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.

Appreciate the good advice. The other boxes have been monitored, but the female of that partciular pair was more skittish than usual. The male had shown her the nest several times over about 3 weeks and she just didn't want to be there because it is such close proximity to my front door and us walking around to our garden. We sit around out front and the other pair sees us, but they are still very hesitant to go into the house while we are there but I love that they are getting used to us. Hopefully, they will all be safe while we are out of town for a few days. :-/ This concerns me, but family responsibilities are calling.

Hi everyone, well i've finally woken up, i think i'm fighting off something and i've slept all day, maybe it's that featherbed we bought, so nice and a good deal 67$ for a queen size, i'll try anything to make Al comfortable, the dampness is unbelievable and the weather i won't even complain about it was -20F with the wind yesterday and i think plus 26 today. carley and her friends have went to the theatre this evening to see isold and -sorry can't remember the other name so it's just me in the living room and i get to watch anything on the 3 channels we get there by myself - one channel is hockey-can't believe that matthew played since he was 5 and i never learnt anything, i'd bring my knitting and stay away from all those screaming people. Nora when i was shoppping yesterday i noticed that the seed are are out in stores already, we buried Buddy in our garden so i've already started to plan something special for him--i know i keep on mentioning him, but i do miss him so much. i guess with our warm winter i have noticed buds on the apple tree we have. Connie i noticed last night that you had a weather warning, is everything ok, our cable - main stations like the rest of canada get detroit tv signals, congratulations another grandbaby how lucky you are! Gabby, i think probably the wood is cheaper here but not by much speciality woods sell by the lineal foot here, i do know that a 2x4 not treated is 76 cents, 3 pulp and paper mills have closed here in town, 3 out of town and alot of other places have closed their doors here, it is just terrible, i read in the paper that there were only 3 new houses that were started to be built since jan. 1 but there sure are alot of them for sale here. Al is still in alot of pain, his doctor is the leading cancer doctor here in the area (Al regular doctor retired and this is the doctor that was suggested to him to get, we here in our family are lucky to have a family doctor, we are 28 short here in the city) so he does try to keep him pain free, Al loves the spring and summer, he sits as long as he can in the ramp under his big green umbrella, and when people see him outside they all come over to chat to him or he'll come in the backyard and give me orders on how to tend to the flowers or the garden, right now with this sat. tv, he controls the remote (like every man - lol), so we have to watch whatever he wants, oh well, he doesn't seem to relize that we can keep ourselves busy doing other things - lol. well i think my pots and pans have finished soaking, so i better get them done! debbie

It's late so I'm just going to respond train-of-thought to your questions..... RE your exercises -- that's a lot of the stuff my last PT had me doing -- I think it's general leg strengthening stuff and probably all very good stuff to do, but the exercises the new PT gave me really get the butt and outside of the hips, which is what I need, apparently, to cure the IT band stuff. And it takes so much less time -- if I hustle, I can do everything in 10 minutes. re: pilates being too boring and slow-paced -- the more advanced winsor workouts are much faster-paced with less explaining. See if you can get a hold of the Maximum Burn series - she goes very fast in that one. There's a 20 minute one and a 45 mninute one. I think they're both out of print, but there are usually plenty of used copies on amazon (cheap!) re: your arches -- I think high arches are big contributors to knee pain. I'm sure you already did this, but make sure you have the right shoes -- high arched feet need neutral/cushioned shoes -- any sort of stability or motion control shoe will just screw you up further. I have Nike Zoom Vomero 4's -- they are the cushiest shoes ever but they don't last long -- my last pair needed replacing after less than 200 miles. You may want to see a different podiatrist for a second opinion on your orthotics -- I've seen a few and each one has a different opinion on what kind orthotics to make me. I have a set of old orthotics from my 20s and sometimes I wear them to run, sometimes I don't. I don't think they make much difference actually. (Part of me thinks podiatry is a hocus-pocus kind of field!.) A good book to read is "Running Injury Free" by Joe Ellis. He is a podiatrist but very knowledgable and I found it fascinating how he took people's weird pains and traced them down to all kinds of crazy causes (one woman had hip pain that he traced to a tiny nail that had penetrated the sole of her running shoe and was very mildly poking her as she ran -- she didn't even realize it was there, but it was throwing off her stride to such an extent that it screwed up her ankle, knee and hip. But anyway, he spends a lot of time talking about how people's arches and foot structure can really cause issues all the way up the leg - it's interesting to read. re: how long I foam roll - I usually foam roll for a few minutes. You are supposed to stay on each painful spot for as long as you can and at least 20-30 seconds. I will roll til I hit all my painful spots (some twice) or until my arms get tired from holding me up (I find that you have to be pretty acrobatic to get yourself in some of these positions, LOL!) If you have painful spots, you need to roll. The first time I did it, my right IT band didn't hurt at all -- not one bit -- when I foam rolled it (and of course, my right knee didn't hurt). My left IT band, on the other hand, was excruciatingly painful the whole way up and down my leg. I rolled for maybe 3-4 minutes total (it hurt so bad I had to stop) and the next morning, I felt so much better. When I rolled again (I was doing it twice a day at first, now just once a day), there were far fewer painful spots, and now I find that if I keep up the rolling regularly, I can roll and not find any painful spots at all (and then I'm done in like 20 seconds!). Basically, if you feel any pain when you roll your IT band, you've found a problem and you just need to park there on the roller and let the roller work the knot out. Seriously -- in just days, with proper rolling, you should be feeling far less pain during the rolling itself and of course, less knee pain during all your activities. re: the fluid in your knee -- the fluid in your knee might never go away but it is probably not causing your pain. I have tons of fluid in both knees (docs think it is from the trauma of the accident) but other than making really loud crackling popping noises all the time (seriously, in my first set of PT, people could hear my knees popping from across the room when I was doing those step-ups and stuff - it was gross!), it never hurt. The pain is caused by the muscles around your knee pulling your kneecap all out of whack. Once you release the tension in your IT band and strengthen the other muscles around the knee to hold your kneecap in place, it won't be getting yanked all over the place and your pain should go away or at least become a lot more managable. Good luck!