The End

As some of you know, Spring Creek Gems is now closed.  It's been a great run, but it's time to move on to other things.

This decision has been coming for a long time, and some of you may have suspected it as I sold off rabbits, and went to fewer shows.  I need to downsize my life which means smaller house and smaller yard.  There won't be room for anything but me and my dog.

The remaining rabbits will be delivered within the next 2 weeks, and then the equipment will be released to the new owner.  The chickens went to a new home, as did the cat.

I'll leave this blog in place for a while, but there will be no new posts after this.  You can follow me on Natureschild Gardenworks as I move on to the next phase of my life.

I've made many wonderful friends along the way, and you know who you are.  You are not rid of me!  :-)

Goodbye, dear readers

Dennie

May 19, 2013

Not much happening in the rabbitry.  I have 2 broken babies in the box, and they just opened their eyes.  That's about it for news there.

The chickies are growing fast and keeping me busy buying to keep up with them.  I only buy 20 lbs of chick starter at a time so I'm not feeding it longer than necessary.  I kicked the adults out of the pen so the chicks could have the run of it.  I moved the PVC feeder so the outside birds could reach it but I could still fill it from inside the pen.  It's sticking through the chainlink.  Because of the way it's hung, a couple of the feeder holes are inside the pen, and the older chicks are eating big bird food as well as the starter I provide in another feeder.

The oldest ones are getting on the highest roost already.  The one at the front of the line is one of my favs.  He's half Silky, half Cochin.  Super fluffy!

I decided to revive the garden blog.  From now on, garden and nature stuff will go there.  Natureschild Gardenworks

tnt

4.6.13

I got more chicks since the last post.  There's now 9.  First there was another Silky/Cochin and another patterned white.  I raised them alone until they were big enough to join the week older chicks in the big bin.  That went well.  The S/C is different than the 1st one, more gray than brown.  It's so cute!  There's just something about it.  It kinda reminds me of a dwarf.  Round fluffy head and big eyes.  I think it's the sweet eyes that are getting me.

Then I found another Silky/Cochin the same color yesterday.  Just one.  The poor little thing cried and cried all alone in its bin.  Hoping for more real soon so it can have clutch mates.  In the meantime, I moved the 2nd S/C back to keep it company.  It will teach the little one where the water and food is, and if there's more, that one can do the same.

The oldest S/C is now looking like it will have Cochin feathers, but with the head pouf.  That should be adorable!  Can't say for sure what color it or the others are, but I'm going with birchen for now.  The white patterned ones, I don't have a clue.  Their wings and tails are coming in dark and patterned.  Pretty sure about the buffs, but not so sure about the lightest one.  It could turn completely white.  It's a good thing showing birds is not my goal.  My goal was a pretty flock of varied colors and I got that.

I'm starting to guess gender based on comb and wings.  If that's correct I only see 1 or 2 roos.  Good ratio.  The silky things are probably going to throw a wrench in that.  I have no idea how silky combs develop since they are so unlike the cochin combs.  And there's that pouf to hide what's happening.

I've talked before about how I give does more chances.  Many breeders are strict in their "3 strikes and out" rule.  I'm not and it usually pays off.  Babe is the latest doe like this.  No, she hasn't yet given me a litter but she almost did this time.  It was her 4th attempt.  She had 3, one was alive, and I think another might have been at birth.  Since the singleton wasn't a color I wanted, I left it with her to practice her mother skills.  As expected, it died by the next day, most likely to cold.  I take this as a very good sign she'll get it right, and it should be warmer by the time her next litter arrives.  I'm not giving up yet.

Speaking of warmer.  Yeah, not so much.  Spring is so unsouthernly this year.  The cherries in my yard, and the Bradford pears elsewhere (I don't have any) are starting to bloom.  I don't know how these continued frosty mornings are going to affect that.

