Chick pics

I have been meaning to blog for awhile now to show the new chickS (Yes, we have discovered there are TWO chicks!) pics, but I just haven't had the chance until now. So without further ado.....

How CUTE!! I will be updating their growth.  I won't give them names until they are older.  I read somewhere that back in the old, old days ( when the black plague happened), a child wasn't given a name until he was five.  My reasoning is a bit different; I want to see their personalities come out in order to name them. 

Their mama is a bit skiddish though.  Whenever we happen to see her bring them a tasty meal, like a snake or a rat, she will fly off until we leave.

Here is another little critter that is adorable.  With the drought being so nasty, we have been feeding and watering the critters that come by.

He's a youngster and needs some manners, but he caught on quickly and learned how to sit properly while eating.

And who wouldn't get thirsty after eating dry corn?

This is our homemade version of a birdbath.  The animals LOVE it and went to it right away.  It's a trash can lid placed in a wide PCV pipe.  The lid is just resting there, so that's why we put the blue rock in it to stabilize it a bit.  We always wondered why it was always tilted to one side.  NOW we know!  There is a stablizer line for the electric pole.  The squirrel, otherwise known as Twiggy, climbs the wire until he's even with the bird bath and then jumps a couple of feet to the birdbath to have a drink.  That's why the birdbath is always tilted!

AW! We have a lot of animals around that we try to care for, um, except for one.  The skunk that lives under our shop. ICK!  No pictures of that one.  I was out walking one morning and the skunk was also out for an early morning walk also.  I am glad we went separate ways!

We really enjoyed the rain yesterday!  I loved the rumbling of thunder and the dark skies.  Here are some pics we took of God's blessing.

It's so dry still and I pray we get more rain, not only because we desperately need it, but because I love it when it rains!

Have a great day!

deb

When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; yet if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou dost afflict them; Then hear thou from heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, when thou hast taught them the good way, wherein they should walk; and send rain upon thy land...... 2 Chronicles 6:26-27

new pics

We finally got to see the baby chick! But we weren't fast enough to take pictures of her.  She was fuzzy headed and whitish-grey in color.  Then later that afternoon, we saw the mama feeding her.  She had taken some tasty critter up to the nest and was tearing it apart and feeding it to her young.  We still don't know how many chicks she has, but definitely one!  In this pictures, all you see is the back side of her as she is tearing apart the meal.

Then before she took off, we managed to get another grainy picture of her. 

Well that's all for now.

Have a great day tomorrow.

deb

I like this.......

I have this on a card that I bought from the Bible Book Store years ago.  I liked it so much, I laminated it and had it on my peg board over my desk. Since we have moved, I have yet to unpack it.  When autumn arrives I will go and find it, I may even have it in the house somewhere!

Enjoy!

Continue On
 by Roy Lessin

A woman once fretted over the usefulness of her life. She feared she was wasting her potential being a devoted wife and mother. She wondered if the time and energy she had invested in her husband and children would make a difference. At times she got discouraged because so much of what she did seemed to go unnoticed and unappreciated. "Is it worth it?" she often wondered. "Is there something better that I could be doing with my time?"

It was during one of these moments of questioning that she heard the still small voice of her heavenly father speak to her heart.

"You are a wife and mother because that is what I have called you to be. Much of what you do is hidden from the public eye. But I notice. Most of what you give is done without remuneration. But I am your reward. Your husband cannot be the man I have called him to be without your support. Your influence upon him is greater than you think and more powerful than you will ever know. I bless him through your service and honor him through your love.

Your children are precious to me. Even more precious than they are to you. I have entrusted them to your care to raise for me. What you invest in them is an offering to me. You may never be in the public spotlight. But your obedience shines as a bright light before me. Continue on. Remember you are my servant. Do all to please me."

Have a great day!

deb

....for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewithin to be content.  Phillipians 4:11

Great News and Some Not So Great News

First! The great news!  The day after I wrote my last blog, God granted my desire.  I looked out the door and up the tree and there was the mama (?) looking (or so it seemed) right at me.  I grabbed the camera and took a picture.  It is kinda blurry, but she is high in the tree and I couldn't get the camera to focus like I wanted.  She is to the right of the vertical branch.

