Roland's Family

 I had mentioned that "our" crow, Roland, was nesting in the tree behind our house.

He's gotten more comfortable with us as we've continued to be friendly (with choice bits of food). We're both happy 6-10 feet away from each other.

He frequently hangs out in our carport, perching on garden tools and peering in the windows at those interesting humans who might have a bit of egg leftover from breakfast.




We've also started seeing his mate, whom we've named Corva.

She's still much more skittish (and sleek) than Roland, but she's gradually warming to us.

But today marked a new chapter: fledglings!

Or maybe just fledgling.  This one, whom we've named Edgar, has been hanging out on a roll of paper towels in the carport for the last couple of hours.

He's adorably scruffy looking!

We've put out a bit of chicken scraps for him, but he seems uninterested.

He actually lets us get extremely close (Mumpy walked right next to him and didn't notice until he flapped at her), but we are staying away to let his parents take care of him.

I suspect they will scoop up the chicken and feed it to him, but right now he isn't calling to them and seems happy to sit and wait.

We are secretly hoping there is a second fledgling to call Annabelle.  We have a long time blog reader with that name, who will (I think) be happy to have a baby crow named in her honor.

UPDATE: We saw the fledglings flying with their parents! There seem to be four of them, so we are naming them Edgar, Allen, Annabelle, and Lee.  Unless we figure out a way to distinguish them, I suspect we'll call them all Edgar...

Guest blog by Oob: Say happy 7th birthday to this amazing catfish

He is 7 (equivalently 156) years old. He was supposed to live to 3 years, which would be about 72.

He is ridiculous, how did he live this long?


He is 1 inch and a half!


His species we do not know.

We don't know how he lived this long, but he is still breathing, and he is very alive.


Happy birthday, unnamed catfish.





(DISCLAIMER: We do not actually know if it is his birthday...)

Surprises

It was Thursday. We were hip deep in kitchen and household renovations when Leena mentioned that she was having problems with her newest pair of gerbils.  Percy was eating much more than his brother, Anton, and was actually getting a bit tubby.

Hmmm.  Well, I didn't have time to think much about it, so I suggested she put extra food in the cage to make sure poor Anton got enough food, and we'd figure it out later.

The next day Leena had me hold Percy.  He was definitely the heftiest gerbil I'd ever seen.  But the Emperor and the younger boys were due back in two days.  Clearly there was a problem, I just didn't have time to research it now.  Besides, Percy and Anton both seemed pretty healthy otherwise.

First day

Saturday morning, Leena came to me with the surprising news that Percy was no longer fat.

And we now had five wiggly pink jelly beans in a corner of the cage.

And Percy turns out to be short for Persephone.

Sigh.  I've been pregnant how many times and I didn't figure it out?!

This is our fifth pair of gerbils and the first error by the pet store.

7 days

10 days

Honestly, this was not the plan, but...

They're so cute!

And we are handling them every day, so they are extremely tame and sweet.

13 days

15 days

Percy turned out to be a good mom, except for the part where she stuffed all her babies in the gerbil wheel, then forgot (?!) and started running.

Fortunately, the babies were all fine!


We figured out we have 3 girls and two boys.

18 days

And then yesterday the first one opened her eyes!

guest blog by mike: i is a happy birb

 ah, hello! I... am mike! or, saint michle the archangel defend us in battle is my full name, but we usually just go with mike.

now, you half to understand, I am a bird. so I go in a cage. in a room. on a floor. in a house. in a street. in a neighborhood. in a state. in a country. in a continent. in a world. in a ect.


but I am let out... when I am good. but if I fly onto the floor, 'no' someone, or anything else bad, I am put back in.

lets get serious with the no part.

 so I admit to being a huge computer fan. but also, I am a big no fan. look
left to see a no and right to see computer. 'tom' means Tinfoil Olive Man.

whats that you say? one of choclos bionicles? cool... lets no it! (ok, lets not get into the hero factory-bionicle thing.)
all that aside, I should... eat something.

I Like Mike

As you may know, Oob loves birds.  For his birthday, we decided to get him his very own pet bird.

After careful consideration, he decided that the perfect pet would be a cockatiel.  The only problem was that we couldn't find anyone who sold cockatiels!

There was one place, a specialty bird store called Just for Pets, that was in the process of breeding several pairs of cockatiels.  They sounded wonderful!  They hand raised and socialized their chicks.