There's a weed I've come to appreciate.  I believe it's Hen's-bit.   It's a short groundcover that blooms now in reddish-purple.  It's very pretty in the lawn and gardens.  The nice thing about it and why I don't object to it in the gardens is that when it finishes setting seed, it disappears for the rest of the year.  It doesn't take over the garden and it helps suppress other spring weeds.

In the front yard just outside the boundaries of the Bird Garden, muscari (grape hyacinth) has escaped and joined the large swathe of hen's-bit.  There's lovely pops of bright blue scattered among the purple.  I like to plant muscari around the base of daffodils because they bloom at the same time and look wonderful together.  But muscari has a mind of its own and sends seeds wherever it wants.

There's quite a few Peewees flitting around the yard.  Actually, I'm not positive they're Peewees   They might be Phoebes.  According to my book, Peewees are smaller and have a prominent crest where Phoebe is shown with a smooth head.  These have a crest.  Without seeing and hearing (calls are similar) them both at the same time, it's hard for me to say.  I'll go with Peewee until proven otherwise.

Anyways, there's more Peewees than I've seen before.  They seem to be looking for a place to nest.  They're looking real hard at the wind-wrecked shed.  I hope they don't go there.  I've set up a guy to tear it down next week.  Oddly, they also seem to be looking somewhere under the gutter on the back of the house.  The only thing they could possibly build on there is the light fixture on the wall.

There were a couple Rufous-sided Towhees under the feeder a week ago.  That's always a pleasure because I hardly ever see them, but they sometimes appear for a short time in the spring.  Mockingbirds have been cleaning up the nandina berries.  I don't see any other birds eating these berries.  I love mockingbirds.  They're the quintessential southern bird to me, and their songs are wonderful.  They don't really stick around here all year.  I don't know why.  For a long time, I only saw them in the spring, but in town, they were more common than robins.  I guess they're city birds.  But the last few years, I see more for a longer period.

There was some grossness this week.  I noticed crows in the backyard and when I watched more closely, I saw them carry off what looked like red meat.  Went out to investigate and found some fur near the house.  Abby the cat often eats her kills in that area, and unfortunately, doesn't always finish it.  Going by the fur, and the size of the meat the crows were taking, it was a cottontail.  I don't know how it ended up scattered all over the yard far from the fur, but since the crows were cleaning it up, that worked for me.

Another gross thing.  I found some yuck on the porch.  It looked like cat food and snake.  Yeah, half of a little snake.  I wouldn't think there were snakes out and about this early, especially when it's been so cold, but that's what it was.  I've noticed Abby often pukes after eating her ration of cat food and then a kill.  Time to cut back on cat food.

Supposed to be real nice this weekend.  Hope it stays that way from now on.  I need to get stuff done outside, and it has to be warm enough.  I could handle the coolth for working outside, but my sinuses can't.  My nose runs like a faucet if it's less than 60.  That can turn into a full-blown sinus attack and I'll be down and miserable until it's over.  So I wimp out and only spend a short time outside until it's warmer.  So come on, Spring!  Get warmer!

tnt

Chicks, man.

Fun!  In the last post, I mentioned a chick that was found later in the day after the first 5.  This is it.

It's a bit lighter than the other patterned one.  A thing I noticed was that its beak is colored.  The other one, even though it's darker, has a pink beak.  Got me wondering sooo.....

Looky there...5 toes.  I think this is a Silky Cochin.  Silkies have black skin which is why the colored beak caught my eye.  That's definitely possible, I have the one partridge Silky hen.  I got rid of all the other odd breeds so my Cochins could mingle freely, but decided I didn't mind if there were Silky/Cochin crosses.  Can't wait to see what this looks like later.

Got a better idea of colors and maybe sexes.  Looks like 2 buffs, 1 white, 1 birchen (the aforementioned darker patterned), and the white patterned one.  I think now that it will be patterned and not pure white (yay!) because the wing feathers are coming in very dark.  And whatever color the Silky Cochin is.  I'll say birchen or partridge.  Cool!  Lots of pretty colors.  As to sexes, I'm using a hint I read that the ones that have wing feathers at hatch or before others are hens.  If so, got plenty of those in this little clutch.  We'll see how accurate that is later.

