lbeth1950https://nutsrok.wordpress.comNow that I'm done with the bothersome business of workday world, I am free to pursue my passion, capturing the stories I've loved all my life. The ones you'll read on my blog are good old Southern stories, a real pleasure to relay. Here in the South, we are proud of our wacky folks. I've preyed shamelessly on my family, living and dead, friends, neighbors, and acquaintances, often changing the names to protect the innocent and not so innocent. My mother illustrates my blog. I come from a rollicking family of nuts, hence the name of the blog Nutsrok Enjoy.
After filling their starving bellies with greasy stew and quarts of ale, Andrew and Molly signed away their next four years, too sated to consider the uncertainty of the life facing them. In fact, they were signing away the certainty of poverty, degradation, and possible imprisonment had they remained.
In that time, people could not expect to rise above their station. Having lost the position as farm servants to which they were born, it was unlikely they’d ever find anything more than seasonal farm employment, working mostly at planting or harvest when the workload was heavy. Starvation would likely have been their eventual lot. Should they stay in the city, it’s unlikely they’d find work. Many in their situation drifted into prostitution and crime. It is likely Molly would have dried of disease, drink, or victimization on the streets and Andrew would have ended up on the gallows or bound over as an involuntary indentured servant. Their best chance for a better life lay with the choice they’d made.
Once they’d signed, the agent wasted no time escorting them on board the Elizabeth Ann. She looked imposing from without, but her charm faded as Mr. Peabody led them deep into the bowels of the ship. Their quarters in the lowest level were dark, wet, and malodorous. There was no provision for privacy. They’d be relieving themselves in the communal slop jar, which would ostensibly be dumped periodically, unless it tipped over first.
Hammocks served for sleeping. There were no other furnishings. Restricted below deck until after sailing to avoid defection, they got a measure of beer and weevilly biscuits three times a day. The smell was horrendous. After their first exhausted sleep, they awoke to find themselves a part of a growing crowd of voluntary and involuntary holdmates ranging from bonded servants like themselves to young children scooped up off the street all the way to prostitutes and hardened criminals who’d barely escaped the gallows. The strong preyed on the weak. Their miserable sleep was interrupted by vomiting, moaning, and the occasional fight. Periodically, the door above opened and another unfortunate joined their miserable lot.
In truth, indentured servants were enslaved for the period of their indenture, usually four to seven years, children till the age of twenty-one. Their bondage could be sold without their consent. Marriage required the master’s consent. Should women become pregnant, their period of servitude could be extended due to decreased productivity during the pregnancy. Children of unwed mothers were born free, but subject to being placed in the care of the church. Unlike slaves, the indentured could appeal to the courts to contest mistreatment and did receive twenty-five to fifty acres of land, some tools, seed, and clothing upon completing their service. Like slaves, they were most often ill-treated. Having come to the colony in this way was no impediment to their future.
Many bonded servants prospered and got a good start to a free life. It definitely could be a road to a better life.
If you could be a character from a book or film, who would you be? Why?
Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn seems to be a most admirable character. Having been brought up motherless by an alcoholic, abusive father, he is objective about relationships but accepting of true friendship. He is totally independent and nonjudgmental as evidenced by his treatment of the slave, Jim. The only time he shows a bit of loneliness is at his and Tom’s funeral when no one welcomes him home but is is accepting of loving kindness when it presents itself.
This pair of bluebirds is considering taking up residence in our bluebird house. I hope we make the cut. Earlier today, three lady blue birds were fighting over the property.
We have probably had a box in this spot for fifteen to twenty years about ten feet from our back door. We only put this box here because a pair tried to nest in a hanging basket there. I’m pretty sure one pair came back as much at least five years. The last few years they raised as many as five clutches. They paid very little attention to us after the first day or so.
Bluebirds may live several years and possibly mate for life. However, this does not preclude either bird from mating with others, particularly if the Bluebird population in an area is high. Bluebird divorces may happen particularly if if first mating period is unsuccessful.
Mama bluebird usually spends about twenty minutes on the nest when laying. Papa sirs on a tree branch are rooftop guarding her. I don’t envy the constant parenting once the fledglings hatch. The parents constantly fly back and forth bring increasingly larger mouthfuls then carrying poop away.
