An Egg & More

It looks like a house sparrow has persisted in making a nest in our window nesting box, even though I've tried to scare it off a couple times. (Don't tell Danielle!) I found an egg tonight. Hopefully that will be the only one it lays, although more house sparrows would make more food for our neighborhood hawk. (I really dislike these birds!) I am sad that's the only nest in our yard this year. Maybe we'll get lucky and a hummingbird will make its home in one of our pear trees. I am still waiting for their arrival. The last two years my first hummer of the season arrived at the end of April, so they are a little late this year.

I have been watching the peregrine falcons on this falcon cam. The past two years the clutches were unsuccessful, so it is great to see the first little white fuzzy chick. Hopefully the rest of the eggs will hatch, too.

The beds around our patio turned out smaller than they were supposed to when the patio was designed (loooong story), so we are kind of limited in what we can plant. The past two years we didn't plant too much because we were waiting for the contractors to fix some problems. This summer I am hoping to grow some plants to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. I did a little research and planted some perennials last weekend. (The corncobs are place holders for the lantana I intend to plant once it warms up a little.) I was happy to see the "gay butterfly plants" have already started to sprout. I hope they all will look pretty once they fill in. Even more I hope they will attract a lot of different butterflies and more hummingbirds. The only negative is that I didn't have enough room to plant any tomatoes. I need a bigger yard!

Look at this beautiful chair Ron made. This was before it was stained. He made two of them out of cypress wood and spent about 40 hours making the two of them. I think adirondack chairs are typically very uncomfortable but these are not. They are so beautiful and comfy. I can't wait until the stain has cured so we can put them on the patio and I can sit and wait for the butterflies and hummingbirds!

Pictures from the Park

This big guy found some sun to bask in between rain showers

Barn swallow showing off for the ladies

Blue winged teal

Hungry Bluejay

 

More Spring!

In addition to the annual appearance of my allergies, here are some other signs of spring. I did not take a picture of the tick I found on myself after taking these other photos, but I suppose it is a sign of spring, too.

Bluebells

Spring beauties

6 spotted tiger beetle
The green is really this brilliant. I didn't get a good picture of it's mouth, but it looked fierce!

Brown headed cowbird
This is a male, but the females lay their eggs in another bird's nest. That bird often ends up raising the cowbird as its own, often at the expense of one of its own offspring. These guys rank right up there with house sparrows in my book.

Hanging Around

I've had my peanut wreath feeder for a few years now, and it is a little worn out. There is a wire at the top that pulls the spirals around and fastens around the hook. Lately that wire hasn't been staying in place, even though I fix it every time I refill it. I figured it was just getting stretched out like the spirals, but today I discovered the real reason. (Pics are a little blurry because I took them through the window.)

Napping

I like how his "toe" kind of curls over the edge of the boardwalk. :)

This & That

Sometimes Tyler likes to use a stress ball or some other type of fidget when he's at school or working on homework. At Christmas time I discovered a store that had a lot of neat stuff and I found this

magnetic mind putty. I thought Tyler might like to squeeze and squish that, so I bought him some for his stocking. Well, the texture is odd and it's kind of stiff, so it turned out to not be a good gift for him. I also bought him a pair of magnets since the putty was supposed to be magnetic. He does enjoy clicking those together and making annoying noises with those, but that was not exactly what I had intended! Anyway, this putty somehow made its way to Ron's desk, and Ron somehow found a video online that showcased a similiar material "eating" a magnetic ball. Ron decided to experiment with the putty and magnets to see if the magnets would be enveloped by the putty. (Yes, this is what happens when your husband works from home and is all alone most of the day! I'm pretty sure he has ADD!) Here are some pictures I snapped with my cellphone. It is actually kind of cool.

This is where the magnet started in relation to the putty.
(Ron had already placed the magnet to the right.)

This is 1 hour later.

This is 7 hours later. It's almost enveloped.
You can only see a sliver of the magnet on the right.

Our cherry tree is in full bloom and looks so pretty. Ron mowed for the first time tonight, and the pear trees are in bloom, too. I'm so happy spring is here. I think we only have 30 days of school left.

Remember the window nesting box Danielle gave me for Christmas? We have seen a couple house sparrows visit it and there is a little bit of nesting material in it. I am torn because I really dislike house sparrows. They are not native and are aggressive to the other birds, but Danielle is so excited that something might be using it. When Ron made nesting boxes for me last year, we made the holes too small to discourage them from nesting in our yard, but this hole is big enough. I will probably just leave it alone this year but be a bit more selective of our tenants next year.

Singing in the Rain

These redwing blackbirds were not deterred by the rain today. They were singing for the ladies, who were nearby plucking fluff from the cattails for their nests. The pheasant didn't seem to mind the rain, either. The photographer, however, was wishing for sunny skies.

Spring!

Yesterday we had a squirrel that decided he wanted to spend the day in our backyard. He hopped around in the grass, visited the bird feeders, cleaned himself in the tree, nibbled on an ear of corn, and then started the routine all over again. He looked young, and I wondered if he might be a sibling to the little guy that fell out of our tree in August. I didn't mind him hanging out in our backyard, but it drove Clara nuts! She spent a good portion of the afternoon watching him through the window.

