Short Post Tonight

Whew, I'm exhausted. I went into work for 7 hours this morning, then came home and took a little nap. I bought some perennials on sale at Hy-Vee last night, so I went out and planted them, and also the flat of impatiens still sitting around from 3 weeks ago. That was a good job done--now all my flowers are finally planted.

Then I tackled the bird feeders. In between cleaning out the bird feeders, I also pulled some weeds. Made some supper and after that, I got the birdbaths cleaned out too. It's good to finally get all that stuff out of the way.
The trick for getting that sludge and algae out of your birdbath is white vinegar and a good birdbath scrub brush. The vinegar cuts through the yuckiest gunk and it's not toxic to the birds or pets who drink from your birdbath in case you don't get it all rinsed out. Bleach is still good for sterilizing, but it's not a household chemical I use anymore for a number of reasons I won't go into here. For me, vinegar is a good all-purpose and non-toxic alternative (it also kills weeds!)

While I was out cleaning the birdbaths, I saw the gray catbird with an insect in her beak and she flew over to the evergreen tree. The catbirds have been hanging around here for several weeks now and seem to really like that evergreen tree, but it's thick and I've never been able to spot the nest. I marked the spot where I saw her fly in and walked over there. Sure enough, about 7 feet up, I finally spotted the nest. I could see 2 little baby beaks begging for that insect. Hopefully I can get a picture tomorrow when the light's a little better.

That's all for now. Here's Daisy enjoying a summer evening on the deck and keeping a watchful eye for bunnies.