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Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: chipmunks, Most Recent at Top [Help]
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1. Chippy Chipmunk Babies in the Garden - A Review

They are one of the cutest and friendliest of all wild rodents - the chipmunk.  If your child has never had the pleasure of observing one of these playful and curious animals then, Chippy Chipmunk Babies in the Garden, by Kathy M. Miller is a must have.

Bring your child on a wonderful adventure with Chippy and Mama Lily's babies (Rachel, Rosalie, Roosevelt and Benjamin) as they emerge from their burrow to discover the big world in their garden home.

Miller's not only spun a delightful story that will please child and adult alike, but her photographs of Chippy's family are fabulous - she has caught action shots of chipmunks playing and exploring that would rival any National Geographic!

In addition, Miller also weaves facts about all of Chippy's garden friends and foes throughout and at the back of the book.

Babies in the Garden is pure delight!

Chippy Chipmunk Babies in the Garden is the second in the series with Chippy Chipmunk Parties in the Garden being the first.

Check out both books and other neat stuff at; http://www.chippychipmunk.com/.
Books are also available at Amazon  and Barnes & Noble

About the Author;

Kathy Miller is a teacher, professional cellist, award-winning nature photographer, and writer. Her first book, Chippy Chipmunk Parties in the Garden has won 15 national awards, including Learning® Magazine's 2011 Teacher's Choice Award for Children's Books and the 2010 Benjamin Franklin / Bill Fisher Award for Best First Book.

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2.

Sketches for "Chip Plans a Party"

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3. Tansy, Chipmunks & Tools

It’s been a busy week. Yesterday I had to further cut down my ten foot tall Tansy that was blocking sunlight to tomatoes and squash and peppers. The Tansy has bloomed and has pretty little yellow cap flowers that smell sweet rather than flowery. The Tansy flowers dry easily and are a nice addition to Potpourri.

Then there is the rascally chipmunk digging up my pea seeds, removing the pink seed cover and chomping on the newly sprouted seeds. I sprayed the pea bed with animal repellant, which is thoroughly repulsive and I put an ultrasonic solar animal repeller aimed right at the bed. I bought three of these things from www.animaloff.com. Quickly entering the As Seen on TV Sucker club.

Ms. Chipmunk ate seeds right in front of me and with the ultrasonic animal repeller aimed right at her. I could see the red light flashing detecting her movement. She did not leave my garden until I yelled right in her seed-stuffed puffy cheeks, “YOU are not allowed in here!” So yesterday, I worked on the outside of my garden, the side that backs to the woods, and cleared weeds and patched a large section of fence with small gauge wire fence and then rocks along the base of the fence for those dig-ins. Hopefully, this worked as I re-planted the pea bed after. The ultrasonic animal repellers are going back for a full refund.

Harvested:

  • Napoles Carrots — I stuffed a gallon Ziploc bag full of these huge orange beauties
  • 3 Heads of Snow Crown Cauliflower — I am the only one who eats cauliflower so I only grow it for myself. The heat we’ve had this summer gave the cauliflower a purplish blush.
  • Mini Red Bell Peppers
  • Northern Delight Tomatoes — these are small 2″ round tasy tomatoes.
  • More cucumbers, yellow squash and zucchini — Don’t forget that chickens love overgrown summer squash. I cut them into chunks right there in their yard for them. We are too close to our neighbors to let our chickens run wherever so they have a large fenced yard and coop.

I have a gardener’s apron that ties around my waist. I have these things in my apron pockets that I never go into my garden without and which makes my time there easier and more efficient:

  1. Sharp-pointed Garden Shears
  2. Twine
  3. Plant Labels
  4. Permanent Marker
  5. Gloves

For suppers past week:

  • Sliced Cucumber, Grilled Yellow Squash (Olive Oil & Herbs), Grilled Chicken Breast, Pasta, Fresh Green Beans
  • Cheesy Eggs with Bacon Burritoes with peppers and onion
  • Matt’s Green Bean Casserole
  • Homemade Pizzas with blanched Yellow Squash, Mini Red Bell Peppers, Green Pepper, Onions, Sliced Olives, Mushrooms and Pepperonis

What came from the garden or farm for the above foods:

  • Cucumber
  • Yellow Squash & Zucchini
  • Herbs- Basil, Oregano, Parsley, French Thyme
  • Red & Green Peppers
  • Green Beans
  • Onion
  • Eggs

Matt’s Green Bean Casserole

2 Large Handfuls Green Beans, trimmed

1 Can Cream of Potato Soup

1 Onion, sliced and caramelized

3 slices Bacon cooked crispy and crumbled

Fresh Basil & Oregano

1 tsp. Sea Salt

Throw all ingredients together in casserole dish, cover and back at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or so, until bubbly. Even the 12 year-old wolfed this down. Delicious!