Most Eastern Bluebirds Mate for life, But there is More to It
In this article, I explore whether Eastern Bluebirds mate for life. Bluebirds are known for their colors and soft songs, but their love lives hold some intriguing secrets. It turns out that most bluebirds mate for life, forming strong bonds that can endure as long as they survive. However, don’t let their seemingly monogamous nature fool you, as there’s more to their relationships than meets the eye.
Male and female Eastern Bluebirds. Photo: Patricia Pierce/Flickr/CC by 2.0.
Most Bluebirds (95%) mate for life, and mated pairs can stay together for as long as they survive. In the event of the death or disappearance of the male or female, the remaining bird replaces it with a new mate. Despite long-term relationships between mated pairs, studies have shown that both males and females routinely engage in extra-pair copulations. Genetic analysis of nestling bluebirds demonstrated that a male bluebird sired 20-30% of multiple broods analyzed.
Bluebird divorces may occur when a mated pair has repeated nest failures or when females attempt multiple broods with more than one male. After a divorce, the pair splits, and each bird tries with a new partner.
Only on rare occasions, one male pairs up with two females, or two males pair up with one female.
Do bluebirds mate for life?
Studies on Western Bluebirds found that most mated pairs stay together for life.
In long-term studies of Western Bluebirds’ natural history, scientists found that only about 6% of 117 pairs studied changed partners when both members of the pair were still alive.
A separate study conducted by Dickinson et al. (1996) found that only 3% of the 106 mated pairs studied switched partners. The switching of partners took place as females attempted multiple broods in a single breeding season and changed males between attempts.
Not such a study exists for Eastern Bluebirds, but field observations suggest that most bird pairs mate for life while both male and female are alive.
There is a lot we do not know about the mated life of the bluebird.
Bluebird pair formation?
Field observations indicate that many birds arrive on the breeding grounds as pairs. It appears that they begin to form pairs either while still in the wintering grounds or during the migration north when they congregate in flocks.
Field observations suggest that migratory bluebirds that are not paired upon arrival in the breeding grounds establish a breeding territory and find a mate within about a week.
Non-migratory Bluebirds generally pair up with the last year’s partner. Even though mated pairs appear not to interact very much after the breeding season, year-round resident or non-migratory Bluebirds are likely to re-mate with the same partner.
The timing of pair formation varies with latitude.
Pairs start forming first during mid-January in the warm southern states. Birds in the northern regions begin to form pairs approximately during February and March.
When is the pair bond official?
An indication that bluebirds are mated is when both the male and female interact and are seen together. But perhaps the most telling sign of pair formation is when both the male and female enter together a nesting cavity or nest box.
But whether the initial association is to remain as a breeding pair depends on additional pair interactions.
The male performs a nest demonstration consisting of bringing nesting material to the cavity. Once she enters the cavity for a first inspection of the interior, the deal appears to be sealed.
The female then accepts the demonstration and approves of the cavity, and starts bringing nesting material herself.
The male can change his mind about a female and reject her by removing the nesting material she started to bring to the nesting cavity.
If the male accepts the female as a mate, he will start offering her food as a sign of reaffirming acceptance of the breeding mate. Then they both enter the nesting cavity confirming the pair formation for the breeding season.
Copulatory Behavior
After pair formation and territory establishment, bluebirds start copulating. Mated pairs copulate for approximately eight days before the first egg is laid and continue six days after the clutch’s last egg has been laid.
The female appears to initiate a copulatory event. While perched, she crouches, keeping her back horizontal while dropping and shaking her wings and slightly cocking her tail. This action is called a female’s solicitation posture.
Eastern Bluebird copulations are seldom observed in the field.
The male mounts the female’s back and tries to make cloacal contact. Copulations generally last about 3 to 5 seconds.
Most copulations take place on perches. Although sometimes males try to mount females within the nesting cavity, these attempts are unsuccessful as females do not show interest while in the nest.
Mating for life does not mean copulating with only one partner.
Field ornithologists seldom report copulations outside the mated pair. However, genetic analysis of broods in several Eastern Bluebird populations studied showed that 20-30% of nestlings are sired by more than one male (Gowaty 1996 and Gowaty and Bridges 1991b).
