Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Looking Forward to a Wall

Where we live now, we have a chain link fence around our house. It's kind of secure, not really. I have more confidence in our dogs than that fence. Unfortunately our dogs are friends with some of our acquaintances that have no problem with stealing from us. Someone who we hired to feed our dogs while we were on furlough a couple years ago stole some things from our shed while we were gone. He had built up such a rapport with our dogs that even after we returned he was still jumping our fence and trying to take more stuff. Well last week Jimmy bought 2 storage tubs from a hardware store here in town. They were much cheaper than usual and had mismatched lids (the same colors that we have mismatched in reverse among the tubs we already own.) Well Jimmy opened one of the tubs when he got home and found an old door stop of ours. Yes people... we just bought back the tubs that were stolen from us a couple years earlier. Our life is so ironic, it makes me laugh all the time! At least they were cheaper this time around.  

We have another type of intruder. Our property has a ditch around it on three sides. These ditches are filled with weeds. Neighbors from all over tie up their goats and horses and all kinds of other 4 legged beasts to our fence to feed on our weeds. Well... that angers Lucha and Fije. There is one very ornery nanny goat that loves to irritate Lucha. She just eggs her on.
 
She was waiting at the gate one morning when I was leaving. As soon as I opened the gate she stepped inside the fence and immediately peed all over Lucha's territory. I know that was intentional. I then had to separate her and Lu before I could shut the gate. Then the dumb goat kept beating on the gate with her horns. Lucha bit her in the head several times and even grabbed her horns with her teeth to sling her around. But the dumb goat kept beating on the gate with her horns. I yelled at the goat a bit but then I decided if the goat dies it's her own fault, so I drove off. 

The fourth side of our yard is our neighbors. The owner of our house built it WAY too close to the fence. Our neighbors used to burn their garbage right outside our kitchen window. That was a little bit of culture shock for us! Thankfully they finally stopped. 
{My kitchen window}
Now they raise pigs in that area instead... I mean there are several litters of pigs about a meter from my kitchen window. Yes, we can smell them... and hear them! They attract a lot of gnats too. Our neighbors have a right to raise pigs. I'm glad they have that income, but I am either allergic to pig dander or the feed they use because ever since the pigs got here I sneeze and blow my nose whenever I'm home. I usually burn through about 4 boxes of tissues a week. Thankfully once we move I don't plan on living in close proximity to pigs! The other day some of the little piglets got into our yard. The whole thing was very ugly. I actually had a nightmare about it the next night. Before Jimmy could rescue them, both Lucha and Fije picked one up and flung it around. There was blood everywhere. It was squealing, I was screaming, and my kids slept through all of it! All the piglets lived.

With all this livestock surrounding us we can't keep the ticks off of our dogs. We have tried every treatment available here. We don't let our dogs inside anymore because they bring in ticks. Some are as big as the nail on your pinky finger... nasty! Two days ago Lucha came inside without me knowing and sat in the hallway for a couple minutes. (She jumps the little gate if there are fireworks and there are fireworks 24/7.) After we kicked her out we found thousands of baby ticks all over our walls.

This is what was behind one of my photo frames. I took all 8 frames off the wall and swept my wall down and then swept the dead ticks out the back door. I realize this might not change once we move, but I am hopeful since our dogs won't come into direct contact with livestock anymore.

Beyond no intruders it is just nice to be outside your house relaxing in your yard and not have people watching you. Polite passerby'rs are nice. Cars that stop and honk trying to get the little gringo twins to come outside so that they can take a picture, not as nice. Our new yard is private and secure. When the boys get a little older I will let them go outside without me and play. I would never do that where we are at now. We have already started to enjoy our yard: 
  

3 comments:

  1. this may be a dumb question, but why would ticks jump off a warm body (a food source) to a wall? Also, when you said you swept dead ticks off the wall, did you spray something on them to kill them?

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  2. Oops, didn't mean to post anonymously. My name is Amy and my family is moving to Costa Rica next month.

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    1. Hi! I'm glad you posted again because I meant to reply to your first comment, but I got distracted.

      In the past the ticks that jump off our dogs and onto our floors or walls are usually full of blood. I would assume these were too, but I didn't pop any to find out. We only know about the others because we have accidentally stepped on them many times and they burst. They are usually pretty large... lovely! My husband did spray the walls and floors first with some bug spray for crawling bugs. They all appeared to be dead before I swept them. Usually we don't spray though because I don't like it around my children's toys.

      Costa Rica! Hope you like your new home!

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