Our cherry tree is beginning to blossom, flowers are starting to bloom, birds are making nests, bees are out, and the grass is greening up. I am so glad spring is here.

An Excuse

Things have been rather unorganized around here lately. A few weeks ago my coworker was diagnosed with cancer. She had been sick for well over a year. She visited doctors, had tests & scans & bloodwork, but no one could figure out why her lower abdomen hurt so bad. Taking an Aleve every day helped her push through it and she continued to work and lead her life. When another round of blood work in March showed she was extremely anemic (any lower and she would need a transfusion), she was finally referred to a hematologist/oncologist. He sent her for more scans as a routine part of the exam. This time one of the scans showed spots where spots should not be.

That lead to a frenzy of doctors' appointments and more tests. They couldn't pinpoint the type of cancer and fluctuated between ovarian cancer and a type of vascular cancer. Neither have wonderful long term statistics, especially if multiple organs were involved like hers. It was a roller coaster ride for her. Finally, she was referred to a specialty hospital almost 3 hours away where they diagnosed her with an extremely rare type of soft tissue sarcoma. It is so rare that the cancer hospital here has never treated it, and the hospital she was referred to has only treated it once!

She went in for surgery at the end of last week, where they removed a tumor that was the size of a football. (I saw the picture, it was really that big.) How all those scans and tests missed it for an entire year is a mystery to me. They removed organs and cancerous cells from organs they couldn't remove, and believe they successfully removed 99% of the disease. The cancer is so rare that they are still uncertain of the next steps to take.

I have been filling in for her since she found out. Since I have to be in at 6:45am now, we all had to do a little adjusting. Ron had to change his hours so he could get Danielle ready for school, I don't get to see Danielle at all in the mornings any more, and Tyler had to adjust to riding the bus with the commoners again. :) My neighbor friend picked up the slack for me in our morning school carpool. I am still figuring out how to successfully work twice as much as I was and learn new responsibilities there (like cooking breakfast and lunch for 200 kids & ordering all those groceries!) while keeping up with everything at home. I do not feel very organized, and just haven't had the time or energy to post anything. I suppose I just haven't built up my endurance yet. :) I am not complaining, just offering an excuse for my silence. I am so thankful that I can help and appreciate the sacrifices my family and friend made so that my coworker doesn't have to worry about her job. I think she has enough worries to occupy her time.

I have been so touched by the generousity of the people I work with. We collected donations to help with her family's travel expenses since she is in a hospital out of town. Gas, food, parking, lodging - all of that adds up quickly. So far we have collected over $800! I think that is amazing. Her husband's company started a trust at a local bank to assist with medical expenses that aren't covered by insurance and started the account with $1000. It's so neat to watch people come together to do good. Even our children are learning about sacrificing a little to help someone else.

So, every time you pull up my blog and notice I haven't updated my page, please say a prayer for my coworker, her husband, their daughter, and her doctors.

Ok to Descend!

Tonight Tyler finished his closed water scuba classes. He passed his final written test and completed all the underwater exercises (multiple times). He can get his equipment assembled, walk off the "boat", ascend, descend, remove and replace his mask underwater, save his buddy, and everything else in between. He really did a good job in the classes (which were long, especially after a full day of school), and I am really proud of him. I know he was nervous, but he kept at it and conquered those fears. The next step is to do 4 open water dives. Since the water around here is still too cold, his open water dives are scheduled for the end of May. Once he completes those, he will officially be certified. His training is exactly the same as an adult's, but since he is under 15 he will receive a jr. open water diver certification. He will be limited to a maximum depth of 40' and must swim with an adult guardian until he is 15. At that point those limitations will be lifted. I hope he loves it and wants to continue to do this the rest of his life.

April Fool's Day

I did the jello juice again. Always a crowd pleaser.

After being called boring last year, I tried a little harder this April Fool's day. I looked at several ideas, but decided to just do a dessert. I settled on a kitty litter cake. I wasn't really thinking I'd fool the kids with it, just amuse them.

After dinner and when the kids weren't looking, I put the cake on the floor in the front room. (I covered the cake pan in green duct tape so it would look more like a litter pan at first glance than my cake pan.) Ron went into the room and asked loudly about the disgusting cat box in the front room. I made up a story about our neighbor needing to take a sample to the vet but she was afraid the dog would eat it first. I have no clue why the kids believed that, but they did. They were both grossed out that we would have to babysit a litter box. When Ron popped a turd in his mouth, both kids' jaws dropped and Tyler had to leave the room. It was hilarious - so much better than I had anticipated!!

I followed a recipe I found online that combined cake pieces and pudding, and none of us really liked it. I guess that was an April fool's joke on me! If I ever make it again, I will just make a regular cake, frost it, and then decorate the top with crushed up cookies and tootsie roll turds. It was well worth the effort today, though.