the sleppys

Folk and fauna:

Dad/Dear Husband: 40something husband, father, small business owner, jedi web master, home cook, inspiration, keeper of grounds, sword wielding elf

Mom/Author: 30something, mother, home school professor, seamstress, pianist, mistress of laundry, music instructor, barefooted faerie

Ty: 8 year old, boy, intellectual, intense, iron-willed

Kyle: 7 year old, boy, imaginative, observant, persistent beatboxer

Taylor: 5 year old, girl, sketch artist, painter, card maker

Kendall: 3 year old, girl, singer, whistler, drama queen

Talon: 3 year old, girl, hugger, fearless climber, extrovert

Isis: 6 year old, female, short-haired, square-jawed, loyal Boxer

Beowulf: hatched early 2011. Red Rat type corn snake. We feed him baby mice. It’s fun to watch him eat.

Thor: b. June 25, 2011 (or thereabouts) and joined our clan in early August. He’s the color of a thunderstorm and is comfortable in our Sleppy-dom, which may sometimes mean that he’s being worn as a hat.

Black Ears and White Ears: Two mostly white rabbits that live outside. When a neighbor gave them to us a couple of years ago, they were already a few years old.

Young, domestic-type birds were found in our backyard on a rainy October night. We keep them in a spare cage.

Perished fauna:

Orion: b. Oct 2010, d. July 2011. As a four month old rescue, we tried to adopt him, but he was too feral to care. After running away twice, his fate caught up to him, and he was laid to rest next to the Awesome Jordan.

Jordan, 1995-2010, RIP: male, Sylvester cat. Lived in the back porch on pleasant days. Slept in the utility room on cold nights. Constantly meowing, even after he’d been fed. Didn’t like kids or dogs. He kept the stray cats and rodents at bay.

Living flora:

We, but mostly Dad, keep a container and raised bed garden that includes, but is not limited to, basil, beans, blue daze, cilantro, cucumbers, fountain grass, gardenias, jasmines, ivies, lantanas, marigolds, milkweeds, pentas, peppers, pothos, pineapples, radishes, sage, salvias, squash, thyme, tomatoes, and zinnias. Being nature-friendly folk, we welcome butterflies, caterpillars, ladybugs, beetles, spiders, frogs, lizards, snakes, cardinals, jays, doves, and birds of prey and carrion.

Perished flora goes in the compost pile and becomes earth.