Spring?

 It looks like spring has sprung up here in the north land! The birds are singing, the turkeys are gobbling, and the cows are calving. True signs of spring. 

The robin is the first sign of spring in our area. They start appearing one by one, then flocks of dozens. Next up is the bluebird with their colorful breeding plumage. We see them mostly in the open country sitting on fence lines and checking out the bluebird houses.

The last bird to show up in the area and the truest sign of spring is the meadow lark. They too are open country birds whose call can be heard from a long way away. We saw our first meadow lark earlier this week. I went out on a hunt for one with the camera, but of course they did not cooperate. 

We continue to go for "Shed Walks" but have yet to find any. We did find the last resting place of this coyote. One has to wonder how it met its demise.

Of course, when we do not take the girls the wabbits show up!

We have been reserving our past few Sundays to work with Kevin. That is the only day he takes "off" so he can work on his bunkhouse. This past Sunday was no different when Barb and I went over to help him put up some tongue & groove planking in two bedrooms. 

Kevin and I worked on the ceilings while Barb worked on putting blocking in some sidewalls. We had a system; Kevin was in the house shouting me measurements, I would cut it, bring it in and using two ladders we would get the piece in place. Kevin would then nail it in while I went and got the next piece and he would shout another number at me. I did not get any action shots as we were always running. 

6 hours later we had one room completely done and another room 1/2 done. Barb had all the blocking done. If you compare the before and after pictures you can see the blocking that Barb put between the studs on the walls. She not only did this room, but every room in the house. 

One thing I forgot to mention. See the grooves on the ends of the boards on the "after" picture? Each one of those had to be hand beveled into the boards. Not terribly difficult, but a pain and time consuming. 

Later in the week we were off to one of Kevin's job sites to get some free garage doors! This is the same site that we got the trusses from last week. To give you an idea of the scope of this job I need you to use your imagination. In the picture below imagine just a plain garage with a normal roof, nothing on either side of those garage doors; no windows anywhere at all. Kevin replaced the roof with a steeper pitch, (that's how we got our trusses) added the dormers on top, added the RV garage on the right, added a kitchen area on the left (the room with the 3 windows) and added the open patio on the far left. 

The owners want new garage doors, and they were generous enough to give us their old ones! So away we went! Although it looks like Barb is doing all the work, I did have my own impact and did my share of work too.... no really I did!

Like much of the country, we went from spring back to winter at the end of the week. It will be 4-5 days before we see temperatures above freezing again. So, what does one do on a snow day? Taxes. Ugh! But after that, I set up the tripod and took a 2-minute video of the activity at the bird feeder. Those little critters sure flock to the feeder on cold days! I did a slow motion of a little fight between two birds. It is amazing what happens in the matter of a second or so. How many different species of birds do you see in the video?

There are several other species of birds using the feeder, and I am trying to get pictures of each, but some are more elusive than others. I now have by camera close by so hopefully I will capture them in the coming weeks. 

Did you know the nuthatch is the only bird that can walk down a tree face first? Other birds have to face up and kind of bounce their way down whereas the nuthatch can actually face down and just walk.  

Of course when the snow flies, it means a fire in the fireplace. Which means Zoey gets toasty warm! I do not know how she can stand it!

Over the past couple of weeks Barb has slowly been working on some stone stairs in front of the house. We go for drives in the side by side in search of the perfect flat rocks for the stairs. They have to be at least 18"x18", preferably bigger, but not so big I cannot lift them. We have been out three times now and have brought home over a dozen rocks. It is slow and tedious work, but she is getting there!

Meanwhile, I finished hauling all the gravel for the garage. Kevin came over the other day and flattened it all out. We used his laser level to set the final grade. An hour later, it was all done, and he was off to his next job!

Now, we just need mother nature to do her thing and let it settle over the summer. With luck, we will get the slab poured this fall! 

The highlight of the week though was when the dogs got a bath in the dog wash. As you can see, both were over the top excited!

Have a great week!