Soaring

Here's an awesome picture that Emilie took today of a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly hovering over a butterfuly bush flower.

Cat Yoga Perhaps?!

This is typical for how Oliver lays around.  He stretches out without a care in the world and doesn't typically move either, nope.  He makes you step over him.

Under Deck Nester

A Robin chose to build her next on the support beam under our back deck.  It was not a spring build, rather a late season build - these pictures were taken last night.  Perhaps, it was her second clutch, who knows.  I'm not a big fan of having birds nest under the deck.  They're messy with the nest building materials, they poop on everything, and that's just the adults, and the nest is in a high traffic area.  The mother is constantly being spooked of the nest, where she'll fly to the other side of the pool and sit on the fence hollering. Last year I took the nest down along with it's 3-eggs.  Fortunately, I set it aside because when Emilie came home and saw what I did there were 4-eggs, so I had to put it back.  This year I just left it.

Anyway, when I peaked in last night I was surprised to see just one baby and it's pretty good sized too.  I guess it's a lot easier to feed one mouth versus multiple.

Just home Oliver is outside when Emilia takes her first flight, could be devastating...

Should Have Listened...

Well, GIDDY UP! 

Stepped out onto the deck yesterday afternoon and heard the all too familiar sound of my trap paddle clinging and clacking.  That is the sound of a rodent that succumbed to it's curiosity and got itself trapped.

I was shocked but pleasantly surprised to see that a woodchuck been snared, OMG!

I sold my two big traps, only keeping the medium and small ones, which I've been setting in an effort to catch the outrageous number of chipmunks that are around.  I read an article that explained the chipmunk boom to the abundant number of acorns that fell this past fall.  I agree, we certainly had a shitton of acorns to deal with last fall.  Anyway, I've had good luck on the chipmunk front, up to (15) caught to date and counting.

Fairly certain it was this woodchuck, along with it's siblings, that have been mocking me all summer long from the far side of the neighbors yard.

Zoom Zoom Zoom

I don't know about in your neck of the woods but around here lately we seem to have a lot of souped up trucks with squealing tires and blaring radios driving like complete f'n idiots.

My assumption is they're all making up for the fact that they have very small penis'!

Meet "Rocky"!

Unlike Elmer Fudd, I am successful at hunting the wabbit!

Finally, got my hands on this young'n.

Admittedly, I am out of practice at sexing baby rabbits.  Even when we were raising rabbits it was difficult to sex them.  From what I can tell, and honestly I'm guessing, this is a boy.

Wild rabbits just don't understand how caged life works.  For example, I put a nice dish of pellets in one corner of the cage and a dish of fresh water in the opposite corner.  Went out the next morning and there's rabbit smart pills (poop) in the water dish and he's pee'd in the pellet dish.

I've named him "Rocky".  For days leading up to his arrest and capture I was constantly chasing him out of my gardens and yard by hurling rocks at him. 100% misses each time and I'm fairly certain one of the last time, before he scurried off , he flipped me off...

We'll see who gets the last laugh!

a.k.a. “Candlewick plant”

Like the Golden Rod, Mullein is considered an invasive weed but Mullein is also herb with a slew of medicinal purposes and another favorite of mine.  For example, did you know that Native Americans and soldiers during the Civil War era made teas from leaves of mullein plants to treat asthma. During the 1800’s, settlers used it in their compounds to treat tuberculosis.

Well, I'm not growing it for the above reasons, actually I'm not intentionally growing it at all.  However, I don't pull it when I see it growing.  I like it's addition to our perennials and flowers, the flower stem looks similar to snapdragons, the bees love them and they get super tall, as you can see in the pics below.

We have one or two here and there through our yard but they've congregated and do very well here at the end of our driveway.

First Fresh Picked Veggies!

Harvest time!!

Our first BIG red tomato -

Freshly picked and cleaned hardneck garlic -

First head of broccoli -

First cucumbers - 

Peppers are coming along fine and will be ready before you know it!

They're Not Really Hummingbirds...

Not the greatest pics, yes I realize.

Trying to snap a quick picture of a Hummingbird Hawk Moth.  Got the pic but since the moth is in constant motion they're hard to get.  There are a munch here this summer and as always they love the Butterfly Bush flowers!  Constantly zipping from one to another to another to another.  They're fun to watch along with the bees and butterflies.

Fish In A Barrel...

Admittedly, not the prettiest picture with the dirty barrel and algae green water.  However, what it does show is that our two comet fish that lived in the same barrel last summer, then wintered over in the house, are doing just fine being put back outside a couple months ago.  It's hard to keep track of them with the water so dark.  Clearly they're doing there job - eating mosquitoes (and other insects), in order to survive.

   

Orange and Yellow Flowers

Here are just some of the orange and yellow flowers we currently having in full bloom at our ole homestead.  The bees and insects are in their glory!

Lantana - 

Daylily -

Black-Eyed Susan -

Golden Rod (one of my favs!) -

Daylily -

Marigold -

Daylily -

Coreopsis lanceolata -

Wren Lives Matter!

For some unknown reason the past month or so we've been inundated with your run of the mill, nuisance House Sparrows.

They're just good for nothing scavenger-type birds often seen in the city or McDonalds parking lots begging for morsels.  

Well, they've reappeared here at the ole homestead and have already worn out their welcome.

They're on and in the chicken coop and stealing feed, and pooping on everything.  They're in the garden bare spots dust bathing, which is making a mess and removing soil.  And now they've bullied and forced out a happy and content Wren family!  Yup, the bird house pictured below was occupied by a lovely Wren couple until a pair of sparrows moved in and pushed the baby Wren right out, BOOM!

