July 22nd, 2010
One minute our robin fledgling was standing on the edge of the nest, and the next s/he was gone! All that’s left is the well-constructed nest and a little poop.
On Tuesday, sometime soon after I posted about it we noticed the nest was empty and we haven’t seen the robin family since. I heard a [...]
July 20th, 2010
Not only do we have our garden growing like gangbusters, thanks or no thanks to all the rain we’ve had this summer, but we also have a baby robin who looks ready to leave the nest very soon.
We’re not sure what happened to the other two eggs, but there always seemed to only be one [...]
July 6th, 2010
I think it was the weekend before the holiday weekend, or about 12 days ago, when Pete and I noticed that a robin was busily building a nest in our sumac next to the patio. She was picking up dried grass from the neighbor’s freshly mowed lawn and also bringing some “muck” from the gutter. [...]
April 14th, 2010
The garden is starting to wake up and I’m looking forward to planting season next month. The plants I added to the parkway in front of the house are starting to peek through, but I think it will still be a while before they fill in.
We made an early purchase last week and added [...]
February 12th, 2010
Have a backyard bird feeder? Like to go for a walk in the woods or along a lakefront? Or do you like to birdwatch wherever you are?
If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, you can participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count, taking place this weekend, February 12th-15th. The data collected are important [...]
December 12th, 2009
With the temperature plummeting over the past couple of weeks, Pete decided to move the bird feeder from the side yard and into the backyard so that the birdbath heater could be plugged in. Now that we turned the TV room into an office, it has been a great source of entertainment for me on [...]
September 18th, 2009
This little guy (or gal) greeted us on our way out the back door this morning. From what I can gather, it appears to be a katydid.
September 3rd, 2009
Mainly because of our bat issue, we really needed to have a cap installed on our furnace chimney. Pete still thought the little bugger somehow got into our house via the chimney and through a small gap where the duct ends over the hot water tank. I was skeptical — it seemed a little far-fetched [...]
August 19th, 2009
We had another visit from our friend, the bat. Sigh.
Although we haven’t yet moved upstairs to our new master bedroom, we decided to try out bed placement and slept up there Saturday night on the air mattress (it’s a
August 12th, 2009
Late last night, or early this morning, depending on your individual perspective, at around 1:30, Pete and I awakened to hear the cat, Günter, scurrying around the house.
This was not unusual, as he prefers to use the litter box when no one is looking — yes, the boy has bathroom issues. Needless to say, sometimes [...]
June 22nd, 2009
We went back to the family cottage yesterday, for the first time since the Robin’s nest issue.
I can’t say with certainty, but I’m sad to say that I’m pretty sure they didn’t make it. We had several terrible storms over the past week with strong winds and driving rain.
My brother-in-law, who wasn’t around last weekend [...]
June 17th, 2009
Not to worry — it wasn’t our house. It was Robin’s house.
There we were on Sunday, ready to enjoy a beautiful summer-like day at the cottage Pete’s family owns just over the Wisconsin border. But first there are always a few chores to do before the relaxing can begin.
Over the years we’ve lost a couple [...]
August 4th, 2008
This is one of the many reasons why I love my husband:
Many times, all it takes is for me to say, “What if we…[insert idea that usually involves manual labor for him here]?”, and he usually goes with it.
This time it was creating a space for the bird feeder. We haven’t had our bird feeder [...]
June 30th, 2008
I mistakenly transplanted a False Sunflower from our previous house thinking it was one of the natives. The plant is nice, but it’s very invasive.
Pete was getting ready to dig it up until he discovered a bunny nest very close to it. The babies are newborns, eyes still shut and virtually hairless. We hoped [...]
May 15th, 2008
See how nicely this New Jersey Tea shrub is growing?
It was sprayed with Deer and Rabbit Repellent.
This is what happens when you forget to spray the ones you planted elsewhere:
Argh!
I think it will recover.
Lesson learned: the repellent works, and don’t ever trust a bunny.
July 20th, 2007
Our backyard prairie is in full bloom. In the foreground you see the leaves of Prairie Dock. They are literally 14″ wide by 20″ tall, while their flower is about the size of the palm of your hand. The flower stalk grows 8-9 feet tall.
Here you see Purple coneflower, Sand coreopsis, Wild bergamot and Switch [...]
June 23rd, 2007
As I’ve mentioned, over the past 6-9 months we’ve slowly been doing a number of things to get ready for the sale of the ranch. I had been saying every year for about the past 12 or so years that we must replace the porch and deck — the wood had been splitting and it [...]
June 10th, 2007
It’s been a hectic week, but I really don’t want to get into that right now. What I do want to know is this: Why, oh why is it that when we’re getting ready to move on from our current house the clematis bloomed more than ever before?
Or why did we have this abundance [...]
May 29th, 2007
We’ve been enjoying the nice weather the past couple of weeks and have been sitting on the porch or patio as much as possible before the much-touted emergence of the 17-year cicadas, aka Northern Illinois Brood (Marlatt’s XIII) in our area. According to the University of Illinois Extension, it has the reputation of being the [...]
May 25th, 2007
As anxious as I am about moving out of the 1962 raised ranch in which I have lived for 17 years, there are some things that I will miss about the place, such as the kitchen sunlight. Even though the bungalow has the same orientation as this house, it doesn’t have windows as large or [...]