This relatively high percentage of chicks sired by other males suggests that both males and females evade each other’s attention to sneak extra-pair copulations with neighboring birds.
Interestingly, this is the period when the construction of the nest and copulation are occurring, and the male keeps a close watch of the female to precisely keep her from straying and mating with another male to ensure that the brood he is going to raise is his. However, the males do the same and go around mating with other females.
This behavior is not rare among birds. Many studies have found similar behavior among several species of birds.
In areas densely populated by bluebirds where breeding territories are adjacent to each other, the percentage of nestlings sired by more than one male is higher than in areas less densely populated by bluebirds.
If breeding territories are of low quality, birds must travel outside their territories to find food.
Females in low-quality territories that traveled outside during their fertile period had more extra-pair copulations. The genetic analysis of their offspring determined this.
Mating with other birds outside the mated pair may be opportunistic rather than something sought after by the bird engaging in extra-pair copulations.
These studies took place in North Carolina, U. S., and Ontario, Canada. The wide separation between study sites suggests that the practice of extra-pair copulation is widespread across the bluebirds’ range.
The male Bluebird tries to make sure the brood is his.
Males guard their females closely during the period of high fertility, which is when the mated pair is copulating before and during egg-laying.
Interestingly, males that guard their females more closely have more young sired by other males. Perhaps these males are familiar with their mate’s tendencies to stray onto other territories. It may also suggest that males do not guard females all the time.
Another interesting fact regarding bluebird extra-pair copulations is that first-time breeders have a higher percentage of broods sired by more than one male than pairs that have been together and bred for an extended period of time.
There are limits to staying together
There is conflicting evidence on whether pairs that fail to succeed on a nesting attempt split to try again with another partner.
Ornithologists have found that most pairs that had successful nesting attempts stayed and re-nested with the same partner.
The same study also found that only 30-50% of pairs that failed on a nesting attempt stayed together and re-nested with the same partner.
Said it differently, 70 to 50% of the pairs that failed on a nesting attempt will switch partners hoping for a successful nesting attempt with another partner.
Eastern Bluebirds re-mate with another partner if one dies. Surprisingly, re-mating with another partner can happen within hours after one member of the pair’s death.
Rarely, two males form a breeding arrangement with a single female. All participants help with all breeding activities.
More than two birds in a mated pair?
The vast majority of breeding Bluebirds are monogamous. Gowaty (1980) observed 177 nesting attempts by color-banded birds. The majority of pairs (95.5%) were composed of males and females.
On rare occasions, and perhaps due to the lack of nesting cavities, two females and a male form a breeding family. The two females build the nest and lay eggs in the same nest. Both partake in the incubation of the eggs taking turns or often sitting on the eggs simultaneously.
In the case of one male and two females breeding arrangement, it is not clear if the second female or both females mate exclusively with the one male or if one female comes from elsewhere with already fertilized eggs.
Even rarer is when two males breed with a single female, as with the other breeding arrangements, all members of the family help with all breeding activities.
For me, dogs make the best pets. I’ve had so many to love over the years. They fill the hole in my heart that my children left as they grew up. So many have found me when I wasn’t looking for them. One strayed up to my house and stole my heart. I picked one up on a freezing morning when I know she wouldn’t have lasted the day. We adopted one when just before he was euthanized. They are endlessly loving.
CrocIzzy
On the opposite end of the scale, I think snakes make horrible pets.
Andrew Wharton was born to be a farm servant like his father and grandfather before him, the line extending back much further than anyone bothered to remember. His work was not a choice; he was born to work Hampton Grange and expected to die there. The only surprise was when pretty Molly Peace chose him. Ecstatic in his luck, he couldn’t believe the rollicking dairy maid favored him above all the hopeful lads pursuing her when he’d done no more than sneak shy peeks at her in Chapel. The confusion of love and glorious sensuality overwhelmed the young man who’d never contemplated the possibility that life could hold pleasure. Molly saw joy in everything, the sweet breath of the cows she milked, the warmth of the sun on her face, and the sweet sent of the hay she bundled, not seeming to notice the manure in the cow’s tail, the slogging rains, or the sneezing brought on by the hay.
