Tuesday April 29th

Indigo Bunting

I've had a super busy week. Another few inches of rain and my yard was a wreck (and it was starting to look so nice). Had to get ready for company saturday (thought I was having 6 people stay over) and friday I found out the carpenter I hired to put in the final 2 living room windows is starting wednesday so I'm taking everything out of what was the kitchen area and boxing it up.

Mike's cousin Monique, her husband Roy and 2 other couples were taking a weekend motorcycle trip from Crowley to Russellville, about an hour and a half from here. So she called and asked if they could stop by. Of course! I invited them to stay over but by the time they got here saturday they were 8 people and they'd decided they needed to be part way home by the end of the day because sundays forcast was rain all the way. Wouldn't have been a fun 9 hour trip. So they just stayed for a couple of hours, had coffee and headed out.

It was great to visit though and Monique and Roy promised to come back for a longer visit when school gets out and they can bring their daughter and her 4wheeler. Everyone else loved it up here and wants to move in, ha.

Monday April 21st

So, last week I was checking and refilling the corn feeders. (I feed the critters year round). The first one, up here by the yard was fine. You can see in the picture above what the funnel and spinner are supposed to look like. The other one, down below the garden and on the edge of the woods is pictured below. What the heck!?! Deer lips can't do THAT. I wonder if there's a bear in the neighborhood?

Speaking of the neighborhood, I had a nice chat with the new owner of the house up front yesterday. They're closing tomorrow and will be moving in soon.

Tuesday April 15th

Last spring Mike and I got a big kick out of watching a mama bird (Eastern Phoebe) trying to build her nest in the porch eaves. Must have been her first time, it took her forever. Every day she'd work and work and then half of what she built fell down. Finally she finished and ended up raising 3 baby birds. This year she's back and built this much better nest in just a few days.

Monday April 14th

Goldfinch are everywhere, they look like mini canaries.

I've let another couple of weeks go by. I swear, I don't know where the time goes. Earlier I didn't have much to talk about and now I'm way behind on news. The weather is still absurd. Half the state is flooded after even MORE storms last week. No flooding here except a little bit on the driveway down by the pond but Greers Ferry lake nearby is 10 feet over the norm and so is the Arkansas river at Little Rock. In between storms we've had some gorgeous spring weather but now we're back to winter-like with cold and howling winds. Tonight it's supposed to freeze. All the trees are in flower so I hope it doesn't kill the fruit again like the late freeze last year did.

Raccoons are still raiding the suet feeder every night. If I don't take it in this is what I see in the morning.

Floyd's place (in front of me) finally sold. The buyer is my neighbor behind me and across the creek, Dennis. He's a Baptist minister and missionary - just like Floyd was. He bought it for the mineral rights because of the huge gas field found in the area. He immediatly sold the house and front 20 acres (without mineral rights) to someone else so I should have neighbors soon. He also told me that he'll be putting the 33 acres between me and the front property up for sale right away (without the mineral rights). So who knows what'll happen with that.