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What are U doing today?
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What are U doing today? (Ongoing thread)
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Nina
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Jan 31, 2012 11:48AM
Last day of January and still no snow. It is the first time in memory that we have gotten to this point in winter with no snow and temps in the fifties and sixties. yesterday was sixty four. No I am not complaining but it seems unatural. We are waiting for the other shoe to drop.
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Right, Nina. So far it's been an easy winter. I too am waiting for the other shoe to drop (i.e., snow and ice!). I keep knocking on wood every time Eddie comments on how easy the winter has been. Not that I'm superstitious... :)
It was almost 60 here today & Marg thought she heard a Purple Martin, so I put one of their houses up. I'll play hell trying to keep the sparrows out, but I don't want them passing us by, either. The daffodils are up 4" already. We're waiting for the other shoe, too.I rode Chip for most of an hour tonight bareback. Marg came along on Speedy for the last half & scolded me for riding him alone & without a saddle, but he was fine. He crossed a stream & muddy patches without any trouble & didn't freak out when the neighbor's St. Bernard came flying out of his house. He's solid!
I got him to trot some & also jumped on & off a few times. Once, it was out in the field so I could pick up some trash. I managed to hop back on just by putting him downhill a bit. That rocked him some, but he stayed steady. I don't hop as well as I used to & he's not used to that sort of abuse, yet. I measured him tonight & found that he's 14-1h (57").
What does "putting him downhill" mean?Chip sounds like a good sport.
I stood above him on the hill, so I gained a couple of inches in height. It wasn't much of a hill, but I gained a little bit & that was enough. It's very important that I be able to hop on & off easily. Otherwise, I might have to walk! ;-)
I see.57 inches is almost a 5 foot "hop"! Pretty good!
I heard on Martha Stewart that if your daffies are showing up ahead of time to put some more mulch on them as it is way too early for them to bloom. Jim, you sound like a kid with a new toy; a live one. Have fun while our mild winter lasts.
Joy H. wrote: "I see.57 inches is almost a 5 foot "hop"! Pretty good!"
I'm not that old & fat, yet - no matter what the kids say!
;-)
James always chortles about it. He can hop up on Cutter from the ground & he's about 5'6" tall. Of course, James isn't quite 30 yet & is 6'3" tall. I'm only 5'11".
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Nina, I think you're right on both counts, the daffodils & acting like a kid. And I do have a new toy - my wife bought me a PONY!!!
Marg scolded me again on Facebook, telling my children on me. Typical. Unlike her though, they have never held out any hope that I'd grow up.
;-)
Marg & I were talking about the flowers & I'm going to put some old grass hay on some of them, if it gets too cold. A bit of frost won't hurt too much. We're watching the temperatures.
Daffodils in Jan. and Feb. is just daffy! :)Never heard of such a thing! :)
Jim, enjoy your toys. That's what life is all about. Fun!!!
(within reason, of course). :)
Jim wrote: "I'm not that old & fat, yet ..."Old and fat? I resemble that remark! LOL
We just back from a second ride tonight. I took Erin & Josh for one when I got home from work early today. I just got them to hop on everyone bareback & I had a blast. They both had a bit of a rough time getting & staying on, so I guess I'm not as old & fat as I thought since they're both 30 years younger than I am.This evening, we went for a better ride with Marg. Everyone else put on saddles & Erin really worked Chip hard. She taught him how to canter in a circle.
Have fun Jim, and it reminds me, although I was never a true horsewoman, far from it, but every day after school when I took my younges to the stable near us I would ride her horse. It took my mind off the mundane just trying to stay on the horse; like sailing. There too you were lifted away trying to stay afloat.
Jim wrote: "We just back from a second ride tonight. I took Erin & Josh for one when I got home from work early today. I just got them to hop on everyone bareback & I had a blast. They both had a bit of a r..."Jim, that sounds like a whole new world, so different from mine. When we go for a "ride" we get in the car. :) Your rides sound like more fun.
Nina wrote: "... It took my mind off the mundane just trying to stay on the horse; like sailing. There too you were lifted away trying to stay afloat."Nina, that reminds me of the saying I have on a framed plaque:
"Cares are left at the water's edge."
I walked around & closed up all the bird houses yesterday. (I make them so the side hinges open for easy cleaning.) I opened them in the fall so the sparrows wouldn't take them over, but we saw a Blue Bird the other day & Marg heard a Purple Martin. Last night I popped down to a neighbor's house. The Suddeths are in their 80's & have over a dozen Purple Martin houses, each holding nest boxes for 8 - 12 birds, in a really neat colony setup. One pole has 3 houses on arms that he can crank up & down. He also has a lot of Blue Bird houses & several feeders. They get a special Purple Martin newspaper, too.
IOW, they're really into the birds & I figured they'd know if the Purple Martins were back yet. Apparently not. 11March is the earliest they've ever seen them here, but their newspaper says the first scouts are in Florida already. That's about the right timing. He gave me last month's issue to read through. There's a pretty awful article on what English Sparrows do to Blue Birds & Purple Martins. They'll peck them to death right on the nest!
