Homestead Projects

Our little birdy was taken to a wild animal rehab where she will be set free into nature when she is old enough to fly. The lady said had we not brought her in she would have died. She was dehydrated. Most of the advice we got online was 100% wrong. It's hard to trust what you read. We were giving her an assortment of crawlers mostly worms. Once she had worms she spit out the water soaked dog food(she decided she no longer wanted that). Nobody ever mentioned that birds get most of their liquid for hydration from berries. The first thing she told us was to give her strawberries, or blackberries. So there is some advice for you fellow 'birders' who may also come across an abandoned bird. They need berries!

We have started on a couple of projects around the house. The first one we found at a re-use store. Everything was half off. Wayne saw that the head of the axe was a good shape, and it had a Swedish stamp. Later did he find out it is a Gransfors Bruks axe. Which is apparently top of the line. He immediately ordered a Gransfors Bruks replacement hickory handle, and started restoring the head. Apparently by soaking high carbon steal in vinegar it takes the rust right off, and with a little grinding, and sharpening the head was like new! Not bad for a $2 duct taped hunk of junk.

This next project I was a little more involved in. Wayne cut the piece right after we moved in. The tree had already been downed and it was already dry. He sanded the top, and linseed oiled it. It started out as a plant stand. We were at the hardware store, and I really wanted to use metal pipes for something. I love metal pipe DIY projects! Here she is- our little space ship!

We have been doing an incredible amount of yard work. Apparently every time a tree or branch was cut. The previous owners made a pile of brush on the side of the yard. The area that they covered up was somewhat level. That is a rare thing in these parts, so we hauled and chipped the entire area. We decided that we would turn that area into a camp site. The campground now connects to all of my hiking trails. It is starting to really come together!

We now have the tipi set up!

We have started a small orchard! We have 3 Apples trees, and 2 pear trees.

We painted the cottage, it now has a loft, and power!

I also did some brick work. The project took 2 days! We did not have a line between dirt (which I hope is temporary), and grass. I recently bought grass seed in hopes to get these mole holes covered, and fill in the thin areas. Our dog has recently figured out she likes to dig! What perfect timing! hah. We had a huge stack of bricks under the house. The previous owners used them to keep their wood stack off of the ground. They are 8 inches long, and added up the amount of bricks we had. It was the perfect length for what I had in mind! Next stop: Ground cover, and stepping stones. :)

Some Sad News From The Homestead

About 3 weeks ago a couple of robins started building a nest outside of our bedroom window. We had no complaints seeing as we are dying to see some wildlife out here. About 2 days later the robins came back from wherever birds go to "get down". The lady bird-- which we call "Bright Eyes" came home to brood her eggs. Robins have 2 sets of kin each year. We assume this is the second batch being that they are so late into summer. We never thought a bird would enjoy 'people watching', but that's what they did until the babies hatched. They had 3 funny looking little babies. We watched them closely waiting to hear them chirp. I don't think we heard a single chirp till the 3rd day. The mom and dad took turns feeding them literally non-stop all day every day. On the 4th day I couldn't see the nest for whatever reason. I thought maybe I was just not seeing from the right angle. It was a little windy. I ran outside assuming if something happened I would hear them. I heard nothing. The next day was our Birthday trip to Crater Lake. Upon returning home-- We found out the nest was gone! Something had snatched up one of the babies, and knocked the other 2 out of the nest. Only 1 survived. She(we think it is a she) is now 7 days old, and is showing a LOT of progress. One of her eyes was damaged in the fall. Wayne has taken up the mother roll. They talk to each other. She always wants to be close to him when he is around. She jumped and flapped her wings onto his finger today. Yesterday she did no perching. Today that is all she has done. She has learned balance in 1 day. She is perching as I write this. Tomorrow I will wake up to her flying! According to the inter-web baby robins fly from their nest at only 13 days old. It takes them another 10-15 days to become strong fliers. Wayne built her a covered nest attached to the house. It keeps her away from predators, less wind, accessible for us to feed her, and she can hear the other robins in the yard. This is where she will learn to fly from, and will come back to be fed. Eventually from what I read they will stop coming "home" to be fed as they learn to find food on their own.

Wayne honored the fallen family by building a covered box and placed their nest back up in the tree that they fell from. Maybe someone will make use of it, or parts of the nest? Either way we liked them living here for the last few weeks, and it was one BEAUTIFUL nest.

I will update as things go on. We have done a lot of research on the topic, and have every intention to keep this little lady as wild as possible.

♥