Baby Robins: Diary 6/29/15

The end of June? How can it be. Life is zooming by. Another hot day with several more on their way and this is only June! I have these baby robins just inside the door of the greenhouse, at eye level, in one of the fig trees. They are growing fast now. During the heat of the day, I hang a sprayer nearby, not where they would get wet, but offer them some cooling. They are simply adorable. I try not to disturb them, and the mom is happy to have the greenhouse to hunt bugs in, so we are getting along.

Diary 6/28/16

Seems like if you show a cat a box, he will jump in it. Well, if you show a hen a basket, she will lay an egg in it!I had fixed this basket up with a lovely dried flower arrangement in it...

Diary 6/25/15

And now the heat begins~ Starting today and through next week, we are going to have near record temperatures with quite a few triple digit days forecast. Also, monsoonal flow from the Four Corners area will work into our area to cause thunderstorms. Eventually they will have moisture, but not at first. Wow, do I sound like a meteorologist? Anyway, off to an early start because of higher temps later...

So now it is later and just starting to cool off from above 100, and thunder is booming in the distance.

Bird Nests and Diary 6/22/15

There is a chance the Northern Lights" a phenomena caused by solar flares may be visible tonight here. I looked into it, and they are saying north of here. The best time is the three hours around midnight, so I guess I'll get up at some point and look to the southeast and maybe~ I saw them a couple times when I lived back east when I was very little, but I barely remember them. It was more about being out on the lawn with the family all wrapped up in blankets. We did the same thing to watch the very first satellite which the Russians had sent up, Sputnik.

Here is a picture of the five bird nests my daughter found while she was visiting. The feathered one in the foreground is very special. The larger feathers decorate the edges of the cup. Then smaller downier feather are worked in on the sides and inside. The bird was a professional. I doubt this was her(and his) first nest.

Diary 6/20/15

My son is camping on the property over by our big pond. It is a nice place, very undisturbed and with a water source, a great place for animals of all kinds. He had told me about the owl and even had one flashed picture of it, so I went over this evening to outlast the mosquitoes...,

listen to other birds, watch deer, and wait for an owl show. I was not disappointed,. He came. He was very social. My son imitated his mewing call, and he responded. When we were taking pictures of him on the farther away tree, he came closer. He sat there with his head bowed like the picture for probably 20 seconds. It was fascinating to see him behave like this. He was so cute, too. Probably a saw whet owl, very small, and hopefully not too tame for his own good.

Trying to relax and let them adventure some on their own.  It is hard sometimes~

Diary 6/16/15

I have had a nice break from the hard push of keeping up around here with a visit from my daughter and her two boys. We spent time at the creek which I seem to never take time for. We saw crayfish and a large frog. We visited with friends, which again, I talk about but don't do. We went to the local park and saw a Blue Heron rookery with several nests in the same tall pine tree.In the time they have been here, my daughter has found 5 bird nests. We had quite a wind storm two weeks ago when the weather changed from so hot to the cooler pattern we are in now which must have knocked them out of the trees. I will get a picture tomorrow. We also saw a Red Shafted Flicker our neighbor had run into her window. Sad, but very beautiful to get to see so closely. All in all a nice visit. Help may be coming as soon as tomorrow. Crossing my fingers for someone who wants to help with weed eating!

Diary 6/15/15

All in all, a very pleasant day. very warm, but never too hot. There was a breeze all day which helped. I saw that it was 93 degrees in Soldotna, Alaska. Yikes!

Meanwhile the warm nights will be good for everything in the garden...

Diary 6/12/14

After two days of clipping out the blackberries trying to stay disguised and pulling grass from between the bushes, the boysenberry patch is looking pretty good. There was a good set of berries hidden in there: my reward!

Diary 6/11/15

I have a new mantra, "clip the blackberries". I think if something catastrophic happened, and we were all swept away, blackberries would take over this place. If I don't clip them, dig them, or burn them, they will do so while I am still here. So I have vowed to clip some blackberry canes everyday until I have eliminated some of the ones encroaching into my space. The rest of the world is on its own. The other activity of this sort I have been engaging in daily is removing bur chervil plants when I see them. They have little round stickers that get all over your socks and if they get into the washer, they are distriibuted throughout your laundry, but often on the elastic of underwear. Devil weed!

Diary 6/9/15

When you wake up to lightning at 4:00 AM, it could be a long day. Luckily there was rain with many of the strikes. We had nothing hit close. I saw one bolt, but I have learned that may mean it is 30-40 miles away, especially when the thunder comes so far behind the lightning. I am sure there will be some fires show up tomorrow as the storm clears out. Still some thunder and navy blue skies out there for tonight. Hoping it heads up the Cascades.

Despite the dry weather and no snow pack, this local Douglas Fir tree looks like it has good new growth at the tips( the lighter green ends).

Diary 6/8/15

The apple trees are loaded. We have a good setting of plums, too. I think the cherries are not happy with the dry and hot weather. Hope we can pick some in the valley soon.  Northern Oregon Coast range or Washington would have better ones...wish I could get away. Have wwoofers coming soon, thank goodness. Meanwhile I have tons of grass to pull out of the berries. At least it pulls easy. I will set up more irrigation tomorrow. Today was a little rough on things with record setting temperatures like 100 here.

Diary 6/1/15

This Bull Frog had taken up residence at our pond, eating our baby fish, our Spring Peeper frog and basically not fitting into the Eco-system we had in mind...