I Am Cured!

My computer is up and running again thanks to Shane Lindberg of Bright-Eyed Computer right here in Rochester.


I called yesterday morning when I got home from work and made an appointment for a technician to come out to my house (yes, that's right -- I didn't have to unhook everything and lug the whole tower back into town). A reasonable estimate was quoted over the phone and he arrived shortly after 2:30. I found out after he got here that Shane was the business owner and he normally doesn't do service calls, but lucky for me he likes doing virus removal! Shane was courteous, efficient and very knowledgable -- answered all my dopey questions and gave me some good recommendations to keep this from happening again.

I was so happy to get my computer back with no lost files and for way less than $100! Fortunately for Shane, he also answered "yes" to my "do you like rhubarb?" question and I sent him back to work with a plate full of freshly baked rhubarb bars and coffee cake.

So for any of my readers in the Rochester, MN area......if you're having computer problems, please consider giving Bright-Eyed Computer a call. I think you'll be very pleased with their service.

I have a virus!

I guess I've been lucky over the years, however, my luck ran out yesterday and my computer system here at home has become infected with a virus, so don't expect to hear much from me for the next week or so. Thanks.

Right on Schedule

Here's what I found in the chickadee nestbox this morning at 7:30 -- two newly hatched chicks!
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the last 3 eggs will hatch too. We're supposed to have nice, sunny weather for the next 3 days -- just what these little babies will need to get a good start on their life.

I'm going to leave the nest alone now for a few days......

UPDATE - JUNE 16, 2009:
There are 4 baby chickadees in the nest box now (one of the eggs didn't hatch). The parents are busy flying in and out taking care of them.

New Arrivals

Remember this picture from the other day?? Well guess what?

The babies are here!!

Looks like they just hatched this morning.

I can count 5 for sure. It was fun watching the parents while I was out mowing lawn today--as soon as one flew up to the house, the other one burst out the entrance of the house so the arriving parent could bring food to these little ones and the departing parent could go find more. If all 6 hatched, those parents are going to be really busy for the next couple weeks!

P.S. Still no chickadee babies yet. This is day 13 of their incubation, so I'm hoping maybe tomorrow morning.....

A Backyard Walk With Sophie

Finally we saw the sun for a few short hours this morning (first time since last Friday!) Here's where working part-time is great because Sophie and I got to take advantage of a nice morning and go for a little hike in the backyard. Come on along and I'll show you some of the things we saw.......

In spite of being almost 12 years old, a heart murmur and hind feet with no feeling in them, Sophie still loves to get out and run in the backyard. I don't take her for long walks anymore and she spent the rest of the afternoon napping after this adventure, but I think you can see how much she's enjoying being out here!

There's nothing wrong with Sophie's "sniffer" though. I bet she was smelling a bunneh under this tree.

When we were exploring at the farthest end of our yard, I noticed this fresh deposit of deer droppings.

Very close to where I found these droppings, we have an area of the yard that we've never mowed or done anything else with -- in fact, it's where we dump tree trimmings and other yard waste. It's grown up into a pretty dense thicket, but as you can see below, there's a little path going into this thicket......

and when I followed the path into there, I spotted this fresh deer hoofprint also.

Sophie was checking out all the good scents in there too, but I didn't let her snoop around too much because I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if a doe hasn't hidden a fawn or two in that area! Wouldn't that be a real treat to see someday? I'll definitely be keeping a closer watch on this part of the yard now.

I've got quite a few cavity-nesting birds occupying some space in the backyard also. There are three active Tree Swallow nests. This little female Tree Swallow was reluctant to vacate her house, but I wanted to see if her eggs had hatched yet.

Not yet! Just 6 pretty little white eggs in a lovely bed of feathers. I'm always amazed at the variety of feathers the Tree Swallows can find to line their nests. Does anyone know if that stripey feather right down in front is from a hawk? (click on the photo to enlarge it)

I also have Tree Swallows nesting in two of these plastic super gourds, but they place their nests against the back wall of the gourds, so it's impossible to see how many eggs there are and whether they've hatched or not. But I know the nests are still active because I see the swallows going in and out.

