Unexpected Visitor

We noticed a tapping at our front door, when I first heard it, I thought it was Eric doing something in the office, but he said that he was not making the noise, and in fact the noise was coming from outside – turns out we have two Eastern Bluebirds tapping on the front door! Are they trying to built a nest? Perhaps they just like the brass door knocker? Well, we still don’t know why our little feathered friends keep tapping on the front door, but they do it daily and only to the front door.

A couple couple of weeks the public schools had a two-hour delay due to all that snow and my neighbor called to see if her son could come over and get on the bus with Nicole while she went to work. Sure, I say, just send him over. She told me that she was going to feed him breakfast and then send right him over. So when I heard a tapping at the door I go to the door expecting to see Michael. Do you see where this is going?

No Michael, just that blasted bird! Oh no – we both had one of those panic moments and I think I even screamed (stop laughing, you would have too!) I’m thankful he didn’t fly into the house, I don’t even want to THINK about that scenario.

The pictures were taken while the bluebirds were on “break” from all their knocking. My crazy critters!

Blizzard of 2010

Friday the National Weather Service forcasted 12 or more inches of wet snow and high winds, possible power outages for our area. Let me tell you, they got it right on this one! It has been snowing since Friday morning and the snow will continue through sometime tonight with more snow expected Monday! Hopefully, we will not loose power, we do have a generator but my concern would be the the lack of heat!

These two kind of look like they are kissing or sharing food, but the birds are getting kind of chippy.

These two are getting along.

The view from the back door.

Carndinal in the snow.

We have a tree stump next to the closet tree – it is completely covered!

I have trouble taking pictures of the Blue Jays, they see the slightest movement and take flight so this was a huge victory for me.

Here are some birds forging for seed on the ground. Eric forgot to pick up more seed for the bird, so later on I put out some bread crumbs for our feathered friends.

Here are my guys shoveling the driveway.

Our First Snow

Today we had our first snow!

It started off by raining this morning, later on we had a mix of rain and ice then those big fat fluffy snow flakes. We are suppose to get 1 to 3 inches of snow today - it is so beautiful. Here are a few pictures that I took earlier today.

Mr. Cardinal looked so handsome for Mrs. Cardinal and the other birds around the feeder today.

Happy Saturday!

Around the Bird Feeder...

Here are some pictures I took this week around the bird feeder, enjoy!

I will start with the pest, look how comfortable these pesky squirrels are. They are sprawled out eating the bird feed. Why!

We had a new arrival to the bird feeder, this is a male Hairy Woodpecker

And another newcomer was a male Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, this little one has come by several times this week.

One of our favorites, Red-Bellied Woodpecker

We were so excited to see that the Hummingbirds have returned, not quite sure what kind this is, but he is a beauty.

Here is I think my first picture of a Blue Jay, he must have eyes in the back of their heads, because when I even move to get the camera, he will fly away. We usually only have one Blue Jay at at time at the feeder, but earlier this week I saw a couple, very exciting - but also camera shy!

Bird Bird

We always enjoy going to the marina in downtown Panama City. On this visit we saw three pelicans and a crane, not sure what kind of crane this is, if you know please pass on the information to me.

At first we couldn't figure out why he held up one foot, then noticed he had fishing line or some sort of netting wrapped around his leg. Of course I wanted to dash over and remove the line, but didn't want to get pecked to death in the process. Be sure to click the pictures to enlarge, it is a beautiful bird.





See his little head feathers blowing in the wind.

There was a couple fishing a few feet away from the crane, their little dog was hiding behind a cooler trying very hard to be brave as the crane walked toward them! We didn't stick around to see the show down.

Missing My Hour of Sleep!

Did you remember to change your clocks last night? We did, and boy was hard getting up this morning!

I'm so proud of myself, I did manage to drag myself from my bed this morning, fix a cup of English Breakfast tea and start preparing our Sunday meal of broiled pork chops, green beans, and rice. All that before going to church! WHEW!

Here are some of my feathered friends that I took last week, all the snow is gone and we are wearing t-shirts this weekend!

I think the Cardinals are one of my favorites, maybe because they are our state bird, but they are fun to watch and listen to. Doesn't Mr. Cardinal look dapper, what a nice contract with the snow.

Today, Eric took down the almost dead tree on the side of the house, the top of the tree came down last. Gene, Nicole and two neighbor kids helped to cart the smaller debris off to the woods in the back yard - without being asked!

March in Like a Lion!

March started with a loud roar in our neck of the woods, we have had a winter storm with rain, ice and SNOW!

We had a tree on the side of the house loose its top, it was by God's grace that the falling limbs missed the side of the house by a few inches. Eric had no more said "I hope we don't have any trees fall and hit the -" That was a far as he got when we heard the thud of the fallen limb. Here is a picture of the topless tree I took this morning.



Here is the part that fell...

The kids didn't want to go outside to play in the snow (crazy huh!), so I only have pictures of the birds. Here is a female Cardinal, she was very aggressive with the other birds about getting her share of the seed.

Did I mention it was also windy!

We had some bird seed down in the basement, so I had Eric open the back door and pour out a couple of cups of seed for the birds.

Waiting patiently for their turn to eat...

More from the waiting area...

This is a picture of our driveway and street! Eric did clear off the sidewalk and drive way this afternoon, while doing so our neighbor got his truck stuck in our ditch and had to be pulled out.

A Cardinal sharing nicely with a House Finch

Maybe not so nice with the Red-winged Blackbird...

So Mr. Cardinal went to the waiting area...

The snow finally stopped this afternoon, I think we have about 8" of snow. So March defiantly came in like a lion!

We Are Done!

We were suppose to finish out our current school year on Friday, but we or rather I got side-tracked and ended up going to pick up some school supplies for the upcoming year. So today the kiddos took their Unit 4 Evaluation for Tapestry of Grace. Nicole has some math lessons to finish and complete her lapbook for Unit 4, but Gene is all done with his work. I'm thankful that we made it though another year!

I'm trying to get started on planning for the new school year, I already have some material, and Friday I was able to get a couple more items to add to my bounty. I need to sit down and make a list of what needs to be purchased or borrowed from the library. Today I received an e-mail from the good folks at Knowledge Quest about scheduling, my interest was peaked when I saw Scheduling the Easy Way! 5 Step Plan.

The e-mail went on to include 5 Essential Ingredients to Homeschooling Success, I surely want and need all the help I can get, so I read this blog entry from Terri Johnson. Don't you love how the Lord will just place things right in front of you, so you can't miss them and you say, "Boy did I need to read/hear that today!" It helps to have these reminders, they give me an extra boost and motivate me to just dive in and start making some sort of progress. Be sure to take a look at both articles, neither are long, they may help you get a jump start to planning for the upcoming school year.


Here is Nicole my rising 5th grader working on her Math today.




And Gene, my rising 7th grader working on his final spelling for this school year.

The birds have been camera shy for the last few days, so I haven't been able to get any good shots. The other day I was watching a male cardinal give food to a chick - are they called chicks when they are almost the same size as the adult? Anyway the little chick would shake her feathers, it really looked like she was trembling, and the male cardinal would give her some bird seed, they were so adorable, the pictures didn't turn out that great, but you can get the idea.

Here is a male cardinal that I saw today.

Cardinal, male