When I went out to take a picture of the garden for yesterday’s post, I saw a disturbance in the lawn.  As I looked around a saw more . . . a lot more.  The disturbed area looked like this:

Do you have any idea what it is?  I didn’t the first few times that I saw it, but eventually I discovered the culprit.  Have you figured it out yet?

I noticed movement on the lawn one night and when I investigated I saw the little fellow that was doing the digging.  That’s how I know that it’s a skunk, or skunks.  One surfeit (or is it “stench”) of this year’s babies grew up living beneath our garage.  That kind of adds an imperative to living in harmony with nature, don’t you think so?

I can understand why a collection of skunks is called a surfeit.  Seems to me that even one is an over abundance of them, but they really do have their place in the natural order.  As long as it’s not in my neighbors’ hen houses.  They don’t like that.  Not even a little bit.

From Surfeit to Paucity

Today is Sylvia’s father’s birthday– his 95th.  We’ll celebrate by meeting with other members of the family that live in Michigan.  We’ll enjoy a meal together and have cake and ice cream.  We’ll take a short hike and talk and just enjoy being together.  (They really are great folks and it is very pleasant to be with them.)

As the sun is setting we’ll load up the vehicles and head for home.  We’ll be feeling good about another birthday for Dad and another happy gathering of the clan.