"It is well to remember that the entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others." A.Holmes

Friday, September 22, 2017

Porch Weather

 
Summer weather left us this past weekend. Our area has had a record 80 days without rain ! As much as I miss the rain ( it is back now ) I do love being able to sit on the porch with the dogs and spin wool while I watch the deer and wild turkeys in our pastures and along the edge of our woods. ( Here is an old enamel ware pot filled with plantings I had on a table top on the porch.)
Lazy days in the heat were spent enjoying the rockers on the porch while the dogs napped.
Beatrix will be 13 years old next month. She is my constant companion and if I am spinning wool outdoors she will be laying nearby. The summer was very hot, fires from Canada, Montana, Oregon , and some areas nearby in our state gave us many weeks of  hazy air so thick with smoke we had to limit our time outdoors. This past weekend the rain and cold weather moved in. Our pastures need it, but even more so do our forests. The weather here now drops to the low 40's and high 30's at night and we are expecting frost soon. I still sit on the porch and spin wool , but now I am wearing a warm jacket and wool socks. Beatrix has begun to grow her winter coat and her fur serves her well. She is just happy to lay nearby.

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Bird Houses

We brought a lot of our bird houses from Cedar Pond to our new home here at Laughing Dove Farm. This bird house is now on our front porch wall. This spring there were some swallows checking it out , even going inside the middle hole but I suspect my cat Miss Marple scared them off by staring at the bird house and twitching her tail at them as she watched them indoors from the window very near the bird house. She didn't fool them at all, she was easy to spot from outside. Poor Miss Marple , smart birds.
We bought this bird house at a Spokane garden and craft fair and hung it up over the front porch. Almost immediately the swallows moved in, built a nest, and raised a family or two. Only a few feet away from the previous bird house shown but immediately bird approved. Maybe because there was no twitching cat staring at it ?
 
I bought this bird house at a Yelm Christmas craft show. The lady who built it set up her table with about 20 different versions of this birdhouse and was sold out immediately. Birds love it .We had both sparrows and swallows raising families in this bird house all summer.

This bird house was originally hung in an old stump at my husband's youngest sister and her family's home. When they moved we adopted it and brought it with us to our new home. The birds here seemed to think it was a nice place to raise a family, and again, sparrows moved in. This bird house overlooks the sheep pens and paddocks , apparently a popular place with many birds.
One of our granddaughters helped build and paint this birdhouse beloved by Western Bluebirds. Yay, we finally have bluebirds on our place, and in abundance. Bluebirds lived in 3 of our birdhouses and we love watching them.

Unfortunately this bird house was taken over by cow birds, but that is O.K. They ate a lot of bugs and since this bird house is perched on a corner post of our ram pen, that was a good thing. The cow birds also ate the seeds that fell out of the hay I tossed to the rams. The cow birds never became a big problem so I let them be and they raised at least 2 families here and moved on.
I bought this bird house at the local supermarket because I could not resist it. I bought it too late for it to be taken into consideration by the swallows and sparrows that kept checking it out after they'd already settled in other places. Maybe next year. The cool thing about this bird house is it has a nice back door that is easily opened for cleaning and just as easily secured.
I love bird houses, I love birds. I have a collection of bird nests, bird books, and love bird watching. The creativity of birds and how and where they choose to build their nests or make their homes often goes against what is  written about them by the experts in the bird books. All I have to do is watch and observe the birds outside my window and back door to discover there is way more to the average wild bird than what you'll find in your bird books. Birds are truly amazing and I am thankful God has filled His creation with them and sometimes birds will find a few of my birdhouses worthy of raising their families in.