Baby Birds

Posted on May 17, 2015 by TJ

My guys have been here…and are gone again.

One of my neighbors said I must get really lonely during the week here all alone. I do miss my guys like crazy, but during the week I keep busy and just try not to think about missing them. I think instead of getting as many projects done as I can so we don’t have to return too many times this summer, and I think of the exciting life waiting me in the North. The hardest time is after my guys leave. Sunday evenings are the worst…I am filled with a lonely ache.

My guys will leave me behind only one more time and then my exile in the south will be over. However, I told EJ a couple of months ago that I will never really ever leave our village–a part of me will be here forever. He said, “No you won’t,” but I told him I could prove it. I reminded him that a couple of years ago the Google car took my picture several times while I was walking Danny so I will always be in our village on Google Earth. It’s like Danny and I are haunting the village.

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Yesterday morning (Saturday) EJ and I drove to the Secretary of State with the intention of renewing the tags on pickup truck. “Secretary of State” sounds very important, but actually it is what other states call the “Department of Motor Vehicles.” EJ says that Michigan is the only state that calls it the Secretary of State. We had to drive to the city because that branch was the only one in our area that was open on Saturday. When we walked into the place….we took one look and went right back out. It was filled with people–busier than I have ever seen any Secretary of State office ever. We decided that EJ will renew the tags up in the Emerald City sometime this week.

The vinyl flooring in our current house.

Since we were already in the city, we decided to go to Lowes to look at flooring for our new hours. Then we went to Menards. We really would like to get wood flooring, but it’s too expensive. It would take too much of our savings and we need to have enough money to buy a riding lawnmower to mow our five acres in the summer and a plow to clear our driveway of snow in the winter. We considered laminate flooring, but it’s of lesser quality and just about as expensive as wood flooring. Since we’d like to have the flooring put in quickly, we’d have professionals install it, which adds to the price. So after talking it over, we decided that we will settle for vinyl flooring that looks like wood, which is what we have in our house now. It’s less expensive than wood and laminate flooring and we can easily and quickly install it ourselves. Also, if it wears out, we can easily replace it. We have this type of flooring in our current house and people often can’t believe it’s not actually wood.

This morning EJ and I were scared awake at about 5 a.m. by a very strange sound. It sounded like a loud slap….slap…like a wooden ruler slapping against a desk. EJ got up to investigate and discovered that Luke had pried open the door to the upstairs and now was trying to pry open our bedroom door. A couple of the other cats had followed Luke upstairs. EJ got the cats downstairs and he followed them down and fell asleep in his new Lazyboy. He said Luke tried to open the upstairs door again. The cats aren’t allowed upstairs…We have a door on our stairs to keep the heat downstairs, and I don’t want to lug kitty litter up and down the stairs. However, once we get to our new house, everything will be on one floor and they will have access to the whole house.

This afternoon EJ worked on putting up more drywall. A while back he built a platform over the stairs so he could put up drywall in hard to reach places above the stairs. He is going to have to dismantle the platform for moving day (which is in two weeks) so we can get the upstairs furniture downstairs, which means he will have to finish the drywall next week. That is going to be our next weekend project. I’m hoping I can paint all the wall during my last week at this house.

I kept EJ company today while he hung drywall…and helped him when I could, which wasn’t much. While I was upstairs, I opened the curtain in JJ’s room and startled a Mourning Dove, who startled me. Then I saw that the Mourning Dove had built a nest on the window sill. She had two babies in the next. I got EJ and JJ and we stealthily observed the Mama and babies. I also took pictures.

Mama Mourning Dove with her babies.

Looking at the nest through JJ’s window.

The next is on the sill of the upstairs window.

EJ and I also stood for a while and watched the baby sparrows in the birdhouse outside the kitchen window. One of the babies keeps poking her head out of the door and looking around in wide-eyed wonder. We cooed encouragement to her as she got her wings out of the house, almost ready to fly away, but she lost her courage and withdrew back into the house. Soon she will leave the nest.

JJ took this picture of a birdhouse at the new house.

I think our house is very pretty in the Spring and Summer and I love all the birds nesting on the sills, and in the vines on the house, and in the birdhouses. However, in the north we will also have birdhouses–and the I think the variety of birds will be greater, if only because we are in the country. EJ drove JJ to the house a few weeks ago, and JJ said there is a nice birdhouse already at the new house. I will enjoy continuing the birdscaping there. I’m not going to take down my birdhouses down here until late summer when the birds are done raising their families because I don’t want to harm any baby birds. However, even if we sold our house as soon as we put it up for sale in mid-July (I hope), I doubt we’d have the closing before autumn.

This week I’m going to try to get all the outside painting done. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, but I’m hoping the weather will be nice for the rest of the week.