Critters

Bucky

by bdunn on April 17, 2012

in Brazos River, Critters

The river ran high for a couple of weeks, then dropped back about 12 feet several days ago, again exposing the lower bank where we ordinarily keep a couple of chairs in order to enjoy the shade from a big willow while looking out over the water. Now there’s an extra 3 or 4 feet [...]

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Cluck-Cluck Henhouse Calling

by bdunn on January 18, 2012

in Critters, Farm, Texas

Believe it or not, I’d never been butt-dialed before, although my wife has so I knew what it was. Still, I was unprepared. When I answered my cell phone “This is Bob,” I heard a light, muffled almost-nothing in response. “Hello?” I asked, listening harder. It was faint, but unmistakable: I heard the gentle cluck-clucking [...]

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The New Egg Lady

by bdunn on September 21, 2011

in Critters, Farm

Fort Bend County, in which I live, is on the edge between the Houston Suburban Infestation and the Texas Outback. Thus you wouldn’t think it would be so difficult to find someone in the Outback portion selling fresh eggs from yard chickens. But you’d be wrong. It’s been two years since I had a good [...]

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Web of Mystery

by bdunn on July 15, 2011

in Critters

Back in April I started noticing some sort of webbing covering a portion of a large branch on our big turkey fig tree. Over the weeks I became somewhat alarmed as the webbing spread, covering the branch back to its juncture with a main trunk, and out toward the leaves at the other end. Then [...]

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Nature’s Other Smell

by bdunn on June 29, 2011

in Critters, Nature

Nothing focuses the mind quite so vividly as the odor of a spoiled dead rat obviously only a few feet away yet completely hidden from view with you there in the crawl space beneath the petrified beams of a 96-year-old house. The smell hits you in the face, and you’re certain that you’ve just accidentally [...]

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Last Meal For An Insect Felon

by bdunn on April 29, 2011

in Critters, Garden

One of the worst pests I encounter on a regular basis is Helicoverpa zea, the tomato fruitworm, who also damages other crops under the name corn earworm and cotton bollworm. It all starts when a rather plain brown moth uses the cover of night to lay tiny eggs on the leaves of a tomato plant. [...]

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Not Good Friday For Snakes

by bdunn on April 22, 2011

in Critters

As sure as the mockingbirds and cardinals will make mincemeat of my tomatoes if I don’t drape them in bird netting, the snakes will come entangle themselves inextricably if I do. Yesterday morning I hung netting on some more of the tomato plants in the back garden, as the fruit had begun to color. This [...]

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