I have at least two hummers visiting my "humming bird station" (a hanging basket with petunias and "million bells"; humming bird feeder, blooming Monarda). Such a joy to watch them! Yesterday, I saw these two fighting... Hope they both will return, I am ready to refill the feeder as often as necessary. Congratulations on your new arrival!

I went ahead and shoved in more shavings, maybe raising the level by a couple of inches. Still nonstop pecking. So I added another couple of inches. Pecking stopped! Flicker then sat in the hole looking out for much of the day. Now about ten days later she may be sitting on eggs. Fingers crossed. So the advice to fill the nest box fully up (with sawdust), as compared to the advice to only put in 4 inches (of wood shavings) seemed to work better in my situation.

Deb, I got the recipe from Midwest Living. Yeah, I know it probably isn't authentic but they were rich and chocolately. I used 1/3 cup of cocoa, as per the recipe. I didn't make the sauce but I will sometime, it sounds delicious. Chocolate Crepes 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/3 cup sugar 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 2 eggs, lightly beaten 1 cup milk 2 Tbsp. butter, melted 1 tsp. vanilla 1/2 cup whipping cream 2 Tbsp. sugar Nutmeg Vanilla Sauce (recipe below) Chocolate curls 1. In a small bowl, stir together flour, 1/3 cup sugar, and cocoa powder; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, butter, and vanilla; add flour mixture and whisk until combined. Let batter stand at room temperature for 20 minutes. 2. Heat a lightly greased 8-inch skillet over medium-high heat; remove from heat. Pour 3 tablespoons of batter into center of skillet. Lift and tilt skillet to spread batter and coat bottom of pan. Return skillet to heat; cook one side only about 121/2 minutes or until the top is no longer shiny. Invert pan over paper towels to remove finished crepes. Repeat with remaining batter, making 12 crepes total. (Adjust heat as necessary during cooking, greasing skillet and stirring batter if needed.) 3. In a chilled medium bowl combine whipping cream and 2 tablespoons sugar. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until soft peaks form. 4. To serve, fold each crepe in half. Fold in half again, forming a triangle. Place two crepes on each of six shallow dessert plates. Drizzle with Nutmeg Vanilla Sauce; top with whipped cream and chocolate curls. Makes 6 servings Nutmeg Vanilla Sauce In a small saucepan, stir together 3 egg yolks, 3/4 cup milk, and 2 tablespoons sugar. Cook and stir continuously with a wooden spoon or heatproof rubber spatula over medium heat until mixture thickens and just coats the back of a clean metal spoon. Remove pan from heat. Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg or 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg. Quickly cool the custard sauce by placing the saucepan in a large bowl of ice water for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour custard sauce into a bowl. Cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. Chill for at least 1 hour, without stirring, before serving. Makes about 1 cup. They were good and not too sweet but very chocolately. The Nutella was definitely gilding the lily, I think an orange sauce or maybe cherry would be good with these. The kids are thinking peanut butter and bananas! Annie

This exact same thing is happening at my house, as i type! I am in the living room, this room's wiring is not affected but the kitchen is flickering and going off and on like crazy...wind is blowing outside and hubby has discovered it has something to do with electrical pole across the road. we called electric company and they came out and checked where the wiring is attached to the house, no flickering there...but when hubby goes out and shakes their pole...all hell breaks loose! When they came to check the pole, the guy didn't even go up there, and told my husband to stop shaking the pole...yet nothing has been done to fix this...guess he will be calling them today and stirring up a stink...i believe this on / off crap could damage our appliances and such. Funny, nothing flickered last night during storm with 50 plus mph winds...go figure....