We've got a nuisance Armadillo.

That's right, normally we would live and let live but this guy has decided to dig under our back steps and the hubby has decided it could burro under our house and destroy our foundation. The dillo is also digging what hubby calls ankle breakers all over the yard (small holes in the grass). Turns out their main source of food is grubs. Everyone who has been following this blog knows our grass is one part sand and the rest is all grub.   Also he heard they carry leprosy. Which, they do, thanks to experiments with leprosy on these animals. Of course that fact is covered up and they say they don't know how come armadillos started showing up testing positive for it after they started experimenting on them with it. Any way... We decided to get rid of the little bugger.

Under the stairs view from under the deck.

Close up of the armadillo's hole.

I called around. To find a trapper. I called what I thought was a state agency called Animal Control and they wanted $420 to catch them. They guaranteed we would be armadillo free for up to a month. I thought to myself my 22 cost less than that. I called a few other places and basically the cheapest was about $200 depending on how many they have to haul off.

 I called fish and game to find out if it was illegal to shoot armadillos. I pictured myself in the front yard with the shot gun and the armadillo charging at me. Turns out they aren't endangered and I could shoot them. After being transferred to the sheriffs station I also found out that I can shoot a gun in my yard as long as the bullet doesn't cross any roads and I'm not shooting over any livestock. And my bullets don't end up landing in a neighbors yard. We've only got a quarter of an acre here so I don't think I want to take a chance with that.

We found a guy that would rent us a trap for $40 per trap but we would have to destroy or remove the critter ourselves. So we decided to see how much it cost to buy a trap. Turns out they only cost about $45 so we bought one. Then we found out it is illegal to turn the armadillo loose any where that is not a sanctioned place. So we never got around to finding out if the national forest would be a legal place to let the dillo go. So the plan is this: We will trap it, drive it to the forest. Mean while we will have the 22 in the vehicle with us. If we get caught.... we will just say we were looking for a safe place to shoot it with out the bullets possibly go in the neighbors yard  and only let it out of the cage to get a clearer shot.

So, all ready to set up the cage and catch the creature, Chris gives me a demonstration on how the trap will work.

Chris placing the trap.

At first we thought we would just put some dog food in the trap and set it out near the hole. Then we found out that they mostly are blind and follow the same paths all the time and we needed to put the trap in the path of the armadillo. Figuring it would follow the wall we placed the trap across from the hole against the house.

Second trap location. Hole in the distance.

Then we got to talking and it only made since to prevent future armadillos from getting under there we were going to have  to cover the bottom of the deck up. And we could  make it impossible for the armadillo to go anywhere else except for in our trap. So we bought some trellis and propped it around the deck area.

Final location for the trap

Reese's wanted to help.

After we catch the dillo we will nail up the trellis boards. Stay tuned to see if we catch it and possible release of it into the forest.

Reeses loves his squeeky Santa!

Click here to see him loving it up!  

Changes are coming to the blog!

This is not my yard but the yard of a friend in Geneva Florida.



Watch out I plan on making some changes around here! I'm hopping to  get a land slide in money this year from this site. I haven't really made any yet. I hope to post more stuff about our daily life. I'm going to be leaving out first names....You know in case we get too famous. So the oldest daughter will be known as giraffe and the youngest... some thing like that darn teenager etc. Ha! My husband will probably be the old man. And I'm just me.
I plan on posting more of our recipes on the recipe page and most of my recipes come with a story of how we found it or came up with it. Not just tried this new recipe and we actually don't eat that or never ate before and have no real reason to eat it. Also you may notice more healthy eats. Just like all Americans I'm worried about the quality of food that  we consume. Since the nation just keeps getting bigger and unhealthier. So now I'm looking to eat better food. But I don't like fake food. Or replacement foods like instead of sugar or butter try this stuff your body can't process and it may give you cancer or some other disease. You will have to check in to see what we're eating now.

This should be an exciting year. The giraffe is pregnant and in the army so she is literally about to have an official little army brat! New Grandma issues. (I'm too young!!!) So..... some time in February we should be taking a trip to the frigid land of the north where Giraffe girl is stationed, out west. And we will have all kinds of interesting pictures from there. My sister K lives out that way as does my brother J and we hope to see them when we are up that way too.

Also this year come hook or crook we have got to paint this darn house. So you'll have that to look forward to. And we'd like to start replacing the windows and the front door. So if we can come up with the funds we will be doing that.

Also I have this great idea for the back yard. I heard a wonderful inexpensive way to landscape in Florida is to just corden off an area and let mother nature plant what she will. So we plan on giving that a try. Of course we will be giving mother nature some help here and there.

And I've already got great ideas for the garden, which we will start late this year since we will be welcoming the new little army brat at that time.

Also there will be trips to the beach and relatives visiting and hopefully some camping. Cause we love camping and hiking.
Who knows what this year will provide us. Hopefully lots of opportunity's for fun and exploring. So check back as often as you like to see what we are up to now. 

The war on fleas!

While at the annual New Years party my dog contracted a bad case of fleas. In fact the worse case I've ever seen. Everyone at my house is allergic to fleas except me. So..... getting rid of them is a huge priority around here.
As soon as we came home New Years Day I threw the dog in the tub and scrubbed him real good with the ol' flea and tick shampoo.  About 30 fleas floated off. I don't know how so many fleas could have gotten on a dog in one night. So.... he was still itchy I figured it was from the bites. He's allergic and he gets huge whelps and they stay itchy for days. But I looked and more fleas! Ahhhh...... I grabbed him up and washed him again. This time I made him sit in the tub and let the flea shampoo have a chance to take effect. Then I rinsed him and drained the tub and then scrubbed him again just to be sure. Once again though, he was still a little itchy but by this time it was after all New Years Day and I needed to pass out.
So.... this morning I checked and he was covered in fleas. So I ran out to the pet shop to get Cap star, it's this pill you give to the dog and in 30 minutes any flea that bites him is dead, we've used it before and it really worked well. If you make the dog sit still you can see the dead fleas fall off of him. Well....It didn't work. Some fleas died but I don't know there was some kind of super flea stuck to him or something cause thirty minutes later the fleas were eating just as good.
So.... I put some of that bio spot stuff on him. It's suppose to kill fleas for up to 30 days with one application. Nope! Still scratching and now my husband is getting bit.
So....I ran out to the store again and got some different flea shampoo. You know cause we've had that other stuff for a while and maybe it's expired. I also bought some stuff called flea breeze. We've used it before and it takes a while to work but it seems to work really well to get the fleas out of the carpet and furniture. Plus then everything smells good. And now it's probably dawning on people that I didn't say I vacuumed and that IS the main thing you do to get rid of those little evil terrorist but I did that. So.... the husband gets his hands on the flea breeze and starts spraying everything in site. And it says right on the bottle not to let the dog on it until it dries and don't step on it bare footed, which of course I was, as I scoop up the dog and run out the back door.
So... Now I'm sitting around feeling a little floaty. The dog is over in the corner laying on his back with his feet sticking straight up in the air and I checked there isn't a flea on him. Ha Ha!
See my theory is that it's like antibiotics if you don't kill enough of the germs (or fleas), you know by using the right one in the right amount for the right length of time, they get stronger and come back as super germs (or fleas)  which is what my dog must have gotten infected with.

So.... kill fleas responsibly by using every kind of flea killing chemicals at your disposal. Only you can prevent supper fleas!  Hopefully I did. Oh, The dogs bedding that I washed and threw in the drier is done.

New Year's Day Reese must have been saying "I've got fleas!"