OK, I have to post this in case you all are wondering if we are going to continue trying to smother this thing forever. The black widow did finally die (Nov. 21), so I took her out into the driveway and took some better pictures before smashing her (just in case she had viable eggs living inside her.)

Recent animal adventures include:

• a 10 point buck my husband killed while hunting on a friends property.  It's his first "big" buck and he was quite proud. The children helped butcher it and went with him to take the head to the taxidermists. Don't you love "field trips"?
  

•  a ruffled grouse my 101/2 year old caught in his box trap.  he put it in a feed sack because it was scuffing its head trying to get out of the trap. I knew it couldn't stay in a feed sack until my husband got home, so (after checking to be sure grouse were in season) I asked him if he thought he could butcher it. He and his (11 1/2 year old) brother have helped friends with chicken butchering several times. He said he could, so I put the two of them to work on it. It turns out grouse are different from chickens (imagine that!) and they couldn't figure out how to detach the guts from the backbone. I ended up helping them to cut the other pieces of meat off the backbone & we just threw it away with the guts attached. A little more anatomy than I bargined for, but it was worth it to see how suprised my country boy husband was when he learned what we had done. And seeing a bird esophagus was really cool too.

• a racoon caught in the same trap. My husband helped the boys butcher that. They plan to eat it - I am not cooking it or tasting it. I have my limits. And they are going back to the same taxidermist to have him make it into a coonskin cap.

So, not exactly how Charlotte Mason would do nature study. A little more death than I would prefer. But educational all the same.

Oh, and we have a new kitty which my 2 1/2 year old named Snow White. And the seven dwarfs all love her. So at least something is still alive around here.