I woke up yesterday in one of my favorite places in the whole wide world…TOW-Wanda! Night before last got down into the 60’s and it was perfect sleeping weather in the camper. Mr. FixIt and I went out after supper to watch for meteors and while we were stretched out on the lounge chairs by the pool, we decided it was the perfect night to go “camping”. I gathered what we needed and headed out to the camper and he joined me later when the news was over.

We both sleep really well in the camper. It’s probably the best mattress I’ve ever owned. I bought it when I got my first camper about three weeks after Mr. Virgo died. I woke up fairly early and went in to fire up the stove and bake a couple loaves of sourdough. After I cleaned up the kitchen, I worked on here. I still have two years’ worth of posts to copy from Facebook over to the blog and I work at it whenever I have an hour or two. It’s something nice to do when it’s too hot outside. 

I baked a couple of pizza crusts and we had homemade pizza for supper. Afterwards, I went out to water the garden and picked a few tomatoes. I’m still seeing some blossom end rot on my tomatoes so I’m hoping they respond to the tomato food I put on them a couple of days ago. It would be a shame to put all this work into growing them only to have them be ruined because I didn’t feed them right.

Mr. FixIt and I were sitting in the family room watching the news when I caught something out of the corner of my eye. He jumped and said, “There’s a bird in here!” I looked over at the window and sure enough, there was a little chimney sweep fluttering against the glass trying to get out. I grabbed the first thing within reach to trap it before it flew around…Mr. FixIt’s WVU hat! Ohhhhh….he wasn’t too happy about that but I caught the bird faster than he could grab the hat away from me and let it go outside.

Later on, I was back in the bedroom writing this when I heard him “whoop” again and called for me. “There’s another bird in here!” I grabbed a dishtowel this time and caught the little bird. We took it outside and it got really confused by the outdoor light and kept fluttering around it. Before I could get the door shut, it flew back in! I corned the little thing in the kitchen and this time we turned off the outdoor light and closed the door before I let it go.

We had to determine where the birds were getting in. We know we have had Chimney Swifts in our chimney for the last couple of years because we see them swooping in and out at dusk. And, we can hear them in there feeding their babies. I checked the upstairs fireplace and the glass fireplace door was closed, as was the door to the dining room. They had to be coming in from the fireplace in the basement. 

Mr. FixIt swore the flue was closed. He pulled on it and said, “Yep…it’s closed.” I don’t trust anything unless I see it for myself so I got down on my knees to shine a flashlight up the chimney. It wasn’t closed and I am telling you what…it was a darned good thing birds didn’t shoot out of there at me! He closed the flue for sure this time and I double checked it so I don’t think we’re going to get anymore birds in here.

Then, as I was getting up off the floor, I notice little round circles all over the floor. I couldn’t see very well because I didn’t grab my glasses when I went running to catch the bird. Upon closer inspection, I realized what I was seeing. Little baby millipedes. HUNDREDS of little baby millipedes. Ok, I’ll catch birds. And I’ll catch snakes and spiders and groundhogs and raccoons and possums and turtles. But centipedes and millipedes creep me totally out. Mr. FixIt to the rescue.

While my sweet hubby was vacuuming up the curly little devils, I was online Googling why the heck we had a gazillion of these critters in our basement. It turns out, we had a really long wet spring so a whole bunch of the buggers were produced. Then, since it’s been so incredibly dry, they’ve been coming in under the basement door trying to find moisture. Vacuuming them up is the quickest way to get rid of an infestation. Then, you want to make sure the crack under the door is sealed. You can also use ant spray to deter them. 

So, it was a crazy busy day farming here at the Ponderosa. Honestly, you don’t know from one day to the next what we’re going to run into. Let’s hope there’s no big surprises today!

❤️

“The birds of the sky nest by the waters; they sing among the branches.”

Psalms 104:12 NIV