I Love To Go A Gardening
Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
Trapper TJ
Time has sped by and we are already nearing the end of summer. Lately we’ve had slightly cooler temperatures which hints that it won’t be long before we switch from wearing t-shirts to sweatshirts.
In some ways, this has been a difficult summer because EJ has struggled with various health issues, including increased back pain. He suffers from chronic back pain as a result of slipping down two flights of stairs at work years ago, but this summer the pain has been so excruciating that he’s missed several days of work, which isn’t good for our finances. To be honest, I’m not sure how we are making it because we were counting pennies before the medical bills and vehicle repairs we’ve had over the last year. I can only attribute it to God’s provision. I feel a bit like the widow in the Bible (1 Kings 17:8-16) whose oil and flour never ran out.
Usually I only feed the wild birds in winter because they can easily find their own food in the summer. Also, bears are awake in the summer and they like birdseed. Or so I’ve heard. However, this year I’ve continued feeding the birds throughout the summer. It’s good for our mental health. We get different types of birds in the summer–those who spend winters in the south and summers in the north: Indigo Buntings, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Baltimore Orioles, Robins, and so on. When I go out in the mornings to put seed in the feeders, the birds excitedly swoop over my head and the chipmunks poke their heads out of their hiding places. We always say to the chipmunks, “I see you!”
I’ve been enjoying my trail camera, which I put in our little apple orchard. The camera usually captures footage of deer, raccoons, and opossums. I also sometimes see a mouse, a few times I’ve seen a skunk, and once a coyote came through. In recent weeks, I’ve captured Does with their fawns. Frequent visitors are a Doe with two fawns and a group of two Does with three fawns. I also often see a Raccoon Mama with her three little ones. I’m still hoping to see an opossum with babies. I upload my favorite videos to my Rumble trail camera channel, which you can see here: TJ’s Critter Cam.
Oh, and we’ve had new arrivals in our neighborhood: For several weeks we heard constant bird cries–often one called and another answered. At first I assumed they were Blue Jays but one day I realized that Blue Jays don’t “caw” for hours at a time. So I looked for the birds I was hearing whenever I went outside and finally spotted one: It was some sort of hawk. EJ tried to identify it but even using binoculars we couldn’t see enough details to identify it. So then I got on a bird identification site and listened to audio of the different types of hawks in Michigan. As far as we can figure out, our new visitors are Red-Shouldered Hawks. The description of their preferred habitat and behavior seems to fit as well.
Here is one of my trail camera videos of the Doe with two fawns. In the background, you can hear the cry of the hawks:
I’ve noticed that there was an increased number of mice in the chicken coop. Mice can cause problems, including nibbling on the chickens while they sleep. So I cleaned out the coop, tried my best to make sure there was no leftover feed in the chicken dish, and set several mouse traps each night. I put the traps inside the doghouses which are inside the shed that we use as our coop. The doghouses have doors which I keep slightly ajar so that the chickens can’t get into them but the mice can. The chickens like to roost on top of the doghouses. I started with three traps and every morning they had a dead mouse in them. We found three more traps so I was able to set six every night until one broke, leaving me with five. Every morning the traps have a dead mouse in them. So far I’ve caught 42 mice. EJ is very impressed with my trapping skills.
I assume some mice are coming from outside. Over the years, the chickens have pecked holes into the side of the coop. We need to find and plug those holes, but we are also dealing with EJ’s health issues so…I keep catching mice. I’m assuming that eventually there will be no more mice to catch. Although I set the traps, I can’t make myself remove the dead mice so EJ does it for me. He throws the bodies into the forest.
This morning one trap got two mice. I told EJ that I thought I should get a double score for that one.
Independence Day
I hope you had a meaningful Independence Day.
Independence Day has always been one of my favorite holidays.
When I was growing up, we’d have the traditional Independence Day food: hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad, cole slaw, potato chips of various types. We had epic water balloon fights, played volleyball, and ended with a campfire in our firepit. My Dad had a small cannon and he’d shoot it off (minus the cannonball). It was fun. When our son was small, we’d go to town fireworks–and later he liked us setting off our own little fireworks.
These days, EJ and I have a very quiet holiday. We went to the local farm store for a few things. I barely restrained myself from buying more chicks, on sale for $1 each. Then we came home and puttered around on our property.
After dark, we heard booms of fireworks all around us so we went and sat outside hoping we could see some. For a year or two a neighbor set off spectacular fireworks that were close enough and went high enough that we could clearly see me. However, we couldn’t see any this year because they never rose above the trees. We still enjoyed sitting out at night and chatting as loud booms echoed around us. I wondered to EJ if the fireworks disturbed the wild animals. Then I looked at our trail camera the next morning and saw this opossum, which answered my question. (The date/time on the video is completely wrong because I forget to reset it when I changed the batteries.)
So it appears that the wildlife are fine. EJ said the animals might think the booms are just thunder.
Independence Day is even more meaningful to us because of the events of the last few years. It might not seem like we had much of a celebration, but we enjoyed the freedom to spend it exactly as we wanted. We don’t need crowds and activity to make us happy.
Operation Rescue: Tufted Titmouse
I’ve been enjoying the trail camera that I bought last February to spy on the wildlife on our property. Every now and then, especially during this season, I move the camera to a new location hoping to get footage of animals with their babies. I’ve not been overly successful.
On July 1st, I captured a doe with her nursing fawn on my trail camera. They were along the edge of the forest a bit far from the camera so they are hard to see. I’m hoping for a closeup.
A couple evenings ago, I saw a mama raccoon walking along the edge of the forest with her two little babies scampering behind her. They were nowhere near the camera–so I moved the camera. I haven’t yet gotten any footage of them. I’d like to also see a opossum with her babies clinging to her back.
Last weekend we saw a group of young Tufted Titmouses (Titmices?) visiting the birdfeeder near the house. They obviously had just left the nest because their flying was a bit clumsy and at least one of them kept opening its mouth expecting to be fed by its parents. Since then, we’ve watched the youngsters frequently flock to the feeders, acting like a bunch of chattering, goofing off children. It’s brought smiles to our faces.
