The house of Lekindrick...

Meet Lekindrick. Yep. This is usually all we see of him. I think he's telling us EXACTLY what he thinks of his neighbors (namely, us!) And yep - that is his backside.
Lekindrick is, however, what appears to be our dominant male gopher tortoise. And he "dances." Did you know turtles "dance?" I didn't. Not until the hubs came running in the house to describe - in detail - the scene he'd just stumbled upon. Watching a grown man strut around & bob his head is hilarious, let me tell you! I wish I'd gotten it on video, it was that good. Anyway, seems Lekindrick & Sheniqua were "on a date" and like dancing... and THAT, we think, is how we ended up with a Bartholomew...


Meet Sheniqua!

She's a gopher tortoise - and this picture does her no justice. These things are BIG. Well, not huge, but the biggest darn turtles I've seen in the wild!

Sheniqua (and I'm sure I'm not spelling her name right) lives on our property with at least 4 of her siblings &/or offspring. We found her and her mate, Lekindrick, during construction of our little cabin & immediately fell in love with them.

It's a funny thing to see a grumpy, gruffy, redneck man trying to protect an innocent, less than warm & and fuzzy creature from the mean old construction workers - who are only trying to do their job & build our house!

Gopher Gold!

 We found them during the build. My hubby, who is not usually an animal lover, found the first one & it was love at first sight!

Our little cabin in the woods...

I'm a lucky woman. See those Oak trees? They called to me. They "had me at hello." Seriously.

Almost 9 years ago, my husband & I embarked on a new journey. We were starting over. New marriage, new land, & had decided to build a new home. Little did he know that the shrubby, wet land we were checking out would have a heart of gold...