birdhouses installed

I mentioned that Mike has been hard at work building birdhouses for the pasture. He put the first one up last week, and a pair of tree swallows immediately moved in, so he decided to put up the other two. Bluebirds moved into house 2 ... and another pair of bluebirds took over house 1, which the swallows are not happy about at all. So we've got a turf war on our hands. Who will win? Stay tuned!

front porch

I've been on a mission to bring more color into our lives. The front porch has pretty much been empty since we moved in almost a year ago, so it made the perfect target. The table and chairs were out in the barn (left by the previous owner), and I cleaned off the rust and painted them. The wicker elephant was at our old house too, but it also got a fresh paint job. I got the rug and chair cushions very inexpensively online (gotta love that Kohl's cash!). The biggest change is the front door, which I painted a bright blue. I think I will end up painting the screen door too, but I'm really happy with the way this is shaping up. It helps that we have flowers coming up too! Eventually, the plan is to plant a small Japanese maple right behind where the grape hyacinths are, but one step at a time.

we've got orioles!

Mike texted me from work yesterday. The conversation went like this:

Mike: You need anything from the store?

Holli: Oranges and grape jelly, please. But not the kind with high-fructose corn syrup.

Mike: You want oranges and grape jelly? For what now?

Holli: For the birds.

Mike: For the BIRDS?

Holli: You want orioles, right? That's what they like.

Mike: Roger that, grape jelly and oranges.


... 2 hours later ...

May he never doubt me again.

birds of april

It's spring migration time, so the birds have been plentiful and gorgeous! I love that my office has a perfect setup for watching them, and we get such a good variety of birds here. Mike has been working on building some birdhouses to put back in the pasture, so hopefully we'll have some nesting families before too long.

leucistic grackle (meaning it has some kind of pigment disorder)

male downy woodpecker

male house finch

male goldfinch in flight

male rose-breasted grosbeak

sparrow in the rain

mourning dove

female northern flicker

female cardinal

that smile!

Friends, Liam has had braces since second grade! It's been seven long years of tooth extractions, head gear, expanders, brackets, rubber bands, adjustments, and countless trips to South Bend to see Dr. Homeboy* the orthodontist. And today I took him to finally (finally!) get them taken off for good. He has a retainer that he is supposed to wear at night for the rest of his life (we'll see how that goes when he's in his twenties), but he's free of metal. And look at his beautiful smile!

* Not his real name, but it might as well be.

henry's got the blues

What, you don't spend your Saturday afternoon bleaching out your kid's hair and then coloring it bright blue? You're so silly.

njhs 2019

Max got inducted into the National Junior Honor Society tonight! He chose Mike to be the one to pin him, so this time I just got to be a spectator (last year, I was the one who pinned Liam).

We are so proud of you, Max! We love your hard work and giving spirit, and it was a real joy to watch you and your friends all get honored tonight. Congratulations!

best buds since always

on the hunt

Mike had to work yesterday, so I got the boys up and we went off in search of birds. First stop was the Borkholder Environmental Center in Nappanee, which we had never been to before. It was small, but we still managed to see some good birds. It was also pretty boggy, so we made a loop around and then decided it was time to head out.

northern flicker way up high

white-breasted nuthatch

male downy woodpecker

After that, we stopped at Rise n Roll, which we had also never been to. It's a doughnut joint with a signature product known colloquially as "Amish crack": addictive doughnuts with a thick coating of cinnamon and sugar. The doughnuts were good, but I can't really say I'm hooked. We also got some (very expensive) sandwiches for lunch, which we ate at the counter before moving on.

Our final stop of the day was an impromptu visit to Potato Creek, where we hiked a little and spotted an osprey, which was very exciting, at least for me. The boys were more excited by a big snake we saw in the road. Apparently this guy (or gal, I have no idea) is a black rat snake, a type of nonvenomous snake that is really good at catching rats (which I guess is right there in the name). Naturally, some dude came along and decided to poke it with a stick, which made the snake run away, thus bringing an abrupt end to the boys' excitement.

And check it out! Once we got home, we got a new visitor there too: our very own northern flicker (this one's a female)!

eagle marsh

Mike had the whole weekend off (a rarity these days) and everyone was home (also a rarity). It's the middle of the boys' two-week-long spring break, for which we have made exactly zero plans (per their request to just stay home and chill and play video games the whole time). It honestly felt like a luxury to have this much time to play with. So Saturday we worked on projects around the house, including cleaning out the garage to make room for bikes (yay!) in anticipation of summer maybe eventually finally getting here. And Sunday morning I woke up and decided it was time to get outside ... nevermind the fact that it was the last day of March and snowing.

I woke Mike up, then rousted the boys, and eventually we hit the road to scenic Fort Wayne, where we visited Eagle Marsh in search of birds. We did find some nice specimens, including great blue herons, song sparrows, and robins (and possibly an eagle but it was too far up to tell for sure). The ground was really muddy, though, and covered with a layer of crunchy, icy snow where it wasn't flat-out filled with water. We started down one trail and made it a good distance before we hit an impassible area of flooding, so we had to turn back, then we ended up taking a boardwalk around a different pond that had higher ground and led to a paved path. It was pretty cold and windy, but so nice to be out hiking, even though the boys were much more interested in making as much noise as possible and scaring the birds away than they were in the sedate nature walk I had intended. Come on, spring! We need more nice days because I'm starting to get a little stir-crazy!