I don't think we get Purple Martin's around here. But the map shows that we do.I'll have to ask around.
http://duncraft.atom5.com/files/Male%...
http://www.songbirdgarden.com/store/p...
MAP: http://purplemartin.org/main/scoutmap...
PS-I looked in my bird book and learned that the Purple Martin is a kind of Swallow. We do have Swallows but I don't know what kind they are. They're not purple.Our Swallows have taken over our Bluebird box several times but last year the Bluebirds got there first. We were thrilled! Below is a link to a photo of our Bluebird at our Bluebird Box-Nest:
http://www.tiikoni.com/tis/view/?id=f...
(Scroll to see it better.)
(Pic was taken June 3, 2011.)
There are a lot of swallows. Our Blue Bird houses often have Tree Swallows in them.Here's a picture of one:
http://www.birdperch.com/galldetq.asp...
They look a lot like a Purple Martin except for the light gray belly. We like them as they're not aggressive & are also insect eaters.
Jim wrote: "There are a lot of swallows. Our Blue Bird houses often have Tree Swallows in them.Here's a picture of one:
http://www.birdperch.com/galldetq.asp...
They look a lot like a Purple Martin..."
I don't recognize that Tree Swallow. I'll have to take a closer look at our Swallows next spring/summer. I'll try to take a pic. They fly so fast that it will probably be hard to get a good pic but I'll try.
Barn Swallows have orange bellies & don't like bird houses, as far as I know. The only difference I know of between Cliff & Tree Swallows are where they live. They look very similar.
I am replying to Joy's quote, "Cares are left at the water's edge." I believe our land cares are left as we worry about how to keep from capsizing; at least I had those worries as I can't swim.
LOL-Nina. I hope you wore a life preserver! Jim, I'll have to look more closely at our Swallows when they come and compare them with photographs online or in my bird book.
Joy, I always wore a life preserver except once when I was only going to get on board while my husband parked the boat trailer. I obviously got on the wrong way and the boat tipped and off I went into deep water. As I was falling I grabbed ahold of the line and held on as the boat banged back and forth against the stone wall of the dock. My hand was cutting and I almost let go. I really did think I would die. My husband glanced up and noticed I was not on the boat. He and another sailor ran fast and he grabbed me just in time. I remember saying, "Just let go." I was in shock. Well, when we returned home that day my youngest daughter on hearing my story said, "Oh mom, why did you have to go and do that on Mother's Day?" End of story. Happy Ending.
I never get a bluebird hereabout. You are lucky. We used to get them when we went to our house on Lake of the Ozarks. Do they like to be around water?
Nina wrote: "... I obviously got on the wrong way and the boat tipped and off I went into deep water...."Nina, you were lucky that they saved you! What an awful experience.
About the Bluebirds, I'm not sure if they like water especially, but they are around Lake George. They are the NY state bird.
I Googled the Bluebird and read that they avoid cities and prefer wooded areas and small spaces without tall grass or bushes; like a small clearing with short weeds or brush.
Thanks, Nina. That's why we put our Bluebird Nest-Box in the middle of the yard, away from the bushes and trees. We'll see how lucky we are this spring with the Bluebirds using our nest.One time I saw an Indigo Bunting on our deck. That was a once in a lifetime experience! His color was so bright! Beautiful!
http://www.kewlwallpapers.com/bulkupl...
Indigo Buntings are beautiful. They're hard to see since they tend to stay in the canopy of the woods. At least, that's where I usually see them. Marg says she sees them in hedgerows along the roads on her bus run. Blue Birds like their houses only 3'-5' off the ground, too. I have some as low as 5' but most are higher since they're on fence posts. There are too many cats around.
Purple Martins like their houses crammed together. I was just reading that if you space several houses too widely apart in your yard, you many never get any! Isn't that odd?
Interesting about how birds prefer their nests. Fussy, aren't they! :)Our Bluebird house is a bit higher than 5 feet but not 6 feet. We didn't realize there was a height preference. We bought the house in a store but there were no height directions that we can remember. Ed bought a post and nailed the house to the post. We knew that they liked to be in a clearing, a space away from trees and things.
I think 40'-50' is the recommended distance away from anything else for Blue Birds. They're fussy & that's not a good survival trait, unfortunately.So many pretty birds are weird about so many things & the horrible ones don't seem to be fussy at all. English & House sparrows are very aggressive & will kill & bully Blue Birds & Purple Martins. They take over the houses I put up.
Starlings are another problem. We used to have tons, but got rid of most of them by denying them a place to live - our horse barn. They thought the open trusses with access to the overhangs were perfect. It cost me about $100 & a full day's work with my son & wife, but we put up a nylon netting similar to chicken wire, but stretchy, under all the trusses to keep them out. They were crapping every where & knocking the soffit out. A real PITA. Still we apparently had it better than LaGrange does. That's 30 miles away & they have 10's of thousands of the buggers right now. No one knows why.
http://www.wave3.com/story/16593789/t...
