in my country yard

Last week Levi, a young fellow from the Amish neighborhood, came by to help work on the garage roof. Back in '85 when Coop built the garage he installed skylights as C requested. They were nice because they lit up the garage attic and eliminated the need to run electric for lighting. When we moved and A took over the place a lot of things were neglected, including the skylights. Since our move back, Coop has sealed around them a couple of times to stop leaking but it was never a sure fix. So last week they were removed and those areas of the roof were sealed up and shingled. I couldn't resist taking a photo of the buggy gracing our front yard and the horse reined at the north edge of the yard. Out of respect for the Amish views on photographing them, I didn't take a picture of Levi atop the roof.

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I have a habit of keeping an eye on our dog Timmy when I let him out. Yesterday as I stood looking out the door I noticed he just stood still, staring eastward. Something must have caught his eye so I stepped out to see what he was looking at. When I saw what had caught Timmy's attention I hurried my big nightie clad butt back into the house and grabbed my camera in the nick of time. I was able to catch a quick shot of these wild turkeys as they were making a quick exit from the yard.

Look closely just a bit to the left of the big tree and you'll notice one white turkey. I've noticed him traveling with the flock just about every time I've seen them. I'm not sure if it's a domesticated turkey gone wild or maybe a kickback to another subspecies not native to this area. I've read that there is a gene called the Narragansett gene that prohibits the expression of normal coloring pigments and which occurs about 12% of the time in some wild turkey populations.

Off they go!

Creating a Wildlife Habitat

Coop and I were thrilled to see a Red Breasted Grosbeak the other day high up in a tree at the back of the property. He caught our eyes all right with his blazing red breast. We'd never seen one before. Once you've heard their call it's quite unmistakable, also. It's tone reaches far above the sound of the other birds nearby and is quite lovely.

In regard to that, just thought I would share an article from Mother Earth News that might be of interest for those wanting to attract wildlife into their environment.