Neighborhood drama

These neighbors of ours are so loud and full of drama. Why, just yesterday the kids and I were outside playing when we witnessed some rather un-neighborly behavior. Mind you this isn't the first time this particular neighbor has been the source of a ruckus. Ohhh no. This one seems to bring the drama regularly, much to the dismay of her most common victim. I present to you exhibit A.

Exhibit A: Oak Tree of Dramaland. Moon arrow included to appease the 4y.o.

This oak tree is located just beyond our property line with the main branches-of-drama located above our property. The primary offender: a white-breasted nuthatch. This little bird is feisty. So far we have witnessed a couple of occurrences of the same un-neighborly behavior which has been inflicted upon the otherwise drama-free downy woodpecker.

On a given day Downy will be seen emerging from its hole (seen in exhibit A) and pecking at various places along the Oak Tree of Dramaland and other nearby trees. We hear very little from Downy, but enjoy the regular sightings of this familiar bird.

Enter Nuthatch. I don't know the back story on this one, so this behavior may be fully warranted. I don't know. What I've seen is this one's frequent attempts to usurp the Downy's hole, accompanied by much raucous chatter until the hole is claimed (while Downy is away). Nuthatch becomes silent immediately upon entering the hole, and sits quietly within the hole until Downy reappears and chases Nutty from the hole. Nutty leaves with much ruckus and wing flapping, even hanging upside down swinging back and forth while looking as big as a little nuthatch can. Eventually Nutty backs off, Downy regains ownership and peace is restored in the neighborhood.

But undoubtedly Nutty will be back, bringing drama and noise once again.

Sheesh. What a neighborhood.

Family photos

I have mentioned our Awesome Photographer Neighbor here previously. Last fall she did a family photo shoot for us which turned out great. We asked her to take our family photos again this year, this time heading up to Tony Grove to get more of a wintery scene. They turned out GREAT. Take a look (click on the photos to enlarge).

Thanks, Lindsey!

Alas, poor garden...

...I knew it well. Remember our garden? Yeah, the big project with the neighbors we were all excited about. That one. Want to see the latest? Warning: it's sad. Thanks, neighbor, for posting the photos.

Commence swappage

Today we start The Great Kid Swap. Don't worry, we're not trading in Doodle for another model. We've worked a deal with the Awesome Neighbors to swap childcare. So starting today we're taking shifts on watching the other family's kid so us parents can accomplish stuff. Y'know, important stuff... like blogging. No really, I'm working on my thesis. I'm just excited about extra time to work and wanted to share. Thanks, Neighbors!

Hooters!

We have a family of Western Screech Owls living in the trees connecting our yard to Awesome Neighbors' yard. A few days ago we were in the yard with the kiddos and heard some strange noises coming from the trees - noises which resembled those of the little owls we'd seen in the yard last year. On closer inspection of the apple trees, we spotted at least 5 babies (5 or 6, I don't remember) plus one watchful mama on a nearby branch (above). They are ADORABLE. Awesome Photog Neighbor took the above picture, plus this one of the babies:


Wook at their cute widdle iddy biddy owl toes! The kiddos were very excited, and commenced hooting at the owls. Mama owl was none too thrilled with our presence, so after lots of pointing, hooting (from Doodle and little neighbor A) and photographing we left them alone. We have seen them a couple of times since, but not all clumped together like this.

Seedlings

The gardening is going great. But just as my excitement is peaking, what does the weather do today? It snows. Off and on, most of the day. Frick.

We got some good gardening done yesterday with the neighbors. We planted all of our onion starts (Walla Walla sweets and candy onions), plus replanted all of the volunteer onions and garlic that we dug from the garden before tilling. We now have just over three 30-foot rows of onions! YAYYYY! We also got peas, lettuce, chard and spinach in the ground last night. Neighbor J worked at digging the rows and planting seeds while partner J and I planted onions. Neighbor L watched the kiddos, which was great. It's so much easier to garden when you can do cooperative labor and child care. I love it!

Today I bought more seeds. Yep, more. We needed more lettuce, spinach, carrots and beets. Plus we've decided to till up the back part of the gardenable area too, so I got some pumpkin, butternut and acorn squash seeds since we'll have the space. Have I mentioned how excited I am about growing all of this food? I only hope that the deer will leave it alone. That said, I need to get some nasturtium and marigold seed...those are good repellant plants for pests, and they're pretty.

Since we'll definitely hit below freezing tonight we've obviously not planted all of our starts out. Well, J has been eager, so we have two tiny tomato plants out in the pots next to the front porch, but we'll cover those and hope they live. Other than that, all the warmer weather plants are living inside. Here are our little photosynthetic prides and joy.

Mmm, basil.

Little tomato

Maximizing space use, even in the terrarium.

Tomatoes and venus fly traps?