Yes, we are still alive

It's been nearly two weeks since my last blog post.  In the 3 years that I've had my blog I don't think I've ever gone that long without a posting.  We've just been busy with the usual summer activities and loving it all.  This past weekend we went camping at Bear Cave in Buchanan again, you might remember that we were there 3 weeks ago.  This time Craig's sister and her family went with us.  Above is a photo of Craig cooking his hobo pie over the campfire.  

I like this photo of Craig... My hubby always has to be busy doing something, wether it's working on the latest project in the garage, working in the yard, or just plain fixing something.  It's not very often that I can get him to just kick back.  

Here is our campsite.  You might notice that the sites were on cement slabs and had little cement patios on them.  I liked that!

My brother in law Jon taught us how to make hobo pies.  I made a blueberry one.  It was better than blueberry pancakes.  Now I am convinced that we have to buy some of those pie makers.  

This was the view of the river from our campsite.  Early Friday when I was walking Zoe I spotted a pileated woodpecker on the tree.  I ran for my camera but by the time I got back he was gone.  

We took Zoe with us.  This is mostly what she did.  She is so laid back that it's easy to take her camping.  Seadra spent the weekend with my parents.  Seadra thinks she at the 5 star hotel when she gets to stay with them so I don't feel bad about leaving her.  

As I mentioned before, Craig's sister and her family joined us for the weekend.  They go camping often and the girls were a lot of fun.   

Bailey at the pool.

Jordan and Lauren

Hence the name "Bear Cave" campground there is a cave that you can explore at the campground.  Last time we were there we opted not to go in because of reports that is was really wet in there... and the fact that I was chicken.  

This time everyone wanted to go in including a 5 and 9 year old so I had to be brave.  It really was pretty neat.  I liked it except when the bat came flying towards us!!!!  

This cave was used by Indians and slaves were hidden here by the underground railroad movement.  

It was a nice weekend!  It will be several weeks before we can go camping again.  We are hoping to go a little farther next time... like Silver Lake or even farther north.  

And I'll try not to neglect my blog for so long next time.  Hope you all are enjoying your summer!  

I am obsessed

1. I feed them mealworms 4 times a day (can bluebirds get fat?)

2. I got upset yesterday because Caleb mowed too close to their pole.

3. The ICHTHUS tents had to be put up to dry out this morning and I had the kids set the tents up AWAY from the bluebird area.

4. I've stopped putting bird seed in my platform feeder for fear of attracting house sparrows and starlings (they can harm bluebirds)

5. The bluebirds have now reached my #1 favorite bird spot taken from the orioles.  

6. I get sad thinking about the babies fledging and the family moving along.  

TGIF

It's been a stressful week and was I ever happy to see Friday!  Craig and the kids are in Kentucky at ICHTHUS (a Christian music festival) so as soon as I got home from work Seadra, Zoe and I went my parents.  Visiting over there is the best stress releiver!  Tonight was picking strawberries and making strawberry shortcake.  It doesn't get any better.

Yummy Yummy!

Mom and Dad enjoying the fruits of their labors..... literally.  

Lu-Lu and Bageera resting.  

Zoe enjoying Pa-Pa's kiddy pool that he keeps full just for the grand-dogs.

Seadra and Zoe absolutely LOVE the golf cart.  

Pa-Pa even lets Seadra drive. 

My Dad's chickens. 

And here is the bluebird photo of the day.  It's amazing how close they are letting me get to them.  They know I am the mealworm lady and they love me for it. 

Loving My Bluebirds

Above anything else this summer it was my greatest hope to have a pair of bluebirds take up residence in my back yard.  I'm happy to report that my wonderful bluebird are well and active and what joy they are bringing me!  They wake me up each morning singing and chatting to each other.  They are getting quite used to me and are loving the meal worms I provide them with about 4 times a day.  I peeked in the nest a few days ago and was thrilled to see one egg.  Today I peeked again and there were 5 eggs!  I read that they lay 3 to 5 eggs so I'm guessing they are at their limit.  They will be busy busy parents trying to feed that many mouths.  

