Fruitless Friday

Hi all. This is The Daily Bone and I'm your bored doggie host Chester L. W. Spaniel.

My ghostwriter was really tired today (and still has to work the weekend.) She's going to bed in a minute. But I managed to convince her to at least put in a couple pictures for our doggie friends to see.

Now that the pears are all gone, and the bird feeder wrecked, the Evil Squirrel Cartel has nothing else to eat in our yard. (Oh, I forgot to tell you the squirrels chewed up the hanging bird feeder so badly we had to throw it in the garbage!) The silver maple helicopter seeds are all gone too. So nyah nyah squirrels! There's nothing for you to eat in our yard any more and you have no one to blame but yourselves.

But in the meantime, it's pretty boring around here …

Snoooorrrrrrrrrk!

Crummy overtime!

Hello. This is The Daily Bone and I’m your humble doggie host Chester L. W. Spaniel.

My ghostwriter (Mom) is working some major overtime this week! She’s had hardly any time to help me and my esteemed colleague Joseph (Joey dog) Stephens with The Daily Bone. Today she went in at 7am and didn’t come home till almost 6pm! Fortunately Dad has been doing the cooking, or else we’d all be starving!

Here's Joey dog presenting pictures of a few meals.

Pasta with meat sauce and steamed vegies.  Ginger ale and a bowl of watermelon balls for dessert. 

Ribs, collard greens, and fries! 

However this thing, below, is something that keeps turning up on our table; and Mom had to bribe us with a french fry for us to even look at it! Apparently the humans who have vegie gardens always have so much of this stuff that they hand it out for free. 

Personally, we'd throw it on the compost pile! 

Now that’s more like it! Chinese take-out: fresh spring rolls with peanut sauce, bourbon chicken and steamed rice.

Unfortunately, that's all we have time for tonight. Our ghostwriter is going to bed early so she can go to work tomorrow again!

Harumph! 

And Now We Have None

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program for this TDB news alert. I’m your concerned doggie reporter Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel coming at you live from the back yard. It’s an emergency situation! Someone has stolen the very last pear from our pear tree!

My energetic colleague, Special Agent Chester L. W. Spaniel is searching for clues as I speak. Our prime suspect is, naturally, a thug from the Evil Squirrel Cartel. Although, we have spotted an operative from the Conniving Chipmunk Consortium sneaking around the yard today.

Crawling under every bush.

Investigating every corner. 

Leaving no stone unturned.

The situation is dire. This year, due to the wet weather, the blossoms on the pear tree were ruined and only a precious few pears grew. 

Oh, wait … I think there’s been a discovery. Ladies and gentlemen, and doggies, yes, evidence has been found! It's a partially eaten pear! Yes. In this exclusive TDB photo below, is the last pear of the year! The top part has obviously been chewed by a small mammal.

Hmmmmm. 

Chomp! 

Well, no sense in letting it go to waste!

This has been an exclusive TDB Live News Flash. All the news. All the time. As it happens. This is your humble reporter returning you to your regularly scheduled program. 

Oh, and one more thing: Happy Watermelon Day!

Mush-a-boom!

Good evening friends and fans. This is a TDB special report. I’m your enthusiastic doggie correspondent Chester L. W. Spaniel.

Wow! You won’t believe what we found in our own back yard! The compost pile is suddenly covered with mushrooms! It’s amazing! It's spectacular! I have lost count of how many there are!

(Don’t worry, I didn’t eat any of them.) Our ghostwriter said they’re more toadstools, and that they grew because of all the wet weather. However, I think there must be a toad convention, or a big croaking concert coming up if they need that many stools too sit on! As you can see, there are even balcony seats set up along the trunk of the bush.

We’ll be sure to keep you updated on this auspicious event! I can assure you, I'm going to be working overtime in hopes to see this imminent amphibian gathering!

We now return you to the video of the same name in progress.

                       

Update: 9:43PM

Look who showed up on the front step! We brought him inside for an interview and photo op, then sent him on his way to the back yard toad stool festival.

Peppermint Bugs

Happy Monday everybody. Welcome to The Daily Bone. I’m your scholarly doggie reporter Chester L. W. Spaniel along with my studious associate Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel.

It’s a nice peaceful day today. It hasn’t rained—yet—but it’s plenty humid and damp around here. We went out into the yard and looked closely at the flowers that were flourishing in the summer heat. We have several varieties of mint blooming, and the bugs of all types love it.

Do you see the two little spiderlings in this picture below? We were trying to get a picture of the wasp on the left. But when we enlarged the photo we noticed the spiders. They picked a good place to hunt! 

We spoke too soon about the rain! Here comes another storm! 

See you later! 

Beetle Mania

Hello fellow naturalists. I’m your scientific doggie host Chester L. W. Spaniel, along with my erudite associate Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel and this is The Daily Bone.

This is part three of our series on the wonderful little things you can find in your own back yard. It’s that time of year again when insects are everywhere. Mosquitoes buzz our ears and flies swarm on our doggie poops. But we also see lots of butterflies and moths. The crickets chirp all night, fire flies blink in the dark, and cicadas buzz from the tree tops during the day. Today we're looking at some interesting beetles.

This Black Vine Beetle (not native) is about the size of an apple seed. We found it on the kitchen floor. It probably came in on our fur or somebody's clothes. Apparently it’s a real pest because it eats up all kinds of plants. We don't have much trouble with them, though.

This Red Lily Beetle (not native) is one that Mom hates with a passion. They are very pretty and make an engaging squeak if you catch one in your hand. But don’t be fooled by this. Red lily beetles will absolutely decimate Asian lilies. Their grubs can eat an entire lily plant within days, and hide inside lumps their own poop. Mom won’t hesitate to squish them on sight!

Here are the last of the Asian lilies. All the rest are long gone: destroyed by red lily beetles.

Japanese Beetle (not native either!) They destroy lots of nice things, especially roses and the leaves of linden and birch trees. In this picture mating beetles are eating up the pink petals of a beautiful rose. Mom collects these beetles by the handful, drops them in front of an ant's nest and quickly stomps on them before they can fly away. The ants then clean up their corpses. Any grubs she finds in the ground, she feeds to Elvis the gecko. Yum!

Dad was surprised to find this big beetle in the back yard. At first he thought it was a type of stink bug. However, we looked it up and discovered it was an American Carrion Beetle and the only native beetle of the lot!

OK, your assignment is an easy one: go out and find your own bugs and creepy-crawlies.

Addendum: Look at this big gigantic beetle one of our humans found yesterday! Wow!!!

Down and Dirty

Hi everybody!This is The Daily Bone and I’m your lovable doggie host Chester L. W. Spaniel along with my perky colleague Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel.

Today we’re continuing our series on fascinating little things you can find in your own backyard if you take the time to really look closely. Yup, today we’re leaving no stone unturned!

Wow! Look at these great little pill bugs. Did you know that these little guys are not actually bugs, but crustaceans? They can trace their ancestry back hundreds of millions of years!

A big nest of ants.

A respectable cricket.

A tiny spider.

Hey, what's that? 

Rumble rumble rumble.

This is Chester L. W. Spaniel and Joseph (Joey dog) Spaniel, your faithful doggie reporters for The Daily Bone. Sorry, but we're going to have to conclude our documentary for now. There's another storm coming. Bye!