Mrs. Chickadee is still sitting on her 5 eggs in this front yard nest box. According to my incubation calculations, there should be baby chickadees hatching by this weekend and I'll keep you posted on any new developments.

I have bluebirds in a nestbox in the backyard too. There was an unsuccessful nesting attempt earlier in the season and I'm not sure what happened, but that nest had been abandoned. Now a new nest with 5 eggs is being tended by the bluebird pair. Another neat thing about this is that I've finally found a nest that incorporates some of the yarn scraps that I put out in the backyard every spring!

Here's a nice shot of Mrs. Bluebird waiting for me and Sophie to get the heck out of her territory!

A quick check on the vegetable garden revealed these broccoli sprouts from the seeds I planted a couple weeks ago.

The garbage can potatoes are doing pretty good too.

Remember the scenes of the wildflower garden that I burned on April 13th?

Here's what it's looking like today. No buds or blossoms yet, but everything has grown back very nicely. With all the rain that we've had recently, once it gets sunny and warms up again, these flowers are really going to take off.

The wild grape vine has really taken over the dead tree in my front yard. Right now it looks there's going to be a good crop of grapes later this summer and the dead tree isn't quite so unsightly now that it's covered with green leaves again.

The house sparrows finally took over the nesting cavity that I showed you in this tree earlier this spring. I wasn't real happy about that, but a windstorm a couple weeks ago blew the top part of the tree off right at that nesting cavity, so the sparrows lost their home anyway. (I'm so glad the bluebirds weren't nesting there when that happened!)

I've got a bumper crop of common milkweed growing next to my driveway this year. I have only seen 1 monarch butterfly in my yard so far this spring, but hopefully when they come back, they'll find this milkweed patch along with several others that are growing in different spots in the yard.

And finally, a couple weeks ago I cleaned out some dead plants and replanted some new perennials in my hummingbird and butterfly garden. One of my new plants is this Foxglove. It's the only one blooming so far, but isn't it pretty?

Thanks for coming along with Sophie and me on this walk.....we had a good time and hope you did too.

Tagged!

Some of you may have gotten an e-mail from me today saying that I had some pictures to show you and you needed to log into "Tagged" to see them. I received a note from someone I knew yesterday with this same message, so I went ahead and logged in, created a profile, and when it came to the part about adding my e-mail addresses (it actually showed me a list of all the names in my e-mail address book!), I unselected everyone's names because I know you value your e-mail privacy as much as I do. Now it seems that people may be receiving e-mail messages from me saying I have pictures to show them, but Tagged says you have to log in first to see those pictures. NOTE: I have not posted any pictures in Tagged for people to look at -- if you log in, the pictures that you will see were not taken by me!

If you have received such an e-mail, please accept my sincere apologies and delete the note! I did not authorize them to use my address book, but it seems that was done anyway. I have gone back into Tagged and cancelled my account, so please don't log in expecting to see any pictures from me.

Uh-Oh, I Was Wrong!

Remember this picture from my post the other day and I thought it was a multiflora rose?
Well, I found out tonight that I was so wrong! It's a red raspberry!

When I took Sophie for a walk after supper, I saw this flower blooming all over up the street and then I remembered that there are always raspberries along the edge of the woods up there. I guess what threw me off was that the blossoms were so huge--I usually think of raspberry flowers as being much smaller. Anyway, the bad news is that I have to admit I was wrong (publicly!), but the good news is that it looks like there will be a bumper crop of raspberries this summer--as long as I can get to them before the birds!

