Saturday, July 18, 2009

Coming along nicely...

The next day he put in a full day!

He turned the corner!

And, darn...that door still needs to be painted red! But, there will be time for that. He still has the other side to finish, and yes, we'll be staining it soon. But this was pretty good for 3 days work!

No rest...we moved onto our next project...

Rick started right away to put the siding on the basement (this is under the deck)...

Hey, we never did like the bright pink wrapping! This part that you see was done in one afternoon...

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

The remains...


This is all that was left by 6 PM.

We really thought there would be more ashes!


So our first Bonfire went well. I'm pretty sure there will be another one in our future. There's still more that has to be burned, but the conditions have to be perfect and we wanted to get this pile done before Mother Nature put a "burning ban" into effect.

A Pyromaniac's Dream...

We spent several weeks removing piles of scrap wood from around the house.

The theory was to get a little pile going and then feed it from the big pile and keep everything under control.

It all worked fine and eventually we just bridged the gap between the two piles and let it all go!


We had hoses, and rakes and shovels and 5 gallon pails of water all ready if needed. We didn't need any of it. The fire went from 7:30 in the morning until around 5:30 that night.


It's the little things...

Notice the bright yellow guy wires!!!
They upset my sensibilities...so I painted them RED!


Monday, July 6, 2009

They left...but I got to watch 2 of them leave!

On a bright and sunny afternoon, Rick and I ran out to do some food shopping. When we got back we discovered that 2 of the babies had left the nest. Mom continued to feed the two that remained. I was a little disheartened that I'd missed their leaving, but I still had 2 more to go! The rest of that day Mom continued taking care of the remaining chicks and she hopped back into the nest that night.
The next morning I hurried down to the computer just in time to see one of the babies do a "whirly bird" down to the ground and go hopping off on it's own. Mom and Dad were nowhere to be found, but the little guy seemed to know where to go and hopped along (they can't really fly well yet)...We watched as it took off first hopping...then flying a foot or two...then increasing to about 3 feet...We thought he was testing out his wings and teaching himself to fly! I was so happy to have caught one as they left! I'd invested many hours watching, (which also tells you that I spent many hours on my computer...LOL)
Still there was one left. Mom showed up to feed it. Good...I was happy she was around! And I continued watching. It seemed the last one was not in a hurry to leave. By mid-afternoon I realized no one had showed up to feed the little guy in over an hour. I looked around and saw Dad sitting on the woodpile by the garage chirping. He sat there for almost 45 minutes, just watching the nest. Finally Mom showed up with a juicy worm, but sat just off the nest and I swear she was trying to coax the last one out onto the rafter! She approached the nest and only allowed half the worm to get to the baby. Then she sat back on the end of the rafter with half a worm hanging out of her beak and waited for him to come get the rest! He did...and within a minute he was also "whirly birding" it down to the ground. Mom hopped off behind the garage and the baby followed. Later, we caught a glimpse of the entire family "in and under" some bushes behind the garage. Mom and Dad were teaching them how to catch worms and feed themselves.
It was a great experience for me! And Rick rather enjoyed it too! He was able to see the third one as it taught itself to fly (he missed it leaving the nest)...but...he did see the fourth one as I was calling him to come watch as soon as I realized that Mom was coaxing the final one off the ledge!

Almost ready to leave...


By this point they are getting so big and active within the nest...

This big guy has been trying to get out of the nest all morning! And although you can't see it clearly here, I discovered there were FOUR babies! And yes, I'm sure this was one of the babies!



Sunday, July 5, 2009

Finally I found there were THREE!


I know it's hard to see, but I finally saw 3 at the same time! What a trip to see the parents feeding these guys. I had perfect views! Big worms, and I'd watch Mamma and Dad make sure to feed all the babies. The parents would take turns going off looking for worms. Hundreds of times a day they'd fly in...feed the kids...and fly off to find more.

My Robin's Nest...

I've seen robin's nests before, of course I have! But, this one fascinated me from the beginning. I could sit here at the computer and watch all the activity without disturbing them. It was finally time to sit back and enjoy watching my very own nest from start to finish.

as As soon as their little heads were visible we began counting.
I mostly was coming up with 2 babies with a possible third. 'Twas hard to tell because they'd constantly pop up and down.


Here I was positive there were only two!