Meine Kinder

My mystery flower turns out to be daffodils

We are putting in a fence in the back. This will be a wonderful place for the dogs. Not to mention that we have had to take them out on leashes for about 2 1/2 yrs now. Well actually mostly the kids do it, but it is wearing everyone out and this will definetly make our lives so much easier. We are putting a chain link fence up since I think it silly to go with a privacy fence. I am not the biggest fan of chain link but I must say as the project is developing I am enjoying having a perimeter for the yard. It seems more managable to just have a backyard and frontyard and not really mess with the side yards for the most part. The boys have been helping with the project and it is interesting getting everyone to work together. I got out there and finished raking most of the gutters along the driveway only to find that perhaps it may have been easier to burn it. I even managed to till up the garden a bit and plant some onions, garlic, blueberry and rasberry. I still have a host of herbs and asperagus that I need to get in the ground. The asperagus is a bit daunting but I am excited about it at the same time. I am still planting and will continue to, hopefully I will have some pic's up soon.

I have also been trying to identify the birds that come to visit. Thus far I have what appears to be....

Robin(american robin)

Small woodpecker/possibly sapsucker

~still working on a good picture of this guy






Big woodpecker(pileated woodpecker?)

It's hard to tell but this woodpecker has a pecan in his beak.




small finch like brown bird


Still working on identifying this one, he's so small
He has a red cap with white eyebrow and black moustache.

The boys are even getting into it by telling me my woodpecker is back or a red cardinal is visiting. We are researching bird identification (or related) websites. It was fun to see what to look for as we start birding. I am even trying to keep a record of my visitors. I will inlist the boys help and have them build birdhouses for the different birds that are visiting and of course the ones we would like to visit. Isn't science fun. I even found a conservation project we can participate in to attract a certain hummingbird, more on this later. My favorite websites for birding thus far are

~ enature.com

~ birding.com


If there are sites you like to go to let me know. Enjoy your week.