Yesterday evening, sometime after 8 p.m., I heard a thump and went to check it out. I saw one of the young Titmouses clinging to the door in obvious distress. When it didn’t fly off, I went out to help it. It fluttered to my shirt when I tried to pick it up off the door. It clung so tightly that I couldn’t get it off so I walked around the yard with it clinging to my shirt for several minutes. I finally got it off my shirt and onto my finger where it held on tightly. I would have taken a photo/video of it on my finger but I was too busy caring for the little bird. Also, I had left my camera in the house where Hannah was, and I didn’t want to risk any incident.
I didn’t want to traumatize the little bird so with it clinging to my finger, I walked over to put it on a low-hanging tree branch–but it wouldn’t let go of my finger. After a few minutes, I finally got it onto the branch. I went away to get the chickens shut securely in the coop for the night and when I returned, it was still there, which concerned me–especially with night approaching. I told it that it needed to get home and I gently lectured it about practicing safe flight protocol. After several minutes it recovered, hopped around on the tree a bit, and then flew off. I’m so relieved it recovered! While it was sitting on the branch I took this video:
When I was a child, I always wanted to be like Doctor Doolittle and talk to the animals so I thought It was pretty amazing to hold a little Tufted Titmouse. I told EJ that if all goes according to a fairy tale, this little Tufted Titmouse will someday save my life because I rescued it.
This morning the group of chattering young Tufted Titmouses is back at the feeders so it seems all is back to normal.
Blond Chicks
We’ve had several hot, dry days which yellowed the grass and made the garden plants droop. Our area is sandy, which doesn’t hold moisture so lack of rain is a problem. For several days I watered everything–EJ’s vegetable garden, my herb garden, the flower garden, and the fruit trees–so they wouldn’t die of thirst. It was so hot that the robins lined up to use the birdbath. I kid you not.
Thankfully, we got some rain overnight. It’s supposed to rain through Sunday night, which is good, but the National Weather Service has issued a Flood Watch with 2-4 inches of rain possible, which seems a bit too much. I guess it’s really true that “when it rains, it pours.” Fortunately we live on a hill, although we always have to deal with erosion in our driveway after a heavy rain.
I can’t remember if I told you that a couple of weeks ago the little blond Buff Orpington chicks graduated to the adult flock. They still act rather uncertain and skittish around the big chickens, keeping themselves to themselves. I have trouble getting them into the coop at night. I’m concerned about them going in before it gets too late because I don’t want the raccoon to threaten them. I finally figured out that the chicks didn’t want to go in the coop before the older chickens had gone in and settled in their roosting places. The chicks seem particularly wary of one hen who is usually the last adult to go in. I think she’s Edward’s sister. EJ has named her Turdweena. I often herd Turdweena into the coop and then I have to wait while she stops at the food dispenser for a snack and then slooowly finds a place to settle. Once she’s finally roosting, it’s very easy to get the blond chicks in.
One evening earlier this week I went out to shut the chickens in their coop. I always cut through our attached garage, walk through a portion of the garden, and enter into the chicken pen. I pulled open the garage door, walked several feet into the garden, glanced up, and spotted a doe on the other side of the garden fence. She saw me too. She looked at me for several minutes and I looked at her without moving. Finally she decided I wasn’t a threat and calmly went back to grazing. Then another doe emerged from the forest behind her with a tiny little fawn trailing behind. I stood and watched them for several minutes as they slowly meandered across the grassy hill and back into the forest.
I continue on to the chicken area to get them all shut securely in the coop. Then I moved my trail camera to so it was aimed at the grassy hill where I had seen the deer. I haven’t yet been able to capture footage of the fawn, but I’m trying…
Yesterday morning I watched a male and female turkey for about an hour as they slowly meandered across our property. I figured they must be mates since the male turkey was not trying to impress the female.
Yesterday evening, just after I got the chickens in the coop, I saw a raccoon in the front yard going to all the birdfeeders–near the rocks and near the house–to see if it could get any leftover birdseed. It was unsuccessful, which means I have succeeded in making the food inaccessible to the coons. I normally wouldn’t mind if raccoons ate leftover seed, but I don’t want to attract them so they go after the chickens.
Critter-Scaping
Last week, June 10, we had Frost Warnings in our area. I love living in Northern Michigan. In my opinion, there are very few negative aspects to living here. However, the one thing that is hard to come to terms with is that by the time it feels as if summer has actually arrived, we’ve reached the summer solstice and the days begin to get shorter.
Thankfully none of our plants were affected by the frost. EJ says that because we live on a hill, cold air tends to sink into the gullies that surround us. In the winter he has observed temperatures drastically dropping as he drives down the hill, according to the thermometer in his truck.
EJ has been keeping busy in his vegetable garden in the backyard. He works in it in the mornings before heading for work. My herb garden is doing pretty well although the parsley seeds I planted weren’t growing. A week or so ago, we bought a few plants. At this time of year, grocery and farm stores often sell starter plants in their parking lots. At the farm store, I put a few herb plants in the cart next to me and searched for more while EJ was looking at other plants. When he rejoined me, I noticed that his hands were empty. “Did you want to buy any plants?” I asked. With eyes sparking with mirth he pointed to the small cherry tree that had magically appeared in the cart. “How did that jump in the cart without me noticing?” I gasped. We both laughed.
I’ve been busy “critter-scaping,” which is what I call making our front yard attractive to wildlife. I have a bird bath and various birdfeeders to draw in the animals, It brings us joy to see the various birds and animals: blue jays, red-breasted grosbeaks, robins, red-bellied woodpeckers, ruby-throated hummingbirds, mourning doves, Baltimore orioles, cardinals, indigo buntings, and many other birds, as well as chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits, deer, opossums, raccoons, Theo our cat, and once a coyote.