Daddy seems to be a little less afraid of me.  Momma is a little more cautious.  I watched Daddy fly down from a branch and grab a mealworm and fly back up to feed Momma who was patiently waiting.  They are the sweetest things to watch.    

I'm taking every step I can think of to protect and keep danger away from my precious bluebirds.  I've even stopped putting bird seed in the platform feeder to keep the starlings and house sparrows away.  It seems to be working.  I'm sure you'll see more about my bluebirds as time goes by.  

And just so you don't think my life is totally consumed with bluebirds.... Here's a photo of my Mom and her neighbor.  They were selling some of Mom's plants at the farmers market last weekend.  I drove up to South Haven to see them Saturday morning.  Mom enjoyed the day and loved talking to everyone.  And I'll take any excuse to go to the farmers market.   

Bluebird Update

Well, it's official!  I now have my very own bluebirds!  Can you tell how happy I am?  I've been waiting for 2 years.  I woke up to the most beautiful music in the back yard.  The male was singing his heart out.  By the time I left for work I caught a glimpse of the female too.  When I got home this afternoon I didn't see them anywhere.  The suspense was killing me so I peeked in the house.  A big grass nest was already being built.  Soon after both Momma and Daddy bluebird were back and taking nesting material into the house.  

On my way home from work I stopped at the wild bird store and bought some meal worms for them.  By this evening they had already found the worms and were loving em.  My Dad has his bluebirds trained to know when mealworms are being served by ringing a bell when he feeds them.  Maybe I can do the same thing.  They are going to be so spoiled living in my yard and I'm going to love spoiling them!   

My very own bluebird

This is not the quality bird photo that I usually post on my blog and even though it is suboptimal I am posting it anyway.  This is a genuine for REAL bluebird that has been in my back yard for the last 2 days!!!  I first saw him yesterday hanging around and scoping out the back yard.  He flew over to the bluebird house but at that time I didn't notice him going in it.  After about an hour he disappeared.  Tonight about 9PM I went outside and there he was again on top of the bluebird house.  This time he was going in and out several times.  And he kept singing his little heart out... I'm hoping he was calling his wife to come check out the new house he found for them.  This was the only photo I got of him yesterday but I'm hoping to get many more... if he stays.  Wow... I've been trying to get bluebirds to come around for over 2 years!  Let's hope they take up residence!  

The last 3 bluebird photos are my Dad's bluebirds from last year.  Wait till Dad hears my good news!  

P.S.  This is the next morning and the bluebirds woke me up just singing and singing and singing in the back yard.  My heart is happy!  

Camping

We took our camper trailer for a trial run this past weekend.  We learned the camper inside and out and couldn't be happier with it.  It's just the perfect little camper for us.  We are looking forward to our little travels and camping this summer.  I've spent the last 2 weeks stocking the camper so when we decide to go somewhere all we basically have to do is grab our clothes and throw some food in the camper.  What a difference from tent camping!  

We stayed at a place in Buchanan Michigan called Bear Cave Resort.  I snapped this photo of a waterfall for you Betsy.  Of course I thought of you when I saw it.  It was only about 20 feet tall but still very beautiful.  

The resort/campground is right on the St. Joe River.  Some of the sites are right on the river bank.  

This goose family was enjoying the river too. 

And last night was another beautiful dance recital for Jordan.  I can't believe that next year will be her last year already.  

See you later.....

Craig and I are going camping in our new camper trailer as soon as he gets home from work tonight.  I'll check in with you all Sunday night and let you know what a wonderful time we had.  Have a great weekend!  

More Momma Hummingbird

I had about 3 separate photo shoots with Momma Hummingbird today out at the cottage.  You might think it is easy to get good photos of a bird just sitting on a nest.  Well, it's not!  At least not for me.  I had the hardest time trying to get the nest and the bird in focus together, and I'm still not happy with the quality but they are much better than the ones I got last night.    

