The Garden Delay

  With all of the construction (and deconstruction) being done on the Little Bayou House, the yard looks a mess.  While my guys are brilliant when it comes to building, cleaning up their mess is another story.  Most of the time, things stay where they are dropped.  Well, I have had enough of this!  It is springtime and my gardens need to be planted!  This is impossible at the moment because of the stacks of lumber that block all access to said garden.  I would have to climb over the fence if I wish to even step foot in there much less do any serious planting.  So, there was just one thing to do.  I took a break from the painting and staining to do a bit of decluttering of the yard.

  Scrap pieces of lumber were picked up one by one to be piled into the wheelbarrow.  These were to be hauled to the burn pile.  As I was grabbing the scraps, I unintentionally uncovered a nesting site filled with tiny white eggs.  Oh, geez!  Not this again.  Last year, I was keeping tabs on a skink's nest down by the water's edge when a bad storm washed ashore.  Mama Skink had to abandon the nest.  The flood waters had already killed a few of the lizards that had hatched but a clutch of eggs remained.  These were relocated into the greenhouse where they all hatched and the tiny skinks lived happily in the protected area of the greenhouse.   Some are still there.  But, today, the eggs were much smaller.  These belong to a different skink.  This was the nest of a Ground Skink.  A Ground Skinks are tiny, brown lizards that prefer leaf litter as a hiding spot.  They are quick about darting under cover when danger is near.  Being only about five inches long, it is easy to overlook the Ground Skinks.  Mama Ground Skink chose to make her nest under boards in the very spot that I wished to clean.  That put an end to my work for the day.  

  After discovering the Ground Skink's nest, several of the boards were gently replaced to hide the eggs.  Hopefully, my bungling did not disturb the lizard and her nest too much.  The boards will stay until the eggs hatch and the little lizards are on their merry way.  I can live with this a bit longer, I guess.  The things I do for the critters of the Bayou!! We may be buying our tomatoes this year!