It's starting early this year.

Last night at about 0400 the motion detector went off and turned the outside lights on. It woke me up and I looked out to see what was going on.

The deer have returned. I was treated to watching them mosey on through into the back yard where they will presumably find something there that will please their discriminating palates.

It's been an exceptionally mild winter so far and as a result the deer looked a lot better fed than they did at this time last year. I suppose that is aa good thing.

Last year I watched the miracle of the birth cycle out my back window as two fawns were born maybe 75 feet away from where I now sit. It was pretty neat.

A walk into the front yard tells me that last years marigolds seeded themselves well and maybe I won't have to start them again this year but we'll see. If so I will because I like having a pretty garden out front.

I suppose in a couple of days I am going to have to go through the bird houses and empty last year's nests out of them.

Of course I am jumping the gun, though. Winter is not quite over yet and we still could get clobbered with a snowstorm.

Still, all in all it has been a mild winter here. I'll take it with no complaints.

I chatted with an Amish guy I saw at Lowes a couple of days ago and we discussed this particularly warm winter we had and he told me to expect a pretty buggy summer because generally the ground freezes deeply enough to kill off a lot of the grubs.

When a Dutchman speaks about things like that you generally ought to listen because there are maybe four in the entire state that do not know an awful lot about things like that. Virtually all of them farm one way or another and they are damned good at it.

So we will pay for this mild winter with a buggy spring.

Right now I am on 2 meters as I type this. The guys are funny. We are gabbing about growing up and discipline. Yesterday I got into hot water with the eBay gang because I asked a guy selling a cattle prod if he thought it would be a good tool to get the kids to eat their vegetables.

He had no sense of humor.

I just stepped outside and while I did I noticed the doorknob was slightly loose. I just grabbed a screwdriver and tightened it in about six seconds.
It doesn't take much to keep things up.

Anyway I am up and about.


my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/