Baby Blue Birds

Al came back home from Tampa last night and I finished my 3 day work week, so we're ready for a long week-end. Unfortunately it looks like it will be a rainy and cloudy Memorial Day week-end. We have some front sitting over the entire state of Florida and into south Georgia. That's okay though, there is nothing severe and rain is scattered.

We went into Cairo today and got some groceries and stopped at Cedar River Seafood for a late lunch. Al had his usual catfish and I had my chicken strips.

We made a golf cart run of the property earlier and found we have 4 new Blue Bird babies, and I mean NEW!

Newly hatched Blue Birds

Our resident "Tina" (Brown Thrasher has her 2nd batch also hatched in the arbor. She has 2 this time. Boy they don't waste anytime. That is the second nest for both. This is a picture of her sitting on her nest. The babies have hatches, so I guess she is sitting there to keep them warm or protect them.

"Tina" our Brown Thrasher sitting on her nest.

Both Tina and the Blue Birds have learned to feed from out hanging seed feeders. We buy only Sunflower chips. The birds love it and there is no waste. It's expensive but we have to keep our babies well fed!

We had a catastrophe here last week. When I came home from work, I parked my CRv in a different spot than it had been. I think it was in the Hummingbird's flight path. I found a dead Hummer beside my car. I was hoping it was just stunned. I even massaged it's little chest, but it was dead. The same thing happened last year when we moved our motorhome. I guess now that they are busy chasing the other Hummers away from their feeders, we'd better watch where we park our cars.

I am sitting on the back porch now right below a Hummer feeder. I have several that are upset with me for being here. I guess I will move my chair. I am trying to get some photos but I guess I am too close for comfort.

The garden is doing well. We have a bunch of Green Peppers and Jalapenos. We have alot of blooms on the Summer Squash but so far no squash. Our peaches are ripening, but are very small. You are supposed to thin them. I didn't this year because we didn't have too many and now I am paying the price for puny peaches. Some critter is having a hay day with them. There are a lot of partially chewed peaches! The corn which is inside the fenced chicken coop has some evidence of being chewed also. We just planted about 24 Asparagus plants this year. They were coming up real well but now appear to be chewed to the gound. Al saw a baby bunny coming form that area so we think he is the culprit for the corn and asparagus! We had a baby bunny around the chicken coop last year. He was so cute.

Every year, we go to Long's u-pick farm. They have wonderful vegetables that you pick yourself. A 5 gallon bucket is $6.00. We have our own tomatoes but never seem to have enough to be able to can them, so we find it's easier to get them from Long's. A good website to find` across the countryWe also love to can green beans. We do well with Okra so we can grow them our selves. We found that our Foodsaver vacuum sealer works well. I tried the ziplock freezer bags they were advertising last year. They were much easier and quicker than the vacuum bags and I got lazy so I tried them. What I found was that they don't keep your food fresh, you get the freezer taste and smell as well as ice and air inside the bags. With the vacuum bags, you put the food inside, vacuum them up and your food tastes just like it was fresh picked. I wasted a lot of very good blueberries using the other method. Never again. With Blueberries, you freeze them unwashed on a cookie sheet, then put them in the vacuum bags. For peaches, tomatoes, green beans and squash, I blanch them then flash freeze and then into the vacuum bags.

We also found a great Blueberry u-pick farm in Wakulla, Florida. It's about 50 miles. They charged (I think) $10 a gallon. We found other places including one in Thomasville that was very good, but the best were from Wakulla. They usually ripen early June around this part of the world.