We have had some rain and wind here also but nothing too severe. Had temps in the 80s last week but this morning was pretty chilly. Tonight is supposed to even cooler. I have been doing some early spring gardening. Onions and lettuces are up and potatoes are coming up. Planted radishes, carrots and more lettuces last Saturday. We got a nice little shower on it last night so maybe that will come on up. The chickens are beginning to lay good. And the little ones are growing like weeds. There are more eggs in the incubator. We're hoping to have a good hatch out of them. Would love to put a lot of good homegrown meat and veggies in our freezer this year. I couldn't keep my hens from roosting in their nesting boxes so I gave them (the boxes) another good cleaning and put fresh straw in them yesterday. Then I took an old plastic shower curtain liner and tacked it in front of the nesting boxes. Cut the liner up the center and tied it back during the daytime. At night I let it down and it keeps them from getting on the nests. Maybe after a while, they will stay on the roost and I can take down the curtain. Those hens got really frustrated last night trying to get in their regular roosting area. I had to laugh at them. They would fly up and bump into that plastic and then squawk like crazy. Finally had some baby bunnies that survived. Two does had a total of 13 between them but only 7 have survived but they are growing and fat little rascals. So I know they are being fed well. DH hasn't been doing well. He has been to several doctors and was diagnosised as have Coronary Ectasia (which is enlarged arteries in his heart causing the blood not to flow through the arteries as it should) This one was a new one to me. I had never heard of it even working around hospitals as long as I did. He also has arterial stenosis. He hates having to take the blood thinner and hates even more that he can't get out and do like he had been doing but he starts having pain each time he tries to do any heavy lifting even 50 pounds. That is about all that is going on here except for this being spring break week and I have two of the little girls that kept until they started school staying with me everyday. Hope everyone has a good week. Jan

Hi Judith -- I take an empty plastic one-gallon jug, fill it with 1/2 gallon of distilled water, and mark the level with a black permanent marker, writing on the bottle that it is not to be used for drinking water. Next, I pour in the 6 tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide by way of a funnel, put the lid back on and shake well. I keep two of these jugs ready. Since they are marked, it is easy to refill them without having to measure out the 1/2 gallon of water. I have gotten lazy since I first posted this, due to many seeds this year. Now, I just change the water about every three days. I'm now in the process of transplanting the results -- 1,000 seedlings into our new field bed. I'm only about half-way through. They are responding almost immediately to their new environment. BTW, when planting the sprouted seeds, I've had better luck by making a depression in the planting medium and placing the seeds on their sides with the emerging root facing downward without covering them. Once they start growing, I just add a pinch or two of loose potting soil to fill the depressions and cover any roots showing. It's working out much better than covering the seeds. I think planting them directly into the ground is the way to go -- you eliminate all the back-breaking work of transplanting them. But I just can't bring myself to do that yet -- especially with seeds from valuable crosses. We have very hungry fire ants here, and they do like to carry seed back home to their nests. Besides, I like watching them sprout and grow -- great therapy for the empty-nest syndrome! Nancy

Thanks Mike, the amount of time you and tigerdunes spend helping people on this site is amazing and very appreciated. This was the 4th quote we've gotten. (not including a 5th contractor that never returned our calls) I've thrown out a Lenox dealer who didn't spend much time in the house and basically quoted an exact replacement for our old system. I also threw out another trane dealer who has a good reputation in the area, but was pushing very hard for high end systems and priced the items we really wanted thousands more than other 3 quotes. That leaves me with the 2 mentioned. Perhaps I need to get one more, but we felt very comfortable talking with the carrier dealer. We also let him know that we did not need top of the line on efficiency or features and would be frustrated if he quoted us as such. We wanted something that made sense if we planned to be in the house for less than 10 more years. Perhaps this contributed to the lower end furnace upstairs. Carrier seems to quote in a good, better, best format. He initially recommended going with the "better" option of lower SEER A/C and "comfort"level furnaces (similar specs up and down) for a couple thousand less, but since we aren't really sure about moving, I wanted to step it up a bit. The other wrinkle is that the carrier dealer has a sister company that does moisture and mold remediation. You may remember a post I made a while ago about my crawlspace & ductwork being a mess and a trunk line running up the inside of a large chimney to allow the single system to reach the attic. We've decided to do things right by switching to two systems and the carrier dealer was able to speak most intelligently about the situation. The sister company has been the best to work with for crawlspace remediation quotes, offers the longest warranty (25 yrs) and they've collectively agreed to negotiate a TBD additional discount if we go with both companies in a sort of package deal. I've asked the carrier dealer to come back with a hybrid quote that includes all "performance" level equipment with high efficiency furnaces on both floors, but keeping the system at 14 SEER instead of 15.5. Still waiting on that and will let you know when I get it. Given the information above, do you still think we need to walk away and find another contractor? Finally, Tigerdunes asked about living space split in an earlier post. There is about 1,740 down and 1,300 up. There is a large opening at the front of the house for stairs and an overlook to the foyer. 6 rooms downstairs (incl 1 half-bath) & 6 rooms up (including 2 full bath).

My phoebes had skipped a year of nesting in their usual place (above the porch light fixture near my office door). My mirror set-up had scared them away. I should have realized that birds do not "like" mirrors -- but I didn't think about it at the time. I did see a bird pecking all day at the mirror, looking behind it, then pecking angrily at it when seeing the "intruder" again. That bird came back the next day to peck at the mirror again. I felt sorry for him wasting his time. But, I didn't think about the phoebes reaction being the same. So, they never nested there last year. I removed the mirror, but they still did not return to nest there this spring. Instead, they nested on another side of the house -- under our raised deck (same as last year). But, after the 1st brood was fledged -- THEY MOVED BACK TO THEIR OLD NESTING SPOT! So, the phoebes apparently got fed up with the disturbances created by our toy poodle (who is let out onto our raised deck several times a day.) The poodle would be walking directly over their nest, and possibly pissing over their nest. The nest building started May 25, 2021 and completed on the 30th or 31st. The mother was sitting on the nest on May 31, and there were 2 eggs in the nest. So, the first egg was likely delivered on May 30. By June 3, there were 5 eggs. All the eggs hatched on June 17 -- so, exactly 2 weeks after the last egg was laid. Interesting that all eggs hatched on the same day, even though each egg was laid a day apart. When I peeked, all the shells were gone. So, even tho I didn't see it, I assume that the parents removed all the egg shells. I also see the parents flying away with baby-bird poop. The poop looks like worms, and the parents carry it away from the nest. They either drop it or eat it (it is undigested food). Today is June 23, and the parents are often very busy bringing food. The bay birds are still too small to see without using a mirror over the nest. Here is a link to a very interesting article from 1937, detailing the observations of nesting habits of phoebes as studied over a 3-yr period. A few interesting details: Female does all the nest building. Incubation starts at varying times - sometimes after 3rd egg, sometimes after 4th, sometimes after 5th. The male apparently does none of the incubation. After fledging, the young birds remain close to the nest, getting farther way as the days pass. Both parents still feed the young after they fledge -- feeding them for periods of up to 18 days. Reliance on the parents gradually decreases. The parents may eventually show harsh treatment of the young to get them to go out on their own. Interesting. https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v059n03/p0410-p0417.pdf