We don't have 40' feet of space for the Bluebird house. Their birdhouse in our yard is about 30 feet from our house and 20 feet from the brush. I guess we were lucky to attract them last year.The article you referenced doesn't mention that the birds were Starlings. That's a great omission on the writer's part! We used to see more Starlings years ago but we don't see as many these days. Same with Grackles. (We stopped feeding the birds several years ago because the seeds attracted mice. So I see fewer birds now. I miss the Goldfinches and Chickadees.
Here's a pic of how the Goldfinches used to feed near our deck:
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj...
Starlings are birds with dots on their feathers.
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/comhort/noo...
Grackles are shiny black with purple shine:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Qui...
I used to get Starlings mixed up with Grackles because the word "Grackles" reminds me of the word "freckles" which is what the dots on Starlings look like. LOL
Article re Starlings:
"Starlings overstay their welcome"
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0710/p1...
Last night when I got home from work, I found that I was carrying a fever, and felt lousy enough that I wasn't surprised by the discovery. So I've called in sick today, and am enjoying (except for the coughing and nose-blowing!) a quiet day of rest at home, for the first time in months. Deborah's pediatrician has put our whole family on antibiotics, so I'm hoping this and a good day of rest and recuperation will put me right by tomorrow.
Werner, enjoy your day of R&R. Hope you'll feel better soon. Meanwhile, read a good book, as I'm sure you will!
Try drinking a hot toddy before bedtime. Great for easing coughs.
We have lots of Gold Finches & 3 feeders of thistle for them. We quit using socks because of - big surprise - starlings. They'd peck them full of big holes. We have wire mesh feeders for them now.Starlings do have a nice bunch of sounds they make.
Feel better, Werner.
Quote:A dog looks up to a man
A cat looks down on a man
But a patient horse looks
a man in the eye and sees him
as an equal. Susie Brewer
The Eastern Bluebird is the state bird of MO. The state bird of KS is the Western Meadowlark. I have always felt I live on the Border of East and West.I live in a city of fountains and boulevards and lots of trees and hills and it is perched on the banks of the MIssouri River and not far west of here is the wide open prairie beckoning us toward Colorado Rockies toward Texas abd New Mexico. Makes you wonder who you are. An Easterner, a Westerner or Midwesterner or even a Southerner. Remember Truman used to play on the piano, "Way Down in Missouri?"
Thanks to all for the good wishes and advice! And yes, Joy, I'm reading a good book. :-)
Though I've still got a cough, I'm feeling vastly better today (as Barb is, too), and was free of fever all day yesterday. So, I'm resuming normal activities today, much rested and recharged!
Super, Werner!Chip is better, too. Marg still has him on a gram of bute twice a day, but he has no more heat or swelling in his stifle. We walked around the place last night & he was fine.
I doubt we'll ride tonight. We had about an inch of snow this morning, but it's going fast. It was right at 32 degrees so I had to sweep off my car & the grass was pretty & white, but the roads were clear. Nice, except the fields will be too muddy & slippery for riding.
We had a skiff of snow on the ground this morning, and there's more steadily falling now. It remains to be seen if it'll be cold enough for any appreciable amount of it to lay very long, though. (Our weather usually is much like yours, Jim, but with a slight delay.)
Interesting quote about horses, etc, Nina.Also, it sounds like you live in a lovely location.
About feeling sick, I became queasy tonight watching some old home movies of our son's 1991 wedding. The movement of the movie camera got to me: it's just like seasickness. We recently had twelve home movie videos transferred to DVDs. I'll have to view them a little at a time to avoid getting queasy. But it sure is fun reminiscing.
The wedding movie showed me dancing with my son, the groom. Tonight was the first time I've ever seen that movie. I had to wait over twenty years to see it! LOL (Our son had it all this time.) We danced to "Powder Your Face with Sunshine", a real lively tune. It was a lively dance. Ah! Memories.
Oh, your son's wedding sounds perfectly wonderful. How nice that you have the moving memory but watch it in bits if you get queasy.
Oh, your son's wedding sounds perfectly wonderful. How nice that you have the moving memory but watch it in bits if you get queasy.
Here's a pic of me dancing with my son, the groom, in 1961:https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...
An unforgettable moment.
Nina, I like the expression "moving memory". Yes, it was fun to see us in action.
Wishing you all a~~
~~
Thanks, hope your day was a Happy one. I like to remember when we took our precious loot to school and home again. Such a fun day.
I fed all the animals tonight. Marg is pretty sore from Speedy dumping her last night. She managed to drive today, but wasn't happy about it. This is our 30th Valentine's Day.
Yes, Nina, we had a relaxing day at home. He gave me candy. I gave him a small pillow which said, on one side, "Mr. Right". On the other side, it said: "Mrs. Always Right". We had a good laugh at that one.Jim: Thirty years and still counting! That's good! Hope Marg will feel better.
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