A little drive, a furry visitor, and a response from my brother

I had planned to head for Kingsland to do grocery shopping and some errands this morning, but thought better of it considering it was Saturday and one of my stops was Wal*Mart.  I really didn’t want to battle those weekend crowds so close to Christmas, so I decided to wait until Monday afternoon for those chores.  Instead, I just drove into Folkston to get some milk and bread to tide me over.

Since I can no longer take Emma for a walk, we hopped into the car in the afternoon so she could at least experience the sights and smells of the Swamp Island Drive.  Since the sun had finally come out, mama gator was basking away as we drove by.  I didn’t see her little one, though.

Not much wildlife was out and about at that time in the afternoon, but we did see an Eastern phoebe hawking insects from this branch.  Phoebes have the habit of almost constantly pumping their tails up and down when perched.  It took us an hour to do the eight mile loop, and we were soon back at the rig.
As we sat outside, Emma went into defender mode and began yodeling away.  I grabbed my camera to look around to see what had upset her so.

Aha!  One of the very large fox squirrels had come to visit the Volunteer Village.  We have several varieties of live oak surrounding the rigs, and this guy was taking advantage of the abundant acorns.  As I crept up on it, I could actually hear it crunching away on the acorns.  It was not bothered a bit by my approach or by Emma’s throaty barking.  I’d say there’s plenty of natural food available for these squirrels as this one seemed very well fed.  I just hope it stays away from my bird feeders.
In last night’s post I alluded to the fact that I had reservations about my brother and me consuming some of his turkey chile in the enclosed space of the RV.  This morning, I received an email from him with a response to my concerns should we so indulge.  I include it here:

                                Yep, he got it right, except I’ll be the one with the cane in hand!
Many other bloggers have posted about the tragedy in Connecticut yesterday in a manner much better than I could.  I am very saddened, as we all are, about what’s happened.  What better reason then to seize the day (Carpe Diem)!
Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy