I feel like lately I’ve been locked in a battle with weeds. Can I mow them around my house faster, or do they grow too fast? The danger is that if the grass gets too tall, it gives the snakes more places to hide. It’d be one thing if they weren’t venomous, but pit vipers are dangerous. I should probably take care of the vegetation around the road too.
That said, the golden week has ended without nothing much happening.
About Katsuragi’s ex-boyfriend, he was working when they paid reparations, so he probably won’t be coming by so soon, now that the golden week is over. Yamanaka (the old lady that knows Katsuragi) seemed worried about it, and said that she talked about it here and there in the village.
We might still need to be careful, but I think it will be fine if we keep our eyes open. Not that I can do much except listen.
Today, as usual, my chickens are running around the mountain. And Pochi is the one accompanying me.
I kind of feel like lately it hasn’t been seeing me as its owner so much. It’s less like it’s accompanying me, and more like it’s babysitting me. It’s kind of alarming.
We patrol around the river, and Pochi catches a pit viper. There really are so many on this mountain. I’m wearing my work clothes, along with boots and socks that are kind of thick, made to be working on a mountain, but what if one bit me…
I also need to look around for hornets during spring and summer. Apparently they aren’t violent during spring (although that doesn’t mean they don’t sting), but they get increasingly aggressive during the summer. If I find a nest, I need to deal with it quickly. I need to be mindful of the ecology of the mountain, or my chickens might be in danger too.
I think the way bugs and animals behave is interesting. There are also mushrooms and edible vegetation, but I don’t know a thing about them. Pops told me that an amateur absolutely shouldn’t mess with mushrooms. We don’t see them too much this time of the year, but apparently as we get into autumn, there are more mushrooms, and people are inclined to pick them. But it’s hard to tell them apart, so apparently every year there are news reports of a few people getting sick from eating poisonous mushrooms around this area.
Come to think of it, I’ve heard of ones that look like shiitake but are poisonous. Scary stuff, mushrooms.
I let Pochi have the pit viper, and it raises its head when it’s done, looking pleased. And then it plunges its head into the river.
“Eh? What? Are you having dessert?”
That sharp beak catches a red swamp crayfish. It’s wriggling, but Pochi tilts its head like it’s asking what to do. So I say to go ahead and eat it.
I’ve heard that they taste like shrimp, but I don’t really feel like going out of my way to cook them. Maybe I will if I need stuff to eat.
That reminds me of Aikawa, my western mountain neighbor, and his pet snake Rin. It feels weird to call Rin that.
Apparently Rin likes red swamp crayfish. There’s a river on the western mountain too, but it’s pretty rapid, so it’s not a good environment for red swamp crayfish. The river close to my house on the other hand, is shallow and not too rapid.
I’ve actually heard about other rivers on this mountain, but I haven’t checked them out.
Red swamp crayfish tend to propagate in the outskirts of towns, so they shouldn’t be out in the mountains like this, but apparently someone dumped them in this area and they multiplied. Who did that? Show yourself.
It looks like Pochi has a hard time with the shell. It’s funny how it’s struggling a bit with a crayfish shell, when it took down a boar.
“Come to think of it, Aikawa and I talked about me visiting his mountain…”
I hope he wasn’t just being polite. But it’s still best to not postpone it, so I should contact him through Line soon. What do you mean I’m lazy? Leave me alone.
I finish my patrol, and get a response by the time I get home. He says I can go any time.
“Excuse me, does Rin eat red swamp crayfish?”
“She’ll be happy if you bring them alive.”
He responds. I guess they go bad soon after dying, so I should keep them as fresh as possible. But before I go there, I’ll ask Pochi.
“Hey Pochi. Are red swamp crayfish easy to catch?”
Pochi raises its head and clucks, like it’s saying ‘just leave it to me’.
“Then I want to catch a lot of them, so we can take them as a gift when we go to Aikawa’s place, but…”
Then Pochi takes off running towards the river for some reason.
“Eeh!? Wait, Pochi! Not today! I didn’t mean today!!”
I run after Pochi, after it jumped to conclusions and went back to the river. Please listen until I’m done talking.
“It’s not today! Later! I’ll tell you when!”
I tell Pochi after it already caught two, and it pecks at me hard. So unreasonable.
Those two red swamp crayfish end up being snacks for Tama and Yuma. Although it’s still weird how they have trouble eating because they can’t remove the shells very well.
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