It looks like the unknown chickens from the Hatchery are all roosters!


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4. Chapter Five — Rue Rescue

©2010 Jennifer D. Porter

FIVE — RUE RESCUE

After Jack had yelled at Rue to run out from beneath the forsythia, Rue crouched in the grass. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do. Jack had leapt onto a stone wall and then disappeared.

A brown blur flashed by the corner of Rue’s eye, so he swiveled his ears. The blur made a lot of noise — panting, thumping, swishing. The blur flashed by again, so he turned his head.

A big brown animal sniffed at the ground as it ran. The animal charged right up to Rue. It had a large mouth with long pointed teeth and it smelled dangerous. Its slobber hung in strings from its chocolate-colored lips and when it whipped its head around, the strings slapped Rue and left wet streaks on his fur.

And that was when Rue remembered some of what Jack had said. He remembered, “Run as fast as you can and don’t play dead. Or the dog will get you.”

Rue ran but he did not run straight to the stone wall. He could not let anyone see his ugly splotch, so he kept his tail tucked down. Rue zigzagged this way and that way all over the yard. And the big brown dog zigzagged right behind him. Her warm, stinky breath poofing his fur and her teeth snapping at his tail.

The stone wall wasn’t anywhere anymore. Every bush and tree looked exactly alike and looked like the bush or tree he had just run past.

So Rue crashed under a pokey bush near a white picket fence. The dog ran to the bush but could only stick her nose under it. Every time she snorted, droplets of nose water sprayed all over Rue. He shook them off. He backed himself against the fence and as far away from her sharp teeth as he could.

 “Bark, bark, bark!” the dog shouted. She dug in front of the bush, dirt flying between her back legs and into the air. When the hole was big enough, she stuck her entire head under the bush and snapped her teeth at Rue.

Rue flattened himself against the fence and kept just out of her reach. Grrr!          

He closed his eyes and stayed very still for what seemed a very long time. If he moved even the tiniest little bit, the dog could bite him. Then he heard someone call his name.

It was Jack! Running down the driveway. Jack scurried straight up the corner of the picket fence, leapt across the top then slid down it and behind the bush. The dog pulled her head out, raced around to the right side of the bush and stuck her nose against his tail. Jack swatted her.

“Back off, Sugar!” he yelled.

Sugar yelped, pulled her nose back and barked again. She moved in front of the bush and planted all four of her paws in the grass. She cocked her head and whined.

“Rue,” Jack said. “When I say so, follow me this time. You must stay right behind me. An old friend of mine is going to help us, but I need your help too. Do you understand?”

Rue nodded. “I think so.”

Jack smiled. “We can’t let this devil be the end of us. Ready?”

Rue nodded again.

Jack raised his paws, circled them around his mouth then shouted, “Poe! Fly

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5. Chapter Four — An Enormous Favor

©2010 Jennifer D. Porter

FOUR — AN ENORMOUS FAVOR

Jack had never rescued a baby bunny from a big brown dog before, so he wasn’t very good at it, at first. He scampered through the grass, his tail straight out behind him and across the Wilder’s blacktop driveway. He bounded up the stone wall that circled the flower garden in the center of the driveway then dropped down inside his hole. He never checked to see if Rue was right behind him.

Safe inside his burrow, Jack tried to slow his heartbeat with easy breaths of air. He rubbed each of his shoulders against the black, fertile dirt wall of his den then shook off and began grooming himself. “Well, that was a close call, little fellow.”

Only Rue didn’t answer. Rue didn’t make any noise at all. Jack whipped around.

Rue wasn’t there!                                          

“Oh, no!” said Jack.                                              

He scurried out of his burrow and onto the stone wall. Rue wasn’t in the yard, but Sugar was near the picket fence, in front of a bush. She had her nose and front legs flat against the ground and her tail wagged high in the air.

“Bark, bark, bark!” she said.

Sugar had Rue trapped against the fence! It was all a big game to that rascal, that devil of a dog, chasing the little animals and scaring them to death.

There was no telling when Mrs. Wilder would call Sugar back in. There was no telling what would happen if Sugar got her mouth on Rue.

“I must think quickly,” Jack said. “And act even quicker.” He scratched the fur between his ears. “Think quickly. Think quickly.” His entire body told him to run back inside his hole. “No, I’ve got to help the little bunny.”

