Bout time I got off my lazy can and chimed in on this. I know EXACTLY how excited you are to see this handsome bird at last. I fist saw a pileated here about 8 or 9 years ago. Oddly enough, our truck had developed problems and my husband and I were pulled over out in the middle of nowhere with the hood up trying to get it running again. I was standing back out of the way and wishing I was elsewhere when I saw it...a pileated woodpecker flying over. I'd only seen them in books but it was like a kick in the gut and I started dancing around , pointing and screaming. Of course, when your husband is stretched out across a greasy hot engine block in his good jeans, trying to coax that P.O.S. into getting us back on the road, he isn't really in the mood to get all goofy about a woodpecker, especially, as he stated later when I was grumpy that he wouldn't look, since IT COULDN'T HAVE BEEN A PILEATED. And then about three years later I saw the first one here in our own woods. I doubted it even then, and ran the whole 1/2 mile back to the house through the nettle and mosquitoes to get my binocs. I could never get close enough for a good look but I was sure of it....we had pileateds. And I got the same response from my husband: Don't be silly. I soon got used to hearing their loud ringing ke-ke-ke-ke-ke-ke, but he wasn't impressed. Then one morning we were eating breakfast and watching out the window as usual and he about choked on his frosted flakes. There was a big flash of black and white and there it was, about 20 yards out on the side of a large oak. There was total chaos for a moment as we tried to locate the d--mn binocs (spot a new bird and see if your field glasses don't vaporize)and then I was doubted no longer. I bet you just about gave everybody a coronary when they heard you start hollering. I am wondering how inthe world it held still long enough for you to go fetch the camera and get a good shot. Would never have happened for me. And by the way, I did like everybody else, searching high and low through that HUGE picture, dying to see what was in there. At first I was scratching my head because it appeared to me that there was a bobcat-shaped creature casually sitting among your chickens, which didn't really make sense. Then I saw it. Congrats congrats congrats!!!! I bet it is looking for grubs and carpenter ants among the trees damaged by the ice storm you got two winters back.

L2c46, I had no idea that you were from South Africa. Do you have Dutch heritage like my artist friend? He was extremely tall, like several other Dutch people that I know. My GGgrandparents, who immigrated to Texas from Prussia in the mid 19th century almost immigrated to South Africa instead, as that was their first choice. My GGGF owned a lot of land in Germany but my his sister had inherited all of the tools and farm equipment, and so my GGGF rented out his land and didn't work. When he got married, my GGGM decided to put an end to that, and that's why they decided to leave Germany - to increase their wealth. Their first thought was to immigrate to South Africa, but because a lot of Germans were moving to Texas at that time, they thought that might be a better idea. It took them a while to sell all the land in Germany, and some relatives in Texas gave me copies of letters written in German (and German script - not easy to read) that described some of the transactions of their land sales and money transfers to Galveston after they had already left Germany. It must have taken the letters a very long time to arrive. Lars

Jasper looks handsome, as always! Vaccumfreak, did you find real fleas anywhere on/around him? I found tiny black spots under Nikita's chin once, and freaked out thinking it was flea residue. It was acne I guess, and disappeared once she was bathed and scrubbed carefully under the chin. Our vet gave us an antibiotic cream to put on a boil she got on her lower lip once (that probably was flared up acne too). I use a lil dab of it on her chin sometimes and that seems to keep the acne at bay. I guess I'm really lucky that Nikita and Simba love bathtime. I bathe them once a month and they seem to like hot water rahter than lukewarm. Max is OK as long as water doesn't touch his face. Simba loves to sit on my shoulder when I'm in the shower; I don't relish that one bit LOL he's just such a big baby.

:( It looks like the weather is not going to cooperate with us.Its just getting too cold to put the finish on the wood this year. The finishing is going to have to go thru the winter before we can do anything about it.(Northeast,very cold and snow) Since it will no longer be "new wood", what steps do I need to take 6 months from now to put the finish on it?