Monday Challenge

Today I challenged the birds to finish the last of the suet in the suet cage...not an easy task for some of the larger birds.  The woodpeckers and some of the smaller birds have no problem.  Here is how the brown thrasher solved his problem...he used his wings!!  I was very happy to capture this bottom photo.

I went out on the front porch fairly early to drink my morning tea, photograph birds, and do a little reading.  The reading is hard to do if I am trying to keep a focus on the birds.  Yesterday Melany spent the day with us.  She has a bird feeder that keeps the squirrels from getting at the seed, so she and I went to WalMart to see if they had one like she has.  They did...guess a photo of the new feeder will be fodder for another blog.

Elijah continues to be our squirrel trapper!  This morning he and his daddy relocated Elijah's 13th captured squirrel!  I will say that we saw a lot less squirrels in our yard today!  Way to keep on trapping, Elijah.

Woody sat on the porch for a while with me this morning.  He has read, worked crossword puzzles, watched some TV and probably dozed a bit today.  He did go out this afternoon and to give some plant food to some of the plants on our patio.  Things are really looking good and making great strides in growth in our herb/vegetable/flower containers that we have on that area at the back of our house.

I had a socially distanced visit with Donna, my church library co-worker.  She stopped by to pick up her Sunday School literature and also to get some of the books from the church library that Woody was finished with.  It was good to visit on the front porch. There was a pleasant breeze blowing...I guess the breeze that pretty much blew all day is from the tropical depression...think we will get some rain from it tomorrow...at least our gardens are counting on it!

Be safe!
Be well!
Be Cautious!

Upon Looking Closer...

Upon looking closer at this barn that I posted a picture of yesterday (the top photo is yesterday's), you can see that there is a pigeon sitting in the hayloft opening.  And, the closer you get the prettier this pigeon gets! Really this pigeon is a perfect match for this barn...a good ornament sitting there in that opening!

This morning Woody wanted to place some books on hold at the public library.  The only way for me to be able to pick them up is to use my library card so I was typing in his requests and before I could get the second one requested the library was calling to set up a pick up time for the first one I requested!  Quite efficient!  I just continued my requests over the phone and she assigned me a time to come.  They were all three ready for me to pick up when I got there.  They are still closed to walk-in traffic, but will hand the books through the door when you show them your card.  Works great and Woody is happy to have some new reading material as he finished the last one in the group I requested a little over two weeks ago.  I dropped the books he had finished into the book drop.  The librarian who called me told me that they put all books returned are sanitized before reshelving them.

Woody sat out on the front porch for a while this afternoon...quite warm today...the way he likes it.  I checked on how our plants are doing and pulled a few weeds...but not many.  Most of our plants are doing great.  We have little grape tomatoes that just need to turn red as they are about the right size for a grape tomato.

I am enjoying the new books that I started yesterday.  I have spent downtime reading.  I've done a little cooking.  Melany might join us for a meal tomorrow.

Be safe!
Be well!
Be cautious!

Friday

We have done a little of this and a little of that today spending a little time outside.  Woody headed out to sit on the front porch and I decided to do some weeding...taking advantage of softer ground due to rain in the night.  I didn't last long before I got too hot, though today seemed less hot than the last two days.  Elijah has become quite the squirrel trapper and relocator!  So far he has trapped 7!  They can't resist that new bird seed that the Hastys gave us the other day! (Thanks, D & L!) We're just so glad to get them out of our neighborhood that is worth giving them some of the birdseed!

I did finish up the four books that I had been reading in rotation.  I guess I will be doing that again as books continue to show up in my e-books that are now available for me to borrow.  I started reading them a chapter at a time today...not sure about a couple of them...I may eliminate them from the rotation pretty quickly.  Woody has started the fifth book that I checked out for him a couple of weeks ago so it will be time to get him some more books here shortly.  I think that our library has reopened so perhaps I will be going in to get his next books.  I will probably still be the one to go get them as Woody is still trying to shelter at home as much as possible.

Be safe!
Be well!
Be cautious!

Thoroughly Thursday

Well, June is here and so is the heat and humidity.  The heat and especially the humidity seem to suck all my energy away...so...I just haven't accomplished much...nor did I try!  Early and later in the day is when I get the most done on days like these.  So I did some things this morning including carrying the vacuum upstairs, and then just a little while ago I managed to run the vacuum in our bedroom, the sewing room, and the school room...what I could do with plugging in the vacuum once and vacuuming as far as the cord would reach! I have a load of towels to get out of the dryer to fold and put away...perhaps that will happen after I tap "publish."  I still have a few dishes to hand wash...then I am through for the day!  I didn't have to do much cooking today since we still have leftovers to pick from...so no stove heating up the kitchen today.  

Woody did enjoy the heat and sat outside for a while this afternoon.  He finished the fourth of the five books that I checked out for him two weeks ago.  I renewed them all online and will drop off the ones he is finished with when I go out to run errands.  

A funny observation from the books that I am reading: You would think, that with all the names there are in the world, that you wouldn't find the same names in totally unrelated books.  I am currently reading four books...totally unrelated to each other and all written by different authors.  There are three characters with the nickname Cass.  There are two characters with the name Boone (one a first name and one a last name). Two characters named Sam (one male and one female).  And, there are two Pams and one Angela (Angie) and one Angelina and one Anja.  It makes me have to stop and think about which plot they fit into!  I thought that it was especially unusual about the less common names like Cass and Boone!  Just something that I have run into with my Coronavirus reading!  In an upcoming blog I will share all the wonderful places that I have traveled while sheltering at home!

