Oriole Feeder

We have had several Baltimore Orioles in our yard this spring. We have had them nest in our yard in past years and I was very happy to see them again. I have wanted some type of feeding station for them, hoping they would use it.

After looking on-line at many different types of feeders, I finally came up with a design I liked, incorporating all the things I wanted. I knew my darling husband would build one for me and the price tag of $30+ for the ones I had seen online was more than I wanted to spend.

So, yesterday he took my plan and built the feeder for me. It holds two cups, one that has jelly in it and the other I will fill with some type of worms to offer. There are also a peg on each end for fruit.

I still need to stain it, but I really like the way it came out. What do you think?

Now, hopefully the Orioles will also enjoy it!

A Long View

Melanie at Old Country Gardens posted some wonderful pictures of her yard and garden and asked readers to do the same.

Here is the view of our house from across the road. I haven't done too much with the front of the house because a porch has been on the list of house projects. This year, I am not waiting any longer for the porch and have a new plan for some added plantings. This side faces north and is quite shady for much of the day.


This is the west side of the house. This is very shady this time of year. Last summer we put in the garden on the right. It has quite a few hosta and other shade loving plants. We are going to build this garden up so we can see the plants better from the house. This is also were most of the bird feeders are.


This is the my main perennial border. The garden on the right is the new enclosed garden that we are working on. We have made some modifications in our plan this summer and the new plan will include a new larger water feature. We will see how much of it gets done this summer.


This is where we do most of our entertaining, having people over for cookouts and enjoying the gardens.


Now, I decided to be honest about the whole thing and show all of our property and explain that I share this house with my wonderful husband that enjoys boats and tools of any shape and size. We also have five children, with their assorted bikes, balls, toys, trampoline and swings. We have a dog and cat, chickens and rabbits. So, these pictures aren't quite as tidy as the first ones. We try and keep the "house garden" free of the kids stuff, but we certainly get a lot of overflow from one area to the other.

Here is the vegetable garden, chicken coop, shed and boat shed. Oh, and Bessie on the tramp.


This is the pool enclosure. The fence needs painting and right now we are in the process of replacing the pool liner. You can also see my clothesline.


Here is the view of the kids side of the yard. Look at Bessie bouncing so high on the tramp. Our camper is also stored here. This is a large area where the kids can ride their bikes, play ball and run around.


It is often quite a challenge to try and keep the gardens and yard looking nice with such a large busy family, but we enjoy our outside space very much.

This is the view out our front door. I love this view and some day we might have that front porch to sit upon and enjoy and scenery.


Thanks, Melanie for sharing pictures of your lovely yard and garden.

Sprinkler Fun

With our pool still unusable, the kids have enjoyed themselves with the fun whirly sprinkler that Theresa bought for Dan last summer. It amazes me how much fun they have with a little splashing water.

A Beautiful Day at the Zoo

Early Thursday morning found us heading out for the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. It is a bit of a drive for us, about 150 miles. One stop along the way to stretch our legs, a potty break and of course, Dunkin' Donuts, a regular event that we enjoy on our outings.

The day was gorgeous, blue skies, warm temps and plenty of sunshine.

When we arrived at the zoo, we were disappointed to see that it was very crowded. There were buses and buses of school groups. I was sure there must have been some event going on. Usually the zoo is not overly crowded at all. I spoke to the young woman at the desk and asked if there was some event going on. She stated that from April vacation until the end of the school year, they have an average of 900 school children a day! Yikes! She told us to not be too concerned that the kids start leaving around 1:30pm and then it is nice and quiet.

We started outside as the noise in the buildings was very loud. We took the Wildlife Trail. The kids loved seeing the animals and remembering our trip last fall. Today they were cleaning the pond. How funny to watch the zoo keepers trying to walk along the bottom that was covered with very slippery algae. The ducks, geese and flamingos seemed very unconcerned that the water in their pond was gone. There were several pairs of birds with little ones. They sat on the bottom of the pond picking at the algae.

