The Rat King

We spend the weekend in St. Augustine with our son and daughter-by-marriage. We had a wonderful time. They took us to a performance of the Nutcracker ballet in downtown Jacksonville. It was a really enjoyable evening, except when the rats came on stage for the battle with the toy soldiers. It was just a reminder of the previous week!

Recycling the Pumpkin

In my kindergarten classroom this year, we were blessed with not one, not two but three pumpkins for Halloween. We voted to decide which we would carve. They picked the largest. One of the others, we used to predict and experiment whether or not it would float. The last one, we used to estimate the circumference by each child cutting a length of string they thought might be right to go around the middle. We then tried each one and had one girl whose string was right on the money. After Halloween, the call went out for pumpkins to be used in the art classes for still life drawing and, later, watercoloring. I donated our two uncut ones for the project. When that was over, they came back and so I brought them home.

Once Thanksgiving was over, I cooked one of the pumpkins. I began by cutting it in half, equatorially.

Because this was a large pumpkin, I could only bake half at a time. I chose the cold and wet Saturday that the Seminoles slogged it out with the Gators. I baked it at 325 degrees for about one and a quarter hours, cut side down on a cookie sheet.

When it was done and slightly cooled, the skin peeled off easily with my fingers, (the pumpkin's skin, not mine!)

exposing the golden flesh.

Underneath, the seeds were also easily removed and then I cut the pumpkin into chunks. This half of the pumpkin, I blended, yielding 12 cups of cooked pumpkin.

I froze this.

The following Thursday, I made pumpkin muffins, using my friend Joyce's recipe. I took them to school to let the children have a taste of their pumpkin in a different form.

Oh, Rats! Number Three

Well the trap was set for two more nights and each  night the corn chip bait was stolen and the door was left partly ajar. B checked the trap this morning and BINGO!, the third time charmed--- at least for us. There was the third rat. This one was a little smaller than the others, but perhaps the smartest.

"Now, how did I work this before?"

We think we have gotten our money's worth out of the Havahart trap.

We took the rat to the same place as the others. Well, almost the same place as there was a man in a truck parked at the same place. We thought about asking if he had any rats in his wheel wells.

This little guy didn't jump at me. In fact, it didn't run at all.

It ambled down into the ditch, nibbling as it went. Guess the corn chips ran out on it. It had been acting pretty much like the others, so it did not appear sick. It just seemed nonchalant, or perhaps it was just curious about this new place and continuing to show its intelligence. Whatever, it did not act scared once it was out of the cage.

We left before it did.

 

Enough with the rats, already!

Coming home tonight, a fox crossed the road in front of me. I thought, "Why aren't you at our house, eating rats?!"

Two Rats in Two Days: Too Many

B set the trap in the shed again last night and again this morning there was a rat. Now we don't really believe it is the same rat that played peek-a-boo with us under the truck yesterday, but it sure looks like it! We took that one a few miles (and across a river) away.

So we took this one to the same spot. Maybe they will find each other. (Cue the music Somewhere Out There from American Tail !)

The rats may or may not be learning anything, but we did. This time, we left the truck and walked a ways before opening the trap. This time, after a moment of indecision,  it went to the ditch.

B has set it again. If there is another one, we may have to do some serious thinking. 

There has been the plague of snakes this summer

and then it was the frogs

and now rats!

and the younger son says the pipes where he has been living for the past 11 weeks have been known to run red.

Could it be a sign?

Another Rat Tale

It all started with this Christmas cactus which measured over 30 inches across when this picture was taken a couple of years ago. Recently, B had put it in his shed to protect it from the cold. He had carefully covered it. When he checked on it yesterday, he found a critter had gotten into the shed and under the cover and destroyed a large part of the center of the plant.

So last night he set the Havahart trap and baited it with corn chips. This morning he found a large rat inside. It is not as large as the rat he caught in there last year.

As with the other one, we took him away from houses to set it free in a field/woods/swamp area. When B opened the trap, the rat did not want to leave the cage. Finally, it came out in a hurry and....

jumped straight at me!

I, in turn, jumped, too!

It ran up under the truck and into a wheel well, where it seemed content to stay.

From there it would venture out, only to run into each wheel in its turn.

It was really pretty funny. Despite our best efforts, we were out there a good fifteen minutes with B and our son and me all trying to get the rat to run to a safe place.

Finally, after this last shot, it ran down into the ditch where we had originally tried to send it.

B said it had been trying to memorize the tire scent, so it could follow us back home. So in an effort to sidetrack it, we took our garbage to the landfill before we came back home. Surely, there are other friends to be made there.

Fall Leaves, Frosted Leaves

The first Christmas that we lived here, B gave me a small Japanese maple. We planted it just outside the kitchen window which faces the front walk. It has been happy there and has required some pruning in its ten years to keep it (mostly) contained in its area. 

These maples put on a show, coming and going. The new leaves in the spring come on red and the old ones turn orangey red before they drop.

Yesterday's light rain brought on a shine.

B's goldfish ---some of which are koi wannabees---live in the little pond.

Many of the leaves dropped in the night. It was a nice sight to look out on at breakfast.

Over a week ago, we had a good frost here in the rural parts of Tallahassee. On what is considered very cold days, the children at my school are kept inside before the school day actually begins. This puts everyone at a disadvantage, as we start the day with children that need to have released a little energy, but have been sitting instead.  On that morning, I met the challenge by engaging my kindergartners in a little impromptu science lesson. We bundled up in all their Florida winter clothes, which took a while since many can't really manage the zippers. I gave each of them a magnifying glass and we went out to explore the frost in the schoolyard.

With the magnifiers, they could see the crystals in the frost. They were SO excited, running around and bringing leaves to show me. It was a large area and it was safe for them to do just that. We don't get snow here, so we have to enjoy what we do have.

On the To-Do List

We drove around the coast last Sunday and out to Indian Pass where we sat by the water and enjoyed a cool-ish picnic.

The land across the water is St. Vincent's Island. It is a relatively large island and part of St. Vincent's National Wildlife Refuge. It is accessible only by boat and no motorized vehicles are allowed on the island.

This is the ferry that takes visitors over for day trips.

One day, we will need to go out there and explore.