Don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no baby birds!

Last spring, we had so many birds nesting on our porch, especially in the hanging fern.  I overwintered the fern in the house and then put it outside in a flower bed and there it sat all of March, April and part of May.  I was trying to deter Mama Bird from building a nest because I can't water the fern properly while they're in there and the fern suffers so I waited until the middle of May to plant that fern in the ground (because she had grown huge and was pot-bound) and get yet another hanging fern for the porch.  Not two weeks later, there was a nest in there with five tiny eggs!  So much for thinking their babymaking time was over.  What do I know??

The eggs hatched and I was so excited to have five tiny little robins!!!  I even took their picture and posted it on Facebook.  Cute little things.  I gently misted the fern and let them have their space.

Five days later, I came home to find my fern on the porch with a busted pot and the nest and the babies were gone.  I was heartbroken.  I like to think their Mama moved them after that rainy weekend we had but I'm pretty sure a predator got them.  Jumped in the pot, knocked it down and took the babies and the nest.  I was sick for days over it.  :(

I sat Fern Two out back where Fern One is planted.  I'm trying to save her with lots of water and shade.  She is looking fairly peaked. 

Fern Three joined our porch last week and sure enough, two days later, there was a nest in there.  Hardheaded little mama!

Not wanting to go through this again but wanting very much for this very determined mama robin to have her babies, I came up with what I hope will work.

I hung Fern Three on the patio and I created a decoy for the mama bird.  I had some artificial flowers I was saving to put on my Grandma's grave but I took them, tore them apart and arranged them in a hanging basket lined with a coco shell.  I placed the nest inside and hung it up.

Here's the nest nestled inside.

I think Grandma would be pleased.  :)  Stay tuned...

Oliver Farm Oil

A few weeks ago, Larry and I were watching the local news and they did a story about a Wilcox County couple who make oils on their farm, sunflower, peanut, pumpkin and pecan.  We wanted to try some!  I was going to order some from their website but when we visited our favorite little farmer's market last week, we discovered that they carried it!  We bought a bottle of the sunflower oil and I've been using it in my cooking and it's the best oil I've ever tried!  It's delicious and leaves your food full of flavor and the best part is it's unrefined and cold-pressed, which means the seeds are pressed with granite millstones or stainless steel presses to keep it cool to retain its flavor, nutritional content and fragrance.  They got it going on!  It's fabulous.

I used some this morning in our chocolate chip pancakes.  Yum yum!!!  I can't wait to try some of their gluten-free pecan flour!

Y'all get you some!  And if you're local, you can pick some up at the farmer's market at the corner of Smithfield Church and Houston Lake Road in Warner Robins.  We love that little stand!  We even took Stephanie there when she visited us last October.  They always have the freshest produce and the most delicious jams and preserves.  The orange soda is pretty sweet, too!

This little light of mine...

This vintage Westwood Industries floor lamp now lives with us!  We saw it online in a picture for an estate sale that had been going on since Thursday so while I washed the breakfast dishes this morning, Larry went over there to see if it was still there.  No way would it still be there, cool as it was and since Thursday, too??  But it was!  And half off!  We unplugged that Target lamp we had in the corner and plugged this one right on in!  Target lamp is now for sale if anybody wants it or it's going in our fall yard sale.  Out with the old new, in with the new old.  :)

We cleaned it up tonight with some Bar Keeper's Friend and steel wool and made that brass shine!

Here's a before and after.  It was pretty tarnished.

 

I think the shade is just gorgeous!  In my investigating the lamp and its history, I found out the shade is made from capiz shell, very similar to oyster shell.  Very pretty and luminous and perfect for a lamp!
 

Larry also picked up this cobalt blue swirl Indiana Glass vase for me, too!

Memorial Day

We drove down to Andersonville today to visit the grave of our adopted Augustus Schneider, #4088 in the cemetery there.  We adopted Augustus when we were there in September.  He's a Schneider, he's from Indiana (but served with the Ohio 3rd Regiment) and if he's not kin to us, we claim him all the same.  I picked a couple of flowers for him and we took some pictures.  It was a beautiful day, somber and HOT.  The flags went on forever, it seemed.  Such a sad, sad place.  

Larry got that Kepi hat the last time we were there and he added insignia from Augustus' unit and one for Indiana.
 

 I love this one of him saluting. 

