Well thanks everyone! You are always so supportive. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and very therapeutic. :-) Saucy, I hope Sara does do one of Zeuss. It's a lot of fun and anyone can do it, ages 5 - 85! :-) PM2, yes, I did do most of the painting. Well, painting/drawing. I use watercolor pencils, which I think are a lot easier to work with than paints and brushes. For the trees in the one pic that you liked, I did have to use acrylic paint cause I wanted to give the leaves texture. Some things I didn't draw, for instance, the picture that Cynthia admires. I love the very Art Deco look of that...it's from an old postcard I saved. For that one I scanned the postcard, printed it out and changed the color of the dog to black and white so it would look like Scout. Cynthia, I'll try to get a closeup shot of that for you. I really like it too and wish I knew who the artist was. Unfortunately the print is old and wasn't signed. Marian - yes, all the photos of Scout were scanned or printed from my camera software, as I didn't want to use the originals. I use a product called Matt Medium to bond the pieces to the canvas. I don't know what the difference is between Matt Medium and Decoupage/glue, but that's what was recommended to me, so that's what I use :-) What kind of collages did you make for the Extension Fair? Did you save any of them? If so, I'd love to see them. How neat that you were involved in the Extension Fair exhibit. I love going to those types of fairs. It's so wonderful to see what everyone has created. I especially love to see the kids works of art. Some of them are so advanced, I'm just amazed. We go to the fair at my garden girlfriend's cottage every year and we always time it so that we come on the week-end of the fair.

Gary, regarding your nest boxes, do you know that you have to have the correct dimensions to build the proper sizes for different species? You might already know this, but if not, "generic" boxes aren't the way to go. The size of the box and the size of the entry hole vary from species to species, as well as the placement of the boxes. Most birds are very fussy about which boxes they will use. There are several ways to get patterns and dimensions for the birds you are hoping to attract, including online searches. The entry hole is especially important. There are a lot of species who will use nest boxes if the dimensions are correct for them, including wrens, bluebirds, some woodpeckers, great crested flycatchers, screech owls, wood ducks, and more. Good luck! When you get them built, keep us posted on the results! Marcia

Susan, The GFS forecasting model that successfully predicted last week's North Texas/Southern Oklahoma snowfall is predicting something similar about midweek next week. Because of that, I'm holding back and not planting my onions plants yet. Forecasting models are complicated and forecasters don't use just one model, they use several....and, in some cases, many. Often the models disagree, and the further out a forecasted event is, the more variation you see between models and the less confidence you have in ANY one of them. Meterologists know a lot about each model and, in particular, they know that certain models are outliers in certain circumstances. An outlier is a model that is drastically different from the others, and often the meteorologists tend to ignore an outlier. This is where it gets tricky because..... This winter the GFS has accurately predicted most of the major snowstorms, even well in advance. For the last storm, though, it was such an outlier even as far as 8 to 10 days out that most meteorologists discarded it and went with a forecast based on more conservative models. Then, the storm arrived and followed the path forecast by the GFS. Also, the ultimate snowfall totals were heavier in many areas than forecast by the GFS, which mostly forecast 8-10" totals....but the GFS was most accurate on the precip totals because other models forecast only 1-4" totals. So, since the GFS was correct last week (and for the Dec. and Jan. storms), I can't ignore it and that's why I'm feeling 'cautious' about next week's weather. I know our local TV met is watching the GFS model runs for next week because he hinted last night at possible snow by putting a 20% chance of rain on next Tues or Wed and made a statement like "it's too far out to be sure, but there's a chance that I'll have to change that rain to a word that begins with the letter 's'". He usually won't put snow into a forecast much more than about 3 or 4 days in advance, so I'll really be watching his forecast this weekend to see if he changes that rain to a word beginning with 's'. The purple martin houses are multi-compartment houses that sit on a pole. The martins love them. We have two...a plain white one and a red barn-style one. Each has 12 compartments. You have to situate them carefully so the martins have a clear 'flight path'. That don't like houses that are too close to trees that might interfere in their flight, and they like being close to human beings, but not too close. We don't have bluebird houses here but we leave dead trees standing in the woods for them. We generally have a great bluebird population. I am, by the way, hoping and praying the GFS is an outlier for next week because we don't need any more moisture here. Dawn

Thanks for looking everyone! I hope that I'll be able to get many more photos as the season progresses. Mike: Agreed that the hole is a bit large. What happens is that because I leave the boxes up over the winter, woodpeckers enlarge the hole and then use the box to roost in. I have had downy woodpeckers and nuthatches use them for roosting. What I do is leave the box alone, until after the bluebird or chickadee has laid its first egg. Then I'll put on a hole reducer of appropriate size. If you look closely, you can see holes left from the screws where a hole reducer has previously been in place. I take it off after nesting is over, so the winter birds can use it again. I haven't had a problem with raccoons, but I will take your suggestion and look into putting a predator guard on the hole as well. Donna: Correct that it is a smaller baffle. I do have some ducting sheet metal that I can secure around the bottom of the post which will give it additional protection. Ann: Thanks for the info. It has been unseasonably warm here as well. So far the bluebirds seem to be sticking around, busy adding pine needles and aggressively defending the box, but if they don't then I'll keep my fingers crossed for the next wave to come through! Last time I had bluebirds nest in my yard was a few years ago, and it was later in the summer.