Baby Birds - House Sparrows are HATCHED!

3 of the 4 eggs hatched over night. I checked them yesterday afternoon when we got home and a couple of them had started to crack. Mom wasn't around, so I picked out the 4 eggs to examine them closer. I know....momma birds HATE ME! G

This morning, mom was missing again, so I pulled back the leaves to have a peek. Three little mouths came popping up! So, I had to run and get the camera before she came back.

I wanted something for 'scope', these little guys are TINY!!
My finger didn't work too well!! LOL

The Robins left before I could get another picture of them.
I took Terry over to see them Thursday evening and they were 'bursting' out the sides of the nest. Sunday evening they were gone and the nest empty. It's amazing!! Only two weeks from the time they hatched and they are out of the nest!!

I'll keep a closer tab on these little sparrows!!!

Exciting News!!!

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http://smoothsailin.blogspot.com

Domestic ME!!

I'm on vacation next week....yes, I know....AGAIN!!! But that's okay, I have a LOT to do!!

One of the 'many' things on my 'to do' list is to redecorate one of the 3 bedrooms upstairs. I say 'redecorate' like it's been actually 'decorated' in the past? Whomever painted it last must have been on DRUGS!!! Actually, considering the whole down stairs of our house was painted - walls and ceilings - in either baby blue or baby pink when we moved in, the upstairs is down right STYLISH!!! G

After living in this house for 9.5 years, it's about time we started doing a few more 'updates' inside!! Okay, I'm not sure I can really say 'we', as Sal wants NO part of this adventure! I 'might' be able to get him to bring the paint inside from the truck tonight, but even that might be pushing my luck! He knows however, that whatever I start.....he'll somehow get involved! G

So, below is the bedroom I've chosen to 'update' first. We call it the 'yellow' room. Why? Because the walls are YELLOW!!! Yes, the ceiling is yellow too. I'm not sure why they thought it would be best to paint the ceiling the same color as the wall, but they do? Maybe it's a 1890 thing, which by the way is the year this house was built.


I might also mention here that when the people did paint, they did NOT bother to remove the wall paper underneath. Thus, you have these nice lines showing running vertical up and down your walls. Apparently when wall paper was invented (um...okay, by the Chinese in 200 BC) do you think I made that up? They didn't have the nice 'butting' edges they do today. it was OVERLAPPED!! Yep, so those lines show through as well. You might be asking yourself, is she going to remove the wall paper. Oh NAY NAY~~~ it might well be holding the house together!!! LOL

The pink and white quilt folded on the bed is one I made.
The other was from clearance at LL Bean.

The old iron bed is from an auction that my Dad Picked up. It's been about 15 years ago and my Dad, Bill and I went to an auction. I'm NOT good at auctions...when I see something I WANT IT~~ then I end up paying too much. So, this bed was there. It was spray painted 'black and gold', it had PERFECT metal box springs. I wanted it so bad!!! Of course my dad is telling me to chill and NOT to draw attention to it. So, Bill has to drag me away to look at other things. I gave my dad a piece of (not over $100) and left him to his bidding. One thing about my dad, when you give him a bid price, he 'might' or 'might not' adhere to what you want to spend. I once got a pink cherry blossom sugar server (depression glass) for $80. I only wanted to spend $40. LOL So, it was a risk!

We came back when the auctioneer was clearly past and I had myself a BED!!!
It was only $5!!!! YIPPEE!!!

The fancy border (below) is that 'modern' sticky adhesive kind. Kind of like tape, it will come off very easy!! If you want it, come and get it!!! Otherwise it will end up in a ball on the floor!
Can't wait to peel that off! You can also get a better look at the wall paper and oh..the multiple layers of PAINT!!! Who's been picking out this stuff?


The curtains came with that place too. I'll be making my own, yep, I can sew too!!
Who would have thought!! I made a pair for the bathroom when I was home on Monday.

Notice the brand new windows!!
We had all 11 of the windows replaced last week.
It was LONG over due!

The door is extremely fancy. I'm not sure what I'm doing with those yet.
Actually, I'm rather concerned that pink is going to cover very well.

I absolutely HATE painted wood work.
My stripper is getting rather old and grumpy,
so I'm not sure I can get him to 'perform' one last time.
BILL?????

Why would someone paint this???
Many more layers and you won't be able to tell it's decorated at all!

Here's one down stairs that Bill stripped 8 years ago.

It's not high quality wood, but this was a farm house, not a rich estate.
Things needed to be practical and functional.

I purchased the paint today and hope to get started on Monday.
I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

Red Neck Pigman 2009 - I'm still alive!!

Martha gave me this cartoon on Friday. G
I only WISH I had that many legs!!!

Today was the big day!!
I finished, I survived and I got done in time for PIZZA!!
That's the short version!

Here's the long version.