I set up my trail cam to try to get closeups of the critters. Currently, I sort through the videos from the cam and upload a few to Rumble. I would absolutely love to set up a live stream of the critters visiting the feeders and wandering across our yard. I looked into it but, if I understand correctly, I would have to buy a webcam and pay a monthly fee to livestream. That’s not currently in the budget.
We often repurpose items for new uses. Last week EJ got the brilliant idea of attaching my trail cam to a metal tube that he inserted into an old patio umbrella base. EJ painted it green to better blend into the landscape.
This makes it very easy for me to move my camera to different locations without having to struggle to refasten it to a new post or tree. Better yet, I can also take the tube with the camera out of the base and slide it on a t-post anywhere on the property. We have t-posts along the driveway to define the driveway in winter’s deep snow. I like to have my cam set up to record visitors to the birdfeeders during the day, then move it to try to catch nocturnal visitors wandering through during the night.
EJ also repainted my hummingbird feeders a cheerful red. The coloring had worn off. I put one of them with the feeders near the large boulders and the other up closer to the house.
A Mighty RAWR!
We’ve been keeping busy doing summer stuff, which mostly consists of working in our gardens.
Last Sunday we had a visit from a couple that EJ went to high school with. He knew both the husband and the wife back then. I became friends with them when I was on Facebook, but had never met them in person until now. Correction: I met the husband a month or so ago when he was in the area and stopped in. Se had a enjoyable visit.
Early one evening last week I heard the chickens squawking in alarm. I almost didn’t check on them because I’ve never seen any threats in the past when they’ve sounded the alarm. I sighed and went out to check on them. I walked into their pen, which is quite large, and was surprised to see a large raccoon running along the side of the coop toward me INSIDE THE PEN. Most of the chickens were hiding in the coop; the others were running around with great alarm. I did the most natural thing I could do: I ran toward the raccoon with my hands up like paws and shouted, “RAWR! RAWR!” The raccoon turned around and bolted over the fence.
I then ran to the bedroom window, which overlooks the garden, and knocked on it to get EJ’s attention. He was in the living room talking on the phone to our son, but our house is small enough that he could hear my knocking. When EJ came to the window, I urgently motioned for him to come out. Then I ran back to the chicken pen and saw the raccoon circling outside the fence and again I yelled, “RAWR! RAWR!” It plunged into the forest.
We didn’t want to risk the raccoon returning so we herded the chickens inside the coop even though it was early. Chickens won’t go into the coop unless they CHOOSE to so it wasn’t easy. It was kind of like trying to intercept a football player who was running with the football. However, we finally got them all in and shut the door. This is the first real threat we’ve had to our chickens. There are predators in the area, but they are usually roaming about during the night when the chickens are all safely shut in their coop.
Raccoons are rather bold and I didn’t know if he would return for another attempt on the chicken pen so I’ve been keeping a close watch. However, I’ve seen neither hide nor hair of the raccoon.
Apparently, I have a very mighty RAWR.
Life And Limb
Yesterday it rained and rained and rained all day long. Our soil is sand and water tends to quickly drain away so an all day rain was very welcomed and appreciated.
EJ has been working hard in his vegetable garden in the mornings before work and on his days off (when it’s not raining). His garden is growing nicely. He has placed fences in various places in the garden as trellises for the climbing plants to grow on–such as peas and beans. His garden reminds me of Farmville, the FB game that was popular years ago.
We are enjoying the wildlife teeming outside our window. We have several large boulders in a row at the top of our hill not far from the house. Every morning I put birdseed in a crack on top of one of the boulders as well as in several bird feeders and on the post I set up in front of the trail camera a short distance away. There are always birds, squirrels, and chipmunks stopping in to eat. An adjacent boulder is flat on top; I put a large shallow bowl of water on so the critters can drink and bathe in it. The robins, especially, like to take baths in it.
Bluebirds have nested in a birdhouse not far from the boulders. They are fierce protectors of their nest and we have seen some battles as they drive away any bird or critter that gets too close. This morning they were especially diligent at driving away “threats,” which makes me think that their young might be getting ready for their first flights.
Theo, our outside cat, has been catching chipmunks. I don’t mind because left unchecked, the chipmunks would take over. This morning I saw Theo carry off a chipmunk and later found it in his food dish in the garage, which he often does. It’s a bit disconcerting to find dead chipmunks in his dish. I got it out with a scoop and carried it through EJ’s garden to the front yard. As I passed EJ working, I told him that I was going to discard the chipmunk in front of the trail cam. He made a sound of dismay, but I told him that it was already dead and I wanted to observe what, if any, critter carried it off. I put it in the grass that was long enough to hide it from the camera, but wouldn’t hide any predators. EJ did suggest putting the next dead chipmunk near the camera so we could watch the carrion beetles go at it. I once saw the battles consume a dead chipmunk and I thought it was interesting. You might consider me macabre, but observing wildlife is very interesting.
During the day I watch birds, chipmunks, and squirrels at the boulders as I look out the window. The next morning I retrieve the SD card from my trail cam so I can observe the animals that have passed it. During the night I mostly capture deer, raccoons, and opossums, with an occasional rabbit, stray cat, and coyote. Currently I post trail cam videos I especially like on my Rumble channel, but if we ever get extra money, and if I can ever figure it out, I’d like to set up a live stream camera to observe the birds and other animals that come to the boulders. I don’t think my current camera has the capability to live stream.
Our son JJ has been back on his Great Lakes bulk carrier since mid-April. He contacted us yesterday to tell us that he had slipped and fallen on the deck and he was pretty sure he had broken his leg. This morning he informed us that he had been taken off the ship to a hospital in Duluth. The break is bad enough that he is going to have to have surgery to put a plate in. The hospital told him it would be better to get the surgery close to his home. Usually he drives a rental home to and from his ship, but he’ll be flying home instead. He will be in the same hospital EJ was in when he had his stroke last September.
JJ usually works about a month aboard ship then gets two weeks off before heading back for another stint. He had been planning to attend a school in Baltimore during his off time to train as an Able-Bodied Seaman, which is the next rank up. However, that will have to be delayed while his leg mends.
