When I Say Ugly, I MEAN Ugly...

We spend most of our summers at the lake and because I am on maternity leave we are spending more time than usual up there. Why not? I'll never have this kind of freedom again, so we're taking advantage of it.

I think some of you know that my husband is also a professional bass fisherman which means he spends a fair amount of his free time practice-fishing and doing tournaments - he had one this weekend. What I'm getting at is that while he is gone, I am with the kids keeping them entertained and this is often accomplished by playing with them in the water at our little section of beach.

After Saturday's experience I am now scanning our little piece of shoreline a lot more closely before any one of us dangles one tiny toe in the water...Livi was safe in her playpen, the dog was tied up, Dani was coloring in her books and wanting to get in the water with me but I asked her to wait a sec until I could get cooled off, which took all of 60 seconds because as you know, children are DEMANDING.

I ducked under and came up feeling cool as a cumcumber and Danielle decided she no longer wanted to get in the water. Seconds after this I'm a very happy mummy to have a child with the attention span of a gnat. I sat down in the camp chair (in the water) and watched Marla (the dog) walk 3-4 feet to my left and there she was sniffing at something, but I don't see anything, so I turned my attention back to the kids and then I heard a low growl. The kind of sound MY DOG DOES NOT MAKE. I looked back over and focused on a furry grey head that turned to stare at me and in the same second I screamed, ran for the kids, and screamed again for my neighbours, Clark and Marilyn, who came running.

It was the sickly, perhaps rabid, raccoon that has had everyone at the camp on high alert for the past two weeks. To make this story shorter, let's just say I owe Clark & Marilyn and another neighbour Paul (who did the dirty work getting rid of the critter...who knew that 2x4 would come in handy?) a lot of alcohol as thanks!

That drama ended quickly and then we looked over to find THIS UGLY THING sitting there on top of our pontoon wondering where the hell his dinner (and breakfast and lunch and brunch the day after) had disappeared to. It's a turkey vulture and they are prehistoric and frightening.

And then a bird hit the windshield that same evening.

After this, I think we're going to move into a bubble.