What a Great Day!

The weather was perfect today. Beautiful blue skies, not too hot and no humidity. I wish we could have this kind of weather year-round. I took advantage of it and finished doing some work in the backyard.

While I was whacking the weeds I glanced upward and saw a hawk soaring high in the sky. I grabbed my camera to get a shot of it. You've heard of the Incredible Hulk? Well, this is my Invisible Hawk!



He had gone behind the tree before I could capture him.

I'll get 'em next time!

Two years ago Huey cut down the huge willow tree that had caused me so much grief over the years. Along with the mess it made in the yard, the roots would completely block the pipe or inlet into the septic tank and about every 6 months or so I'd have problems with every drain in the house and the toilet wouldn't flush. I've dug that damn septic tank up at least 3 times over the past 24 years. I am too old to be doing that now. But since the willow tree has been gone, I've had no problems with drainage whatsoever.

Anyhow, the stump is still there. I've been burning it slowly but surely and it's getting smaller and smaller with each burn. Since I don't have garbage pick-up anymore I burn my paper trash in the stump. Also, my neighbor has a huge brush pile out back that is from a poplar tree they cut down years ago and some pine branches they've trimmed. I've been grabbing big pieces of that to get a nice rip-roaring fire going on my stump.



Today I even cooked hotdogs over the coals. They were delicious!



While I was sitting by the fire eating my dogs, the birds were eating, too. They didn't seem to care that I was there nor did the smoke from the fire bother them. The Downy Woodpeckers came on a regular basis. I was less than 10 feet from them when I took these pics.

Female:



Male:







Yesterday I saw a Hairy Woodpecker eating at the suet cake. They're very similar to the Downy but quite a bit larger and have a bigger beak. The one I saw was at least 11 inches long. He didn't stick around long enough to get a pic. I also saw a Red-Breasted Nuthatch...a first-time sighting for me.



So, at the end of the day my yard work was done, my belly was full, I was tired, dirty and smelled like a camp fire...but I was happy as a lark!