Living in the country is a continual learning experience. Obviously, the country offers more-more space, more nature, more animals; but, it also offers less comforts, and less bugs.
We have seasons of bugs. Lately, we had ladybugs, which make their way into the house, and crawl up the walls looking for heat and sun. Then, they die, and fall. Since our kitchen has tons of windows, the ladybugs (they're actually asian lady beetles) conjugate there, die, and then fall onto the floor, into the dog food, etc.
Once you're done cleaning those up, it's fly season. The last of summer's flies scramble to get where it's warm. It's warmest in our living room/kitchen, so naturally, they flock there, only to be accosted by rolled up magazines, newspapers, or dishrags.
Then, it's the fuzzy caterpillars. The wooly bear caterpillars. I've linked a website where you can see what these awesome things look like:
http://www.coldspringschool.org/Mill/wooly.html
These guys are SO cool.
And this is where these guys play into my "Lesson's I've still got to learn."
See, when I first moved here, I always kept my shoes inside (you know where this is going already, I bet). Lately we've been keeping the shoes outside, so that less mud is tracked in.
During the summer, I solely wore flip flops (even, I regret to say, to feed cattle, which is VERY VERY dangerous, and gross, and asking to step in cow poop. DO NOT BE LIKE ME, KIDS!)
Now that it's muddy fall, the boots have come out, and are now on the porch. These are perfect hiding places for creepy crawlies. Creepy crawlies that do NOT expect your huge feet to come sliding at them and ruin their slumber.
Also, your feet do not expect, when you slide them into said boots, to feel something fuzzy and alive on them in their respective boot.
When it hits you that your foot has hit something foreign, you automatically think, out here, "Please, God, thank you for NOT letting that be a venomous snake. Also, please merciful Jesus, let it be a rock." Then you pull out your foot, shake out your boot, and find a fuzzy caterpillar, very curled up and angry, fall out.
Shudders and creepy feelings occur, and then you rethink wearing those boots for a little while, and decide to retreat to the house in your nice cushy, non-bug filled, brand new, tempur-pedic slippers.
This is where Megan needs to learn her other lesson: Check your feet before you put them into any other shoe. (I bet you can tell where this one is going as well).
I then proceeded to do some straightening up of the house, and when I was finished, decided to go outside.
I took off my slipper, and saw something crushed and gross in my nice, innocent, cushy slippers.
I guess the wooly bear caterpillar I shoved my size 10 foot on top of was either longer than I originally had thought, or he had a brother, which stuck to my sock and then made it into my beautiful brand new cushy tempur-pedic slippers.
Needless to say, I was all of these at once:
Forlorn
creeped out
grossed out
Sad for killing two really pretty caterpillars.
So, I then changed socks, put on my boots again, after a thorough shake out, and trudged into the yard to take some pretty fall pictures. So, here you go:
Since we have so many trees around the house, we have billions and billions of leaves. I've forgotten how much fun it is to play in them. It's like walking on corn flakes.
Look at that cool mushroom!
This was our latest project, a house for Benji. We stained it, and put a nice cushy bed in there. Luckily, Benji likes it!
I trudged in the leaves for a little while until they crowded around my shoes. They're leaf shoes!
Beautiful, beautiful fall.