Everyone was hungry after the walk around the trail and it was after noon. We enjoyed a nice lunch at the Jungle Cafe. By the time we were done with our meal, the school groups were gathering together getting ready to leave. In no time at all, the zoo was once again quite quiet and we were left to enjoy a more leisurely tour. There were other families with small children and a few grandparents with grandchildren, but the large crowds were gone. I know it sounds like we are terribly anti-social, but fighting our way through large masses of loud and often rude children is not our idea of a fun outing.

Here are some pictures of the animals we saw along the way. The keepers were giving the animals a snack when we went around the second time. This brought everyone out of their hiding places and we enjoyed some great view of the animals.

While we were watching the penguins, we spotted a baby bird hopping around the ground. He was in grave danger from being stepped on. I picked him up and noticed a female Cardinal frantically flying about. We figured this little one must have just fledged and landed down on the walk. We put him on a shrub off the path and in no time he was able to fly up onto some rocks and his momma rejoined him. Hopefully he did okay.

We had a visit at the gift shop and left at closing time. It was a wonderful day.

In the Garden

A few shots from the garden today.

We have several frogs in residence in the garden pond.

Mr. Garter Snake seems to think perhaps those frogs would make a nice supper. He has been hanging out, in and around the pond this week.

The kids found this small Easter Milk Snake in the driveway today. I had not seen one in our yard before. He is harmless although he put up a good show, shaking his little tail and striking at us. I think he is quite handsome. We moved him out back into the woods.

Vegetable Garden Ready for Planting

Brian had this week off and spent a good portion of the time building this new vegetable garden. he put up a very nice fence with animal fencing tacked to the inside. Built raised beds, de-sodded the soil, tilled it and added six inches of rich garden mix to the boxes and added mulch to all the paths.

Doesn't it look nice? Let the planting begin!

There are four 4'x12' beds, six 4'x8' beds and two 3'x8' beds.

An ER Visit

Well, we knew this day would come sooner or later. Dan had his first ER visit. Dan is definitely our danger boy. He often leaps before thinking about what he is doing and it is only because of his very attentive guardian angel (or two or three), that he has managed to keep from major harm.

Wednesday evening he was playing in the woods behind the house and stab his eye with a stick. I am not one to run to the doctor's for every little thing and except for Bessie needing stitches after a biking accident, we have avoided the ER to date, but Dan's eye was actually bleeding, not the surrounding area, but his eye. This seemed like something that could be more serious. We called the Ped and he agreed, we should took Dan to the ER.

We were there for two hours, which by ER standards is not too bad. Everyone thought he was so cute (which he is). They stained his eye and checked for bleeding behind the eye and for corneal scratches. He was so good and cooperative. All was negative. We were relieved. Dan was exhausted. We got home at 11:30 pm, way past his bedtime.

We will hope and pray that it will be a while (or maybe never) that we will need to make another visit to our local ER.

Dan looks pretty glum here, but he was just really tired

Not the best picture, but you can see how red his eye is

Creation Club

A homeschooling famly we know holds a monthly get together during the summer called Creation Club. It is geared for children ages 4-8 and each time they discuss some aspect of God's creation.

This month, there were 12 kids. The topic was the human body.

The kids stensiled t-shirts with different types of animals, had a snack, a craft involving a Bible memory verse and played games outside.

Often times it is hard to find an activity that works well for all of our kids, but this one worked well. Bessie was even involved, helping with the stensiling.

Waiting for the lesson

Bessie was a great help
Dan finds an apple during the scavenger hunt
A rowdy game of follow the leader

Tradition Prevails

Every year, since we moved into our house, we have been in the pool by Memorial Day weekend. This past winter our pool liner failed. We have been dealing with measuring and ordering a new liner and the pool was not ready.

Bessie and Gabe were not willing to accept defeat. The deep end of the pool, about four feet of water, was still full and they were determined to go in. So, braving the very cold murky water, they ventured into the pool to maintain our family tradition.

We had been filtering the water all week to clean it up enough so that the bottom could be measured, so we knew it wasn't too dirty, just a lot of dirt and leaves, but still.

Way to go, Bess and Gabe! You both have terrific adventurous spirits!