Eyes On
Last week something bit my hand. I wasn’t aware that I had been bitten until later when over half of my hand began to swell up and itch. It was so itchy that I started to wonder if I had touched poison ivy when I was out weeding my flower garden. However, we saw a bite site so…? I tried putting insect anti-itch ointment on my hand, but that didn’t even slow down the itch. So then EJ thought of plantain. Not the banana, but the weed which grows everywhere in Michigan. Most of us don’t even pay attention to it. EJ went out to the yard, picked some plantain leaves, brought them in, used our little pestle and mortar to crush it, and put it on my hand, keeping it in place with a sock. Amazingly, it worked! Far better than the ointments! My hand is now mostly healed and not swollen or itchy.
The days and nights are warmer now so on Friday the little chicks “graduated” from their cage in the house to the chicken coop. I put them in a shelter in the coop to keep them separated from the adults until they grow bigger. It gives chicks and adults time to get familiar with each other before they are put all together.
I think Hannah Joy is glad to have the chicks out of the house. Every time they chirped loudly or ran around she whined and ran in to check on them. She also made sure the cats didn’t get too close to the cage. Hannah is such a nanny dog.
After I got the chicks resettled, we drove to our library to pick up a book I had ordered through the Michigan inter-library loan system, which is called MelCat. Through MelCat, we can find and borrow books online from other Michigan libraries. Once I order a book, a library that has it sends it to our library for me to pick up. We had a wonderful long chat with the librarians.
After the stop at the library, EJ and I went grocery shopping. Ground beef has become very expensive and we were very reluctant to buy it even though we were out of it. Then we saw that the brisket was $1 less than the ground beef. We have a meat grinder…why can’t we buy brisket and grind it into ground beef? I mean, beef is beef, isn’t it? It’s nice to have brisket, but it’s not as versatile as ground beef. We bought two large slaps of brisket and EJ spent hours grinding it into ground meat. This requires putting the meat through the grinder twice–once at a course setting and once at a smaller setting. We lost count but we believe we ended up with at least 50 lbs of ground meat. Some of it we divided into 1/2 lbs portions and froze. Some of it EJ turned into potato bratwurtz; he found a recipe on the internet. The bratwurtz is still in a big bowl in the fridge that we haven’t yet bagged. We will do it tomorrow. I use 1/2 to 1 pound of ground beef for meals, depending on the recipe. That’s a lot of meals. EJ has been wanting to grind our own beef because he recently read an article recommending buying beef and grinding it ourselves because it has less crap in it than the ground beef from the store.
EJ also spent a lot of time working in his vegetable garden this weekend. I puttered around doing this and that. I was going to make and freeze turkey potpies today, but decided instead to keep out of EJ’s way as he worked in the kitchen. I’m home every day so it’s easy for me to make the pies another time.
If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you will know that my son works on a Great Lakes bulk carrier. There are a number of ship-watching cameras set up in various places around the Great Lakes. Each camera live-streams on a separate YouTube Channel so we can watch ships passing a camera in real-time. We always try to watch our son’s ship pass when we can. If I tell a Channel Admin via Chat that my son’s ship is passing their camera, they usually zoom the camera right in and search for him. Sometimes we are actually able to watch JJ as he works. He also often calls or messages us from the ship. It’s amazing that technology lets us do this.
This morning EJ and I watched JJ’s ship go through the Soo Locks, which is located between Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Canada. We watched JJ go over the side of the ship in the bosun’s chair, which is a little seat, so he could go ashore and moor the ship. We weren’t sure it was actually him until he verified it later, when I asked him. When I told the Admin at the Soo camera that JJ was onboard, she moved the camera to look for him. JJ and I messaged back and forth on our phones. When I asked him if he was on duty, he said that he was on the other side of the ship so we probably couldn’t see him. However, he walked past the ship so we could see him on the camera. At first he walked too far to the right so he went out of range of the camera so I messaged him, “No, go back the other way! Near the pole!” When he was in view, I messaged him to wave and he did! I’m quite sure that when he looked down in the video, he was reading my messages to him. Here is a portion of the livestream that I recorded from my computer with my phone.
Here is part of the conversation I had at the Youtube channel. I thought you might enjoy it. I added a couple comments in brackets for this blog.
Admin: TJ If your son is on deck while the ship is passing one of our cams, and you let us know this, we might be able to get him on screen.
TJ: Thanks. I will. I didn’t see him on deck so he might be off duty. But I’ll keep looking!
TJ: I sent him a message asking him if he’s on duty. I told him we are watching. Of course, if he’s working, he won’t be able to reply. LOL.
Admin: Let him know if he’s going to be on deck ahead of time we would be very happy to get him on the cam. We all enjoy watching and getting a wave from the crew, TJ.
TJ: I just got a reply from him. He said he is working on deck. I told him to wave if he gets a chance. He said he’s on the starboard side. [I was wrong. He wasn’t on deck but on the shore.]
Admin Okay, let me move the cam and see if we can see him.
TJ: JJ just said he’s on the shore by the back of the ship so he doesn’t know if we can see him. He likes when I stalk him via livestream. LOL.
Admin: We can go and see
TJ: Thanks for indulging us!
TJ: He was one of the guys that went over the side in the bosun chair earlier. [Here is a 5 minute clip from the live stream of JJ going over the side of the ship on the bosun chair]
Admin: Well shoot, can’t see him.
TJ: He said to hold on, he’s going to walk to the back of the ship. LOL.
TJ: There he is!
Admin: That’s great, you get to see him!
Admin: Tell him to stop and wave right now.
Admin: Let him know that I’m waving at him.
TJ: I just did
TJ: I told him you were waving.
Admin: Tell him thanks for the short way.
TJ: I told him to dance but I don’t think he will. LOL. [He messaged me that he was NOT going to dance.]
TJ: Thanks you for letting us see our son. It’s always such a pleasure. And he enjoys the Admins looking for him.
Admin: You’re very welcome, my pleasure. We enjoyed it!
Except for the bite, we had an enjoyable weekend. We got a lot done and had fun stalking JJ.
