted on the tour, the stuff was scoped out with the intent of shopping after the tour.

The tour was interesting.  After a movie about the history of Harley Davidson, the tour moved to the plant.  Paperwork on the front of a moving platform shows the destination of the bike being assembled which is worldwide.  One of the jobs at the factory is test driving each bike for quality control.  A bike rolls into a booth and is driven by an employee or as they called it "rolling".  Every bike that leaves the factory has mileage on the odometer due to this process.  I decided that would be the job I would like; however, our tour guide pointed out that there is a long list of employees who want the job and there are requirements such as five years of riding experience to start.  That leaves me out.

OnlyDaughter and OnlySonInLaw passed their motorcycle driving tests this summer and now own a Harley.  OnlyDaughter's birthday gift was sent by UPS today and should reach her by Wednesday, the big day.  I can say it's related to the new two-wheeled purchase but will offer more detail later so as not to spoil some of the surprise.

I sat on the trike and thought I looked pretty good on it by the way.

Last weekend I roasted neck pumpkins, pureed the pulp in the blender and canned seven pints for use over the winter months.  Two jars were gifted to coworkers and one or two will make their way to OnlyDaughter's house on the next visit since they love pumpkin bread.  There are still a few pints from last year to be used before we start in on these jars.  

The garden has been cleaned up with the exception of one row of potatoes that still needs dug.  Hopefully the ground will dry out enough for rototilling before winter arrives.  The fig tree is loaded with figs but until today the figs weren't very big and were green and hard.  In checking today, there are four to five figs that are fat and starting to ripen.  Keep your fingers crossed that I get at least these off this year to enjoy.

The first of next month is right around the corner.  I'll be back soon with my 1st of the month picture of The Puddle Pond.
Have a good rest of the weekend wherever you are.