I'm really not that close to her when I'm photographing her.  I'm up as high as I can comfortably get on a ladder trying to balance my tripod on one of the ladder steps and I am still a good 20 feet away from her.  She stays right on her nest never taking her eyes off of me.  

Isn't her nest beautiful?  Click on the photo to enlarge for a better look at the nest.  It's made mostly of lichen and lined with spiderweb silk.  

I'll go out again in a few days to check on her.  I don't want to miss the opportunity to see some baby hummingbird beaks peeking over the nest.  

Be safe Momma Hummingbird!  

Nesting Hummingbird

I went to a program at Sarett Nature Center this afternoon about the rediscovery of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker.  It was AWESOME.  I will devote a post to that program soon.  

As I was leaving the Nature Center I noticed a voice mail on my cell phone.  It was Craig telling me to make sure I stopped and picked up my camera before heading out to the cottage.  He said that he found a nesting hummingbird.  I couldn't believe it!  I've ALWAYS wanted to see/find a nesting hummingbird.  I stopped at the house and grabbed my camera.  As I was leaving the house I noticed this butterfly on a purple flower... a great photo opportunity.  But I almost didn't stop to photograph the butterfly because I was so anxious to get to the hummingbird.  I'm glad I took the few minutes to snap these photos.  They turned out great.  

Anyway... back to the hummingbird.  Sure enough!  There was a sweet little Momma Hummingbird nesting on a branch.  I was disappointed at the quality of my photos.  It was starting to get dusk and I'm hoping to get better photos in brighter sunlight tomorrow.  She was quite high up on the branch and I was standing on a ladder with my telephoto lens to get these shots.  

How did Craig find her?  He said he was standing under the tree and an Oriole landed a few inches from the nest (he didn't notice the hummingbird nest at this time).  Then he noticed a Hummingbird attacking the Oriole.  He said the Hummingbird was actually pecking the Oriole in the head.  After about 4 pokes the Oriole flew away.  That got Craig to thinking, there must be a reason why the Hummingbird did this so he took a closer look at the branches.  Soon the Hummingbird came back and that is when Craig noticed the nest.    

I can't wait to watch her progress.  I'm really hoping that I'm able to get some photos of her feeding the babies in the next few weeks.  How exciting this is for me!

Great weekend.. ending too soon

The weekends always seem to fly by.  But even so... it was a great weekend.  Saturday morning I got up and ran to a yard sale that was advertising antiques.  It was a great sale.  I didn't buy any antiques (although they had some great ones) but I found some wonderful stuff for the camper trailer, among them a camera tripod for $1.  I love a good deal.  I'm keeping it in the camper to use on our travels.  Then my Mom and I went to Sarett Nature Center to a wildflower sale.  Mom bought some cinnamon stick ferns and a Jack-in-the-pulpit.  For the rest of the afternoon I spent time out in the camper cleaning, organizing and dreaming of the fun we will soon be having.  

Today after church we went out to the cottage for dinner and to celebrate Dana and Jon's birthday.  As soon as we pulled up to the cottage the first thing I said was "It feels so good to be out at the cottage!"  You don't realize how much you miss it over the winter until your first time out in the spring.  As soon as we got home I jumped on the lawn mower and mowed the yard for about an hour.  I don't know if I'm weird or not but I LOVE to mow the lawn.  It relaxes me and is soothing.  I listen to my ipod while mowing... tonight I listed to Laura Erickson's "For the Birds" podcasts.  For those of you that like birds/birding and you have an ipod I highly recommend that you download this podcast.  I download it from i-tunes (it's free too).  It's a daily 4 or 5 minute radio program all about birds.  It is so good, easy to understand, intresting....  I save up several weeks worth and then listen to them all at once.

After mowing Josh and Ty came over and we all sat around a fire in the back yard.  I miss the boys and it was so great to have them here!  It was  a great way to end the weekend. 

Hope you enjoyed your weekend as well.