 I caught this little birdy just before he took off. 

We left there and went and visited Mama and Daddy for a little while and had some of Daddy's awesome delicious burgers with chips and homemade lemonade and then some orange sherbet Push-Ups for dessert!

We stopped by Whitewater Park on the way home just to see all the new stuff they have there!  They have a splash pad now! 

And lots of folks were out there enjoying the beach today!  I'm so happy for my little hometown park for being able to get these improvements (a walking trail, new playground equipment and newly designed campgrounds, too!).  Whitewater has always been a special place for me and my family.  We spent many Easters there and had years of family Christmas celebrations there in the Pavilion.  We even had our family reunion there a couple of summers ago.  My childhood friend, Nancy Tramel and her husband, Adam, have made such a tremendous difference there and I'm so proud for and of them.  I know y'all will have a GREAT summer!!

Weekend project!

Back in the winter, we made a list of things we wanted to get done around the house this spring and summer.  Repainting the picnic table and benches was one of them.  We did that yesterday and Larry even replaced the whole top of the table that had a couple of rotten spots so now we'll have it for years and years to come.

Being the counterculture folks that we are, we wanted something different from just a brown table and benches.  Larry had the idea of doing every piece a different color and I picked the colors.  I was going for beachy colors.  If you've ever been to our house, you know our "style" is eclectic.  We like vintage, we like the beach and we like stuff that reflects our hippie hearts.  My friend, Lisa, even told me Thursday that our house looked like it belonged at the beach!  

So for the picnic table and benches, I picked stone gray, seafoam green, cool blue, latte and cream.  I painted the benches and Larry painted the table.  And it's a good thing we painted the picnic table and benches before we painted the deck (that's another one on our list!).  I'm just sayin'.  :)

I think they turned out beautiful!!

I didn't plan for them to match our patio set but when I was painting the blue bench after the green one, it hit me.

Yay for three-day weekends and home projects!

My first chili trophy!

We had a chili cook-off two weeks ago at work as a fundraiser for our Wingman Day that we had today.  I entered the cook-off with a chili recipe that was part mine and part two other recipes that I tweaked and came up with one really good pot of chili.  I named my chili "Afterburner" because one, it was hot and would burn you afterwards and two, afterburner is an extra little kick of fuel into the exhaust that makes our girl go a little faster.  And be a little more badass.  :) 

And I got SECOND PLACE!!  My very first time competing in anything since I baked cookies for a 4-H fair in the 5th grade.  First place went to a coworker who is famous for his chili, Brunswick stews, pulled pork, you name it, Mr. Farrell can cook it.  He's won five chili cook-offs with that recipe, which was just meat and seasonings, true Texas chili.  He even has a team down at the Big Pig Jig down in Vienna (and today he invited Larry and me to come down there and be his guests in November!) and they've been cooking pork for over 20 years.  The man knows his stuff.  So for me to come in second behind Mr. Farrell in a chili cook-off was an honor and I was tickled pink!

We didn't have trophies or anything like that, just a certificate for the first place winner so my sweet Larry went and had me a trophy made.  He gave it to me today at Wingman Day so that I could show all my friends.  And I'm showing it here so y'all can see it, too.  If you read my blog, you're my friend.  Even if I don't know you.  :)

My first chili trophy.  I love it.

Tabbie Hoffman is FOUR!

We celebrated first thing this morning with catnip-filled toys and coffee.  Well, maybe Larry and I had the coffee.

I left the blind up in the living room so he could have his sunbeam all day and he was allowed to have all the treats he wanted.

I think he loved his toys!  For about a minute, anyway.  He got a new "kicker" and some cute little catnip tea bags.  

He's had a stubborn little case of feline acne that we've been fighting for a while now.  I'm doing everything the vet told us to, it just doesn't want to let my sweet boy go.  :(  We're scrubbing with Stridex pads and peroxide, washing with Dial soap, washing bowls in hot soapy water every day and we took away his carpeted scratching post.  If anybody out there has any ideas, I'd be grateful to hear 'em!

He's also found a new little hidey-hole that he likes.  Right outside the mudroom window.  

Here's Banjo looking out...

This picture just cracks me up!!  

Happy, happy birthday, Sweet Tater!  You are FOUR years old already!!  Time sure has flown and you've been nothing but pure joy.