Their life at Hampton Grange offered the couple little beyond a small hovel, milk and cheese from the dairy, a daily ration of bread and beer, the privilege of wood gathering, and scant wages. Once a year, they were due a measure of wool for their own use. Compared to the conditions many experienced, it was adequate under Old Squire John’s management. Left to his gambling heir, it was soon lost to bankruptcy, leaving them adrift.
Andrew and his new wife Molly found themselves standing in the freezing rain wearing all they owned before a pub in Liverpool. After three days’ starving, they were easily persuaded to join an agent for The Virginia Club for food and drink. With no prospects, they were Signed papers of indenture pledging the next four years of their lives in exchange for passage to the Jamestown colony in Virginia. For their volunteer bondage they would receive lodging, food, and clothing, the quality to be determined by their master. They were fortunate in being bound four years. Most were bound seven years. including involuntary prisoners or abductees. At the end of their service, they were entitled to tools, money, and land. Like so many other indentured servants, they could expect years of unrelenting labor and uncertain treatment. In truth, the next few years wouldn’t be greatly different to the life they were accustomed to if they were fortunate enough to be bound to a good master. At least they’d have a start at the end of their time.
This is a guest post by my friend Harvey Hughett. You can follow him on Facebook at Musing Appalachia
This story is about a man who lived in a holler close to Papaw’s place in the backwoods near Mohawk, East Tennessee. He was married to Miz Kitty. Everybody called him “Squint.” His real name was Commodore Ledbedder.
Squint was just a nickname, but he hated to be called Commodore because it was the same name as Commodore Hughett and he didn’t want to be confused with him. Commodore Hughett was known to git hog-nosed on Nathan Gulley’s moonshine ever so often and do things Squint didn’t approve of. Squint got his nickname from the funny way he held his eyes when he was about to get upset with somebody. He’d squint his eyes a certain way, and when he did that you knew you’d better get your butt out of his way. He got his left eye messed up when his first wife shot him in the face for messin’ around. She left him for another man, and Squint joined the army, went to World War II, and fought in France against the Krauts.
He was a big man, about six foot tall, and had big arms and a gruff voice from when he once drank some really bad hootch. There was a time when he served some time in prison for killing a man, but they let him loose because he got a mean lawyer, and they couldn’t make the charge stick.
However, all that was behind Squint. He quit drinkin’, quit carousing, and got religion. However, he didn’t attend my Papaw’s church very often except when there were homecomings and lots of food and activities with the boys in the parking lot. I write in detail about that in my book, Musing Appalachia (You can buy it on Amazon.com. Just search Musing Appalachia by Harvey Hughett).
For the most part, Squint was a loner and made spending money by trapping muskrats in Bent Creek, digging ginseng roots and selling ’em to the hardware store in Morristown. He wasn’t getting rich, but he and Miz Kitty made out good. And he treated her like a queen. Whatever she wanted, he tried to get it for her. Miz Kitty was French by birth. Squint brought two things back with him from the war: a 1901 Springfield rifle and a young French bride.
Squint was descended from strong Scotch and Irish people, and they say, along with his size, that made him a good soldier. His hero was another Tennessean, Sargent Alvin York. You can read about Alvin in Volume One of my book too.
Squint wasn’t without his strange habits. Other than being a loner, he didn’t like anybody coming around his place in the holler or, especially, gittin’ near his woman, Miz Kitty. She was easy on the eyes and had a quaint accent that everybody liked. Her language wasn’t like what the flatlanders talked.
Mamaw used to trade eggs to Miz Kitty and she’d send me over there to deliver them. As a young boy, I was a little afraid but I did what I was supposed to. Papaw always warned me, “Be careful and don’t you make him mad. He killed a man onest.” The first time I saw Squint was when I was fishing on Lick Creek and ran into him. He was busy tending his trapline and I slipped away before he could see me. I went on fishing downstream.
A few days later, I was at Miz Kitty’s house delivering eggs and Squint was there. He squinted his eyes at me and said, “Boy, don’t you dare tell nobody where my traps is, you unnerstand?” I quickly replied, “Yes Sir. You bet, Sir. I ain’t gonna tell nobody.”
