5, 6--Pick Up Sticks!

 Last night we had high winds.  I went out at 7 this morning and starting picking up sticks and a few bigger limbs.  Trash cans and buckets were all over the yard.  But no real damage. We were lucky.  I picked up 3 loads of sticks in my wagon.  We always have a burn pile and I took them down to the pile.   One limb was too big for me.  Larry will move it with tractor bucket.

 I took these last weekend when Erin and the two sweet kids came.  You can see my newest bird house there on the table.  It is outside on a tree now.

 Greta falls a lot.  She fell yesterday and has a hurt face, AGAIN.  Erin thought maybe she fell on her neighbor's trampoline.  Anyway, it hurts me to look at my sweet baby with this burn on her face.

 The Jonquils will be gone soon.

 I forget what these floweres are called.  They come up in the yard.  After I have tended these in the flower bed they really have taken off in growth.

 My Forgotten Dreams Day Lily garden is coming up lushly.

 These Jonquils look like hybrids but they are just ones I dug up along the fence.  I guess the mulch has made them look like this.

 I have some small bulb plants in one garden.  I have blue bells and these.  They are both tiny plants and I don't think they are that pretty because they are so small.

 Sigrid brought Ju to see us before they went on their trip.  They got home at 7 this morning.  They drove straight through.  With Astrid as an extra driver, it is possible for them to keep going.  I am glad they are home safely.

 Ju is really small.  Sigrid's birthday is the 30th.  This is all she wanted for her birthday.  She has to take care of her.  She told me that Ju only peed in the car once on the way to Utah...I thought "oh, dear, Eric did not like that".

 I have lots of Yellow Finch and the Martins are here.  I filled the sunflower feeders this morning after the storm.  I hope the Starlings fly away soon as they are mean.  Many say that Blue Jays are mean, but they are pets compared to the big black birds.

 The birds are building nests in all the bird houses.  Larry has built me several new houses for the front yard.  Since, he has finished the living room, I needed houses so I can sit and watch the birds out my front windows.  I read that if you have a blue bird house it needs the opening toward an open field.  I thought they liked the fence row, but what they like is an open field in front of their house. They eat insects not seeds so they can watch and fly off and catch a bug this way.

 My Patsy chickens are sick.  I have lost 3.  They have a cold type illness.  My pen has gotten old and when it was cold the pen was also wet.  I have not told Larry has he has been helping his brother.  Roger has had heart surgery and one day he told Larry he was blind in one eye.  Then the sight returned.  He had a stroke when he had the surgery.  They found that his artery was clogged in his neck.  They put in a stent on one side...Larry took him.  Today he goes back to get him.  Larry waited in the waiting room for them to come and inform him after the surgery.  This is Larry's brother through his father.  I am glad that he asked Larry to take him.

 I did not want to tell Larry about my sick chickens.  He will know what to do...but I did not want him thinking about chickens when his brother was sick and he was his helper.  I may just let them go and fix a new pen later and get new birds.  I have let out them everyday so they can get to the grass, but 3 of my Patsy birds have died.  Hope the rest make it.  My favorite chicken is the Cherry Egger--a sex link chicken that is red.  They are half Rhode Island Reds and Half Leghorns. When hatched the roosters are white and the hens are red.  I have felt sad this week.  No chicken expert to ask.  Last year, I could have called the old lady on Chicken Ridge and she would have told me what was wrong and what to do.  I could have called the ex field man for Swifts...he would have known.  Now, there is not one to ask.  A few years back I could have called the old coon hunter!   I am own my own here!  Helen and Fleta are not chicken experts.  I don't even think they like chickens like Pat, Clayton and I.  I felt alone when I thought about "no one to call"....I know the number...438-6451...no one answers that phone as they did since 1958!  Poor old me!