Spring Has Sprung!!

SPRING IS HERE!

I happened to be looking out the window as I prepared dinner last week and was greeted by a magnificent sight!!  A little Redwing Blackbird was sitting on my feeder!  I scared R, because I squealed so loud and went running for my camera.  When I got back, there were THREE!  And when I tiptoed up to see where all the doves had gone, I realized THERE WERE EVEN MORE ON THE GROUND!!

I couldn't get pictures of them, because I'm too short, but I didn't want to startle them off by getting onto a chair, either.  All the migratory birds are coming up again, so it's a sure sign that spring is finally here!!  The weather has been warming up really nicely -- then it plummets violently back down.  It might look crystal clear and fantastically sunny outside, then I step outside in a t-shirt, all excited about it being warm -- only to dart back inside again for a coat!  The sunshine is so deceptive!!  BRRRRR........

I'm so anxious to get my vegetable garden up and running again, but we're still not clear of cold snaps, and the garden stores are waiting for frost dangers to be over, also.  I didn't start my garden early this year, I figured that I would just buy the much bigger, sturdier plants from the garden stores instead.  The exception will be the snap peas, which I absolutely loved, and will replant this year.  They grew SO incredibly fast, I don't think I'll miss out on much if I start them from seed right into the soil.  I'll be picking the zucchini much sooner this year, too, rather than letting them grow into massive 4 lb monstrosities...They just turn so hard and gourd-like when they get big.  Bleahhh...

R and I also taped off the ocean room again (and ran out of tape partway through) and repainted it delphinium blue.  I'm going to be sponging the darker inlet blue over it to see if I can get the right effect that I'm looking for.  I've decided that I'm going to have it done by the summer so my little sister, mom and dad can have their own rooms when they come to visit in September.  I love the delphinium blue so much, I think I'd like to have it in the bedroom, too, instead of the darker blue I'd planned on.  I like the green in my craft room, but it just doesn't suit our bedroom.  I fished out the cool blue paper star that I bought from Pottery People two years ago and put it up.  It looks SO beautiful, and it's much brighter than the dark blue paper lantern the original owners had up.

I'm working on the house a little more each day when the pain and dizziness are bearable, but it's still slow going.  I hope to have the whole house cleaned up and looking nice before we go on our trip to Europe.  I'm still fretting over that, too, because I'm inevitably going to be worrying myself to death over our animals.  I got the okay to bring Kai's big house, so at least he won't be stuck in his little travel house, which is great, but he won't get nearly as much time to come out of his house to play at the shop.  What if he hates me when I come back?  What if he thinks I don't love him anymore?  T_T  

The same thing goes for Sacha...he was abandoned at the shelter and he's terrified of being abandoned, which he exhibits whenever we go to the vet's and he gets put into an exam room.  I'm worried that he's going to eat his tail off out of stress and worry...I'm hoping that he'll just play all day with the other dogs until he's too exhausted to even think about chewing out of nervousness, though.  Twitch and Ash are going to be watching the kitties, since keeping them at the kitty kennel last time cost over $500 for ONE WEEK...Yeah, we can't aford a whole month like that.  I'm already cringing to think of what Sacha's boarding will be like. 

R told me a cute story about Mia from last night when Twitch came over!  I had gone to bed a little early, cuz I get really tired early this time of the month.  For some reason or another, Mia and Murdock are terrified of new people.  Mia will actually hear the doorbell and make a mad dash for the laundry room, where she'll scramble over the shelving and voluntarily wedge herself behind the washer.  Getting her out requires a lot of smashing one's face against the wall while trying to reach her with an outstretched arms and very strong fingers. 

Well, since Twitch has been coming around more often, I think they're getting more used to him!  Murdock no longer runs in terror if we're standing in the kitchen talking :)  So yeah, the cute story!!  (Sorry, it's late and my brain is sleepy and rambly...) Twitch was sitting in my spot on the couch and Mia hopped right up, walked all over him, and even lay down on him for pettings!  Only, the second he spoke, she'd be making a mad dash for cover again!!  So as long as he didn't talk, she was perfectly happy to sit with him...  Kitties are so weird...!!  It also made for a very silent night, since Twitch really loves our kitties.  It gives me a lot of hope that they'll be just fine when they come over to care for them during the summer.

March kicked off the official Hawk Watch season, though I haven't gotten out to Braddock Bay yet.  It's just way too cold for me, still.  Once it starts warming up and my arthritis/fibro isn't killing me, I should be good to start visiting again.  I really want to get out to Owl Woods to see if I can photograph some owlies!!  I went to the volunteer meeting with Peaches last week (or was it the week before?) when she gave a presentation on owlies.  She did such an awesome job, and she and Daena both taught the class so much about owls!  I'm dead set on putting up my owl box and my other bird boxes this year.  We just have to borrow the 20 foot ladder back from M & B's house now that they're done with it for the winter.

I'm working with Kai on wearing his flight harness, also.  I finally put it over his head today after gradually introducing him to it.  Well, understandably, he didn't like that.  I got beaked quite a bit, and he did bite me once hard enough to draw blood as I took it off of him.  On a good note, he's gotten so good about letting me flip him over onto his back, though!  He'll let me play with his wings and feet, too.  When I kiss his head, I always keep my finger on his beak, just to know where it is in case he makes to bite me, which I know some birds can and will do during this hormonal/mating season.  Thankfully, he's not humping on anything, either... *knocks on wood!*

I thought I'd show a few pictures of how I made his house up this week :)  Every Sunday, I change his house around after I wash everything (house, perches, toys, bowls/dishes, etc), to make it different and exciting.  This week, it's Boing Week!  Boings are ropes with a metal coil inside to make them springy and somewhat rigid.  Birds generally absolutely love Boings.  Kai adores his boings and loves to swing from them upside down and play on them.  I add a lot of stuff for him to pick through and fling out of bowls, too, like popsicle sticks, jingle balls, toys, wooden beads, discs, etc.

I also ordered something special from The Parrot Lady!  It's called a Parrot Pocket (http://www.parrotpockets.com/), and it's made of untreated leather, so it's very resilient.  Kai didn't quite know what to make of it, but I stuffed it full of food and he's been figuring out how to properly use it.  It's a little tight and hard to get things into, but I imagine it'll loosen up over time.  You'll notice that I like to tie toys to his house...Kai also LOVES to play with things that swing, but it's also to keep him from flinging everything in the world off his house.  He likes picking them up again once he's swung them, too!

I also bought some colorful luffas for Kai to chew on!  I stuffed them with tasty treats to provide forage-ability, too!

Another super wonderful, cheap ($8 at Country Max) foraging toy is a woodpecker feeder!  It has four holes to insert the cylindrical woodpecker suet/seed bullets into, but I just put treats and food or popsicle sticks into the holes.  I wouldn't recommend it for birds whose heads are small enough where they might get stuck in the holes, though!!

I always hide treats in his toys, especially old toys that he might have beaten up a lot from the past.  I rotate his toys every week, also, so he never gets bored with them.

Okay, well it's definitely bedtime now.  Kai is whining at me to put him nighnight.... Good night, Moon!!

Naughty Kai is trying to get onto my desk to attack my mouse and keyboard, hee...