A friend blogged about how she raises chicks.  Thought I'd talk about how I do it.  This might not work for anyone who raises a large number of chicks but it works for my small scale operation.  I can raise 6-8 bantam chicks at time in this smaller bin.  I have had more, but it does get crowded after a while.  I do have 2 of these so I can split them up if necessary.

This is set up in a back bedroom.  I like having it near to keep an eye on things.  I'm changing water several times a day for the first few days because the water dish is so small.  There's actually stages for the dishes.  The first day or so, the water is in a small plastic jar lid.  They can't drown in it.  Once they are drinking and walking well, I move up to a small pet dish.  I think it was meant for hamsters or something.  It's flared at the bottom like a dog dish so it won't tip over.  The food dish is a shallow plastic thing.  I don't remember what it was originally.

I start the chicks on newspaper at first.  I know this isn't recommended because it can cause leg problems as the chicks move around on the slippery paper, but it hasn't been a problem for me.  They are only on the paper for 3 days.  I discovered I hated raising them on shavings.  I tried shavings on top of paper, and it ended up in the water and food dish.  I was cleaning out the water dish too many times a day.  And it got stinky real fast.  I tried a piece of wire on top of shavings to keep it from being kicked around and that was a little better but still way too smelly.  There is also a risk the chicks could become trapped under the wire.  That happened with the guinea keets.

After 3 days, they're strong enough to go on wire.  I made the insert to fit inside the bin.  It's rabbit floor wire on the bottom with plastic mesh forming the sides.  I had the mesh for something else and it's too small for them to get their heads stuck.  I just put paper under the insert.  Perfect!  No fouled water or food, and it's so much easier to clean.  I just pick up the insert, chicks and all, and replace the paper.  There's a flange on the floor wire to hold it a little above the paper, and they can reach the paper to peck at food that falls there.  They also graduate to the large water crock and chick feeder.  After a couple weeks, they will move into the larger bin which also has a custom insert.  That one has a hinged top as well.  You'd be surprised how high chicks can jump once their wings grow out.

The heat lamp is used for as long as I think the chicks need it.  Usually 2-3 weeks, but that depends on the weather.  When it gets warm outside, the room is also warmer.  The bulb is just a 60 watt household bulb.  It's puts out enough heat, and I always have some on hand.  If the chicks aren't huddled under it or shivering, they're warm enough.  If I see them panting, it's definitely too hot and I'll either reposition the lamp or remove it.  I keep them in the house for a while longer without the lamp.

If all goes well weather-wise, I move the big bin out to the rabbit barn when the chicks are well-feathered.  It has to be consistently above freezing at night before I'll move them out.  By this time, I'm over having them in the house because the odor is too strong.

After they've acclimated to the barn and outside temps,  they'll go out in the pen in the transition cage.  This is an old 24x24 rabbit cage.  I flipped it over so the bottom is the larger gauge wire on the top of the cage.  This gives the chicks access to the dirt under the cage.  The first thing they do when they realize there's dirt is dust bathe.  It's kind of comical to see how much they wanted that dust bath.  I guess under more natural conditions, they would have it much sooner.  They are also ready to perch so there's one in the cage.  I move the cage every day to give them clean dirt underneath.  This also saves feed.  If they scatter it on the ground, and they will, they can easily clean it up.  I give feed in an old rabbit J-feeder, and water in a clamp-on parrot cup.  They stay in the cage until I think they are big enough to be allowed out into the pen.  Then I open the cage door so they can come and go as they please.  They return to it to eat, drink, and roost, and also to escape the older birds.  The pen is kept closed during this time which means most of the adults have to stay out.  They get used to getting their feed and water outside the pen, although a broody hen might be locked up with the chicks because that's where the nestboxes are.