Master Naturalist Graduation

Wednesday, June 3rd was our final Master Naturalist class and graduation. Because this was a special evening and most likely the last time our entire group would be getting together, we decided to have a potluck supper. There was an abundance of delicious food items. My contribution was hot barbecue venison sandwiches which were a big success (I brought home only enough leftovers to make one more sandwich!)


One of our classmates even had a special graduation cake made for our class! Pretty neat, eh?

Here's the official "diploma" presentation!

And here's a closer look at my certificate (suitable for framing!) and the "official" name tag and a little Minnesota pin indicating my successful completion of the Big Woods, Big River Biome Master Naturalist course.

This was a great class and I'm glad I had the chance to take it. I plan to have one more post with some pictures and other class highlights not previously posted, plus some information on how to find Master Naturalist classes in other states in case any of you might be interested in pursuing this opportunity also.

An Evening Walk to the Pond

I haven't been over to the little pond in the woods near our house yet this spring, so after supper last night, Mr. Johnson and I decided to take a walk over there. No development for the home lots or streets has been started yet, although there are some sewer pipes stacked up and a big John Deere digger that's been sitting there since early spring. I count that as one of the advantages of our current economic situation.

We know the deer have started having their babies and I was hoping to see a fawn, but we didn't. However, Eagle Eyes Johnson spotted these tracks in the dirt on our way home, so we know they've started to arrive on this earth. I just love seeing those teeny, tiny hoofprints (less than 1.5 inches long). You can tell this little one was staying pretty close to mama.

I think there are still quite a few deer in this little woods, judging by the number of tracks we saw. Here are some more from a little buck.

Raccoons are pretty common too.

Eagle Eyes Johnson also spotted these turkey tracks near the pond. He never did see any while he was out turkey hunting a couple weeks ago, though.

But the trip wasn't just about animals tracks, we saw some live creatures too. Here's a tent caterpillar.

How about this pretty dragonfly -- a male Common Whitetail. The dragonflies were hanging out on the sun-facing side of that John Deere digger I mentioned earlier. They must have been enjoying some of the remaining warmth from the sun on the metal of the machine.

We did see a couple of white-tail deer, but this one was the only one who allowed me to photograph her--and only from a distance.

We heard and saw quite a few birds--especially several territorial male Indigo Buntings. On my next trip, I'll see if I can't get a couple shots of those guys. Here's a bird I couldn't identify for sure; I think it's an Olive-Sided Flycatcher. At first I thought maybe a Great-Crested Flycatcher because there are so many of them in this woods, and it was about the same size. But once I got home and looked at this photo, I changed my mind, specifically because of coloration and the dark streaking at the sides of its breast. (A positive ID from any of my readers would be greatly appreciated.)

In addition to fauna, we also saw some flora. These little Johnny-Jump-Ups were growing right in the middle of what will be the main street into this subdivision. (I have half a notion to go back over there tonight and dig them up to replant somewhere in my yard.)

I noticed these roses blooming from the edge of the remaining woods. "So pretty," I thought to myself. "Now where did I just see a picture of these???"

Oh yeah, at Heather's blog......I believe it's the beautiful but invasive Multiflora Rose. Oh well, I guess it will be taken care of once the housing development starts here. I commented to Mr. Johnson on our way back home that if we were ever to win the Powerball, the first thing I would do is purchase this undeveloped subdivision from the realtor and just build one house there way back by the pond -- ours!

There must have been a farm or something here at one time many years ago because we see a lot of glass and sometimes other artifacts where the dirt road was been cleared out. I spotted this tiny little cobalt blue bottle just barely sticking out of the dirt and kicked it loose with the toe of my shoe......intact, very cute and a perfect sized vase for a tiny flower.

I cleaned it up when I got home and picked the perfect tiny flower in my backyard.

Now it resides on my kitchen windowsill as a souvenir of last night's walk.

What's a squirrel to do?

Sorry about the poor picture quality through the kitchen window screen. Now I'd better get outside and throw some corn in the ground feeder trays for this poor, starving squirrel!

