Snow storms, freezing rain and cold weather have finally given way to more moderate seasonal weather!  With that the spring bird migration is upon us.  Dozens of birds are routinely outside our window pecking away at the ground and bombarding our feeder.  At any given moment chickadees, junco, white-throated sparrow, white-crowned sparrow (migrating), common redpoll and house finch compete for sunflower seeds at our window.  The entire feeder is devoured daily!  This fact relieves me of the nightly ritual of taking down the window feeder so that we don't attract bears.  Bears too are out of hibernation.  We spotted our first fresh bear scat of the season on the trail.  I'll spare you the picture!

Male House Finch

 

Osprey Overlooking Lake Superior

 

Early in the morning we watched a pair of ruffed necked grouse perform their mating dance in the fir stand outside our kitchen window.  The male, in full regalia, acrobatically circled and danced and ruffled his ruff in hopes of wooing his prospective mate.

Inside I've been busy installing entry closet doors and trim work.  I've even dabbled a little bit in HVAC while installing a bathroom fan.  That job was great because it used so many disciplines- wiring, carpentry, duct work.  While working on the exhaust ducting for the bathroom fan I realized that I've cut 18 holes into the house to wire electricity, pipe out smoke, drain waste and pump water.  All this in order to accommodate the amenities that we used to take for granted.   Some of the holes were more hard-fought than others to accomplish than others.  Other holes were emotionally painful to cut (a one square foot hole in the new roof for the wood stove pipe).  18 later, the four inch hole saw bit that I was using for this task made mince meat out of our gorgeous and meticulously installed cedar siding.

Hole in the house #18

 

New favorite thing to do: playing with rocks (just like daddy)!

 

The mud princess herself!