I'm in the process of converting an old 4 foot dog cage into a better chick cage.  They'll be able to live in that for longer, and I can take it out on the grass.  The chickies will enjoy that.  Photos when I finish it.

tnt

This week at SCG

So this happened yesterday.

What is wrong with spring this year?!  I haven't seen such a crappy March since I've been here.  It's not even the snow, that's not a big deal here, it's the cold.  I'm tired of being cold, and I've got things to do outside.  This is what spring is like in Michigan, and I moved down here to get away from that.

My poor daffs have been frozen and snowed on so many times.  They've been blooming since the middle of February!

This is also the first time in 9 years I've had spring fever.  For me, the main symptoms of spring fever are depression and sometimes unreasonable pissed-offness.  In MI, you get teased and denied spring weather well into May, and it's rough on the mood.  Here, reliably good weather comes early enough that I don't have time to get depressed about it.  Or at least it did until this year.  I get through February by believing that March will be much better, but here it is the end of March and it still looks and feels like February.  I am not content these days.

In other news.

Buffy hatched these little pretties on Sunday.  At first, there was 5, and then I found another later that day.  I can take a guess about colors.  The solid blondies are probably buff and/or white.  The lightest patterned chick (top right) might be white, too, but I hope not.  One of Buffy's last year started out a lot like that and then became pure white.

The 2 darker patterned ones might not be Buffy's.  The hens share nests.  I think they're birchens.  There's 2 birchen hens and the only roos are birchen and red.  Red is the alpha roo, but I've seen Bert hit on a hen when Red wasn't looking.

This is Buffy and her last clutch last year.  Sadly, none survived to maturity.

The other hens are sharing the other boxes and there have been PILES of eggs since early February!  What happens to them all?  It's been so freezing cold, any eggs that I don't see hens sitting on for any length of time get tossed over the fence into the field for the crows.  Yeah, the crows eat them.  A friend mentioned that she tossed "bad" eggs out into the yard for the crows.  Shortly after that, I saw my crows carrying off the eggs they found over there.  I suppose I could eat some of those eggs, but again, they've probably been frozen.  I'll only eat eggs I find fresh and I can't tell which those are when several new eggs appear in each nest every day.  When it gets to be too many, I toss them.  How many is too many?  I have chucked close to 2 dozen at a time, leaving 4 or so to keep the hens laying in the box.  That's a PILE!

Buffy is still sitting on 6 eggs that haven't hatched yet.  I'm not sure if they're bad, or if they're younger.  I did move some from the pile in another box to her clutch.  I'm also thinking about moving some more that way since she's my proven broody.  At this time, there's always 2 hens hunkered down in that other box at the same time and they get quite pissed if I try to see what's going on under them.  Buffy doesn't get as angry about it.

I also learned another thing about hens.  They talk to their babies.  The day I discovered Buffy's had hatched, she was softly clucking.  A sound I hadn't heard any other time.  Sure enough, when I gently picked her up, there were chicks under her.  So now I know how to tell eggs have hatched.  I had also jotted a note about when I expected them to hatch based on when she went broody.  I was spot on, BTW.

In rabbit news, not much new.  I have to get pictures of Daydreamer's 2 little boys.  They are about 5 weeks old now.  The keeper is a nicely broken silver marten.  Not crazy about the fact that he's a silver marten, but I'll see how he grows up.  The other is an otter "hotot".  That's what I call it when they only have color on the eyes and ears.  He's the one with the type of course!  He's way too cute for something I really can't use.  I'm almost tempted to keep him for a pet, except that I can't justify keeping bunnies for that reason.  I'll see how I feel about it when someone hits me up for a pet when he's ready to go.  Been getting the usual Easter bunny inquiries, but I have nothing else available.