The only problem was that they had about 40 people on their waiting list.


They encouraged us to add our names, however, since often people were no longer interested by the time the birds were available.

They had enough breeding pairs, that it seemed like we had a shot, so I asked if it would be ok if, once the eggs started hatching,  we visited each week to watch the babies grow.

 Sure!

So I called once a week to see if they had eggs yet...

And we did see a single chick that they were hand feeding, although that bird was certainly spoken for.


Except, near the end of June, when he was ready to meet his new family, that person couldn't take him.

And then the next two people on the list couldn't take him.

So they decided to call the family that had been calling every week!


And we were thrilled and delighted to have him!

Oob named him St. Michael the Archangel Defend Us in Battle, but we call him Mike for short.

Since he was an only chick, he is unusually well bonded to people.

Meaning, he's well past tame and into cuddly and affectionate!

Seven Quick Takes: Easter Rodents, Goslings, and Nuns Falling Down Stairs

 How's that for an appallingly click-baity title? Well, I may be throwing my sister (the nun in the title) under the bus, but at least I didn't throw her down the stairs.  Ahem.  On to the Takes!

1.  Klenda took first for her watercolor in the community college's art! Here she is with her ribbon and trophy!

Which leads us to her next big announcement: in the Fall she will be starting full time art school!
She picked the Schuler School of Fine Arts, a school known for teaching the classical art she loves.

She'll still be living at home, but commuting by train to Baltimore.

2. Oob: Come quick, Peter and John are looking for Jesus!

Me: ????

Peter and John turned out to be Sun and Moon, Leena's gerbils.  They were running in and out and all around our Easter tomb, looking very much as if they were looking for someone.

So I ask you, Catholic home school win for knowing scripture?  Or lose for rodents in your Easter display?

 3.  I'm pretty sure this photo encapsulates everything I like about Boy Scouts.

The boys in blue are Choclo and Oob.

 4. I went up to NJ on Mother's Day weekend to see my folks and my youngest sister, who was home from North Dakota for her home visit (she's a SOLT sister).

A few days before I arrived, she slipped down the basement stairs and badly sprained her arm.  (But she's feeling muuuuuch better now!).

When I got there, I realized that the outer edge of each step was worn into a slanted groove that could have been designed to shunt people down the stairs at high speed.   Klenda and I (hopefully) solved the problem by stapling these high traction stair treads across the top and under the lip of each step.

I mention all this because I accidentally took a weird picture of it: this is a photo looking down from the top of the steps, but, to me, it looks uncannily like it was taken looking up the steps.

4. After 4 days of heavy rain, we had a Ducky Day!  I haven't had one of these in years, but we did this whenever it rained when the Zoomlians were little!

The kids play in the biggest puddle we could find, quacking like ducks, then it's home for baths, popcorn, and warm chocolate. Yum!

It was kind of bittersweet knowing that this was one of the last Ducky Days I'm likely to get as a mother,  but watching Zorg and Leena swing dancing in a giant puddle sort of made up for it!

5.  The giant puddle happens to be next to Lake Artemesia (on the road between the parking lot and the lake),so also enjoying the wet weather were actual ducks and these fine geese.

Yeah, this is a gratuitous gosling post, but they're so cuuuuute!

 6. Wrapping up Awesome History, my photographer friend, Shelli, did a black and white series modeled on the classic Migrant Mother photo by Dorothea Lange.


Shelli came up with this shot of Klenda looking beautiful and serious.

I, on the other hand, couldn't keep a straight face,


7.   Choclo: What do you get when you cross Captain America and the Hulk?
Me: What?
Choclo: A Star Spangled Banner.

And with that, I hope you have a marvelous Memorial Day weekend!  We'll be busy visiting our family graves, hosting a cookout, celebrating another birthday, and helping our local veterans celebrate the big day.  More fun with Kelly!

Three Reasons Why We Can't Have Nice Things: The Pet Edition

Why we can't have a chicken: I'd name it Johann Sebastian Bock.

SERIOUSLY?!

Why we can't have a dog: I'd name it Anathema.

Why we can't have a parrot: I'd teach it to say, "Help!  I've been turned into a parrot!" And I'd mail it to my sister. As a surprise.

Monday Morning Cutie

Better than a cup of coffee!

Leena handles her gerbils all the time and they keep getting tamer and tamer.  The more you interact with them, the more they want to interact with you.