Mother’s Day
I hope everyone had a nice Mother’s Day–or, at least, survived it. Mother’s Day can be a wonderful day for those who have close families, but I always think of those who struggle with this Day because they don’t have good mothers, they can’t have children, or they have lost a child. For many, this is a very difficult day.
I spent the morning on Mother’s Day cleaning out the chicken coop. This involves using a hoe, rake, and shovel to drag out the poop and dirty straw and replace it with cleaner straw. Old chicken poop gets packed down hard like cement which actually helps provide insulation in the winter but it’s rather difficult to get off the floor of the coop. I don’t remove all of it–just the parts where it’s building up. Of course, some of the poop is fresher, and that’s heavy too. When I get the poop and dirty straw out of the coop, EJ takes it for his garden.
After I finished working in the coop, I took a shower because it’s a very dirty job. Then I did laundry. The first load I hung out on the clothesline to dry, but the sky kept threatening rain so I dried the rest of the clothes in the drier.
I worked in my flower and herb gardens for a bit, while EJ worked in his vegetable garden but then he wanted to stop at a hardware store to buy something for a project in his vegetable garden so I went along with him. We stopped at several different hardware stores but they were all closed–maybe for Mother’s Day? That was a bummer, but our trip wasn’t wasted because we dropped some stuff off at the recycling place and then went to the farm store for poultry feed and wild bird seed. The wild birds don’t actually need us to feed them at this time of year, but we really enjoy attracting the birds. In the Spring, we get birds returning to the area after spending the winter in the south. We’ve been getting a lot of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks at our feeder. A couple of days ago the Baltimore Orioles arrived back so I put out grape jelly for them to enjoy. Bluebirds don’t eat from our feeders but they have been busy nesting in the houses we have put up for them. Oh! Just now I saw an Indigo Bunting in the flower garden! Spring is such an exciting time of year.
When we got home, EJ carried the 40 lbs bags of poultry feed to the coop and I poured them into the storage bin. I was really tired by the end of the day and my body ached. Working hard might not seem like much of a Mother’s Day celebration, but I really enjoy working around our beautiful Enchanted Forest.
Today EJ and I continued working in our gardens. We also worked for a while organizing the garage. After lunch I put the big flattened bowl I used for a bird bath out on the large boulders and shortly afterwards saw a bird taking a bath in it. I also hung up a hanging bowl filled with damp sand for the butterflies and bees to drink from. EJ and I took some of the house plants out on the deck for the summer, although it might be a tiny bit early for that. After EJ went to work, I repotted my aloe plant. Although I tried to be careful, dirt got on the floor so I ended up vacuuming the house.
Over the weekend, there was a huge solar storm with spectacular Northern Lights. We went out to look at them on Friday but it was cloudy and rainy so we couldn’t see anything. Saturday night was clear so we went out again, but we didn’t see anything. We both were tired and really wanted to go to bed, but we also didn’t want to miss anything. So I texted JJ, who is working on a bulk carrier on the Great Lakes, and asked him to text me if he saw any. About midnight he texted me that he saw the Northern Lights so I woke EJ and we went outside for a while…but we still didn’tsee anything. I had thought that we’d see MORE celestial events when we moved north, especially since we live on a HILL. However, we actually see fewer because we are surrounded by forests and hills that block the view of the horizon. We only see things (like meteorite showers) that are directly overhead. We tried multiple times to drive to a place where we’d have a clearer view–like on the shores of a lake. But we haven’t been able to find a good spot so we finally gave up. We gave up Saturday night also and went back to bed. JJ sent us a couple photos of the Northern Lights that he took from his ship. There’s nothing blocking his view when he’s out sailing on the Great Lakes. Here’s one of the photos he sent:
…That Ends Well
Wednesday was a long, difficult day.
The difficult day actually began early last Friday morning, although we weren’t aware of it. While at work, EJ had a sudden severe headache. It was so bad that he came home early. The headache disappeared, but over the next few days he began complaining that it felt as if something was in his eye. His eye felt irritated and his vision was blurry so he had trouble reading. Then he started to complain that his mouth felt numb and sort of twisted. Then he realized he could no longer stick his tongue straight out. It bent downwards.
It wasn’t until late Tuesday afternoon that I remembered that my brother-in-law lost his sight in one eye because of high blood pressure. So I searched on-line and learned that sudden change in sight or numbness in the face are some signs of a stroke. When EJ suffered his mini-stroke last September, his symptoms had been dizziness and incoherence. I was watchful of those symptoms but I hadn’t recognized these. Crap.
I tried to contact EJ at work, but I didn’t get hold of him until his lunch break at 7 p.m. We decided that he should come home because if his symptoms worsened and he was at work, I would have no transportation to get him; we have only one vehicle. If he was home, I could take him to the hospital that is closer and easier to get to than the hospital he was taken to last September. Medical information says that it’s important that a person having a stroke get to a hospital ASAP, but we were already 5 days late, so we decided to wait until the next morning to do anything. Unless his symptoms worsened, of course.
EJ got a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday morning. With EJ’s medical history, the doctor thought that it was likely he had had another stroke. He wanted to EJ to get a CT Scan to make sure. Since it might be several days before he could schedule one, the doctor suggested we go to the Emergency Room because they could get him in quickly. EJ’s doctor’s office is within the hospital, which is very handy. It was just a short walk through a hallway or two to the ER.
The doctor called ahead to alert the ER that we were on our way. The medical staff quickly got him hooked up to machines reading his vitals. An ER doctor asked him a series of questions and examined his face. After a short time, EJ was taken away for the CT Scan. The results showed no new stroke damage so the ER doctor believed that he has Bell’s Palsey. However, he ordered an MRI to double-check because MRI’s are more exact than CT Scans. This test, also, showed no stroke damage. The doctor prescribed a steroid and anti-viral medications for him.