A very shiny black crow was perched in an old oak tree — Jack’s old friend, Poe.

A long time ago, Jack had helped Poe get out of a very bad situation. It had happened in late summer when the August heat was so heavy most of the animals slept all day. Jack was searching the side of the dirt road for the perfect piece of gravel to aid his digestion.

From the tops of the trees that lined the road, a group of crows cawed. Caw! Caw! Caw! Four crows were perched together on a branch across from a smaller, very shiny crow.

“If you want to be in our gang, you got to kill one,” said the biggest crow to the smaller, shiny crow. “We got to know you’re tough inside.”

“But crows don’t kill. They scavenge,” whined the shiny crow. “It isn’t natural.”

“You’re a looser, Poe!” the other crow said. “You ain’t joining our gang if you can�

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6. Chapter Three — Bark, Bark, Bark!

©2010 Jennifer D. Porter

THREE — BARK, BARK, BARK!

                                                                            

The heat spread from the center of Rue’s back to the tip of his tail then to the tips of his ears. The songbirds sang so loud it was as if they were in the nest with him. The sunshine made the insides of his eyelids bright orange. He coughed from a scratchy throat and tried to bury his head in Momma’s pile, away from the morning, but the pile was gone. The breeze floated along his fur and lifted its strands for a second or two. It fluttered through the leaves above him. He could not help but sniff and sniff the sweet smell the breeze carried with it. He tried to open his eyes, but the strong light hurt them.

“Momma,” Rue whispered.

He gave Momma a few seconds to answer, since she might just be hopping back. Then he said a little louder, “Momma? Can you hear me?”

Rue rubbed his eyes then opened one after the other. The sunshine made everything glow fuzzy for what seemed like forever. “Momma!” Then a little louder, “Momma!”

The crinkly, gray bark of the silver maple rose up into the light green leaves flittering so very high above him in the pale blue sky. A screech sounded from amongst the wispy clouds, and a chill raced along Rue’s spine and deep into his heart. “Momma!” he shouted. “Where are you?”

Rue took one step toward the tree. Their nest covering lay in wet clumps all around him on the bright green grass. Momma’s pile of grass and shed fur rolled with the breeze toward a pack of pokey bushes. “Momma! Where are you?”

Momma should have been back by now. She should be sleeping in their nest, snuggled close to Rue.

The outside world was utterly immense. Trees and more trees, acres and acres of trees, shrubs, grass. Trees dressed in flowers, trees of bright green and trees so tall they seemed to reach the sky. Trees with sharp needle branches and pinecones that could fall and squish a bunny so small. So many places Momma could be. How would he ever find her?

He slowly hopped away from their form beneath the silver maple. Everything around him had a different scent. Would he know her scent? Flowers, grass, moist dirt, earthworms, animal scents, bird droppings, humans. He stuck his nose in the damp grass and sniffed for her. It was too confusing.            

“Momma!” He sat back on his hind legs and stretched up off the ground, pulling his paws close into his chest.

He wondered if Momma could be underneath the wooden porch on the front of Mrs. Wilder’s white farmhouse with green shutters. It looked like a very good place to hide from a storm. A porch swing swayed and its chains creaked, but other than that, the house was quiet.

Rue began thumping his way over to the shadows beneath the porch. He stayed on Mrs. Wilder’s lawn and hopped toward the forsythia blooming in the flowerbed in front of the porch. The yellow-capped shrubs had spindly branches with pointed tips and some of those tips scratched at the ground.

Rue pressed himself as flat as

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7. how big is the club: we’re not crossing the chasm with this stuff

Rafe Colburn contextualizes what Jon Udell reframes about what Tim Bray mentions. The big question is how big is the new technology club that either 1) you and your friends are all a part of, or 2) you sort of hear about but don’t quite understand or see the need for? When I talk about Twitter to the library blogogeeks at CiL they’re usually saying “Yeah, love it, tweet me.” or “Not for me, thanks.” they’re not saying “Twitter? wtf?” However when I mention it at home, I have a hard time even explaining why I think it’s interesting, much less how it works.

As 2.0 apps are built on top of 2.0 apps and people can give conference presentations about making Twitter talk to RSS via a jabber server to do things with your library catalog, the gap between people who are just making the foray into email, or even blogs, and the digerati grows larger. Clubbiness can be offputting, regardless of which side of the club fence you’re on. Let’s not forget that we’ve got to be putting out feelers and explainers and breadcrumbs pointing outward to what we’re building as well as inwards.

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9 Comments on how big is the club: we’re not crossing the chasm with this stuff, last added: 4/20/2007
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