July 23, 2012



Baby Juncos in their nest

















Friday morning I began to hear distant thunder about 11:00 a.m. and it continued throughout the day, only becoming not-so-distant as JB drove up and parked.  The instant he turned off the engine, the rain started to fall.  It was just short shower that moved on as soon as he had the Jeep unloaded.  He was a little later than expected due to heavy rain on the pass, but he is home all safe and sound.  Spent the evening reading mail and unwinding.

Our project for Saturday was putting in the six fence posts to the south of the entrance to our yard.  On our evening walk I discovered a junco nest on the ground by our path near the tipi.  I had to chase the dogs away, but got a great photo of the babies.  I am surprised they built a nest in such a busy place.

After dinner I drove down to RJ's to see the work he had been doing on his cabin.  He has decided to enclose his "porch" and make it a sun room.  It is so cool!  And he finally has a door, even though the front of the room is still open.  But he plans to have it all enclosed by the end of the summer.  He came up for breakfast yesterday, and will be leaving for the west side of the mountains later today.  Was unable to upload the photo I wanted of his cabin, so will have to try again later.

Sunday we cut several small trees that needed to be thinned out to use for fence rails.   Trimmed them.  Cut them to size, and screwed them into the posts.  Today we will put in the last two posts and four rails.  A very funky fence that we both love!

Sadly, on our Sunday walk I found the bird's nest was empty.  The babies didn't even have feathers, so I am sure some animal or snake must have eaten them.  Really don't think it was the dogs though as the nest is in perfect condition, as if the birds has simply been plucked right out of it.  Also noticed that the bear had visited us the previous night as about 15 feet of rocks along the path were overturned.  He must have been looking for grubs.  It wasn't the bear that got the birds as they were in the nest Sunday morning.

The thunder storm that was predicted for our area last night never arrived.   The clouds started moving in from the southwest, but a strong wind came up in the late afternoon and blew all the clouds to the north before they even got to us.  I would have liked some rain, but at least now the road is dry this morning for my drive Down There.  Have to take my Jeep in for new front U-joints.  Will do shopping tomorrow when we go down to pick it up.

Thought for the day:  Expert: a man who has stopped thinking - he knows.  Frank Lloyd Wright