Baroquen's 3 are doing well and they are all nicely broken black otters.  The other doe that was due right after her failed, but she actually did pretty well for a 1st-timer.  The kits weren't mangled or stretched which is a good sign for success in the future.  Next litters are due in about 2 weeks.  Sure hope the weather gets better by then!

tnt

St. Patty's babies - 3/16/13

Or close enough to St. Patrick's Day to say so.  Baroquen x Smith's Boo made my day.  She has 3 beautiful brokens.  I'm also calling it my lucky birthday litter.  Hmmm, green might be the theme for names.

Baroquen is one of my favorite brood does.  She's also the oldest in the current herd.  Still producing like crazy, and she hardly ever fails.  One of the best things about her is that she always throws nice brokens.  This time, it was 3/5.  Last litter (died of cold) was 2/2.  Before that 4/4.  There's almost always a keeper or two.  The litter of 4/4, 2 had her gorgeous bold pattern which she had never thrown before.  I kept the 2 does from that litter and one has the pattern.

I had Baroquen up for sale a while back thinking I was done with her, but then took her down and bred her when I didn't get any bites.  That's also when I got the 2 new bucks.  So glad no one bought her then.

She might go up for sale after this litter, or I might repeat the sire(s) one more time.  I'll see how I feel about that when I see how this litter turns out.  I'd like to try Smith's Lou again because I didn't get the chocolate I was expecting from that pairing.  Maybe the genetic dice will roll in my favor next time.

All the other does are bred, and a 1st timer is due Monday.  Here's hoping St. Patty and Baroquen's success bring good luck for more spring litters.

It's finally like spring here!  71 as I write this.  Bout time.  It's been too cold and it snowed a couple days ago.  Yeah yeah, I know, it's just March.  But it's March in the south, ya'll.  It's supposed to be better by now.  

3 days until SPRING!

Oooh, what's that smell?

Late last night, I was awakened by a strong odor and Whipper carrying on.  In my sleepy fog, it took me a while to identify the smell.  I knew it, just couldn't put my finger on it right away.  Oh yeah...skunk.  It wasn't wake-up-choking strong, that's actually happened to me before.  Many years ago, I awoke gagging with streaming eyes because something that had been sprayed was right under my bedroom window which was open because it was a warm night.  There is nothing like being that close to skunk spray!  Last night was more like the sorta burnt odor you catch in your car when you go by roadkill.  In fact, when I first woke up to it, I was trying to place it as something burning.  It was still strong enough that the skunk must have been very close to my house which is closed up because it's cold out.

Since the odor wasn't debilitating and eventually faded, I think it was coming from the skunk itself (they often carry the odor), not actual spray.  I was worried Whipper had been sprayed but luckily not.  I don't think he has any experience with skunks, and I really hope the odor made him think twice about messing with it.

When I was touring houses with my real estate agent, the subject of wildlife pests came up.  She said skunks were the main ones.  Turns out that wasn't the case where I settled in.  Raccoons and coyotes are the main pests here.  This is the first time there's been any evidence of skunk in the 8 years I've been here.  Really hope it was just passing through.

Here's another skunky story from my past.  I was living in a single-wide mobile home.  We had built skirting from T1-11 (grooved plywood) and tacked fiberglass insulation to the inside.  This was Michigan, you needed every bit of help against frozen pipes.  We included a couple of access doors in the skirting because you do need to get under there.  I used to store stuff in the one in back.  One day I opened it to put some stuff in and was shocked to see a skunk curled up all cozy in the insulation it had pulled down!  Whoa!  It sleepily looked up at me and I immediately shut the door before it woke up fully.  It left, I think that night, and I scattered mothballs in that space and any other access points I found in the skirting.  Mothballs really do work to repel many pests.

Another time, my neighbors were all excited when I came home from work because they saw a skunk and 3 little ones go under my house.  They insisted I get the park manager to set a live trap.  I said oh no...I DO NOT want to piss off a mother skunk under my house!  Since this happened in broad daylight, I was sure she'd take her little family elsewhere after dark and I was right.

I posted this to Facebook, but I'll talk about it more here.

