Three years ago when I arrived home from work I head a scratching noise coming from behind the dryer and I immediately knew that there was some type of critter in the flexible dryer duct that leads from the dryer to the vent mounted on the outside wall of our home. I knew without a doubt that there was an animal in the dryer duct because it had happened before. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Pennsylvania
Lucy and Ginger
My husband Steve and I have had at least one Saint Bernard at any given time for the past 16 years. To accommodate them, we have a kennel, that is actually a 12 foot by 20 foot building that is insulated and fully equipped with water and electricity. Surrounding the dog kennel is a large fenced in area that allows our dogs to run and play all day without direct supervision. This has worked out well for us and for the Saints. Saint Bernards, which were originally bred in the Swiss Alps, love being outside and they love the cold and snow . Although their kennel is insulated, and although we have wall heaters for it….we’ve never had to turn on the heat; the dogs have a very natural ability to keep themselves warm. Continue reading
The Flea Circus
When I was a little girl I desperately wanted to see a flea circus. Having seen them on various television shows and in the cartoons in the Sunday papers, I couldn’t wait to see one in person. When I asked my mother where we could find a flea circus, she told me that she didn’t know but that she didn’t think someone could really train fleas to do tricks. She said she thought the whole idea of a flea circus was itself a trick. I didn’t really understand what she meant, I just knew I wanted to go to a flea circus.
A few weeks ago my husband Steve and I, along with some friends, went to the Sherman’s Valley Heritage Days in Blaine, Pennsylvania. This annual event features old farm equipment, steam-powered engines, people in period costumes, home-made baked goods, arts and crafts and this year… ta-da…Marty’s Flea Circus! It took me fifty years, but I finally found one.
Marty, flea wrangler extraordinaire, told the audience, which was mostly children, the names of the fleas and from where they came, including one that he got from Evel Knievel. The trained fleas did all kinds of tricks, from moving steel balls to being shot out of cannons and jumping into cans. Unfortunately, now that I’m in my fifties, my eyesight isn’t as good as it once was and I had trouble seeing the tiny fleas. But the children, whose eyesight is not yet aged, saw them clearly. 
Daily Prompt: Tiny
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Hobo the Wonder Kitty
It was May 2nd, 2012 and I was in the kitchen when I heard my husband Steve call to me from outside, “Lorrie, come here, you’ve got to see this.” Continue reading
Wolf Sanctuary of PA
Lately Facebook seems like it’s a place for people to disagree about everything from politics to the best apple pie recipe, but sometimes a gem sneaks into my feed. Such was the case last week when Only in Your State made a post about the Wolf Sanctuary of PA. As it turns out, this little gem is located within thirty miles of my home but until I saw it on Facebook, I had no idea it existed. Continue reading
Batter up!
I was in bed watching television late one evening when my then college-aged daughter came out of her bedroom and said, “Mom, look at Jo, she’s just running back and forth in the hallway.”
I looked towards the doorway of my room and saw Jo, our Cocker Spaniel, shuffle past my doorway, then shuffle past again, going in the other direction.
“I don’t know what she’s doing,” Kinsey said as Jo ran by again, her nose pointed up towards the ceiling.
“It looks like she’s watching something,” I said.
Kinsey looked up. “Bat!” she yelled as she ran back into her room, “It’s a bat!” Continue reading
Find a Penny…
Find a penny, pick it up and all the day you’ll have good luck.
My great-grandmother taught me that saying. I asked her why bother to pick up a penny and she said, “A penny saved is a penny earned. Pick up pennies and save them until you have enough to buy yourself some candy.” Continue reading
Hello. Pretty Boy.
A few years after we bought the house we currently live in we dug flower beds. And so it was that I found myself one hot July evening planting 104 day lilies that my friend Bob had given me. He bred the day lilies himself and although I thought them all beautiful, they did not meet his standards. So I was the fortunate recipient of his lovely “mistakes”. It was hot dirty work in ground that was not the best; full of rocks and clay. But I was determined to get all of the flowers Bob had given me planted over the course of the next two days. Continue reading
Bottle Trees
Several years ago I had the pleasure of visiting Kanapaha Botanical Gardens in Gainesville, Florida. It’s a beautiful botanical garden with a mile and a half walk through various gorgeous exhibits, but the thing that caught my eye, the one thing I could not get out of my mind, was a bottle tree. The bottle tree was made out of the large stump of a tree that had long ago died. The bottles were mounted on pieces of rebar that had been placed into holes drilled into the old stump. Continue reading
Five Seconds
I took the long way home last night after work because the highway was at a standstill. I actually prefer the long way because it’s a very scenic drive that winds along the Blue Mountain Range in Central Pennsylvania. Because the road follows the mountains, there are many blind curves and hills so I try to be careful because you never know what may be just around the corner or over the next knob.
As I came around a corner last night, a fawn, still sporting its white spots, jumped out of the woods to run across the road. I hit the brakes and slowed down, but the pickup truck, coming from the other direction, had no time to do so and hit the fawn head on. The impact caused the fawn to fly through the air sideways before landing on the road and spinning in circles across the pavement, coming to a stop just in front of my Jeep. As I swerved around its body, I saw two clumps of white fur floating down through the air towards the road.
Because of where I live I am used to seeing deer; they are everywhere and deer getting hit by vehicles is common. I’ve been in a cars that have hit deer and I see dead deer along the roads daily. But as I drove away from the dead fawn last night, I started to get tears in my eyes; the whole thing was so incredibly sad. I couldn’t help but think of the fawn’s mother who probably witnessed the whole thing and my heart broke for her. I’ve seen it many times, the doe crosses the road first; the fawn follows a short while later. Had the mother waited a few more seconds to cross; or had the fawn gone a few seconds earlier or later, he would have made it. Sometimes, five seconds can be the difference between life and death.
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