Visitor on N1

Those of you familiar with the Decorah Nest know that across the road is the original nest, N1.  The eagles sometimes eat there, hang out and the eaglets fly over and perch.  This morning the camera operators caught a sub adult hanging out.  According to the color of feathers it is most likely almost 3 years old.  Look how it blends in with the surroundings.  Sure is pretty.

Another New Adventure

In 2016 both my parents had heart attacks along with a stint for mom and a vavle for dad.  They both had 3 months of rehab. Along with all that it was time for them to move out of the house and into assisted living.  My father has dementia and my mother fought me all the way. But finally it was done along with getting dad VA benefits and a new trust and  new bank accounts and me taking over all their finances and everything else. Where was my brother, oh he was at home half way across the country sitting on his ass and was NO help at all. 

So here it is 2018 and my niece and her husband are moving here.  It is not as bad but it is half way across the country and he starts his new job in a couple of weeks. She finishes school in May, so she is busily packing.  Because they got caught in the housing bubble they will be under water and living with me until sometime in the future.  So once again I will be moving family members and helping them start over. 

I am over the moon excited they are moving here but I am still tired from my ordeals 2 years ago. I have boxes in the basement and garage that I have just not wanted to go through from mom and dad's move, now I have 2 months to get my house in order because they will live in my basement for a few months.  Where do i put all that stuff? 

So if you don't see me here often i am probably sitting in a corner with some chocolate wondering where I am gonna put my stuff while they move in their stuff. Did I mention they have 3 cats and my 2 are probably not going to be happy at all but their cats will be in the basement and mine will have the run of the house. 

If you hear screaming it is just me.  And if you could spare a prayer or two it would be greatly appreciated.

PS we do have 3 eggs and there is snow on the nest right now. 

And we Have an Egg

So the new season begins at Decorah.  Last night at 7:28pm nest time mom laid what will be D29.  She kind of messed with us for about an hour before finally producing that first egg of the season.  So now the fun begins, things don't get done because we are on egg watch. This is my 7th season of watching and it never gets old. The excitement of the eggs being laid, the eggs hatching and in 3 months watching them grow from that fuzzy white dandelion head to a juvenile eagle leave the nest and start life on their own. 

Ed Sheeran and Andrea Bocelli

I love Ed Sheeran's voice and who does not love Andrea Bocelli.  They are singing together, what a beautiful song.  Scroll down on the page to give it a listen.

https://www.inspiremore.com/ed-sheeran-andrea-bocelli-perfect/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=YNN&utm_campaign=partner

Oh Deer

I opened the curtains in the kitchen and saw my feral gray tom waiting impatiently for his breakfast, then I noticed movement in the neighbors back yard, oh crap where is my phone, there were 4 deer grazing.  I also noticed my feral female with a great view of them as they sauntered by her.  Some idiot honked and spooked them before I could get a picture of all of them but I got some.

Sunrise

Mornings like this are one big reason I love living in the Midwest.  We get to see the sunrise and sunset and this winter the sunrises have been gorgeous, more like a sunset.  They don't last for more than about 15 minutes.  However, they are worth getting up early for so you don't miss it.  This morning the sky was on fire after our freak snowstorm yesterday that was to be just a dusting but provided an inch or more in 2 hours.

Mrs Wilson's Knitting Circle

Today we had a woman from the Kansas City Museum who maintains the garments there.  She brought some garments with  her.  The museum is under renovations and will be open again in Fall of 2019.  It is quite the house to walk through.  I can't imagine living there.

Some pictures from today.

 Barbie Doll Knitting Barbie outfit. It costs $3 in 1963.

 This is a Miser's Purse.  It is like a leg of panty hose with a slit. There are 2 metal circles that closes off the ends of each tube where people kept their coins.

 This is a Red Cross Bag.

This is the top of a pair of knee socks.

This hat has a skein of yarn and a pair of kntting needles on the top of it.  Not sure why?

Party At My House

Today's party menu is cat food and walnuts. I put food out for my feral, Smudgey, she is a kin to my 2.  She is the only one I should be feeding but I have some really crappy neighbors. 