This is a better chicken feeder.  I've seen variations of this online, and one guy on Craiglist was selling them for $35.  I made it for about $18.  It's 2" PVC pipe and fittings.  I wonder if anyone wondered what I was doing in Lowes as I picked and tried parts to see what would work.

It was my hope that it would minimize waste and it did.  The hopper style feeder I was using just wasn't very efficient that way.  Too much feed ended up on the ground, and to force the birds to clean it up, I had to leave the feeder empty for a day.  This rig is harder for them to scatter it around.  I used my little Dremel tool to cut the holes and sand the edges smooth.  The 45 degree elbow is attached with a couple screws in each end because the weight caused it to fall off.  I didn't glue it so I could take it apart if necessary.  I left the end fitting loose to make cleanout easier.  There's holes drilled in the bottom for drainage in case water gets in it.

I added this fitting to the top to serve as a funnel.  There's a heavy end cap sitting inside although it might not really be necessary.  I thought it would help with any rain that might hit it since it doesn't go all the way up under the roof.  Rain doesn't usually drive in from that East side.

I had to make an adjustment in the design since I took these pix.  Feed wasn't coming down on its own.  I had to reach into the elbow with a tool to scrape it down into the feeder part.  It was about the angle.  I added a block behind the top to create more incline in both ends.  I also recut the hole at the elbow so the birds could reach the feed laying at the bottom of the elbow.  That fixed that, it's now coming down properly.

Not much going on with the bunnies.  I have a litter due from a 1st-timer but so far no signs she's nesting.  The rest are due next week.  I had to pass on Spartanburg because of the ice storm.  I've only missed it one other time due to weather, and that time the club cancelled it because of the snow that happened over the whole region.  I heard they delayed it a couple hours this year to give everyone more time to be safe on the roads.  I believe all of us Tennesseans opted out rather than risk icy mountains.

It was a good thing I stayed home.  I don't remember this much accumulated ice since I've been here.  It's usually either rain or snow...too warm or too cold for freezing rain.  I expected the power to go out but happily it didn't.

I'm going to try for Fairview the end of this month, and definitely Dalton next month.  My favorite jr doe (Fairlane) went senior weight but I still like her a lot so I do want to show her and her sis at some point soon.  Fairlane might be a BUD but I don't think so.  She's not humongous and her ears are 2".  I think she's just a big boned gal which is a good thing.

Even though it's been a relatively mild winter, I've had enough cold.

39 days until spring!

tnt

Rain rain rain rain rain

Never let up yesterday and still raining this morning.  It is so gooshy out there.  I almost went down yesterday while walking from the barn.  Really gotta be careful with well-worn rubber clogs on slick mud.  So glad I had the gravel driveway put in last year.  I probably wouldn't be able to get out, let alone get back in.  The last heavy rain about a week ago was the first time since I put it in that there was standing water on the low spot, but it's no biggy now.  The gravel is solid and grippy under the tires.  I'm sure there will be even more water by the time this system moves on.

Finally got all the does bred!  Mano...every single one was frigid!  I admit I didn't try every day so I might have missed their receptive days if they had one during that time, but still pretty frustrating.  The exceptionally warm weather this week motivated me to make a sincere effort, and every doe responded.  Almost every doe.  Every doe I tried.  I'm keeping one just turned senior open for shows this month and next.  I'll get her the next round.  Also didn't breed Broken Dream because she's for sale.

The other day, I realized I hadn't seen Silky.  Searched the yard for evidence and found nothing.  I did find a skull and bones out back, but they're so clean and white, it couldn't be her.  She hadn't been missing that long.  I have no idea who that was.  It must have been there under summer growth and only just now became visible.  Tried to think when I last saw Silky but realized I hadn't counted heads for a few days.  Probably due to the weather, or the fact that I've been keeping feed in the hopper for the winter.  They don't mob me for food every time I go outside, and if it's crappy out, I don't spend much time looking for them.  They hunker down under big plants when it's like that.

