A Day in the Life...

Today was one of those get-things-done-around-the-house-and-yard day. I cultivated the garden with the Mantis tiller and found that several rows of plants never came out of the ground. I guess we may have had too much rain the past few weeks for some of the plants. Also, some of the tomato plants are not doing well and one or two have died. I left some areas uncultivated in hopes that maybe some of the original plants may still come up, but that is doubtful.

We have been having some Baltimore Orioles visiting us lately and found out that they very much like to feed from the Hummingbird feeders. One of the feeders that is easier for them to sit on was empty so we had to fill it back up for them today. We also put back up the regular bird feeder that we had taken down to put up the Hummingbird feeders. We now have three feeders outside our front bay window with hookups for one more if we want.

We also have been noticing a Titmouse who built a nest inside a hollow limb on our apple tree. Today our cat Peaches decided to tear the nest out of the hole and we found a baby on the ground unhurt. We pushed the nest back down in the hole with another egg still in it and placed the baby back into the nest. The mother bird finally came back to the nest and we began to try to think of something to keep the cats out of the hole.

I finally settled on cutting a small milk jug that we had just emptied honey out of to fit over the limb and be held on by a side limb still attached to the hollow part to keep it on. We cut the top of the jug a little bigger so the bird could get in but the cat couldn't. As I began writing this after dark my wife screamed from outside that the cat was after the bird again and trying to tear the jug off the limb. When the cat started scratching at the jug the bird poked her head out and the cat hit her on the head. She flew off in a fright and we captured the cat and put him back inside again. We hope after all the traumas the bird has been through today she will still come back and finish raising her young'uns. The cat may just have to stay inside for a few weeks until the babies are grown since it is obvious we cannot trust him at all with this situation. I'm not sure about the other cats.

Tomorrow I will go back to work building on a deck and boathouse that we have been constructing for the past week for a customer who lives on a lake. I have been working with a contractor in a nearby city who I met from the Barbershop Chorus that we both sing in. He has been very good to work for and he wants me to help him with some other big jobs this summer including finishing a log home that will be set up later in the summer.

The Barbershop group is putting on a concert the end of this month but I will not be singing in it. I do hope to take my wife to the dress rehearsal on the Thursday before the concert so she can hear the songs we have been learning and see some of the acting and costumes. I hope we also can hear the High School group sing at the same time as I understand they too will be singing some Barbershop music in the same concert. It has been a lot of fun singing with this group and the men are really great guys. It has been good to get a little acquainted with some people who live in this area as we hardly know anyone around here very much yet. We are just not very good at getting connected with people.

Well, I better wind this up and get to bed. I have to get up the same early hour that my wife does to get everything done so I can get to work on time. I'm very glad to have some work after being mostly out of work for nearly a year. God has been very faithful in taking care of us though, and we desire to learn more faith and want to have more of a spirit of gratitude and praise instead of gravitating so much toward looking at problems. That seems to be the assignment I am supposed to be working on I think.