Vanilla now likes to ride on Leena's shoulder and give her tiny tickly gerbil kisses!

News of the Cute

 Gerbil update!

Chocolate and Vanilla have become quite tame and happy to be held.

This has led to many happy hours of cuddling and seeing what fun we can have with small mammals.





Somehow this led to Choclo asking if I'd like  some "hot Chocolate."

 And Oob offering me a "Vanilla cappuccino."




No gerbils were consumed in the making of this blog post.

Happy Birthday, Leena!

 Leena is thirteen!  She's a teenager!

She wanted a Lumpton themed birthday, complete with a jelly cake.

Yum!  This one was mango and raspberry.

And then she had a party with her friends with lots of sledding and more jelly cake.

This one was cherry and melon!


 Very fun, but the big news was her birthday present.

 Various siblings bought her parts and accessories for this enormous gerbil palace!

 Mom and Dad bought her the actual gerbils: Chocolate and Vanilla.

That's Vanilla cuddled up with Chocolate, but you can only see Vanilla's face.

Cute!!!!

Thirteen Cute Things About Leena

1. She is very caring with all sorts of little animals.
2. She's Queen of the Squirrels.
3. She's very snuggly with us, too!
3. She loves God very much.
4. She invented Lumptons - if that's not cute, I don't know what is!
5. She loves doing Algebra with Lumptons.
6.  She's very kind, loving, and gentle.
6. She gives scooter lessons to the younger boys.
7. She makes fabulous audio books, some with very cute voices.
8. She likes to make videos of her brothers and sisters.
8. She loves teaching people things, and helping them do things.
9. She is a fantastic humor blogger!
10. She's a lot of fun to be around!
11. She is a thoughtful and caring sister.
11. She is a thoughtful and caring daughter!
12. She draws lots of Chibi (cute manga) stuff.
12.  She loves jokes and puns.
13. She has a real talent for piano and acting.
13. The world just wouldn't be right without her (submitted by Oob)!

New Keets!

No, I said, we can not get more parakeets.
Why on Earth would we get more parakeets?

Then I saw the birds the girls were talking about.
Turns out the answer is: because they are so beautiful!

The white one is Peace and Justice. She is all white but not albino we think she is a dark eyed clear (her eyes are dark).
The pastel yellow and blue one is Faith. We think she is a yellow faced graywing, or possibly a yellow faced dilute. Her color is a little darker than this picture shows.




We quarantined them for while, but they've now been accepted by the flock. They've taken to us as well. Joy, our "daddykeet", keeps trying to teach them to fly, a little tough since their wings have been clipped!

More on parakeet genetics here.

Fruit Trees and Fringe Benefits

I finally got around to pruning our fruit trees (now that I don't have to wade through 3 feet of snow to get to them).

Have I mentioned that I love fruit trees? Not even considering the fruits, I think they are such beautiful four season plants. I even love pruning them this time of year!

Pruning gives me the obvious benefits: more and better fruit as well as prettier and healthier trees. It also sparks the garden fever for the year!

It also gives me some fringe benefits: I get blossoms from the prunings (if you mash the cut end with a hammer and stick them in water, the trimmings give you beautiful flowers in a week or so). This is also nice to do now with forsythia branches, if you have them. Here they've been inside for three days and the buds are starting to swell.

I also use the prunings for my birds (since they are untreated fruit trees, I know they aren't poisonous). The finches get branches to use as perches. The branches naturally vary in width, so the birds don't get arthritis in their feet (a common problem if you have only one size perch in the cage).

The parakeets are another story entirely! They are natural "wood" birds. They make their nests in holes which they hollow out in trees, so the chance to bite and play with fresh wood is a great treat! They love to strip all the bark off the branches, so I save all the trimmings, store them outside and bring them in a few branches at a time.

Now I just need to attack the winter damaged shrubbery - it's less fun pruning broken branches from a beloved shrub that may or may not make it.





On the plus side, while I was pruning, I noticed that my giant pussy willow was going crazy! I bought this plant for $2 on a whim, and I have never regretted it!

I grow Honeycrisp pears, Starkrimson and Sungold cherries, asian and Stanley plums, Sargent crabapples, White Pearl currents, and figs. I guess the currants should be under the bush fruit, but I was noticing I ought to prune it. Do you grow any fruit? What do you grow and where (generally) do you live?