The day after I missed her, there she was at the water bowl in the early morning when I looked out the window.  She had a long drink and looked extra fluffy and perky.  Then she dashed into the Summer House to grab a bite.  And then dashed out and around the backside (unpenned) part of the carport.  All signs she's broody!  I hurried out to see where she went but she had disappeared by the time I got there.  Still haven't caught her in the act, but I think she's under the tractor's mower deck.  There isn't any other place back there to hide a chicken.  I had raised the deck and chute when I parked it there for the winter and apparently that's just enough room for a broody little hen.  But I can't see her under there.  I've found a few eggs in the yard here and there pretty much all winter.  I replenished the nesting boxes with hay and placed some fake eggs in each one.  Hope that gets them using the boxes.  The only hen old enough to remember using the boxes is Buffy and I happened to catch the red roo mounting her the other day.  Hope she shows the others the way.

In nature, this happened.

This is unusual because while I might see the occasional Great Blue Heron flying in the distance, I've never seen one here, and certainly not perched.  This one apparently startled the neighbor's dogs.  I don't think they knew what they were carrying on about, maybe they heard the wing beats.  It's a BIG bird and would make a fair bit of noise in flight.  I looked out to see what was the fuss, and this bird was flying low circles over the yard near the creek.  Then it landed in the top of a tree above the creek and sat there long enough for me to grab the camera and attempt to capture it.  Again, love my new camera.  This was so far away, I could barely see it with my naked eye.  Most of the shots were too blurry but this one was good enough to share.

In other nature news, I think I've finally foiled the cat.  Abby is good!  She's an excellent ratter, and too good at bird hunting.  She launches straight up and snatches birds off the feeders.  Grrr.  I attached cage wire to the bottoms of bird feeders which did spoil her aim for a while, but she is really GOOD.  At this time, I'm only filling the one feeder in the front garden, and she has honed her skills to where the wire isn't stopping her as well.  When I found too much evidence that she was taking birds again, I tried something else.  I made a barrier with some cheapo folding garden fence I had on hand.  I set it out far enough from the pole that she can't get good aim from that angle.  Of course she can walk right through the fence to wait under the feeder.  I knew that and thought about attaching chicken netting to the fence to prevent her from doing that.  Figured she'd just jump over it (it's about 3' tall).  Laid some more wire across the top of the fence so she can't jump from inside, and I do believe that has put a stop to that.  The added benefit is that the ground feeders like cardinals and juncos seem to feel more secure with cover over head.  They are spending a lot more time under the feeder cleaning up dropped seed.  I love watching my birds so I'm glad I can continue to feed them without putting them at risk.

Been trying to deal with a mess.  Wicked windstorm just before Xmas blew off the entire tin roof of the old shed.  This is the barnwood-slat thing that was here when I moved here.  In its defense, the roof was hanging on by threads and it was just a matter of time.  Mostly I just stored junk in it.  A lot of junk that, you know, never know when you might need it.  I don't even like to go in there during summer.  Hornets and spiders and snakes, oh my.  It was sort of an annual ritual to go in and straighten it up after enough cold weather had removed the creepy crawlies.  The rest of the time, stuff just got thrown in any old where so I didn't have to go into it any farther than necessary.

Thankfully the wind didn't blow it where it could do more damage, like my house or rabbit barn.  It did land on the carport but the next gust blew it down to the ground.  I decided it wasn't worth fixing it.  Hoping I can find someone to tear it down for the salvage.  I can offer a lot of scrap metal for payment.  There's an old lean-to type of barn at the back of the property that has been coming down little by little in every wind storm.  That thing is like my own personal dump.  I throw stuff up there that I don't know if the community dump will take it.  A LOT of scrap metal back there.  Before I can have the shed torn down, I have to go through what's in there and decide what to keep and where to put it.  Trying to do that when weather permits.  It has to be warm enough for me to work outside and not raining because...well...no roof.

tnt