 You can see her head over the brick ledge. She is mostly black, a tuxedo cat. She is a sweet one, I would love to bring her in but I don't think my 2 would like that.

 This is Big Boy, isn't he gorgeous?  He used to live across the street with Orange Marmalade below and Crazy Girl who is a calico long hair. He got out one day and they never bothered to try and get him back in, so they have left him out to become a feral.

 Orange Marmalade lives across the street and he and crazy girl roam my yard looking for food.  The neighbors need to keep them inside.

Smokey used to live at the end of the block. They got evicted and now he is roaming and has become feral as well.  He is blind in one eye.

There is also a smaller black cat roaming that is not very old.

If you are gonna have a pet, keep it inside and fix it. If you can no longer keep it there are organizations that will take the pet and find them a good  home. 

My fear is one of the neighbors will tire of seeing all the cats and call Animal control and I will lose Smudgey. 

And there must still be walnuts to be had as he found one. I wish they would not leave the hulls on my deck.  We did have a ton of walnuts this year.

Deep Fried PEEPS

Those who know me well know I have been known to eat an entire 12 pack of PEEPS in one setting. Yes I know they are bad for me, but they are PEEPS.  Now some wonderful person has combined peeps and cinnamon rolls and deep fried them.  How can it be I have not tried these?  Maybe someday next time I make cinn rolls I will get some PEEPS and try this.  Better call 911 for me as I OD on the sugar rush.

http://www.ohbiteit.com/2014/04/cinnamon-roll-fried-peeps.html

Tajari 9 months old

Today we celebrate the 9 month birthday of Tajiri!
Already standing shy of 10 feet tall; he is a smart, and at times stubborn, calf that has brightened our world!
Inquisitive like his mother and courageous like his father, he is the mix of two great giraffes; Oliver & April.

1 year old is not far away 4/15/18 !

 

UGH! Winter

Yesterday it was almost 60 and the sunrise was gorgeous, once again looking like a sunset.  This morning about 3am the rain started turning to ice and now snow.  It is 21 now and heading down down down with the wind howling making it so bitter cold. I saw a Robin out front this morning.  Crazy bird needs to head south pronto, or maybe it should just stay because Spring is 2 months away.

D24 Sightings

As we are all aware by now, since June 2017, D24’s satellite transmitter has not fully recharged as it should due to an unexplainable glitch in the transmitter. This has resulted in intermittent data since then, with a few “hits” in July (when we had our last visual of him), September, November, December, and the most recent, January 3 and 4, 2018. All of these points have come from an area 5-10 miles south of Decorah. Even though we did not have data for the last several days, I decided my technician, Bob, and I would take some time and drive to that area and search for a VHF signal from D24’s backpack transmitter. Conditions were favorable: it was early enough and cloudy enough that D24 would likely not be soaring, which makes tracking difficult. Even if the satellite transmitter is not sending data, if we could get within approximately two miles of D24, we should hear the constant VHF signal with the hand held receiver and antenna set to its frequency.

Once we got to Ossian, Iowa, we were on the eastern edge of his recent locations. We stopped a couple of times to check for a signal, but heard nothing. By the third stop we had a strong signal. We were able to quickly determine D24’s current location, east of Calmar, Iowa. He was with several other Bald Eagles, both adults and immatures, and was only 25 yards from the road in a wooded swale. D24 looks great. He has a dark chest patch and his belly is much lighter. His eye and beak are still brown, but the horn color is beginning to show on his beak. When he flew across the road to another perch his plumage appeared complete (i.e. we did not observe gaps in the wing or tail feathers). We received satellite data this morning (Wednesday) that showed he spent the rest of the day and night within two miles of where we spotted him late Tuesday morning.
It was a successful and gratifying trip, seeing D24 looking good and hanging out with other eagles not far from his natal area."

59 C

First Project of the Year

I love pink and purple together.  Several of my friends and I have been talking about making snowflake hats.  Anyway I decided to squeeze in a small project yesterday afternoon and with 3 rows left the power went out. So this morning I finished my hat. The project is called Snowbunny and I did not do the pompom as I just think they only belong on a small child's hat.  I did 4 repeats and used size 5 needles.  It does fit just to the bottom of the ear lobe.