27 Comments
User's avatar
Patty Kohlbacher's avatar

Love how you share your little farm life with your readers my friend! You take me there. 🌞🪺

Expand full comment
Maura Casey's avatar

Thank you, Patty!

Expand full comment
Kathi Zimpleman's avatar

Thank you for the walk around the country, Maura, even with all of the critter stories! I loved it!

Expand full comment
Maura Casey's avatar

Better a spider in the house than in the White House!

Expand full comment
Kathi Zimpleman's avatar

Much easier to take the required steps for disposal!

Expand full comment
Maria Wolf's avatar

Loved it! Thanks.

Expand full comment
Ron Goldstein's avatar

Thank you for painting this picture Maura. Takes me away from riots in LA and the Musk-Trump dust up

Expand full comment
Maura Casey's avatar

Which is why I wrote it.

Expand full comment
Margaret Holt's avatar

I think Thoreau was also continuously trying to get us to pay attention to things outside. I have become much more attentive in the last three years, when a wild turkey moved onto the property and roosts every night in my carport. He seems to be keeping tabs on my comings and goings.

Expand full comment
Roberta Baskin's avatar

Spiders BIG enough to eat a mouse? Oh my! I learn something new with each of your posts. You make me laugh and cry...Today leaving us with the sobering drama of an abandoned nest.

Expand full comment
Maura Casey's avatar

Sad, no?

Expand full comment
Katharine Hill's avatar

Glad to have a diversion this morning. Thank you, Maura, for bringing us a scary spider to dwell on.

Expand full comment
Maura Casey's avatar

Better spiders in our house than in the House. Or the White House!

Expand full comment
CINDA MOORE's avatar

Loved today’s story and can relate. For 40 years we lived 30 miles northwest of Denver in the mountains and experienced the best and not so wonderful gifts of nature. In “retirement “ we moved to a more citified area of the state, but fortunately have a protected area behind our backyard where wildlife feel comfortable coming close to the back fence. Every single day that I am able to watch them getting on with their lives I grab the peace they share.

Expand full comment
Maura Casey's avatar

How beautiful that you give them a place where they can be safe.

Expand full comment
Lisa H. Brownell's avatar

Your wolf spider and his descendants must have migrated to my house! I only see them this time of year. Thanks for sharing — this wonderful column, that is, not your scary 8-legged friend!

Expand full comment
Maura Casey's avatar

Your cat will take care of them! the bite is not supposed to be that harmful. Still....

Expand full comment
Mary Morgan's avatar

Hah! If only I could sit long enough to write about all the critters outside! Songdogs (coyotes) gave me chills a few times. Now I only carry a tiny air horn for when they come too close as Max and I are forced to walk at dusk to avoid the heat. We are blessed with 3 packs across this broad eastern side of my valley. So when a few howl off to the SW of us, Max and I stop to listen for the answering songs on the other points. My excitement this summer was seeing one of our tiny Ermine in person! Three times!

Loved this writing, still smiling and feeling encouraged by your shared love of wild things.

Expand full comment
Maura Casey's avatar

I love it too that we share this!

Expand full comment
Melinda Sue Warner's avatar

Re: Your found, as yet unattended to next. As I said to my father when he took me to see the movie Bambi, "This (movie) is gonna make me cry!!" I do hear your voice telling every word of every column.

Expand full comment
Maura Casey's avatar

Thank you, Mindy!

Expand full comment
Susan Kietzman's avatar

I love nature's drama, sometimes from a distance!

Expand full comment
Maura Casey's avatar

Me too!

Expand full comment
Dr. Carole Rollins's avatar

Oh, Maura, you bring such joy to my heart and a warm welcome to my day. I am smiling. Thank you. You are such a wonderful story teller.

Expand full comment
Julie Gammack's avatar

…ahhhhhhhhhhh…I needed that

Expand full comment
CYNTHIA DICKSTEIN's avatar

Love your wildlife articles, love to write too, and love my good friend Maura

Expand full comment
Maura Casey's avatar

Back atcha, girlfriend!

Expand full comment