Trees and Other Stuff

We got some of the tree limbs taken care of this afternoon.  Bill was able to get the one remaining branch that was still in the tree, the ground was (barely) firm enough for the ladder.  It was a pretty big limb.  Now, it's firewood!  He ran out of steam before he got all of the limbs cut up, he wasn't using the chainsaw for some reason.  It'll probably be Sunday before he has time to work on the rest of the limbs.  The back yard looks better.

Maggie Beagle got herself into major trouble with Otter today.  She would have been in trouble with me as well, but Otter is the one that heard bird screeches and looked out to see what was going on in the yard.  What she saw was her beagle, holding down a mockingbird and about to go in for the kill.  I heard Otter yelling loudly at the dog so I knew something was going on, but by the time I got out to the yard Otter had already gotten Maggie off of the bird and put the dogs inside.  We looked around, and finally found the bird.  It had hopped into the closest cover, which was the iris plants around the base of the non-broken tree.  It was fine, and it was also a young bird.  The screeching birds, that had also been attacking the beagle when Otter was getting the bird away from her, were probably the parents and the bird on the ground was a fledgling.  The fledgling screeched at me in that mad way that mockingbirds have, then it started hopping away and since it was ok we went inside.  We stayed where we could watch, and after a minute or two the parent birds went down to the grass and apparently the baby was ok because they went back up into the tree and kept going back & forth.  The youngster tried to fly a couple of times, but hadn't quite gotten the hang of it yet.  However, the parents were leading it and it was jumping higher & flapping more so we think it was unhurt.  Later on, they were all out of sight so we think it probably managed to fly and they all left.  There were two or three other birds that were probably it's nest mates and they were all in various stages of flying.  Mockingbirds are special, they are TEXAS state bird and they certainly have the attitude!

We also have a robin's nest, it's on the end post that holds the front porch awning/cover up over the porch from the front door.  There have been nests there before, usually doves but this time it's a robin.  We've been watching mama robin and now the babies are pretty big.  I haven't checked them this afternoon, but I could see them clearly this morning and they were very close to flight.  They might have been about to fledge when I saw them this morning, so they may be gone already.

I did manage to get some sleep last night!  I still feel like I need to catch up, but I am more rested today.  Not sure why I had a few nights without good sleep.  Of course, I am a 50 year old female and it goes with the territory!  I've also been feeling warm lately, not as in fever but as in hot flashes.  This part of getting older is not fun.  I don't have a problem with getting older, it's just the transition stage that I'm not enjoying!