Category Archives: Birds

Three Buck Monday

Last Thursday we had three bucks pay a visit to our back acreage.

They had a variety of head gear.

This fella’s was out of the ordinary.

This one was more typical.

Smile, you’re on candid camera.

They entertained us for a while and then they took off.

The Quail families we have on our property weren’t worried about them.

The babies are always well camouflaged.

Before July was over, I completed this wooden piece puzzle. It was fun.

I’m scheduling this post on Saturday morning while we still have power. We have been warned by our Power supplier that they are planning outages to different areas in our county because of the Red Flag warning and the existing major wild fires burning in our county and adjoining county. The concern is high winds and continued dry conditions. We might be one of the properties that will not have power for an extended period of time. Hopefully the outage won’t run into Sunday. We are completely dependent on electricity including our well/water. Time will tell if we can have a fresh shower for church on Sunday. We are not in the path of the current fires.

I’m happy to report we did not have our power shut off. The sad news are the devastating fires that burned through and are still burning in the Spokane area.

August is coming in hot and smoky and tragically. Continued prayers for all those in the path of the fires, those who have already lost their homes,  and to the firefighters!

July at Home

Summer has arrived in our corner of the world. On Friday evening our A/C stopped pumping cold air into our home. Of course it was after hours which means we won’t be able to schedule a service call until Monday after 8am (today). We have had the windows open and are enjoying the summer breezes. Thankfully the air has been fresh without the fertilizer and other natural livestock scents dominating the air!

Our July views prompt gratitude and thanksgiving to our God who created all things for us to enjoy.

lavender

We have a new umbrella this year and we’ve had to put extra weights on the base even though it’s supposedly a 40 lb. base. Before we added the weight the umbrella had tried to fly away.

Bee Balm

Coneflowers

Hosta

Bluebells or a relative?

Day lilies

The baby swallows have exited their nests and learned to fly.

We have several Quail families roaming our acres with babies, toddlers, and teen quail in tow. They always make us smile. There is always a scout quail that chooses a higher position to warn the other quail of any danger.

Deer have been more sporadic.

Hopefully before the morning ends we’ll have a scheduled HVAC appointment for this week!!

Cannon Beach A.M. and P.M.

Our first morning in Cannon Beach it was our goal to make it to Haystack Rock and back before breakfast.

Our lodgings were where the Ecola River empties into the Pacific.

Haystack is not the only rock along the coast, just one of the most known.

It was fun to learn that there are Puffins that like these rocks.

Time to head back for breakfast.

This is the mouth of the river.

Another morning walk and we still haven’t seen the horizon because of the marine layer.

Birds, especially the pelicans and seagulls enjoyed flapping their wings in the river.

Our next walks on the beach were later in the morning or in the early afternoon.

We can see a horizon on this day.

Here come the pelicans!

For our last walk on the beach we started at Haystack and worked our way to another public access spot to head up to Hemlock for lunch before we made it back to our car.

We used a public stair access to the beach.

It was a treat to be able to see further out into the sea.

This was the first day we could see the lighthouse. I zoomed in to get some shots.

The history of Tillamook Lighthouse or Terrible Tilly can be found here.

The last shot from our lodgings. Till next time Cannon Beach. It was a delight to discover you more fully.

 

A Pickle of a Hodgepodge

If it’s Wednesday, it must be time for the Hodgepodge. Thank you, Joyce.

1.What’s something you find extremely difficult that most people would say is simple?

Exercise for the sake of exercise. I can have good intentions but I find it difficult to be faithful in the endeavor.

I do enjoy getting out in the yard and mowing, etc. I do deep cleaning. I’m great at errands and shopping. We walk a lot on trips we take. I’m not a total couch potato. 🙂

2.  “And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow fast in movies I  had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.” 
~F. Scott Fitzgerald
 
Does the season of summer make you feel this way? Elaborate. 
No. Summer is not my stimulating time of year. I look for shade and try not to sweat too much. Life begins again in the Fall for me. 🙂
~

3. Pickles. Love ’em or no thank you?

Love them!

What’s your favorite type of pickle?

Kosher Dill, the kind you find in the refrigerator section.

What’s something you eat that definitely needs a pickle added?

A hamburger tastes better to me with pickles. I also like chopped up pickles in tuna mix and potato salad and call me crazy but I love the combination of a boiled potato with a pickle as a treat.

4. Tis the season…do you know any June brides?

Our Colville kids got married in June so our Jamie is a June Bride.

Are there any weddings on your summer calendar?

No summer weddings on our calendar. We do have a Grand Nephew who is engaged but it sounds like their plans are for a Fall wedding.

What’s your favorite movie wedding? 

Pride and Prejudice and other British series weddings (Downton Abby) where the whole town lights up for the special day and the bride arrives after all the guests are in the church and gets dropped off in a special carriage or car and then the couple leave together in style right from the church to wherever the reception is to be held.

