We have a few castaways here at the Cease Fire Ranch

So yesterday, I was joyfully (and I say that with great sarcasm) taking some chicken poop out to the compost heap. Yes, my life is THAT exciting. The truth is my chicken coop smells like... well, chicken crap.

duh.

On the way back to the coop for another load (yes there's many), I saw a chicken pecking at something out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look and saw the biggest spider of my life! Well, except for that tarantula almost crawled up my LEG in Arizona once. (true story). Other than that it was a huge spider.

I went in for closer inspection... cuz, I'm not askeered of spiders, but what did I find?

This guy! A big old fat crawdaddy.

Now, I was kind of impressed considering the fact that where I live is in the middle of a bean field, very flat with no water (well, except for that 3 inches of rain we got the other night). I always thought that crawdaddy's had to live in/near a lot of water. I mean, they look just like a mini lobster so you know, water seems to come into play here.

I scooped him up with the bucket I was carrying and he was kind of pissed about it. He kept saying "hhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeehhhhhhh" to me.. very quietly, so really he's not all that scary. Well, except for his pinchers. A well placed pinch wouldn't go over very well - with me anyway. He'd probably love it.

Don't worry that I had *A* crawdad for dinner. I took his photo and then re-released him back to the wild. The "wild" being the grass under the propane tank that everyone seems to not notice when they mow.

Btw, he told me to tell you "hhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeehhhhhhhhh"

My other castaway is kind of hard to see in these 2 photos. Can you figure it out?

I'll wait.

Done?

You're right! You're so smart. :) Ignore the pulvarized hosta plant on the left. To chickens hostas taste like... well... chicken. What we're looking at is that blurry plant on the left of the photo. In the right photo, right in the middle of all those grasses is my hidden pulvarized hosta, and also a tree!

This spring when we were working on the flower bed, we noticed that there was a twig sticking up out of the ground right next to the hosta. I was puzzled as I didn't remember planting something there, yet, there was this twig. I knew it wasn't a plant stake either. I was baffled.

So I did what every lazy gardner does.... I left it.

Imagine my surprise when a few darn leaves popped out! Now I'm a little excited since trees in my bean field chateau are kind of scarce. Oh, I have like 10, but most of them are only 4 foot tall. Plus, most every tree I plant eventually dies anyway, and here's one that just grew up willy nilly all on his lonesome!

He can't stay, of course, because it's so close to the house, which would be wonderful if it could stay. So eventually it's going to need to be moved.

That's where you all come into play.

Anyone ever moved a wild tree before? (feral woman, you tree wrangler, I'm looking specifically at you).
Any tips?
Does it have a tap root I should be concerned with? (it's either a red or a sugar maple)
Any certain way it should be dug?
What do I do to make sure it lives?
Do I wait a couple years before I move it?

Oh I'm all atwitter.

OK, not really... I mainly wanted to say "atwitter". However, I am kind of excited about a tree that is so darned determined to live, he set up home HERE. Sucka

Oh, and guess what!?

I'm pretty sure there's 2! That one is tiny.

In other news, it's my birthday today. bleh.