More evidence of The Crazy, but first to lull you into a false sense of security...

OK so I know this isn't the most flattering picture but it's the only one I have which shows how tall my grandma's tomato plants are. They're huge! In case you can't tell, they're the same height as Apollo.

Some veggies grandma gave me. Some of those carrots looked funky, she said it may be because they were growing around rocks. One of my earliest memories involves my great granddad (grandma's dad) who used to tell Aimee and I to go out into the garden and get our own carrot. He'd wash it off and we'd eat them like they were candy. I think I was around 3 years old.

Mom had apples everywhere! So many, in fact, that the elk kept coming into the yard and eating them, despite her many crazy-old-lady like cd's hanging from the tree's to scare them away. When I first drove up I thought, what kind of kooky old lady thing is she doing to her tree's?? It seems they worked on the elk for a couple weeks but it didn't take long for them to wise up to the reflections caused by the cd's. While we were there, the elk walked up into the yard at least twice and ate some branches, apples and stomped holes into the yard. It was like revenge for insulting their intelligence! Ha! If the elk only knew what was in the freezer!

If you remember, there was an incident right about this time last year involving a cougar in the freezer. There may or may not have been a weasel in the freezer, a skunk,* fox, salmon head, or anything else that died fully or partially intact on the property.

Well this time when visiting Mom, she immediately gave us a tour of the freezer without warning us about its current inhabitants. I wasn't really surprised to see this poor soul lying on top of quart bags of frozen berries though.

Apparently one of her pheasants died and she's planning on getting it stuffed. (Yes!!) Oh yeah, and under the bags of blackberries, strawberries and blueberries is a black plastic garbage bag with an elk head in it. It's the last elk she got all by herself. She's so proud! I have to say holding the bird by its feet was damn creepy but I promise, I only did it long enough for her to move the berries out of the way so she could show Apollo the elk bag.

Anyway, Mom has paid her debt to society for freezing the cougar skin without letting the officials know she trapped it. (Did you know there's a specific period of time you have within to report a cougar death?) The elk is totally legit! The bird? Well let's all just hope this sort of crazy isn't genetic. *grumbling*


* Ziploc still hasn't responded to Mom's complaint letter about their bags not containing the scent of the skunk and contaminating all other foods in the freezer. I have to admit though, it was I that prompted her, while snickering, to write the letter. Man, if I could have been a fly on the wall at Ziploc when they got that letter!