Weekend Update

I had my last Master Naturalist field trip yesterday (Saturday). We went down to the Mississippi near Kellogg, Minnesota. I took only one unremarkable photo of a leopard frog, so I decided not to include that here. Our class is almost done with the last class being held this coming Wednesday. It will be graduation night and we're having a potluck supper for the class. Also at this class, we will be presenting our "capstone projects" to the group. Capstone projects are a special nature-themed project we work on (individually or with other classmates) that's above and beyond any other projects we worked on during class and includes some of the knowledge and/or techniques we've learned since the class began in March. My project will be adding plantings (flowers and shrubs that will attract wildlife, bees, and butterflies) to an existing bird and bee garden at the Quarry Hill Nature Center. The funding for this project is coming from memorials from two individuals who have passed away recently and one of the families will be assisting with the planting on the day before Father's Day. My plant list hasn't been finalized yet, but I hope they will be pleased with the choices and design I come up with.


OK, here's what I found in the chickadee nest box this morning.......Woo-Hoo!! 5 Eggs!

I saw this Pine Siskin and one of its buddies on Friday when I got home from work. I just can't believe they're still hanging around and I was still hearing them this morning while hanging up laundry on the clothesline.

The woodpecker's suet log is a really busy place these days. It takes an entire 11 ounce suet cake to fill each one of the holes and that has been lasting only about 2 days!

I love seeing so many woodpeckers here--especially the hairy's. I hope they continue to stick around and also bring their little ones to this suet log.

I Haz a Happy!

OK, so I know you're looking at the title of this post and then this first picture and thinking to yourself, "well, it's just a birdhouse Ruthie!" So I'll explain......it's not the birdhouse.......

........it's what's in the birdhouse that makes me happy. Do you know who made this nest???

A CHICKADEE!!

I finally have a year-round pair of chickadees in my yard and all the $$$ I spend on those giant, live mealworms I put out for them is paying off with them finally deciding to nest in the little Gilbertson bluebird house right in the front yard. I'm keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed that this nest is successful and I will get to see baby chickadees coming for mealworms with their parents.

LIFE IS GOOD!

Garden Update

This afternoon I harvested the first produce from this year's vegetable garden -- a radish!
This is the first time I've planted radishes in the garden and I couldn't believe how beautiful the color on this little radish was. It tasted pretty good too.

Here's a look at my two raised bed gardens for this year. As you can see, I've gone back planting in rows again. The radish came from this bed -- down on the lower left side (radishes are sharing a row with leaf lettuce -- the bright green leaves at the lower right of the picture). There are also some volunteer strawberry plants that I discovered this spring while cleaning out this bed and I decided to leave them and see if they will produce any strawberries. In this bed, I've also planted cucumbers (pickling and eating), peas, green beans, carrots, beets, and onions. I got everything planted really early this year (late April) and have been fortunate that we've not had any late frosts this spring.

Here's my second raised bed (you might remember what a disaster it was last year when my dirt was delivered from the garden center). Earlier this spring my neighbor Scott brought over a little pickup load of compost for me and that was just enough to cover this bed and it's doing really nicely now. In here I've planted zucchini, winter squash, tomatoes (Roma, cherry, and regular ones for BLTs and canning), a couple of red pepper plants, a jalapeno pepper and cilantro for making salsa, and broccoli (that I'm trying to grow from seed).

In case you're wondering, the little plastic containers are "wind protectors" for a couple of really small pepper and tomato plants that I grew from seed.

I've got some garbage-can potatoes going this year again too. After last year's successful harvest, I added a fourth garbage can. I think I planted these on Easter Sunday and after a slow start, they are now doing very well.

This has nothing to do with the gardens, but here's one of the cute little hummingbirds that's visiting me this year. After getting a drink from the oriole feeder, she loves to sit on this little branch perch and fluffle up her feathers (that's what she's going here--see how her tail's fanned out and moving really fast?)