Pete & Teri’s Next Big Adventure

A few weeks ago, we noticed that a colorful, pretty bird had taken up residence in one of the many birdhouses left here by former residents (this one happened to be attached to the side of the shed, so it was visible from the kitchen window – nicely enough for us).

Eventually we identified the bird as a Tree Swallow, and realized that we were seeing not one but two different birds flying in and out – a male and a female. We started wondering if they had laid eggs in there.

Sure enough, just a couple of weeks ago, I was hanging clothes on the line (which runs in front of the bird house), and Momma and Poppa bird seemed more agitated than usual with me so close to their nest – flying in circles and swooping right above my head. I soon realized that there was a chorus of tiny squeaky “cheeps” coming from inside the birdhouse. We had babies!

This is the one we named Birdhead, in his first baby photo (just a couple of weeks ago!) He was the biggest and boldest of the three babies, and the first one to stick his head out and look around. The middle baby became Birdhead II, as he eventually started poking his head out as well.

This is Birdhead about a week ago, getting fed.

And lastly, here’s a series taken this past Friday of what I thought at the time was the two Birdheads. Unbeknownst to me, they were getting ready to leave the nest. I later realized that the original Birdhead had already left and was flying around with Momma and Poppa. So pictured here are Birdhead II and Runtley – so named because he was the smallest and most timid of the three – rarely poking his head out to look around, until the day that everyone else left the nest.

We spent a couple of hours on Friday evening sitting in our yard and drinking beer, while watching Runtley’s attempts to screw up his courage and join his family (Birdhead II had left sometime that afternoon). The parents and larger siblings stayed in the area, and kept flying over and chirping encouragement. Poor Runtley kept getting as far as the edge, with about half of his body outside, and then he’d get scared and go back inside.

Eventually it got dark, his family went away to sleep in the trees, and poor Runtley settled into to the birdhouse for a night alone. In the morning, I saw his little head sticking out, so I stepped outside to check on him. Just as I walked out, I heard a fluttering noise and saw a blur moving away. Yep, when I got there, the nest was empty. Way to go Runtley!

The sad part is I still walk outside expecting to be greeted by our bird friends. But they’ve moved on, doing whatever bird things they do once the young ‘uns are out and about – probably teaching them how to live out in this big wide world. I’m hoping the whole family will return when it’s nesting time next year.

Lately we’ve been eating homegrown broccoli, strawberries, blackberries, and chard. It still blows my mind how delicious *truly* fresh food is. The bulk of our produce comes from our wonderful CSA, Horton Road Organics, but I think next year we’ll have to split a share with another family; despite some, uhh, learning experiences, I’m thrilled that our little experimental plots around the property have started giving us so much food.

The sweet corn is taking off nicely:

…and a few hundred yards away (to avoid interpollination) we are growing some ‘old fashioned’ or ‘Indian’ corn – the multicolored stuff that’s more commonly used for flour, grits, etc.

We had sooooo many radishes that many were left to go to seed, which will give us a chance to learn about seed saving. The plants are about 5′ tall now, with these seedpods on the top:

The tomatoes were started in peat pellets, and did OK inside the shed for a while. I planted them at three times, since everything we’re doing here is very much an experiment. The ones planted first got frozen and never recovered, and the last batch is sort of recovering from being rootbound in the little starter pots, but the middle batch have taken off and are starting to fruit:

I’ve started about 20 “Sherazi” tobacco plants, but it will be a long time before I see how that works out because proper curing is a year-long process:

What could be yummier than fresh sweet basil?

OK, maybe blackberries, which are just starting to fruit all over the place:

There are random sunflowers here and there…I think I’ll grow some on purpose next year and see if we can get seeds to eat:

The apples keep growing and growing…it’s hard to wait for them!

The plum tree has a few small plums going:

…a bunch of the fruit trees aren’t producing in the volume I’d like to see, and I suspect we haven’t had the irrigation on often enough OR that cutting the grass right up to the trees was a mistake…the apple trees that have big bunches of bee-attracting wildflowers next to them have way more fruit.

[UPDATE] Teri identified these, they’re “Oregon Grapes”:

Finally, here’s a few of this week’s random flowers out in the front yard:

Since I have a ton of projects (for instance, you’ve seen the inside of our house, right?) and also one of those “job” things, I figured another time-consuming hobby was just what I need!

I picked up (most of) a 1969 Honda 50 at a garage sale and plan to eventually get it running and cleaned up. That’s going to be a long road, but the simplicity and and mechanical completeness of this thing make it perfect for learning. The most popular motorbike in the world with tens of millions made – sort of the Beetle of the two-wheel world.

I still wouldn’t mind finding a good deal on an old trail or dirt bike, now that an evil, evil person has gotten me hooked on those, but this will be fun to fix up. Of course, I might have a different definition of ‘fun’ from many people.

Here’s what I’ve got mouldering in the shed:

…and here’s what a whole one looks like: