What's happening

We now have 4 eggs in the Blue Bird nest. Mama laid an egg a day. She doesn't seem to be sitting on the nest but going in and out.

Al was working on the motorhome putting Eterna bond on the roof. Mama was getting upset trying to get into her nest but afraid of Al. We finished up working on the roof and she evidently got in and laid the last egg. Checking in the last few days and we have not found any additional eggs.

The weather has been HOT. Approaching 100 every day. Dry and no rain.

New Blue Bird Nest

On Friday, June 19 we saw one egg in the nest up by the campsite. It was just one pretty little blue egg. Saturday, checked and found egg #2. Mama wasn't sitting on the nest. We checked the box again first thing this morning expecting another egg but there were still only 2. We sat outside and read a little bit noticing the Blue Birds hanging around. We decided to leave so as not to bother them. When we checked the box a few hours later, we noticed egg # 3! I guess they were just waiting for us to leave. It will be interesting to see the progression of this nest as it is closer than the one in the pasture. Al needs to fix the baffle, it's on the ground.

The Blue birds that are hanging around this area appear to be juveniles. We are thinking they are from the first nest that fledged earlier this spring. We're wondering if the pair are brother and sister? I guess I need to read up on their habits.

Vampires in Cairo

We were sitting outside up on Mockingbird hill, with fans on and reading our books.  I was reading “Twilight” the first in a series about vampires.  It’s getting a little spooky.

All of a sudden we heard an extremely loud screaming/screeching noise.  It sounded like something was being killed.  It was an awful sound and it was coming from the area of the pasture.  We got on the golf cart and headed towards the pasture… the screaming continued.  I thought it was a large bird and probably a hawk.  It didn't sound like the screeching sound hawks normally make.  We saw our resident red fox at the far end of the pasture near the tree line, looking up.  He saw us and ran off, but seemed to want to stay.  We searched but never saw anything.  My theory was that is was a baby hawk that maybe was on the ground and was screaming for help from it’s mom.  We do have a resident have a resident Red Tailed hawk that has her nest in our front woods by the driveway. This was not coming from that area.  The screaming stopped as we chased the fox away….and the mystery remains.

It’s 5:45 pm and the temperature is 98 degrees.  Ah, summer in south Georgia.

100 Degrees!

It's funny, all the years we lived in Tampa, we never saw 100 degrees. Here in south Georgia it is a common thing. It is warm and muggy even early in the morning.

The lawn badly needs mowing but couldn't get started until 7pm.

Uncle Alan is in the hospital with problems with his lungs. He needs a lung transplant but we don't know if he will make it to even get put on the list. The effects of a lifetime of smoking.

We parked the motorhome up in the new campstite. It's a little shadier there

Visit with the Warners

Our good friends Ralph & Terry have spent the last few days with us visiting from Tampa.  They brought their two little 8 month old dogs Coco and Bella.  Of course Al & I fell in love with them.  

They weren’t used to being able to get off the leash and running so this was a first for them to be allowed to run and play.  They really enjoyed it and were pretty good at coming when called and not running off.

Terry & Ralph were our first guests at our new campsite we call Mocking Bird Hill.  We may have to rename it to Blue Bird Hill though.  We think our first Blue Bird babies of this season have decided to live up there and have been working real hard on fighting with the bird in the mirror on both their RV and their CR-v.  They had a lot of bird poop on the CR-v due to the persistent bird.  We finally had to put aluminum foil on the mirrors to keep the bird away.  We have a nesting box up there and noticed the birds are making a nest.  It looks like they are both juveniles'.  It looks like brother and sister??? 

  Terry and Ralph arrived on Friday evening.  I had to work that day and in fact had driven to Valdosta for a continuing education class. I ended getting home about 5:30 and they arrived about 7pm.  After setting up their RV and giving them the tour of the place we put a lasagna in the oven and had dinner.  They have a large Winnebago, I believe it’s 39 feet.  They easily backed it right up into our campsite and plugged in with electric and water and were good to go.  The pecan trees and row of trees and shrubs gave them good privacy and shade.  The campsite is close to the road but it is not frequently traveled so the noise didn’t bother them with the AC running.  It turns out there is a good breeze on the hill there and even with our high temps sitting outside the campsite was quite nice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday morning we all slept in.  Al & I went up to the campsite and Terry & Ralph made us breakfast muffins.  We lounged around a while drinking coffee and talking then headed into Thomasville to tour the Lapham-Patterson House.  It was built in 1884 by a Chicago businessman who had been a survivor of the great Chicago fire.  He built the house with many doors and windows to be able to escape in the event of a fire.  Our tour guide had been there for over 20 years and was extremely knowledgeable. The budget cuts are causing the park to turn over the operation of this house to the city of Thomasville.  At this time, it is unknown if there will be any more tours after this weekend.  It is quite a unique house and should be preserved for future generations.  Knowing Thomasville and their love of historic old houses, I feel sure the house will be maintained.

 

The following is a photo of the big oak. The pictures don’t do it justice and you can’t realize its massive size

 

A massive Live Oak (Quercus Virginiana, c. 1680) with a limb span of 162 feet, the Big Oak is one of the National Live Oak Society’s original members, enrolled in 1936.  President Eisenhower was so impressed with the Big Oak tree that he personally photographed it during one of his visits to Thomasville!  This tree is truly a living treasure of our city’s heritage. 

Saturday night we were off to get margaritas at the only bar/restaurant in Cairo.  Home and to bed then up early as our guests were leaving Sunday morning.

 

 

Good bye

Terry, Ralph, Coco and Bella!

 

Making a campsite at home

We decided to make a little campsite on our property for guests who stop in to visit in their RV’s.  We had an electrician wire a 50 amp box, and we already had water there.  There used to be a house on this property and there was a septic tank.  Al figured out how to rig up a “dump station.”  We had to trim a few tree branches but we now have a pretty private, shady campsite.  We are calling our little campground, Mockingbird Hill Campground.

We have friends coming next week to test it out.

Blue Birds Fledged

I now better understand the meaning of the term, "empty nest syndrome." Never having any children, Al & I never had any leave home.

We worked around the yard on Sunday. Earlier in the day we checked the Bluebird nest and could see at least 2 babies inside. They were probably all there though. We didn't open the lid to the nest because we knew they were close to fledging and didn't want to cause any problems. Later in the day I noticed Mom and Dad hadn't been hanging around the nest. When there are babies in the nest they are constantly coming and going in the nest. We checked inside and confirmed our babies had left. Although we knew it was coming and we were happy they made it through this stage, it was still sad. They were safe in the nest box. We haven't seen them since, but Mom and Dad are flying around and we feel they will teach them to come eat at the bird feeder pretty soon. We first saw them in the nest on May 23 and they fledged on June 17th, which was day 16. They may have hatched before May 23, but that was the first day we saw them and they were obviously pretty young.

Our garden is doing pretty well. I made a large batch of stuffed green peppers from our garden. It was my first attempt, so hopefully it will be good. I put a little allspice and cloves in the ground beef. I had stuffed green peppers years ago made by a friend with an Iranian husband. She used those 2 spices and it had a wonderful and unique taste. We'll see how mine are doing.

We have picked a few cherry tomatoes, but most are still pretty green. I just noticed a few regular tomatoes starting to turn red. I also noticed a few with black spots and bite marks taken out.

We have one yellow squash and a LOT of blooms. We don't know why we haven't gotten more squash. Is it too early or is there a problem? I guess we'll wait and see.

We are doing well with green and jalapeno peppers. I got a recipe for stuffed jalapenos. You mix browned sausage with cream cheese, stuff that into the peppers and bake them. Sounds good.

Our friends Terry and Ralph Warner are coming for a visit in their motorhome on Thursday. We had a 50 amp hook up put in and Al fixed the septic for a RV dump station. They will be staying at "Mockingbird Hill Campground."