OK, I'm a horrible neighbor!

Hi Everyone!!

Well, after I decided not to put my feeders back up, I went into a deep, dark depression!! Ok, so maybe that's not quite what happened, but I missed my birds so much!! So Jim and I talked about it and we decided to just put one of the feeders back up. And we would take the food down in the evening so it wouldn't tempt any marauding bears.

So that's where we are and I'm happy again...and look!

Steller's Jay

American Goldfinch

This guy comes every morning for breakfast...have I mentioned that I love crows? They are so smart. He will even take one of the in-shell peanuts and sit on the edge of the birdbath, dampen the shell and hit it with his beak to get the peanut out. Brilliant! Here he is getting some of my homemade suet...ALL the birds love that stuff!

See what I've been was missing...I'm happy again.

And look who else came to the party!

We have a Dark-eye Junco nesting in one of my fuchsias...look at these eggs!

This is what mom looks like...tho this is actually a male. Males have black heads while females have a dark gray head.

I saw "mom" leave the nest the other day, so I asked Jim to take the fuchsia down so I could take a quick video.

Other things besides birds have been happening around here. We had to take our sweet Caesar to the doctor because he was just not himself and he was having trouble with the stairs. He was feeling better a day or two before his appointment, so I was thinking I would cancel it since taking a pet to the vet is like taking a child to the doctor, but without the insurance! But Jim wanted to take him in anyway and I'm glad we did. The doctor took an x-ray and our boy has a collapsed vertebrae. He said it looked like it was trying to heal itself by building a bridge across the top (not sure what that meant). So, he's on medication for pain and inflammation and he may need that for the rest of his life.

Then, Jim noticed our refrigerator didn't seem really cold...it wasn't! So he called a repair shop and they couldn't get here until sometime in July. The thing is, this refrigerator is only like four or five years old!!! We were both really happy that the two 40-year-old refrigerators we have the garage are working great! Anyway, Jim got a call a couple of days later that the repairman had a cancellation and did we want him to come right over....yes!!! One computer board later...oh, and about $600...our refrigerator is working again.

What I've been crafting lately is junk journals. I'm currently working on number three of the Shield side of the family. I made the original for myself and then Susan wanted one...then Katie wanted one. Susan has hers and I'm almost finished and will get this off to Katie soon. This is the first page and it goes from the Shield immigrants from England to the five sisters then that's the end of the line for my dad's side. He had a brother that had two boys...so the name lives on somewhere. I just have the cover to finish but inspiration isn't coming to me. And, yes, it's grungy...but that's the style I love. I have a couple other projects in the work that I will share later.

Okay, that's it for this week. Hopefully, next week will be calm with no injuries or breakdowns!! Hope you are all well...love ya!!

A Sad Day!

I'm sure those of you that are friends with Jim on Facebook saw the video he posted of the black bear in our backyard destroying all our feeders. Jim did all the things...he called Fish and Wildlife to report it, told our nextdoor neighbor that have a young daughter and a small dog what had happened.

We talked about not putting the feeders back up, but we both get so much enjoyment from the birds that we decided we would try one more time. Jim worked a long time getting the feeder secure and I started making suet again to fill them and Jim, me, the birds and the squirrels were all happy again. Then "he" came back! We didn't get a video this time because our floodlights on the deck camera didn't turn on for some reason. But, everything was flattened once again. I'm so sad. We just can't risk this bear coming around our neighborhood...I'd feel awful if something happened to any of our neighbors!!

Here's the view we had this morning...notice Brutus is hard at work investigating. For those of you that haven't seen Brutus in a while...he has Vitiligo...he's slowly turning into a very short dalmation!

Here are close-ups of the pieces of the poles that go in the ground.

Totally snapped off this one!

This one ripped up from the ground!

I didn't think I'd post an update so soon...but I'm sad...and, as you know, misery loves company!! Love you all...bye!

Where did four years go?

Hey All...

I'm thinking of starting this blog back up since I'm no longer on Facebook. And I miss all of you that I really care about!!

I left Facebook for a number of reasons but mostly because of the state of our country and all the hateful thing that the algorithms thought I wanted to see (I didn't). I also didn't care for all the tracking they do. I look up something online and then I'm bombarded with ads, for the thing I looked up, on my Facebook feed. I don't think that part will change as everything we do online now is tracked.

So, I thought I'd give the blog another try. But, you know I'm a great starter and a terrible finisher!! But I promise to try. I really miss connecting with all of you.

Just know that I might spout off about something political if it's really bugging me...but remember we all have different views and that doesn't mean we don't care about each other. I'll try not to tho.

I'm putting together a group email and will send out a link for this update. If you get the first email and don't want to get the updates, just let me know. My feelings will not be hurt...promise. If I don't hear from you I'll assume you want updates...or you can just email back and say HI!