The rule to this tri was that everything must be borrowed, free or I already had it.

Tri Wet Suit - Borrowed from Candy - Team Beast
Bike & Helmet - Borrowed - Meme - Weasels in Flight
Bike shorts/Zoot shirt - Borrowed - Dawn - Team Beast
Bike Trainer - Cosmos - Team Beast
Goggles, running belt , swim cap - Gift - The Pulfords



Saturday evening started out with 'carb loading' at the Olive Garden.
I'm good at carb loading!!!

Saturday night my sister, Dawn and her husband, Chris along with their kids, Daphne and Vaughn spent the night. I love those kids...they are going to pick out my nursing home! So whatever they need...they GET!!

We got to bed around 10 and then in the middle of the night the storms came in, knocking out our electricity from 330 - 430. We were getting up at 430 anyway (yes, the race started at 730 and we were 30 minutes away. Sure sounds like 'agility' to me!!!) but I was so relieved when the coffee machine started doing it's thing!! It's Sunday and there IS a goD!!

Check in was to open at 6. We wanted to get in early so we could get a good spot in the transition area. This is where you store your bike (or in my case, Meme's bike - Suzie - Thanks Meme!!), your shoes and running belt. Your bike it hooked onto a pole in this transition area and it's advantageous to have an end spot. It was apparent when we arrived at 6 that we were LATE! G
The parking lot was 1/2 full and several of the 39+ aged women were already there.
It worked out, we got a nice spot anyway.

After we chugged about 80 ounces of water we put on our wetsuits (mine is borrowed from a "Beast Triathlon Team Member", thanks Candy!!) and headed down to the water. The game plan was to get wet and comfortable in the water. Or I could take 'fireman Dave's Advice' and swim until I freak out and then come to shore and the race will be fine. It seems that 90% of the Tri people "HATE" the swim. I guess it has something to do with not being able to breathe while someone is kicking you or swimming over top of you. Makes perfect sense to me.

We completed our warm up and then came to shore for the briefing and the "elite" start. In the mean time my coffee and 80 (plus by now) of water had needed south and was looking for an exit. I looked up longingly at the port a potties. Do I have time? I asked?? Dawn said, 'just go in your suit, I just did.' Then Dave pipes in.....'me too'. Okay, this is just a little TMI!!! I explained, first off, this ISN'T MY WET SUIT!! Second, my butt will be sitting on Suzie's seat! NOT MY BIKE!!! They decided it was okay if I headed up use the 'bathroom'.

Our 'wave' is getting closer. 3 people have quite and have been pulled into the boats so far. This will NOT be me!! I know I want to swim to the outside and away from traffic. My biggest problem is trying to avoid 'racing' someone faster than me. It's so easy to fall into sprint mode. By staying to the outside I not only avoid traffic and getting bumped or swam over, I also can't really tell how fast the people around me are going. The down side is that you end up swimming further than you'd need to. They are sending us into the water with 3 seconds in between each person. This actually seemed to be working well and preventing a lot of bunching up.

The swim wasn't nearly as bad as people had lead me to believe. I think it helped going to Burlington to swim with the 'Team Beast' group. That first time in the water was SCARY!
I feel secure in my little pool with blue lines. Meme, Michelle and Vinnie went with me to the pond on Friday to practice more open swimming. That pond has a LOT of weeds growing from the bottom, so that's a bit creepy. Bill and Seeker went with me Saturday morning in the rain and I think those trips really paid off and made me feel confident in the water. My goal in the water was 10 minutes, I came in at just under 12. I was fine with that as I didn't stay on track very well and I did have to breast stroke a bit to get my barrings. I did try to run out of the water too soon and almost fell on my face....the "S" word kind of popped out. G

Running up the hill trying to take your wetsuit off it HARD!! Huffing and puffing!!
At least on the bike you can BREATHE!!!!!

I didn't think the bike ride was too bad. There were a few hills that were MURDER!! But overall, not bad at all. I was so disappointed with my time however. Suzie and I did our best....well, okay, we did have time to take in some scenery, so maybe we weren't ALL business! G Knowing Suzie isn't a racing bike, I think we did pretty well. I hoped to complete the bike ride in 45 minutes. It took 65 minutes, so that really cost me the chance to make my personal goal.

I did almost have a wreck on the bike. It was at the dismount. You're coming down a steep hill and have to hang a left. There is marker in the transition area that you MUST be off your bike. I slipped my right foot out of the cage and planned on gracefully swinging my leg over and effortlessly jogging next to the bike up to the transition. Well, after 15.5 miles and 65 minutes on a bike, your legs turn to RUBBER!!!! OMG!!! I almost went down, but managed to keep both of use on our feet. That was CLOSE!!!!!!