We learned Wednesday that Bell’s Palsey has many of the same symptoms of a stroke, but it is less serious. The effects of Bell’s Palsey can be permanent or disappear within 6 months. Some people have very pronounced effects from it, but It’s not very obvious that part of EJ’s face is paralyzed. EJ complains about not being able to spit or puff his cheeks. His eyes get irritated because one eye doesn’t fully close. Sometimes eye patches are used to help Bell’s Palsey sufferers keep their eye closed at night so it doesn’t get dried out, but we forgot to look for one when we picked up his medications at the store. Instead, we made one at home. I suggested EJ use a mask a friend had sent me when I struggled with sinus infections. It has openings for eyes, but I told EJ he could cover his eye with a pad and use the mask to hold it in place. He looked like a goofy superhero when he put it on and I couldn’t help laughing every time I looked at him. He took it off and decided to make a more masculine-looking one with a strap and buckles I have for craft projects. It wasn’t as comfortable as the superhero mask so he switched back to the superhero mask. He put it on when we went to bed. With the lights off, I couldn’t see him so I could keep myself from laughing. It did help his eyes not feel so irritated.
Bell’s Palsey is an irritation for poor EJ, but we are very relieved that he didn’t have another stroke. Wednesday started out difficult but ended less bad. All’s well that ends well.
On a happier note, we were able to get the lawn mowed yesterday and the screens in the windows which we opened to let fresh air into the house. EJ planted a few more seeds in his garden. With the rain and warmer temperatures, our world is turning a beautiful green. Soon the leafy trees will block our view of the neighbors. Nothing against the neighbors, but we prefer to be surrounded by views of nature.
Our two Buff Orpington chicks are growing quickly. They were outgrowing their cat carrier so I replaced the carrier in the bathtub with the half-dog crate we’ve used for other chicks. EJ made the chicks a small perch that they can roost on. They seem to be very happy with their roomier quarters. Hannah Joy gets anxious when she hears them running around and chirping. She’s such a Nanny dog. LOL.
Spring Greening
The weather is getting warmer. We still have cool days, but both the daytime high and the nighttime low temperatures are higher.
We’ve had rain for several days and the forecast predicts rain for several more. When I took Hannah for her daily walk, I noticed this morning’s heavy rain had caused erosion in the driveway. I slid dirt in the small gullies with my foot to fill them in. When we first moved to our house in 2015, erosion had made huge knee-deep ditches alongside the driveway–and across it in a couple of places. We were able to stop the erosion at the sides of the driveway by filling the ditches in with gravel/dirt and by building small rock dams and planting vegetation to slow the rush of rainwater down the hill. However, we can’t build dams or plant things on the actual driveway itself, so we always have to fill in the little gullies after a heavy rain.
With warmer temperatures and rain, the world is becoming greener. The green haze of new leaves is growing more pronounced every day. EJ started planting early crops in his vegetable garden a few weeks ago. Soon I will have to start working in my herb garden. I think we need to get the screens in the windows soon, but we haven’t done it yet. Next week–if it stops raining–I plan to mow the lawn for the first time this year.
Our two little Buff Orpington chicks are growing very quickly. I talk to them whenever I go into the bathroom and chuckle when they look at me through the door of their cat carrier. I’m hoping I’ll be able to get the chicks out to the coop before they outgrow the cat carrier. Our coop is a 12 x 10 shed. Inside it, we have two dog houses and a fancy coop; the adult chickens like to roost on their roofs. When the weather is warm enough and the chicks are big enough, I will shut them inside the dog houses so they and the adults can get used to each other before they mature enough to join the general population.
In early April our son went back to his job on the Great Lakes bulk carrier. They were on their first trip of this year’s shipping season when they hit a large buoy (it looks like a small lighthouse). It caused major damage and most of the crew was sent home while the ship was repaired. I thought it would take a long time to repair, but surprisingly the crew was called back to the ship last week. The ship still has a big dent in the side. I really hope it’s sea-worthy. Or should I say “Great Lakes-worthy?”
While onboard his ship, JJ ordered his Dad and me some books that he thought we’d enjoy. He ordered me a beautiful Lord of the Rings book containing sketches that JJR Tolkien himself had drawn. He knows LOTR is my favorite book. He bought EJ two books about Great Lakes ships. The LOTR book and one of the ship books arrived today; the other is on the way. JJ was hoping his ship would be mentioned in the book, but it wasn’t. Maybe it will be in the second ship book? Regardless, it will be interesting reading about the ships we see passing on the live-stream channels on Youtube.
I can’t wait to delve into my beautiful book, but I’m going to make myself wait until I finish the current series I’ve been reading by C.J. Sansom about the medieval lawyer at the time of Henry VIII. I just started reading the fifth in the seven-book series.
History
It appears that Spring is here. The weather is warming, but still gets chilly so I alternate between coat, jacket, and even just a sweatshirt. Tiny buds are forming on the lilac bushes and some of the trees. I’ve been watching the bluebirds building a nest in a birdhouse. Now and then I see a crow carrying a mouthful of material for its nest. A couple of days ago I heard and saw a big flock of sandhill cranes flying overhead. We have kicked the chickens out of the garden and EJ has begun planting early veggies. However, I know that Spring is fickle so I’m not yet willing to trust that it’s here to stay. For example, this was the weather on April 15, 2019–and we’ve had snow during April in other years as well.
Even when April is nice, we have a slight chance of frost into June. So I’m making myself wait until next month before I start working in my herb garden. I am tempted, though, to put the screens back in so I can open the windows on nice days. If I do that, we will get a snowstorm for sure.
Our two little chicks are growing. They are still little and downey, but every day they are a little bit bigger and a tiny less downey. Sometimes they chirp at bedtime and Hannah Joy gets upset so I have to shut the bathroom door and turn on the fan so she can’t hear them. I took this video of her a few days ago: Hannah and the Chicks.
EJ and his friend wanted to attend an event near us last weekend so EJ drove to his house–a 2 hour drive–in the car we had borrowed from him while our truck was being repaired. Then when he left for home the next day (he spent the night here), he just drove his car home. It was an easy way to get his car returned to him. Otherwise, EJ would have had to drive to his friend’s house in the truck while I followed in the car. I’ve endured enough “hellish drives” that I don’t look forward to long drives.
