Rubbery makes me think of reptiles, rather than birds, so I'm wondering if you have turtles or tortoises in your yard? Though to be honest, most turtles dig a deeper hole than that. If you are sure they aren't some kind of fungi, my best guess is turtle. I'd watch them very closely...it will be fun to see what actually comes out. Keep us posted. Marcia

My first year with bluebirds I saw the male chase away the first nesting fledges. Most years thereafter however the male has let them stay. One year during the first nesting there were three females and one male, once the second nesting eggs hatched the first nesting male dissappeared only to return once the second nesting fledged. I am assuming the male chased him off but he was allowed to return after the second nesting fledged. Funny enough the second nesting had three males and one female. How are those for odds? Good luck with your second nesting and hey maybe the first nesters will come back! donna

Thanks Shaxhome. Very good question. There are very important benefits for the sous vide method. 1. Less meat shrinkage, may be 5% less. This adds up to a lot of money. 2. Cheaper cuts of meat. I recently did London broil ($2.49 a lb) medium rare, and tender like expensive steaks. This will save a lot of money also. 3. Precise quality of meat done-ness. Rare, medium rare, medium ----- it is all up to you to set the temperature, nothing can go wrong. No-overcooking or under-cooking. Fool-proof. 4. Makes no difference how big the meat is, from one thin breast meat to a whole turkey. Set it and forget it. 5. Makes no different starting temperature, from frozen to room temperature. No need to poke around with a probe thermometer. 6. Re-heating without over cooking. 7. No need to "rest" the meat. In this case, the steaks were frozen, I put them in the sous vide cooker with a little seasoning, set the temperature at 129 F for one and 133 F for the other. A few hours later, 5 minutes before meal time, fire up the cast iron grill to red hot and grilled the steaks 1 1/2 minutes each side to sear. Perfect steaks. Perfect hot steaks. Guaranteed every time. dcarch

An extra large egg has about 4T of content and a large egg has about 3 1/2 so if you use 5 large eggs you'll be over by 1 1/2 T. You could stir up the eggs in a measuring cup and then dip out the excess if you want to be exact. Or you can just use the 5. With the cake mix I doubt it makes that much difference. Go with whatever is most comfortable. You can use a yellow cake. It will be less lemon-y. Or you could use the optional lemon extract for the lemon boost. Carol