The run was PAINFUL!! It had nothing to do with oxygen and everything to do with shin pain!! I had it happen at home when I tried to switch from riding to running and it's a total killer. I'm not even sure I can describe it, but I suppose it's like someone sticking needles in your shins. I would try to walk, but it hurt even worse than if I would slowly job along. I did stop briefly to see if I could get those muscles stretched out, but apparently they were out to lunch!! Scale of 1-10....totally a 9. I was almost in tears at one point....here Dawn was telling me about people crying on the swim....I was darn near close to crying on the run!! It took a little over 2 miles for them to finally start to feel better. As I would "run" I would try to stretch them out. UGH!
Running time a very slow 36 minutes...but it was about where I thought I'd be after the other two events. Add in some transition times and I finished at 1:58:42. 13:42 off my goal.
But under 2 hours, so I was happy with that.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed. I really thought I could hit the 1:45......but I finished....I didn't choke on the swim and I actually beat a few people along the way!! G

Will I do it again??

Right now, I'm not sure. 'maybe'.

I will keep swimming. If nothing else I've found I really do enjoy that. I like the pool, the people and the challenge of going further. Not to mention the lung capacity it builds. Like I need that!

I would like to make my goal time...but finding the time to train is really tough.
Next time I'd want a racing bike and I'm not sure I'd be able to borrow another Tri suit.

Thanks to the Burlington BEAST Triathlon Club!!
For helping me out!!!!!
(I know I've missed some results!!!!)
Now I can wear my sweatshirt since I finished!!!

Dawn Pulford - 1:29:41
Shawn Mears - 1:17:59
Fireman Dave Luers 1:30:59 (Dawn beat you!!!)
Lyle Roberts (78 years old) 1:46:26 - he's been doing this for years!!! G


and my riding buddy -

Julie Volesky - 1:55:29 - You go GIRL!!!


and just to make me feel a 'little' better!!

Hey Dawn.....how come you got beat by a 72 year old guy???
1:24:23

Last Minute Thoughts.......

Well, tomorrow's the "big" day.

A few last minute thoughts.....

As Dori said in Finding Nemo.....'just keep swimming'. G

As Dawn said, "I'm not competing, I'm participating."

As Julie said, "It's faster to just keep pedaling, than to walk your bike up the hill."

As the girl at check in said to someone else, "I just want to survive."

Baby Bird - Updated

Sorry, this picture is from Thursday -
the Robins are about 4 days old. Look at all the pin feathers!!!!

I can't believe how fast they are growing!!
I'll take a look today to see how they are doing.

One apparently 'snores'. G It was sleeping
with it's mouth open. Either that or it wants
to be first in line for the 'WORM BAR'.

Here's momma...or dadda....not sure.
I do know it thought I should be somewhere ELSE!!


The 'humming bird' nest...is NOT!!

RATS!!

I'm still trying to determine what it is.
I believe it's a house sparrow.
At least the egg description matches.
There are four eggs, blue with black specks.

Baby Birds.......are cute!

Okay, I must admit....I'm a baby bird watcher. I know where most of the nests are around our place, whether it be in the pines, in the trees, in the down spouts or out in the barn.
I'm watching them!! Just ask the barn swallows!!!

Sometimes I wonder how birds survive at all!! Sparrows have the most misshaped haphazard nests around, babies are always falling out of them. They give other bird construction companies a bad name....if you're looking for a nest builder, leave sparrows OUT!!

Robins aren't always that much better. They put nests in the dumbest places!! I've seen them on top of fence posts, on wreaths, and this spring we had one on the down spout on the east side of our house. I couldn't bring myself to watch that one, it didn't look like ANYTHING good could come of it. Just DON'T LOOK ETHEL!

I finally found a nice sound little Robin nest in the pine trees on the West side of our house. I actually wouldn't have found it at all if I hadn't been walking by and the darn bird flew out at me and made me wet my pants. YIKES!!! That was a could weeks ago, and I've been watching the 4 little blue eggs every since. So, today.... look what I found!!!
Are they cute or what!!
It appears to be a nice secure little next inside a sturdy little pine tree.
Let's hope they survive the storms predicted for tonight.

While I was on vacation a couple weeks ago a little humming bird came to the South kitchen window. It was amazing I saw it....what's even more amazing that I was doing dishes! G
So, I hurried out and put some sugar water in the humming bird feeder and of course I haven't seen her since. Ungrateful little bird! This morning I was looking at the flowers under the wind mill and look what I found in the clematis. It's a tiny little nest and I think it might belong to a HUMMING BIRD!! At least I hope it does!! Time to make more sugar water!!!

So, I checked a little further and there's an EGG IN THERE!!!
Bill's now hollering at me to leave it ALONE!!!


One last picture and look, this tidy little nest is made up of some of the
Ponies mane and tail hairs. What good little house keepers humming birds are!
I only wish they hired out!!! G