RantFarm.com

After sitting idle for a month we assumed that nothing was going to inhabit our bird house. You know, the one I’d written about in March http://rantfarm.com/?p=491 . The “purple martin house” put up in Idaho where there are no purple martins! At least that’s what the bird house instruction map showed. While working in the garden yesterday, we saw some kind of bird fly in and lots of little chirps from baby birds coming from inside. I’m happy to report that we have “tree swallows” and they love purple martin houses.

If you’re wondering, YES, that’s a TV antenna on the roof disguised to look like a perch. We weren’t going to buy a satalite dish for birds but we did install digital television. Now they too can enjoy all one chanel that can be picked up here (on a good day).

It was a great day when the Howard, Diane, and Seth stepped off the Amtrak train at around midnight. They were kind enough to stop for a day on their way to catch a cruise to Alaska on the coast. We had a great 24 hr visit that went buy instantly before we put them back on their way.

Jenny and Diane went shopping, while Howard and Seth road to the top of a mountain. Then dinner in Coeur d’Alene (Thank you for the treat Sergeants!), a walk on the worlds longest floating pier to look at boats worth 2 and 3 times the value of our house, and back for visits around the campfire. It was quite a day.

Howard and Seth road “Cammie” the Rhino

Click this image to see full shot of view from the mountain

If you’re ever in the area, even for a day, please don’t hesitate to let us know. There’s a lot to see and we’d love to share.

They go by many names and the names. The names are pretty much interchangeable among most of the creatures in our yard. This flexibility will benefit us greatly when we’re really old and senile and can’t remember who is who. Oh darn, I think that happened already. No matter, I won’t remember writing this in about 15 minutes. It’s probably time to start putting labels on everything. Like, “PHONE and CAT and WIFE”. Anyway, here’s Friedrick (according to Jenny). For those back in Illinois, this is a full grown squirrel (I’m not sure of the brand name!), they appear to be about 1/2/ the size, less fat and don’t have the bushy tails of gray squirrels.

It always amazes me what people can buy on the internet. Now I have my own story about buying bricks, of all things, over the internet. We needed a walk-way around to the back door and I estimated that we would need 450 brick pavers. I had been checking prices at local hardware stores and was almost ready to buy when I found and ad on Craigslist. A local mason was selling bricks for much less than retail. With the help of a good friend moving them, we were able to buy 1100 bricks for $100 less than what I would have paid for 450 bricks at the store.

Last year’s project was the walkway. And this year project was a fire-pit that I’d been dreaming of. If you’re coming out this year, I’m happy to report that our fire pit is finally finished. Which really means I won’t be asking you to help with it.

Here’s a different shot showing the stairs. Click the image to enlarge:

If you’re not from the area, this will probably be somewhat exotic. On the right is a Gross Beak. I didn’t crop out the bird on the left so you can visualize the size of the Gross Beak.

The hummingbirds arrived right around Jenny’s birthday (late April. She’s 39!…again). Here’s a Calliope. The smallest bird in the world. This one is about the size of the end of my thumb.

On May 5th, Jenny and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. We gussied up in fine clothes and went to the big city (Coeur d’Alene) to a restaurant renouned for great steaks called Sergeants . The steaks were wonderful to be sure. Note that if you dress up for Sergeants, you’ll be the best dressed people in the place. Our “big city” roots are showing. Anyway, this was followed by watching our wedding video (thanks to my brother Ray for that). Several folks in the video are gone and so it was somewhat bitter-sweet.

One interesting thing we’ve observed here in Idaho. Rainbows. So far this year we’ve seen three of them. Including one on our anniversary which we’ll selfishly imagine that God did just for us. Here’s one from the house today.

I finally got a shot of the elusive snow shoe hare. This was shot out our window (thus the reflection). During the warmer months her coat turns brown but her feet, nose and some patches on the front of her ears stay white. In the winter she is even harder to find because they turn all white will brown spots. They’re bigger than a rabbit and as you can see as she crouches down to eat the clover, their legs are exceptionally long.