You Won't Believe What Happens Next!

Welcome to another installment of our "Ode to Clickbait" series of blog posts that we are doing simply because WE CAN!  If you don't like them, you can always encourage us to follow up on the idea of a KickStopper campaign to get us to... well... stop.  Now that I think about it, I should START a KickStopper site so people could fund efforts to make certain things come to a conclusion.  Please note that I am not pointing at anything in particular (yet).

Now, you might be wondering why I chose this title... "You Won't Believe What Happens Next!"  I am guessing you won't be wondering for long.

We are deep in the middle of and towards the end of and at the beginning of our farm planning season here at the Genuine Faux Farm.  You might actually understand what I said if you also realize we were taking a sabbatical during the month of January this year.  We worked hard in December to get as far ahead in the process as we could.  But, of course, some things didn't get done and the order of things has been a little different from other years.

And so, we're a little bit out of sorts with the planning process right now.

For example, we have the penciled out field plans that I put together in December.  No, I didn't just take time to take a photo of one of those pages, this is something from some other time.  But, I do have some plans.  After taking our farmer sabbatical, I am finding I have to read through the plans to familiarize myself with some of the things we are planning on changing for this year.  It's actually a good idea because this works much like a proof-reading pass.

Speaking of which, after catching typos in some of my blog posts, I am thinking I need more than one proof-reading pass.

So, as I was saying, we got most of our field plans penciled in and then we took our farmer sabbatical.

You Won't Believe What Happened Next!

We actually took a vacation.  Other posts will tell you about some of the highlights, but we haven't mentioned this one yet.

We heard and saw Meadowlarks on the island of Kauai.

Why is this a big deal?  Well, the song of a Meadowlark is one of my favorite bird songs.  When I was in high school and college, I distinctly remember drives down county roads with the windows down where I would hear a meadowlark every "county block" (about 1 mile) as I cruised down the road.  In 2013, I wrote a blog post bemoaning the very few Meadowlarks that I was observing at that time.  Sadly, we haven't found things to be getting any better since then.  My observations are being borne out by other observations and research.

The biggest cause of these losses is being attributed to the loss of grasslands.  I think we can figure this out fairly quickly when we look at how few farms in Iowa now have hayfields.  Then, add in our encroachment into ditch areas and fence rows and you can see where the habitat is going away.

So, I had to go to Kauai to hear Western Meadowlarks.  The irony is that they are an introduced species on the island, taking the place (most likely) of now extinct or endangered native species.   Talk about situations that make you feel conflicted!  I loved hearing those birds while were on the island.  And, then I would feel a bit guilty because they are not native to the island.

Regardless, one of my biggest wishes for our farm is to host some Western Meadowlarks.  Sadly, we are probably too small of a parcel, have too much activity on the farm and too isolated from other hospitable areas to attract them here. 

So, I went to check something in our bird book about Western Meadowlarks and...

You Won't Believe What Happened Next!

There was a little blue dragon at the bottom of the stairs in the farmhouse.  This little blue dragon usually sits on/in a basket-thingy that hangs on the wall not too far from the door to stair.

Why was the dragon out its basket?  Did it jump out on its own?  If it did, why did it do that?  Were the cats teasing it?  Did it want a drink of water?  Or was it defending our house from an intruder?

We did not see dragons, but we saw geckos in Kauai!

This reminded me of the Gold Dust Geckos that hung out with us at various places in Kauai.  At once restaurant, the servers would occasionally leave a cherry for the geckos to eat on.  I was pleased to see how they worked to make customers comfortable with their presence.  Why?

Because it seems like people are, in general, so afraid of any life other than themselves and invited pets into their living spaces.  But, geckos actually help control numerous insect populations that can be destructive (termites) or bothersome (flies).  They do tend to chirp at night, which takes some getting used to.

You Won't Believe What Happened Next!


Ok, this didn't really happen "next," but it did happen at some point in our own house.  Just to prove that we aren't comfortable with just anything living in our living space with us I submit exhibit A (or B - or whatever letter you want here).

NEVER Floss with This!  (how's that for a click bait title and photo?)

We did have a Garter Snake visit our living abode once.  It was a bit unhappy being there as it was, so I suspect it tolerated the handling and removal to the outdoors.  The cats, on the other hand, were a bit disappointed that the 'fun' was brought to a premature ending.

Living on a farm, especially one that has farmers that actually would LIKE to have a healthy snake population to control other pests, it feels like we don't have as strong a population as we should.  Once again, snakes are, in general, a creature that does us more harm than good, but too much of the human population can't manage to accept them.  And, like the birds, snake populations are declining worldwide.

Scientists are reticent to give specific conclusions for these declines largely because the causes are actually very complex.  Every species population is going to have a series of natural challenges that could weaken it.  Specific diseases, parasites and weather variables could cause a decline at any time.  Add in habitat reduction, active eradication attempts by humans, and unintended side-effects such as those caused by non-target losses due to pesticides/herbicides and you now have conditions for a population crash.

I WANT to believe this is what happens next!

We need to spend more time educating ourselves, our children and each other about these beneficial populations of species other than homo sapiens.   You don't have to handle a snake to respect it.  You don't have to see the Western Meadowlark to appreciate its song.

Things that may just make the most difference in this world are the little things each of us do consistently and constantly because we want this world to be a better place.  By the same token, there are a whole host of little things too many people do consistently and constantly that make this world suffer.  While you can't control your neighbor, you can control yourself.  Be a model for that neighbor and invite them to join you.

Because you might not believe what happens next.