the orange trees

My mother was the one who named our acreage Twilight Acres. A name I didn’t quite think fit, but then my idea, as a little kid, would...

the lake

The acreage was completely barren in terms of irrigation. I had mentioned earlier, there were deep furrows between the rows of fruit...

She was only a few days old when we brought her home, still a dried umbilical cord hanging from her belly. She was lanky and wobbly in...

Our first chickens where a breed called Araucanas. I’m not sure how we came to get those as our first birds, when Leghorns, Rhode Island...

My Burmese Python, 9 feet and 40 pounds.	Me, my mom, my grandfather and my brother with Athena.	My dad's pet raccoon, named Demon, although we called him Cookie Monster. We had him since he was 14 days old and his eyes were closed. He loved playing with our Doberman, Heidi.
My pet alligator Gatorade in the kitchen.	My pet squirrel, Earl. We bottle fed him as a baby. He lived a top our curtains. He was initially afraid of trees and I had to teach him. Here he is on our back porch.	Here we are helping my mother goat Sheba deliver two kids, Shane and Valentino.
This was my pet Armadillo, Lancelot. He was so sweet and followed me around everywhere I went. One of our dogs found him as a tiny baby.	One of our many photos with various snakes my dad would bring home. We'd keep them awhile and then return them to their original place o capture.	A friend found a tiny possum and gave her to me (of course)! Here's my brother and I feeding her with an eyedropper. She grew up fast and was released into the wild.
My Grandmother Gillespie and one of my Boa Constrictors, Fang.