I just noticed tonight that there is going to be a forced format change in blogger at the end of June...hopefully the change isn't too confusing.  I tried to check it out, but really didn't find anything all that different...guess time will tell!

Be safe!

Be well!

Be cautious!

Drive-By Parade

Our church's children's ministry did a drive-by parade at some senior adult's houses and we got the honor of them parading by our house.  We sat on the front porch with Nathan.  Kathy and the younger grandchildren were part of the parade.

When we walked out the door for the parade we found a Covid 19 care package next to the front door.  It was from a local business we deal with.  So we have been thought about in several ways today!

Woody had his telemedicine appointment with his nephrologist's office.  They continue to keep a close watch on him.  He will have another appointment in a month.  At the moment we will just keep on keeping on the way we have been.

Another contact that I made today was sending a message to his melanoma doctor at Vanderbilt.  I told them that he is still sheltering at home and that we would like them to reschedule his appointments for a CT scan, labs and to see Dr. Wyman.  We got a message back saying that they would and would July be okay.  I messaged back that we could try!

I know that it is Wednesday as I talked with Donna, my church library co-worker, this afternoon.  We have gotten in touch with each other around the time that we would be working in the church library each Wednesday since we have been sheltering at home.  It's always good to find out what is going on with each other!  We had a good visit.

Be safe!
Be well!
Be cautious!

Today...Tuesday...June Two

I had another busy morning in the kitchen.  I needed to skin and debone some chicken thighs to put them in the freezer...to have them ready for a meal on down the road.  I have an easy recipe that we really like that uses chicken thighs and I have found that I prefer them boneless and skinless.  The other job was to get a rack of ribs ready for me to roast most of the afternoon.  I took the membrane off the back of the rib slab and then used a rub that I already had on hand that I had made a while back...just sitting in the cabinet awaiting the next slab of ribs that I cooked.  I put them back in the refrigerator to let the rub "sink in" for a few hours.  Then three hours before we were going to eat I popped them into the oven to slow roast at a low temperature.  This was the first time that I have cooked ribs in the new stove.  I used the convection oven set on roast and it did a great job.  We really enjoyed some for our supper and look forward to more as the week wears on.  Nathan came into the house and wondered what smelled so good!  We were definitely ready to eat after smelling them while they cooked for three hours! Pretty good eatin'!

Woody enjoyed the much warmer temperatures and sat on the front porch for a while this afternoon.  I joined him once the ribs were in the oven.  It was a very pleasant afternoon for some porch sittin'.  I read and snapped a few bird photos after I filled feeders...or filled the feeders that I have left.  Our squirrels have become destructive with our bird feeders in their over zealousness at getting to the bird seed.  One knocked down the round feeder and broke it in half...beyond repair this time.  Then one or more managed to knock down the suet feeder and the chain disappeared.  The other day our other bird feeder got knocked down and partly broken by another rascally squirrel.  So...we are seeking revenge on all the rascally squirrels in our yard.  We asked Elijah to set his traps.  We did catch one today and Nathan and Elijah relocated him to a place some miles away...hoping that he doesn't have homing instincts like a cat!  The trap is set for another.  I found out that cayenne pepper is a deterrent to squirrels but not to the birds.  So when Mr. Red-Headed Woodpecker came looking longingly for the suet this afternoon, I put up another cake of suet...but sprinkled it with cayenne.  So far haven't seen any squirrels try to take a nibble, but the birds immediately discovered that I had hung a new suet cake up.  I never found the chain hanger for the suet cage...so hung it from an "s" hook meant for hanging baskets.  And, I hung the hook through where the latch is so the rascally squirrels can't open it and get the suet out.

Isaac helped a little this afternoon, when power washing the siding on our house got underway once again.  Graham soon took over and completed the task.  The house looks so good!  Thank you, Graham!  Nathan worked on the gutters across the front of our house.  The oak blooms had turned into a mat covering over the gutters.  That should be a big help!

We have settled in for a quiet evening with books, crossword puzzles, and TV...a typical evening in our house.

Be safe!

Be well!

Be cautious!

Hello, June!

Can you believe that June is already here?!?  Time flies when you are having fun...and even when you're not!  We have pretty much sheltered at home for the months of April and May and the last week or so of March and now here we are in June!  We continue to pretty much shelter at home...we've decided not to take any unnecessary chances.  I postponed my tooth being pulled...again...that is an easy postponement for me since my tooth isn't hurting!  Woody did go to a different lab here in town this morning for his lab work for his appointment with his nephrologist.  That appointment will be a live appointment via Nathan's phone later this week.  We have some appointments scheduled for next week that we have to decide if we are going to go to or reschedule.

Today has been a beautiful day.  I think maybe the last before humidity and temperature goes up.  I decided that it was THE day to finish cleaning our front porch.  I wiped off all the rockers and vacuumed off the pillows.  Woody is still working on the porch railing...but he wants it to be a hot day when he does that job.  So he will get that wish very soon...about it being hot!  He did sit out in the back yard for quite a while after he walked around and checked on the gardens.  He enjoyed his time outside.  In the afternoon we both sat on the front porch for a while.

Today I have also spent some time cooking.  I roasted another chicken and then sliced what was sliceable and then cut up the rest into pieces for soup or casserole.  I froze all of that for future meals. I still haven't totally gotten the kitchen cleaned up.  I will do that as soon as I blog and go back downstairs.

Be safe!
Be well.
Be cautious!