Nature in Our Yard: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

We are so blessed to have a strip of woods lining the yard at the back of our house. These are old woods, with very tall trees that were never torn down when this plan was built. And because of those woods, we don't have to go on a nature walk away from home to do nature study (although we all really enjoy those trips). But more recently we are coming to realize that being so close to nature has it's, shall we say, not-so-positive side (I hate being negative). In all fairness, though, we'll start with the things we enjoy.

THE GOOD:

THE BAD:

The picture above shows an anthill....more like an ant condominium...over near the swingset, of all places...grrrr)
This is a hole of some sort of burrowing creature that is wreaking havoc on our lawn (above), and this is one of those burrowing paths, though it's hard to see in the photo (below). It's path runs from near the bottom left corner up to near the upper right corner.

THE UGLY:

Ok, so maybe not "Ugly". Just not my cup of tea. My girls and Evan sure enjoy them. But when I see them like this...

Blah

Yuck

Ewwwwww

But with all the "bad" and "ugly" that have been showing up lately, I still wouldn't trade this house with it's mini-forest lining the yard. I just have to take a deep breath and deal with these critters. *sigh*

Oh, and our pest control guy is coming on Wednesday to see what we can do about the burrowing critter. And we are looking into a lawn care company to help rid us of those nasty ants. :-) God helps those who help themselves, right?

TTFN

~Tina