Bird Drama

Killdeer - Charadrius vociferus

I first saw these cute little birds on my way into work yesterday. They look and act more like water birds than something you'd expect hanging around the flowerbeds on a college campus.

Drama Queen

While the first bird was racing around the flowerbed, this bird ran straight to the middle of the sidewalk and screeched and acted like it had a broken wing - all to distract me from the flowerbeds and the nest that must be hidden there.

Time to Start Dehydrating Again

Cherries and Strawberries from our Garden

We have more fruit than we can eat right now. I've already got some rhubarb in the fridge ready to make a pie, so I thought I'd dig out the dehydrator we got last year and try it out on some of the extra fruit.

At the end of the season last year, I bought a cherry pitter. Surprisingly I'd never used one before. It's a pretty neat little tool.

Cherry Thieves

Our cherries are starting to get ripe.

Doesn't seem to be as good a crop this year - of course I didn't get many last year either. I waited too long and the entire tree was picked clean in one day.

Our tree is in the front yard.

I could just hear the animals feasting on the cherries while I was still in bed this morning.

Here's what I saw when I got up.

It's not just the birds either.

The squirrels just right across the wire from the back yard to the front yard and stick whole cherries in their mouths.

First Sauna!

It's been a long day of sauna assembly, but it's almost done. (we still need to do a couple pieces of trimwork and put shelves and things back in the laundry room).

Anyway, the stove is now heating up and we're eagerly awaiting our first sauna .

We wanted to say thanks again to Sami's mom for the beautiful bench linens. Also, we want to thank Jussi and Karoliina for the tar scent and the little hedgehog diffuser.

Tomorrow is Sauna Day!

The paint is on, and the window trim is up... although most of the window will be behind the sauna anyway.

Sami had quite a tough time with the painting this past week. The tape we used to keep the wall paint (very light green) from getting on the ceiling (white) ended up pulling off the ceiling paint, so he had to do some areas twice.

The lights are in and the washer and dryer are stacked to make room for some sauna benches. That door goes to the back patio. Some day I'd like to build a greenhouse with an extra shower out there.