Woodpeckers at our Suet Feeder

Look who's visiting my suet feeder!

We have three types of woodpeckers living near our house and two different types visit our feeder.

This one is a Red Headed Woodpecker. I this he is the prettiest.

Look at the color of his head!

Behind him you can see the "pain in the rear" sparrow. They have invaded my chicken house, eating lots of feed and have taken over the bluebird houses.

This is the second type of woodpecker that visits us. Not a very good picture but I think it is a Downey Woodpecker. Another one visits that looks just like this one but it has red on it's head. Maybe male/female... not sure.

Here is a not very big chart of woodpeckers. I was hoping the pictures would get bigger if you clicked on them but it's not working.

Legend: 1. Red-cockaded 2. Hairy 3. Downy 4. Pileated 5. Red-bellied 6. Red-headed 7. Sapsucker 8. Flicker 9. Ivorybill (extinct)

I wanted a good picture of a Pileated Woodpecker because it is the third type of woodpecker that we have at our farm but I could not get a picture of it myself even if I tried. It's nest (hole in the pole) too far away and way to high up for my camera.

These pictures are not that good but you get the idea. We have a nesting pair that lives in the high tension power pole near the front of our house. They live really, really high up in the pole and raise babies every year.

Here is Mr. Bluebird, waiting for a chance at the bluebird house near the feeder that the sparrow has taken over. Mr. Bluebird and the sparrows have had many fights over this house with the sparrows always winning.


Here is Mrs. Bluebird, waiting too.




Kevin has removed the sparrow nest at least two or three times. Finally she tries to move in.


They worked at it for awhile but we haven't seen them for a couple days. Not sure if they found another spot for their nest or what.


Kitchen remodel Update:

This weekend we installed the new window in the kitchen, a continuation of the kitchen remodel.

Hope it's over soon. I can't wait to get all the tools, wood, air compressor and construction supplies out of my living space so calmness and cleanliness can reappear.

Til next time,

Beth

A Really Good Video, A Really Funny Video

If you've ever watched any of the talent shows on TV and you'd like to see a really amazing singer then click on this link and watch, you won't be sorry! These two videos are from the show "Britain's Got Talent".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY&feature=related

Now, if you'd like to see a really funny one then click on this link. Hopefully you've seen Michael Flatly (The Irish Dancer) from the "Lord of the Dance" show. It may not be as funny if you're not familiar with him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gHvATmUsSg&feature=related

I would have embeded them so you could watch it right here but it's disabled.
Enjoy!

Goose Nest

This is the nest that Buddie "built" when she first started laying eggs. I put the word built in quotes because she only had a few pieces of mulch and a few sticks that she was able to break off of the butterfly bush.

It made for very muddy eggs that she would roll around and around trying to hide them. Plus her nest was right next to the steps which would cause a mad dash, trying to get by her and up the steps without being attacked. Geese don't want you anywhere near their nests.

We moved this dog house next to the steps hoping she would move into it and lay her eggs there and feel safer, instead she moved over on the other side of the butterfly bush, again making a muddy nest.

I finally got a few bales of hay so I offered a couple of flakes to her and in about fifteen minutes she had this nest built. It's a beautiful thing. If you were walking near any pond and there were nests there you would never see them. Every time she leaves she covers her eggs completely. Perfectly camouflaged.

See what's in there.

I'm not letting her hatch any though. Two squawking, hissing geese are enough for me. Flipper is the worst. He won't bite me but most any one else is fair game. If you act scared and turn away he will chase you and try to pinch the back of your leg.

Most of the time he will only get your pant leg or boot but if he gets a hold of you he will leave a quarter sized bruise. If you act like you're not afraid he more or less will leave you alone. Kinda.

This is our tom turkey, a beauty huh? He is a little like Flipper too. He would like nothing better than to peck the hell outta you. Mostly me though. He follows me constantly, watching, waiting to get that one chance to get me. He and I go at it most every day.

I gave him the smack down last week. Grabbed him by the head and wrestled with him til I got a hold of him and picked him up. They say that if you "embarrass" a tom turkey they will stay away from you. Didn't work, he came right back for me.

The other day I was bent over trying to get eggs out of a dog house like the one in this picture. We have two of these. The other one is in the chicken paddock.

