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

Of Four Leaf Clovers and Luck

On the fourth of July we were at Kevin's Dad house and one of the kids ran up and showed me a four leaf clover that their cousin had found. Of course I had to inspect it and it was indeed, a real life, four leaf clover. Their cousin, who is in their upper teens, walked up behind them and casually said "Oh, I find them all the time".

I have, all my life since I was a kid, looked for four leafed clovers and have NEVER found one! I grew up in the country and have always played outside and spent many hours sitting in the grass and looked and looked for them. I have always envied the kids who have found them, knowing I was missing out on a lot of good luck.

Well, Friday I was sitting on my new swing all by myself, over by the pond watching Flipper and Buddy swimming. Kevin was running an errand or something, I don't remember. I was looking at the clover at my feet and wishing I could find a four leafed one and all of a sudden I said "Wait a minute...", reached down and picked a suspicious looking clover and there it was!!

A FOUR LEAF CLOVER! MY LUCK DAY!!!!!!

I ran in to get my cell phoneto take a picture, because my camera has been broken for MONTHS and I happily snapped away, thoroughly enjoying what would be my next post, explaining how lucky I was and how the tide had turned, good luck for me from now on!

Then, I looked down and low and behold...THERE WAS ANOTHER ONE!!! Oh my gosh, it doesn't get any better that this I thought! I grabbed my phone and snapped away again, carefully choosing how to get both clovers in the shot. Holding them up in the air, with the sky as the background, then holding them lower, with the pond as the backdrop, hoping you could see each leaf really well.

Then I continued taking pictures, a few of the pond and our new bubbler in action (more on that later) and some of our really beautiful yellow day lilies blooming by the beach. I could not wait to go in and upload these awesome photos. I took the clovers into the house and put them in one of my favorite books to press them so I could save them.

I got my camera and went to my computer and this is when my luck ran out. No pictures anywhere in my camera. None in the "phone memory area and none in the "memory card" area. The memory card had been acting funny, I should have known. Earlier in the week I wanted to download some pictures. At the time I had over 180 on the memory card. All of a sudden, poof they were gone. There were still a few but most were gone. I had already copied them to my computer so it was no big deal. It was kind of good because it was really tedious to delete pictures from my phone cause I had to do it one by one (that was why I had 180 on there, never wanted to sit and go through 20 steps to delete each one).

The pictures were gone because the camera was not set to save them. It had somehow been set to save the pictures to an "external memory". What the heck was that! I could not find them anywhere. I finally figured out how to reset it to save the pictures to the phone memory but they will not transfer to the memory card and so I have no way to download them to my computer. I guess I need a USB cord for that. I looked in Walmart the other day and they had nothing. CRAP!

Anyway, back to my "good luck"clovers. I had already squished them in my book and I had no way to recreate those shots even if i could save them and download them. I even thought about faking it (seriously, I did) and using three leafed ones, holding them far away so you couldn't tell but I couldn't do it. I was starting to think that the second clover had cancelled out the first. I was back in the "no luck" category.

We had finished most of the house painting and the baby turkeys had hatched out in the pasture, we had gotten sand for the beach and our new bubbler and no way to take pictures. I have been whining to Kevin about a new camera for a month now and he is not picking up on it. I will have to wait for Christmas or my birthday or something I guess. I do not like to post without pictures because I think it is kinda boring so my blogging days would be over with no way to upload pictures. I am seriously having withdrawal and panic attacks. I love to take pictures. Always have. My sister in Cleveland checks everyday to see if there is a new blog with pictures of what has happened next at our house. She even makes requests.

I have been using my Canon for years and loved it but it has gone bad again. I sent it to them to have them fix it a year ago but it has done the same thing again. Some electronic problem. They fixed it before, no charge but what a hassle. Emailing them back and forth, mailing it in, waiting for it to get back and on and on. I have no patience for all that.

So, in desperation I got out my camera just to check if maybe it would work and HAPPY DAYS, it was working. I didn't dare turn it off, I just hurried up, put on a jacket cause it had just stopped raining and ran out to try to get some pictures of all the new stuff. No way to recreate the clover shot so I had to take one of them squished in my book. Check it out!

Can you find the new turkey babies in the grass? There are seven of them. These are the moms, they shared sitting on the eggs for a month.

Look closer......

And closer.....

And closer.....

And really closer....at first did you see all three?

Above is a crop of the previous picture. Look how adorable! I am so worried about them. They are soooo tiny. Kevin had to tell me to leave them alone. I wanted to take a chair out there and keep an eye on them. I think I would even pitch a tent out there and bring them in the tent with me for the night if they would come. (I just snuck out there and peeked at them without Kevin knowing, they are hiding in the back of the pasture, probably from me.)

Here is our new bubbler in the next picture. It took a while for Kevin to decide on how he wanted to manage the ponds aeration. He had considered a windmill but the price was high and our wind is iffy. He even bought the turbine blades. This seems the best route. It works really well and when he first turned it on you could smell all the rotten water being moved up from the bottom. Now it smells fine. The kids love to swim through the bubbles.

Here is a close-up of the water moving. This is probably boring if you don't see it in person. The bubbles are really strong though.
Before and after of our house again only this time the bottom is painted and the porch is almost done.

We still have to attach the hand rail, add ballasters or whatever you call them, paint the door, put up the new screen door and make a cover for the awful looking air conditioner. We are going to make some kind of arbor or something and get something to grow up it.

Here is our new sand pile. The kids love it. I talked Kevin into leaving it in a pile so the kids can play in it. He really wanted to smooth it out so it would look better.

And the birdhouse I belatedly got Kevin for his birthday. We are hoping the Purple Martins like it as much as we do.
Closer up.

So, that is what has been happening here. Oh... as far as my luck getting better, the batteries in my camera died before I could take all the pictures that I wanted to.

Here's hoping the camera fairy makes a stop at my house soon. I'm not putting all my money on the clovers.

Beth

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My Calendar

I bought an awesome calendar from the Confessions of a Pioneer Woman's site and then I saw that Sugar Creek Farm has one for sale and now I want both! But anyway, they have inspired me to make one for my family too. I am going to use photos from around my farm. I am not going to use animal shots but just scenery. Some from each season.

This one is kinda cool. It is our pear tree in blossom. I'm not sure which one to use if even at all.

Definitely this one below for spring. I have another better one but it would not upload, blah!

I am also making a really cool movie. I was going to buy the Photoshop product but while looking through some reviews I read that Windows has one built in! Its called the Movie Maker, I guess I'm the only one who didn't know this. I made a sample and it turned out really good. I have asked my sisters to bring me in some good pictures. I think I will make a really good, long one to watch on Christmas morning, all Christmas, in chronological order. Amy, if you are reading this then sorry your surprise has been ruined. Don't tell anyone else!
Here is one of the old pictures I am using in my movie. It is of my mom, taken in July of 1946, standing in front of the Polskys Department store in downtown Akron. My mom said that this is the way everyone dressed to go shopping. When she was younger, my grandmother and she used to take a trolley from Stow, where she lived, to downtown Akron. Here is one of my dad, he looks pretty cool with that bow tie! He is 86 and I bet he wishes he still had his old car he used to drive, not the one in the photo but one like it.
I ordered a comb binding machine for my calendars. We use them at work to make manuals. When I was pricing calendars online it was really way too expensive to order them so I am going to make my own. The binding machine was only $57.00 and the combs are only about $3.75 for a hundred and they will work great for the kids schoolwork too. I am way too excited for Christmas, I better slow down and get these projects down before I go on anymore about them!