He squinted at me a little harder and then said, “Do you know they say that I killed a man? I answered, “Yes Sir.”
He said, “Well, that’s not all true. I wiped out a bunch in the war, and they tried to blame a killin’ on me after I got home. But the fact is, that man needed killin’. He was beatin’ his woman and kids.” Squint never admitted to killin’ his neighbor but people figured that since he was used to doing that kind of thing in the war, and suffered from shell shock in battle, he most likely did.
The facts are that he was a neighbor to the dead man and, being a loner and of a mean disposition, everybody suspected him of the murder. What got him in trouble was when they took him in for questioning and he said, “That scoundrel deserved ever thang he got!”
To clinch a solid confession out of Squint, the mountain sheriff did something that almost always got a man to fess up: he took him to the funeral home in Bulls Gap and left him alone in a room with the body for an hour. That usually unnerved superstitious mountain folk and they soon talked.
After an hour, Squint just said, “That man there is way better off dead than he was alive.”
Pretty sure that was almost a confession; the sheriff then threatened to leave him in the small room with the body all night, with the casket open and with no lights on. Squint, in his matter-of-fact way, just said, “I warn’t never skeered o that sorry bastard when he wuz alive and you can bet yore best coon dog, I shore in Hell ain’t now!” That pretty well sealed it and he was locked up until a smart lawyer got him off the hook.
I wonder if he squinted at the jury?
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I would gladly help someone garden for free. I’d also teach cooking or canning for free. I would definitely not want to clean for free. That’s an onerous task. If anyone out there wants to clean for free, please let me know.
I think a man thought I was trying to pick him up in the garden center yesterday. Like me, he was perusing the bargain plants. When I noticed he’d snagged a magnificent hydrangea, my plant lust kicked in. I fear he thought I was after him, rather than his plants. I merely coveted his hydrangea,not his person. He fended me off by hastily telling me his wife had just loaded his buggy up. Scorned, I assured him I was only after his hydrangea, not him. Fortunately, I found one of my own, so his was safe. It was the fifth one , I’ve been lucky enough to get this spring, hydrangea, not man, I mean.
I have a voracious appetite for plants but must restrict my expenditures in the interest of staying married, I make frequent visits to the markdown area where my favorite garden center typically marks plants down fifty percent, an extreme temptation. This frequently includes overstocks., a true blessing. My landscape plans are directly influenced by these bonanzas. For example, I had envisioned a purple and fuchsia scenario for one front bed but realized I could be equally happy with the numerous showy pots of purple and gold Wave Petunias I greedily grabbed.
I must confess. Plants lead me into deception. I do my best to keep them out of Bud’s direct view till I get them in the ground. I unload them in the front yard so as not to assault his sensibilities as he pulls into the garage. I’m not always in the mood to discuss the landscaping imposes on our budget. I understand it’s perfectly obvious that I’ve bought plants once they’re in the ground but I still practice this pointless subterfuge.
Gardening also interferes with my writing. I can’t wait to get out and get my hands in the dirt in the morning. My mind totally clears as I dig, plant, and ponder where each plant will flourish. Should a plant look unhappy, I look till I find it a happier niche.
After filling their starving bellies with greasy stew and quarts of ale, Andrew and Molly signed away their next four years, too sated to consider the uncertainty of the life facing them. In fact, they were signing away the certainty of poverty, degradation, and possible imprisonment had they remained. 
Andrew Wharton was born to be a farm servant like his father and grandfather before him, the line extending back much further than anyone bothered to remember. His work was not a choice; he was born to work Hampton Grange and expected to die there. The only surprise was when pretty Molly Peace chose him. Ecstatic in his luck, he couldn’t believe the rollicking dairy maid favored him above all the hopeful lads pursuing her when he’d done no more than sneak shy peeks at her in Chapel. The confusion of love and glorious sensuality overwhelmed the young man who’d never contemplated the possibility that life could hold pleasure. Molly saw joy in everything, the sweet breath of the cows she milked, the warmth of the sun on her face, and the sweet sent of the hay she bundled, not seeming to notice the manure in the cow’s tail, the slogging rains, or the sneezing brought on by the hay.
Nutsrok 