It's much bigger and we figured that the turkeys would lay their eggs in it rather that on the ground. Well, it worked but they always lay them clear in the back of the thing.

See...all the way in the back.

Consequently, I have to put one knee on the ground and crawl inside of the thing to retrieve them. Yuck, you can imaging what I have to kneel in.

Plus, it puts me at a real disadvantage when my adversary is constantly on guard, watching, waiting for his chance to teach me a lesson.

After I took the pictures of these eggs, gathered them up and maneuvered my way back out of the thing (I actually had to crawl into it) this is what I saw right behind me.

If you are familiar with turkey behavior this look means that "I am going to attack"! The down side of this was that I was on one knee at his level. Much worse knowing that he could spur my face rather than my ankles. That was scary. After that close call I got all smart and figured that I can reach the eggs if I just tilt the house up and reach down.

(But you noticed that I did take my chances and pause long enough to take a picture)

(Check out the cute little hen eying me right next to the vicious tom. A story about her follows.)

Please meet my newest favorite chicken. This is Mrs. Two Toes.

We got her last fall when my friend brought over his old hens to butcher (broke my heart) and I promptly rescued her and traded him a meat bird for her. I'm so lucky I picked her (actually she kinda is). She has more personality than any other chicken I've had before.

As you can see from the next photo she has only two toes on her foot. Her foot had been damaged in the ride over here from my friends house and her toe was broken... bent up at an odd angle and after a month, much to my surprise (horror), it fell off all together.

(Kinda gross, sorry.)

When I first got her she would just run up to me and try to peck me, no fear at all. It took about a month of picking her up and petting her to get her to stop.

She is very brave and smart, she follows me everywhere and stands at my feet constantly, wanting to be picked up but I have to watch though because if I'm not paying attention she will still peck me. I guess it's a love/hate thing.

Why do I always end up at the barn with my one pair of good shoes on?

I had to go to a meeting at the elementary school for one of the kids that morning so I spent 15 minutes at the sink trying to scrub the stains and clumps of dried yuck off of my shoes from the last time I impulsively went to the barn with them on.

I had just gotten home from the meeting, grabbed my camera and decided to run out and check for eggs. Then I remembered my shoes, crap! Did I go back in and change them ? Heck no! I just tried to tiptoe around and not step in any squishy spots.

Plus, I got to try out my brand new boot cleaner. It works great!

I just had to add a few pictures of my beautiful narris in the barn laying eggs. Look how good she blends in, she's hoping I can't see her.

I will start hatching eggs soon...almost ready!

(I guess saying "hatching" is like counting your eggs before they hatch, the proper term would of been "incubating", the hatching will hopefully follow.)

Til next time,

Beth

Visitors

Amy and Tom (sister and her husband) came to visit last weekend. It was a really nice day, we had brunch and I made pancakes, cooked up some homemade venison breakfast sausage and eggs from my chickens. Amy brought some maple syrup from a farm down the road from her. YUMMY!

We went for a long walk, first across the street where there is 100 acres of what used to big old trees. Well, for about, it seems, like a year, they have been logging it. Kinda depressing. The property is owned by a lawyer that lives in a town about a half an hour from here, I guess it's been in their family for a long time. There is a church camp there on the property somewhere. And there used to be huge old trees everywhere but now only small spindly ones survived the massacre. In this case it pays to be puny. I hope they're not going to sell the property.

Then we walked out back and I took that picture of the rock with the moss growing on it.

We went back to the tree stand that Kevin and Tom refurbished a while ago. Tom got up there and spruced it up a little. Swept it with a broom that I was very surprised that they had in there. Re-hung up the tarp that had had half fallen down and decided that they need to do a little more work to it before hunting season this fall.

Then he started playing air guitar with the broom.

ROCK ON!

He had the camera and took some pictures while Amy and I were walking around the pond hoping to see all kinds of things that we didn't, like water lilys, frogs, fish, flowers, maybe a turtle or I'll even take a snake at this point.

Then I spotted him with the camera so Amy and I posed for some pictures that I will not share here. Posed pictures sometimes are not very pretty.

He decided to take Amy for a ride and try out the paddle boat that Eileen gave us last fall. This is the first time it has been warm enough with no ice on the lake to try it out. Puppy decided to take a ride with them. She loves to get on the water as long as she doesn't get wet.

