This One's For The Birds!

Turkeys
Yesterday, Saturday, during nap time, I happened to look out the front window of the living room and what did I see? A flock of turkeys walking past! We've seen wild turkeys in other areas of the state but never in our neighborhood. We've had quite an assortment of wild life in the five plus years we've lived here: an opossum (found dead in the back yard), skunks (including the one that ambled by our camp), rabbits, squirrels and now turkeys. Too bad it wasn't closer to Thanksgiving...

Birdhouse
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to build a birdhouse with the kids. Of course, having kids as young as mine, the "with" part is used very loosely. I did the building and they watched. I used some left over wood and pulled the plans out of my head - I definitely have some lessons learned for the next time :-).

Even though they did not really help with the actual construction, they did assist with the painting. Again, we used what was available. The only things that were purchased for the project were some small eye hooks used in the hanging of the birdhouse and some extra staples for my heavy duty stapler. We painted the birdhouse white with some left over primer. Then we used some acrylic paint we had to add color. Ellie helped a little with the painting before getting bored but the boys really enjoyed it.

While letting the last of the paint dry, I took out a couple of ladders and surveyed our lone tree in the back yard for a good place to hang the birdhouse. It turned out there was only really one branch that was suitable, once some dead branches were removed. Once I was finished with the ladders, the kids, of course, proceeded to play on them :-).

I did the front.


Ben did this side.


Will did this side.


I did the back too. Had trouble "writing" with a paint brush.


From the top.


The new birdhouse is ready for a family.


Up close.


Far away.


Ben showing no fear on the ladder (You cannot see it for Ben, but I've tied the ladder to the tree so it will not fall).


Will would appreciate it if I stopped taking his picture.


Ellie getting in on the climbing action. My three monkeys.