Then the next day, again I saw her, but again, the distance and angle are terrible for photos.

Isn't she pretty?

Okay, now for the not so great news.

This morning, while I was sleeping peacefully, my husband was up early around five-thirty or so and was sitting on the front steps. It was still quite dark but starting to lighten a bit.  He noticed our bulldog, Daisy walking perpendicular to the house; she paused then jumped back.  He noticed a shadow move towards her.  Well, long story short, it was a copper head snake right in the path we take to the garden.  He shot and killed it.   He noticed that it and other snakes that we have come across in that area always try (and some succeed) to get to a large Sago Palm we have.  So today we pruned it back.  I was watering the yard plants when they started pruning and I mentioned it might be a good idea to have the rifle handy.  Well, after the pruning was finished and Jesse was smoothing the ground around the palm, he came across another copperhead.  My girl killed it with a head shot her first try and shot it again to the head (just to make sure).  So here is a picture of a copperhead with a mangled head so you can recognize one if you happen to see one.

This copper head was full grown or near to it.  They don't get very large in length.  If you notice the color of the oak leaf at the top of the picture.  The color of the leaf and the darker color of the snake are almost identical. The under side of the leaf is the same color of the lighter color of the snake. ( There is a leaf near the snake that is the same light coloring of the snake.)  With these leaves all over the ground, it's interesting walking around here.  We have to constantly scan the ground as we walk anywhere.  If I had thought of it sooner, I would have sprinkled leaves around it to show how well they blend in. 

 We only kill the poisonous snakes and leave the rat snakes and such alone.

Well, that's all for now.

Have a great Memorial Weekend! Remember our troops present and past!

deb

Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Luke 10:19

What a Discovery!

The Friday before Mother's Day we made a terrific discovery, but just now have been able to tell of it.  I was lying across my bed late that morning reading a few words, before my day started for good.  I was annoyed at a sound that was intruding on my last few quiet moments, so I looked up on my book trying to figure out what the noise could be.  The sound that I heard was a LOUD "KREE! KREE! KREEEEEE!"  She was really screaming!  Then I realized it was a falcon!  I scrambled up from the bed and took off for the back door, trying to find the source of all the fussing.  I thought she might be hurt.  I looked all around the trees and found her in a tree right near our back steps. She was in a nest very high up in the tree and all I saw was her tan colored head, before she flew off.  I thought I saw a babys' scraggly grayish head, but haven't seen it since.  It may have been my imagination.   The mama isn't constantly on the nest, so I don't know if she has laid her eggs, still building her nest or feeding the chicks.  She does come to sit on her nest for a bit, but not as much as you would think eggs would need.

The few times that I have gotten a glimpse of her, makes me think she isn't a falcon, but maybe a hawk of some sort.  I have looked up falcons and of the pictures I've seen, she doesn't have the coloring.  I know there are different types, but I am having a hard time identifying her (or him) as a falcon or a hawk. 

When we first moved here we saw a large nest in the trees at the edge of the back yard, but we thought it was a squirrels nest ( which I have never seen). Now we know it is this birds nest as they mate for life and nest in the same area year after year.

Here are some pictures of her nest.  The first one is from our back steps and the others is from various positions throughout the yard.

I sure do hope to identify her one day.  Maybe I will have the camera ready and be able to capture her as she flashes out of the yard.  I am just excited to have a nest so close to the house.  I love nature!

At least we now know why we have no songbirds!  When we first moved here, there were NO birds around at ALL!  We tried everything to get birds to come around, but nothing!  Finally this year, we finally got some song birds to come around, but then they disappeared AGAIN!  We couldn't figure out this strange behavior until we learned that falcons eat songbirds!  So that is a clue to identifying, but still have a ways to go, before I'm satisfied.

Oh! The reason I thought I recognized the cry was from a childrens' book I read last year.  The name of is My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George.  It was a wonderful book that won the Newbury Award.  It is a series of sorts...three books, I think.  The second book is called On the Far Side of the Mountain and the third one is Frightful's Mountain.  I read them first and really had to push my girl to read them, but once she did, she loved them.  They are so much about nature and living in the wild and off the wild.  They are great books.  I hope you'll find them and read them together as a family!

Have a great day!

deb

Where the birds make their nests......... Psalm 104:17