Who's taking whom for the ride, I don't think he is paddling.

She is of course.

I found these next two pictures when I downloaded them from my camera onto my computer. I knew I should have worried when I saw him with the camera

With Tom and a camera you never know what will show up on the film.... or I guess, show up on the hard drive is more correct.

Can you guess?

Til next time,

Beth

Kitchen Remodel and Goose News

For our special breakfast last Sunday Kevin asked me to cook up some goose eggs for him. I made myself a couple of chicken eggs and I asked him if he wanted two goose eggs or one.

I showed him the pan and he said "Uh....I think one's gonna be enough." You know how you always have toast left and always run out of dippy yolk? Well not with a goose egg, the yolk was huge.


Amy and Tom (my sis and her husband) came to help us with hanging the cupboards and it was so nice out that Tom jumped on the trampoline.

Flipper was not happy and stood under the trampoline squawking until he leaned over to pet him.

Flipper is about as sweet as a goose as I have ever heard of. If strangers come over he stands at their feet and looks longing/demandingly at them all the while squawlering/screeching at an ear piercing level! If they bend down to touch him he, in a kind of submissive posture, will eventually lower his head and sit still and allows them to pet him. From everything I've heard geese don't like to be touched. Flipper will allow it if only for a minute or two. I love petting him, he is so soft and plushy. Now......

On to the Kitchen.

Here is what the old cupboards looked like. These are not the same ones we tore out because I forgot to get a "before" shot but they are exactly the same. See how they don't go to the ceiling? I need that space! Plus, the shelves were only 10 inches apart. Barely enough room for a drinking glass.

And...why oh why did someone think it looked good to place the handles in the center of the door? I really don't get it. They're not even usable, I mean, they are but it's really awkward opening a door from the middle. We are going to cut the Gothic ends off of these handles, paint them to match the new lights and reuse them and best of all, they're free.

Kevin is starting the tear down. All the stuff that was in the cupboards is sitting on a tall plastic shelf in my dining room. Doesn't look very good but it's really easy to find stuff.

Tearing out behind the fridge.

Bead board in place.


Bead board in place on the other wall and painted. Kevin went to school to be an electrician so he swapped out all the old brown switches and plugs for tan ones. Plus he installed five recessed lights too. We removed the old ceiling fan that we never used and added these lights, put in energy efficient bulbs and now I can see.

Bead board painted behind the fridge.


Building the cupboards, making sure they are square. Kind of a waste because there is not a square room in this house.

Complete, bead board back installed.

Both complete, actually there were three.



Painted.

I am using a color similar to the color of milk, whole milk, not skim. I love that color. We were going back and forth on using a bolder color like sage green or a light mocha but I think we are going to use a darker color on the back splash or maybe tile it so we are staying with white for now.

All three painted.

The one next to the fridge installed.

We changed our mind and decided to put the microwave in this cupboard where the cups were in the last picture. All it took was a 1&1/4 wood bit and a hole drilled for the cord. I don't like having a lot of stuff on the counter and this will free up a whole bunch of space.

The microwave used to sit right by the toaster.

Now for a face frame on the cupboards. (See the new light?)

We found this really cool jig for cutting holes to join wood together. It's made by the Kreg company and it works great.

It makes these slanty holes.

Then you can run screws right into the other board, no biscuits or dovetails needed.

Frame on.

Frame painted!

We are eventually going to put doors on...not sure when.


I don't think I've shown a picture of the lights we picked out. After watching a remodeling show we saw them use some pendant lights. We really liked them so we went to the local big hardware store and found these. Love them.

Then we decided that we needed a new, matching one over our dining room table, Voila!

There is an odd corner spot between the shelves that I have been working on it for the last two days. I cut triangles out of some pine, the same pine that we used to make the shelves and it was a bugger to make them fit. Don't look too close, there is putty in there where the joints weren't close enough and actually I am waiting for it to dry as I type this.

I had to go and find something to do. I will keep poking at it as I wait impatiently for it to dry. That is why I am finally getting this post written. I needed something to keep me busy for at least an hour while the filler dries. I may add pictures after I get it painted. Now, it's been long enough, I'm off to sand and then paint- I mean sand, prime and then paint.

UPDATE:

Primed and Painted!

Til next time,

Beth