5. June 1st is/was National Say Something Nice Day…say something nice here. 

Thank you, Joyce and Hodgepodgers, for this weekly get together and for all the nice things you say in your comments each week. You are a fun community and I appreciate each of you.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Speaking of exercise, we started June off with a return to the Rotary Trail here in Colville for a walk. Woohoo! It’s been well over a year that we walked the trail. That was due mostly to my Plantar Fasciitis. I’m happy to report my feet felt fine after our walk, thank you, LORD!

We enjoyed lots of birdsong and seeing our National Bird, too.

A great start to our goals for June and beyond.

Spring Firsts

On our trip to Spokane on Tuesday we saw the new roadside sign from Williams Valley Mennonite Church as we drove through the little town of Clayton. Such a great verse for Spring!

Speaking of Spring we have a few signs on our property that Spring is springing before our eyes.

The birds have been very busy. Two nests in two of our roadside shrubs.

Greg spotted this mud lined nests on his way to our mailbox.

I wonder which birds made these nests.

Hooray for these sweet daffodils that are finally opening up. They make me smile. We’ve been dropping below freezing the mornings this week but the daffodils don’t seem to mind.

What signs of Spring are you enjoying as we head into Easter week?

Nativities

…the occasion of a person’s birth. A picture carving or model representing Jesus Christ’s birth.

Even though the Wise men from the East did not appear on the scene till months after the birth of Jesus they are depicted in many traditional Nativity scenes. I like to try to put them far off as if they are still traveling.

“My Christ he is the Lord of lords,

He is the King of kings

He is the Sun of righteousness

With healing in his wings.

My Christ, he is the heaven of heaven

My Christ what shall I call?

My Christ is first, my Christ is last,

My Christ is All in All.”

I had to wait till dark to get a good shot of the nativity set we like to put above our front door.

When JJ was here last Monday afternoon, he set this Little People Nativity on the window ledge.

‘Welcome to our wondering sight,

Eternity within a span!

Summer in winter! Day in night!

Heaven in earth! And God in man!

Great little One, whose glorious birth

Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth.’

Quotes taken from Christ’s Glorious Achievements, What Jesus Has Done for You. by C. H. Spurgeon

Here are the last few sentences from this book:

“I hope that among those who have read these pages there will be many whom the Lord Jesus has specially redeemed with his most precious blood, and I trust he will appear at once to them, and say, ‘I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.’ By grace omnipotent may you be  made to yield to the Lord with the cheerful consent of your conquered wills, and accept that glorious grace which will bring you to praise the seeking and saving Saviour in heaven.”

May the miracle of Christmas and the redemptive, saving work of Jesus Christ on the Cross lead you to repentance with belief and new life in Him. He alone gives us grace and peace.

For the Birds

A couple of weeks ago we started building this birdhouse with Addy and JJ. The involvement with hammers and nails and glue made me fail to get photos of A and J while they were working on it.

Both Addy and JJ are good with directions and the whole building process. Addy’s window is a little more detailed than JJ’s.

It was Addy’s idea to add the B. We had to let all the glue dry at this point and it was time for Addy and JJ to go to Awana. The finishing of the roof would have to happen at a later date.

On Monday afternoon JJ was here while Addy was at dance so we started on the shingles on the roof. The royal ‘we’ was JJ supervising me and giving me tips while he ate an orange.

Here’s an older Autumn photo of Addy and JJ.

I wanted to update y’all on the fires in our parts. The closest fire to us is 74% contained and another fire a little farther from us is 46% contained. The folks from our church who had to evacuate have been able to go back to their homes and they weren’t destroyed. We had a downpour on Sunday and that was helpful, too. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

This and That

We have had some rainfall that gave me a break from watering.

The little toddler quail are hard to see but are so much fun to watch. We are inundated with quail, babies, toddlers, and teens. They grow fast.

If they didn’t blend in so nicely with their environment they’d be easier for predators like this next one who flew in on Monday.

Today is mowing day. What’s up where you live?

Oh Deer

We’ve had many visits from bucks, does and fawns lately.

A regular stag party on this evening.

This little one tried to crash the party but was called away quickly by it’s mother.

On another day there was another gathering.

Then we had several visits from the fawns and their mother.

We also had a visit from our hawk.

On to our humans!

Our Grands had a great week of Vacation Bible School.

Jamie worked hard as a leader all week! Marvel at Jesus, Live for His Glory!

The weekend ended with a birthday dinner party for our Grands Granny. Our Grands are blessed with lots of adult love.

Things are heating up around here again this week. I’ll have to resume some watering. What’s going on in your corner!

Over the River…

We drove to Bothell last Tuesday early and spent several days with our Westside kids and we had a bonus visit with our Niece and our Grandniece. We were able to see our Grandnephew, too, at a choral performance. We drove back home on Saturday. I’ll post soon about our time away.

The photo collage is from our drive home on Saturday as the sun was rising and as we crossed the Vantage bridge over the mighty Columbia River.

On Saturday after we got home and unpacked this beauty entertained us.

Then during our relaxing afternoon after church this hawk paid a visit probably looking for that chubby quail!

Happy Victoria Day to our neighbors to the north in British Columbia.