The second picture below is of two baby wrens hidden in the flowers just beneath the bird house.  They were there for a couple days, with the parents diligently still watching over them and feeding them.   On the third day they were no where to be found.  Hoping they took flight and are fine, versus being tasty little wren mcnuggets for some skunk or fox.

I've not had any luck to date trapping a single sparrow.

I will persist and I will prevail.

The fight is real!

The Showdown!!

Oliver meet Josey.

Josey meet Oliver.

Josey is the Bob's dog.

Bob is the person who painted our house.

Bob lives behind us and would often walk home when he was painting.

Josey, perhaps knowing Bob was here and smelling him often visits.

Josey is a nice dog and doesn't or hasn't bothered with the chickens.

Oliver doesn't know what to make of Josey since Trixie is what she knows a dog to be.

Although, Josey is nice and all.  I have a dog.  I don't need another dog.  I would prefer Josey stay away, since Josey shits are about the same size as my dog...

German Red Harvest Success

I harvested our German Red garlic the other day!

German Red is a hardneck variety that I planted in November. 66 cloves planted in all with 62 surviving to harvest.  Very good percentage, however, the plants and the bulbs were smaller overall this season than in years past.  Guessing it had something to do with the weird weather we had.  No worries though, even though on the smaller side their smell is mouth watering!

Two 4'x8' raised beds, 33 plants in each -

Freshly dug -

Cleaned and hung to dry in the garage before trimming -

One of the two raised beds tilled, mixing in compost and grass clippings -

H2O Self Watering Bucket

I've seen these chicken self waterers for some time now and always wondered if they really worked and if so how good were they.  Well, now that we have chickens again I thought I'd give these a try, so ordered a couple from Amazon.  

Installed and ready for use!  I will add water and leave under the deck for a little while to see if they leak.  If not, I'll move it to the coop and hope the chickens get the hang of it and take to it.  This will help keep their water clean and I won't need to fill up nearly as much as the waterer I use today.

I'm Seeing Purple These Last Couple of Days

Here are some of the purple perennials we have throughout our yard!

Clematis -

Bee Balm -

Liatris -

Iris -

Bachelor Button -

Columbine -

Balloon Flower - 

Balloon Flower - 

Why Is My Bird Bath Red

This is a picture of the bird bath that used to reside at 270 Burgess Avenue.  It now resides here at the ole homestead providing refreshing water to the plethora of birds we have nesting and visiting.  You can notice where I've applied some clear chalk to prevent from leaking and further damage.

Although, I scrub it throughout the spring and summer months and winterize it by adding bleach to the water before storing for the winter, once it starts getting super hot and humid the water bird bath itself turns red, weird.

So I asked Google about this and this is the response I received.  Hmm, who knew apparently somewhat normal, so I'm not going to fret any longer - 

"The culprit for this unusual coloration is a micro-organism called Haematococcus pluvialis, which is a common inhabitant of bird batts. The red colour is due to the pigment called astaxanthin, which possibly protects the organism from the harsh sunlight, especially the ultraviolet rays from the Sun."

Welcome To The Newly Painted Ole Homestead!

Our large project for 2020 was to paint the house!  However, before that could happen we had to address the dried out, curled, cracked and rotted clapboard around the house.  The south side and rear of the house was in the toughest shape, as they get the brunt of sun and elements.  The front and north side wasn't too bad.

I had it in my head that I needed to replace ALL the clapboard on the south side and rear of the house.  I had a couple contractors stop by to take a look and give me some estimates - replace with like cedar clapboard or use a newer much more expensive composite like hardyboard or vinyl side the entire house.  All quotes were very expensive and just didn't sit right.  When I told the last contractor who stopped by and who I called at the last minute, what I was thinking about he said, "why replace everything?". His recommendation was to replace only the clapboards that were damaged and that most of what he was looking at wasn't in bad condition.  What an idea!!  Hit me like a ton of bricks to which I asked when he could start.  The rest his history.  One interesting item this contractor mentioned which turned out to be spot on, was that the incorrect nails were used when the clapboard was originally installed, nails that were not ribbed.  So, when the board dried and began to curl they were simply pulling the nails out too.  Not only did they replaced clapboards but they also re-nailed most of what stayed on the south side and rear of the house to prevent that issue from reoccurring. Brilliant!

About the same time as finding this contractor, Crawford Construction, I began my search for a house painter.  I turned to a local Franklin Facebook page, same page I found the contractor on, and there I was fortunate to find another local and fantastic company.  Ironically, this painter lives behind our house; his property corner touches ours. 

Sennott Superior Painting turned out to be top notch.  I've not met a more hardworking young man in quite some time.  The work and time he put in was impressive.  Not only that but much of the time he spent on ladders at our place it was scorching hot with humidity in the upper 60's, god awful but he kept plugging away.

Lo and behold the work is finally complete!  New base color - Sage Green, new trim color - Creamy White and new door color - Coral Gables.  We couldn't be happier with the outcome!

Finished product, front -

Finished product, south side -

Finished product, rear -

Finished product, garage side -

Finished product, pool shed -

Primed first coat, front -

Primed first coat, south side - 

Primed first coat, rear -

Power-washed, scrapped & sanded, south side -

Power-washed, scrapped & sanded, front -

Power-washed, scrapped & sanded, rear -

Clapboard replacement & new windows, south side - 

Clapboard replacement, rear -

Clapboard replacement, front & side -

Original south side -

Just need to book some time with a therapist to help overcome the anxiety of having two construction teams working in and out of my flower beds, gardens and yard.  Those of you who know me understand, so as you can just imagine there was a whole lot of "Goosfraba" chanting taking place around here these last couple of months.  It's gonna take some time but I'll be fine...