Today’s post will be a rambler, so bear with me…

But first, how about a little music from my youth to set the mood?

~ Donovan‘s First There is a Mountain ~  

With deepest apologies to Donovan…

Look  upon my Farmlet there’s been a thief, that’s what it was.
Look  upon my Farmlet there’s been a thief, that’s what it was.
First there was a trailer, then there was no trailer, then there was.
First there was a trailer, then there was no trailer, then there was.
The caterpillar sheds his skin to find a butterfly within.
Caterpillar sheds his skin to find a butterfly within.
Ah, my-my.

~*~*~*~

It would seem that sometime between Wednesday afternoon’s roof inspection, and yesterday’s work session, that someone took it upon themselves to *liberate us of our little trailer.  It is only big enough to carry the lawnmower.  Hence, without it we would have to leave the lawnmower.

Now that there had been a theft we no longer felt confident to leave it up there!

The locals say that theft is rare up on the mountain, but like anywhere else it can happen.  So, after making a police report, there was nothing for it but to go off to Tractor supply and purchase a new one.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that our model was on sale and this saved us $100.00.  Still, the money spent was money we don’t have for other needed things this month.

Bygones…

Our morning was now shot, but we set to work in the hours we had remaining.  Bob began the puzzle of building bones for the crooked wall in the bathroom, and I went out and finished the mowing around the house.  Everyone that comes to the Mountain Farmlet to work admonishes us to “Keep that grass cut short around your house and outbuildings so the snakes will stay away!”  Ah!  Now I understand the old adage about “A snake in the grass”  but I guess mowing doesn’t work on the two-legged kind.

When I was done I checked to see if Bob needed my help.  He said “No.”  So I went to the woods with the dogs in tow.  Because the land is a very long piece of property I estimate the trail’s loop to be one half to three-quarters of a mile when you walk it.

The trail is little traveled for the moment and always full of spiders.  On previous treks I had tried using a stick to rid the way of spiders, but their webs are hard to see and very strong!   It is very creepy to try to pull them off of your face and out of your hair, so I devised a tool to use.  I took an old, rather large umbrella and removed the fabric from it.  Now when I walk I hold its spines out in front and they catch the invisible webs, spiders and all!   This is a strange but true fact:  When I am done I hang it near the trail and when I come back the spiders *and all the webs are gone!   Weird, but nice.  I love a self-cleaning tool.  😉

Returning with the dogs, I then put them on the back porch and grabbed my camera.  Before I left for the second walk I told Bob to ring the old farm bell to let me know when he was done and ready to go.

Found along the way ~

NOTES:

1. Apparently, the high protein substance of spider webs is a high energy product to produce.  Therefore, many spiders eat the silk to conserve energy for production of the next day’s web.
2. *Hickory Tussock moths carry a poison substance in the barbed hairs on their backs.  It is said that it can cause a serious irritation in some individuals.  I did not want to test this, and therefore left the little beastie on the side of the trash bin. 😉
3. The little trailer was heavily cabled to the car port structure… so they had to come back with bolt cutters!  😐
4. And yes, even at the furthest point on the trail I could hear that bell.  Simply old-fashioned and wonderful!