What is a hellish drive? One happened when we lived downstate. EJ was working 2nd shift in another town. I think it was 30-45 minutes away. He called me in the middle of the night to ask me to pick him up because his car was very low on gas and he didn’t think he could make it to a gas station. I don’t remember why he was low because we’ve always been very good at keeping the gas tank filled. I bundled baby JJ in the car and took off. Only my car was very low on gas too. EJ reassured me that I could stop at a gas station along the way. Imagining running out of gas on a cold winter night in the middle of nowhere, I prayed and prayed that I’d make it to the next gas station, but each gas station I reached was closed. Then there was a detour because of road repairs and I had to drive several miles out of my way. It was a horrible journey, but I made it to EJ (Thank you, God!), and we were able to drive to an open gas station and fill up our vehicles. This wasn’t the only hellish drive–and I don’t even think it was the worse–so I don’t look forward to long drives. It was a relief that I didn’t have to be involved in returning our friend’s car.
I have spent the last year reading through Terry Brooks’ fantasy series. I’ve never actually counted them, but I think there are around 30 in his series–some of which I own and others that I borrowed from our library. I like fantasy because they are about battles between good and evil, which makes them metaphors for life. I just finished all the Terry Brooks series and I began a series written by C.J. Sansom. I discovered this author last November when I bought four of his books at our library’s used book sale. The books are part of his seven-book series about a lawyer during the time of King Henry VIII. Sansom is a lawyer and historian and his interesting novels are filled with historical accuracy.
Although it’s not necessary to enjoy the novels, I looked up the historical people and events mentioned in the books to give me background context. I find that it deepens my enjoyment. Looking up a name mentioned in one of the books–Blaybourne–led me to information about an actual conspiracy, which led me to read about King Henry VIII’s wives, which led me to read about Tudor kings, which took me back to reading about Plantagenet kings…and I’m still not finished. When I finish with the Plantagenet line, I might go back in time to read about their ancestors–or maybe forward to post-Tudor history. And then there is history connected to other countries through marriage, policies, or war, including my own USA. I’m not completely ignorant about British history, but there are so many Henry’s, Richards, Edwards, etc., that it gets confusing after a while–especially when there were numerous relatives trying to seize the throne. I think that American leaders are simpler to keep track of. (Most of the English royalty was very messed up and corrupt, but I think many of our politicians are too.)
I enjoy reading well-written historical fiction and researching the background behind them. In school, history is always taught as a bunch of dry facts, but my Dad often took our family on vacations to historical places and my Mom taught me that history is the stories of the people who lived during those times. “Today’s events are tomorrow’s history.” Often in reading historical novels, I learn things I didn’t know before. I follow many historians at X/Twitter and just this week one of them posted that during the Middle Ages, 97% of English art was destroyed. This is something that C.J. Sansom vividly describes in his novels.
I’m thoroughly enjoying Sansom’s series. I will borrow the books in the series that I don’t own from the library–and then start on his other books.
The Most Dangerous Time Of Year
This is the most dangerous time of the year. Sometimes we can overcome the danger but yesterday the danger engulfed us and we succumbed to it.
The day started out innocuously. The sky was blue with white fluffy clouds lumbering across it. We had a quiet morning, drinking coffee as we chatted together. When the coffee pot was empty, we got in the truck and drove to our local library to pick up the book I had ordered. Michigan has an interlibrary loan system called “Melcat.” We can order a book from their website and a library within the state that has it will send it to our local library where we pick it up and later, after we’ve read it, we drop it off and the library sends it back to its origin. I’m currently reading through all the Terry Brooks series and the librarians know me and call me by name. I told EJ, “It’s better to have a library where everyone knows my name than a bar like in the television series, ‘Cheers.'” Whenever we go to the library, we always check the used books for sale on the cart in the hallway. We found one book to buy there yesterday.
We returned home and put bags of items to be recycled in the truck and drove to our county’s biggest town, which is small by most standards. We dropped off the recycling and then drove on to the auto parts store where EJ bought bulbs for the truck’s headlight, which had gone out. We had a nice chat with Kirk, who worked at the store and helped us find what we needed.
Then it was on to the farm store. I needed poultry feed and wild bird seed. EJ wanted to buy seeds for his garden.
Walking into the farm store is when our day turned dangerous. This is when we succumbed to weakness.
We walked into the store and heard chirping. It was Chick Days, the season when farm stores have stock tanks filled with various types and breeds of live chicks for sale. Chick Days began several weeks ago and whenever we went to the farm store, we enjoyed looking at the baby chickens, ducks, and turkeys without temptation. They are SO cute. If you’ve never gotten to a farm store during Chick Days, you are missing a treat. Anyway, on THIS day as we watched the tiny chicks we got to talking about how we’d like to have a breed of hen that is prone to going broody and is a good Mama. We want to raise our own chicks. We conversed with store staff about broody hens. But we left the store without any chicks.
Whew! We escaped. We totally escaped.
But the idea of a broody hen breed wormed itself into our minds. It was like the temptation Frodo Baggins faced with the One Ring. We talked about chickens all the way home. When we got home, I went to my computer to research which breed was broody AND winter hardy. For no reason. Just because I was interested. That’s all. I found two breeds and told EJ about them. He liked the Bielefelder breed, which somewhat resembled our New Hampshire and Rhode Island Red flock. I thought Buff Orpingtons also sounded good. EJ called the farm store to ask if they had any. For no reason. Just because he was interested. That’s all. They were out of the Bielefelders but had some Buff Orpingtons that they would hold for us to pick up. EJ decided to buy one but I suggested two because one by itself might get lonely. As the Good Book says, “Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone?” (Eccl 4:11)
We drove back to the farm store. As an employee was putting our two in the box to take home, I really wanted to tell her to put in two more because of “chicken math.” Chicken math is when you walk into a store intending to buy a few chickens (or none at all) but walk out of the store with several more chickens, a few ducks, and a turkey or two. It was a terrible internal struggle. I sweated. I closed my eyes. I clenched my lips tightly together so no words would come out…and we walked out with only two chicks.
