Yeah, that's right. I let my baby play with my pearls and make-up. (Somebody ought to!) I did end up hiding that little treasure chest though. It got to the point where TerraDactyl would wake up and immediately run into my room so she could play with my jewelry/hair bobs/make-up box.
Today was a very weird sort of day. It started out normal. DH was in his office working, TerraDactyl and I were hanging out playing. I heard DH go outside, which he doesn't usually do while he's working, but it's not a totally crazy thing to do. But, when he came back inside DH came up to tell me that there was a deer carcass on our property, down near the creek (and inside our fence line).
He said it looked like somebody removed the meat from a young-ish deer and also cut off its head. Neither of us had heard any gunshots or anything, so either they used a quieter method of killing, or they killed it elsewhere and just dumped the carcass here. It's a pretty isolated area, but not far from our house. That's how DH found it. It was in easy view from his office window. And the red stood out from the brown and green of the "forest" floor.
After some discussion as to who we should call, (DFW? Animal control?) we decided to start with the police and let them decide who else to contact. DH left a message with the non-emergency dispatcher and they responded pretty quickly. We had an officer here within an hour. He had a look around and ended up contacting a state trooper, I think (based on the label on the back of his bullet proof vest).
The trooper brought a metal detector, but they were unable to find a bullet. They decided it looked like someone had cut the backstraps off the deer, so it was probably poaching. The cop had brought up the idea that maybe coyotes had been scavenging. The missing head makes that seem awfully unlikely to me, but I never actually went down to examine the carcass, just took a quick look through the office window.
Anyways, they did take the carcass with them, which was definitely one of our main objectives. We've seen all sorts of scavengers on our property (coyotes, raccoons, rodents, etc) and we don't really want to encourage them to hang out here. All in all, it was just really weird, a bit creepy, and hopefully a one time event. It definitely added to the dystopian apocalyptic feel we've already got going on what with the pandemic and everything.
I'll end this post on a slightly more upbeat note (pun intended). I recently read Patricia Brigg's Wild Sign, which mentions the Hu's Wolf Totem song. It was particularly surreal because my BIL really enjoys the Hu (NOT The Who, classic rock band). The Hu are a Mongolian metal band with some really unusual vocals. Anyway, I was talking with DH during lunch about how odd it was to have two very disparate parts of my life (Werewolf novel and my BIL) overlap when DH decided to re-listen to the song. And TerraDactyl had the BEST reaction to the song. She LOVED it! This video is kind of long, but I decided not to cut it down because there's some great stuff at the very end. So here's our own little music video:
TerraDactyl's bangs have been a bit unruly of late. I've been sweeping them off to the side with the intention of using a clip or barrette to hold them there. But I've been having some difficulty finding a satisfactory toddler barrette. Her hair is so fine and delicate and I don't want to damage it. When I was in high school, I did gymnastics with a girl used to use a metal clip to hold her bangs back while she practiced. One day she landed on the clip and it basically turned the metal clip into scissors. Every hair got cut. So she stopped using clips and just used gel. But it's hard to find a gel strong enough to withstand gymnastics. So she ended up looking like Sonic the Hedgehog by the end of every practice. Obviously, this is not exactly a likely scenario, but it does make me a bit cautious. Not to mention that TerraDactyl doesn't like anything on her head. She removes hats, headbands, hoods......
Hear what?!?! DH asked me that question yesterday while I was downstairs eating lunch. Of course, I had not heard anything, so he took me up to SEE the firecrackers... That's a lot of tree Yup, that's right. A giant chunk of our maple tree just up and fell over. It looks like maybe there was some damage inside the branch. Or something. I'm not exactly an expert. Doesn't exactly look like healthy wood to me We were going to mow the lawn that evening, but first we had to get that giant mess off the grass. DH started off with the chain saw chopping off branches. He didn't make it very far before the chainsaw got messed up. So while he tried to fix it, I used the pruners and loppers to get off what I could. Turns out, the chainsaw was broke. So we had to use a hand saw to chop up the big parts. It was super awkward sawing through 12 inches of wood at head height. But we did it! Too ...
Sleep training is continuing. Nights are going pretty smoothly. TerraDactyl usually fusses for a few minutes after we lay her down, but not for long. And if I'm careful, I can usually sneak into bed without waking her up. Unfortunately, she wants to wake up at 5am. It's 6am if I'm lucky. I've never been a morning person, so this is hard for me. But I'm trying to make the transition gracefully and with love (you know, rather than bitterness and annoyance 😉). The cutest dragon ever Naps however, are not going quite as smoothly. She's pretty ticked off when we lay her down. She tries to sneak in snuggle naps, but she's got very little interest in sleeping alone in her bassinet. We're trying to find the sweet spot between "not quite tired enough" and "over tired and angry". It's a bit like Goldilocks. I've been tracking when TerraDactyl eats, plays, and sleeps, and trying to find a schedule that works for us....
I'm sorry about the deer. The many adorable pictures of TD made that story go down a little easier, though.
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