I put our new chicks in a cat carrier, which I placed in the large bathtub in our master bedroom until they grow big enough and the weather turns warm enough to put them in the coop. (We have a separate shower stall so putting the chicks in the large bathtub doesn’t prevent us from getting clean. LOL.)
This is why this is the most dangerous time of year for us.
We’ve only had New Hampshire and Rhode Island Red chickens, which are beautiful reddish birds. The roosters have teal-colored tail feathers. I really like my “Reds” but I’m also looking forward to having a new breed. In my brief research, I learned that Orpington chickens adore attention and are very gentle. They are very cold hardy so they do well in our Michigan winters. They’re wonderful egg layers and mothers and tend to go broody, which is what we want. They were originally bred in 1866 by William Cook. They are thought to be a cross between Minorcas, Langshans, and Plymouth Rocks. Cook intended his chickens to be a dual-purpose breed (for eggs and meat) but he also had a third goal: breeding a chicken that could be sold in London without looking dirty. The first Orpington breed was black to hide the soot and dirt of the city. A few years later, the Buff Orpington (America’s favorite) was introduced.
3 A.M.
This is EJ first week back on night shift. We don’t mind whatever shift he’s on–both have advantages and disadvantages. It just takes a little time to adjust to new schedules. For example, we’ve changed our biggest meal of the day to lunch instead of supper. I also have to adjust to EJ not being home in the evenings. Hannah Joy and I’ve been going to bed just after I get the chickens shut in the coop. They go into their coop at sunset, which right now is about 8 p.m. Hannah dozes next to me under the blankets while I read until EJ messages me during his lunch break at 10 p.m.
With medical expenses from EJ’s stroke last September and our truck recently needing expensive repairs, he has decided to work as much overtime as he can to pay off these and other bills. He would have worked more overtime before but he really didn’t feel all that great. But now says he feels better than he has in a long time.
We have a geo-thermal heating unit, which doesn’t use propane or electricity. It pulls heat and coolness from the ground. If the outside temperature is below 20, then it switches to using our auxiliary propane furnace. Last week the temperature was in the 30’s, but the auxiliary heat turned on. We normally have our thermostat set at 67 degrees. The indoor temperature dropped to 62 degrees even when I turned the thermostat up to 70. We feared that there was something wrong with our geothermal furnace so we called the repair man. The last thing we need is another expensive repair. However, the repair guy said everything checked out fine. It’s possible there was ice on the sensor so it thought it was colder outside than it actually was. Or something like that. I don’t pretend to understand such things. The main point is that there was no need for expensive repairs. We just had to pay for a maintenance call, which was overdue anyway.
The Great Lakes shipping season has started and our son has returned to work on his bulk carrier. This morning I got messages from him at 3 a.m.:
Hey mom, we hit something big, I was on bow watch, compartment below me flooded with about 30 feet of water, we’re stable, but kinda f’d.
Ships listing hard might be slowly sinking tug squad and a specialist squad on the way.
We are safe.
He’s given us updates throughout the day. Apparently, their new steering system failed so they couldn’t steer the ship. They hit a buoy and almost hit another ship. He says his ship is seriously damaged. All the marine traffic on the St. Mary’s River near Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, is shut down. He doesn’t know for how long. Eventually tug boats are going to tow the ship to a port, but he doesn’t know which one.
Here’s a news article about it from the website SooToday: Accident Closes St Mary’s River
Working on ships is dangerous and 3 a.m. calls are usually not good news. However, I’m glad our son always quickly reassures us that he’s safe.
Pavlov’s Dog
Our weather is back to snow again. Oh, well. I don’t mind. Winter weather is normal for this time of year and the snow-covered landscape is very pretty.
We feed our Hannah Joy twice each day—once in the morning and once in the evening. I try to feed her at the same times in spite of going on/off Daylight Savings so Hannah doesn’t have a difficult adjustment when the clock changes again. However, sometimes I’ve messed up so THIS time after I calculated that what was once 7am/5pm is now 8am/6pm, I set my phone alarm to remind me. Thinking of Pavlov’s Dog, I set the alarm so it rings like a bell and then says “Hannah, are you hungry?” This morning when the bell started ringing, she started wagging her tail. It cracked me up.
I give cracked corn to our chickens in the colder months because it raises their body heat as they digest it and helps keep them warm. Our alpha roosters have always driven away the beta rooster(s) from their daily treats of cracked corn. I feel sorry for the beta roosters so I’ve always given them some corn in a private place. Despite the fact that Edward the Third is not always nice, I’ve been sprinkling a bit of corn for him so he isn’t deprived. The other day HE BIT ME AGAIN as I was pouring out his corn on a strawbale. In disgust, I called him Edward the Turd. When he behaves himself, I call him Edward the Third but when he doesn’t he is Edward the Turd. He needs to learn manners. I think the other chickens agree. Even the hens scold him.
Recently a red-tailed hawk flew low across our yard. It was so close that I could clearly see his red tail feathers as I looked out the window. I would be concerned about predator birds attacking our chickens, but crows actually drive away predators so our chickens have never been harmed. This is one reason I like crows.
For the past week I’ve been noticing that a little mourning dove lingers at the birdfeeders as the sky darkens into evening. She’s out long after all the other wild birds have settled down for the night. When I see her, I say, “Och! You are out too late! The owls and other nighttime predators will be waking up! Fly away home, little bird.” EJ tells me she’s got it handled and “You aren’t her mother.” I say that maybe she needs someone to mother her! I’ve developed a fondness for her and I don’t want to see her get snatched.
EJ’s company has a big job to do so they are restarting a night shift and moving him back to it starting next week. EJ says he will probably be on the shift until autumn. Changing shifts always requires a shift in our schedule. For example, I have to fix our main meal at mid-day instead of in the evening, our sleeping schedule changes, and things like that, but we adjust. There are advantages and disadvantages to each schedule.
I Love To Go A Gardening 