It's Okay For You

What a beautiful spring like week.  The snow and ice are melting at an amazing pace.  Jo has a large pen that has been full of snow and ice for months, but, today the darn thing is nearly clear, I couldn't believe it.  The horses, like me, have put on a bit of weight.  Gotta love winter!

Finally managed to get my hair cut.  Ah, it feels sooo good.  I had to wait about 15 minutes while she finished up the customer ahead of me.  I've met the customer a few times over the years.  Her husband was an engineer, a very successful engineer.  I was once told that they were probably one of the wealthiest family's in the state, though as I recall, the person said in the country.  They own 300 acres on the river, with a quarter mile of river frontage.  No question, they want for nothing.

So, the wealthy woman is chatting about her granddaughter.  She's a college graduate and recently married.  Turns out that she married an Army NCO and her granddaughter is going to be living on base, in fact was going to be moving this weekend.  OMG, you would have thought the world had come to an end.  It seems that sort of life is fine for those that have no other choices, but HER granddaughter HAD a future.  What ever was she thinking, marrying a soldier.  Not a commissioned officer but a non-commissioned officer.  I did not get the impression that she would have been one bit happier even if he had been a commissioned officer, but really, a NON commissioned officer, the horror of it all.

I happen to know that the hair dressers grandson is in the service, an enlisted man.  I would assume that the wealthy woman also knew this.  She clearly felt no shame in expressing her horror, which was considerable,  over the kind of life that her granddaughter had chosen.  The hair dresser didn't blink an eye, just kept styling he hair.

I spent most of the week thinking about the exchange and the fact that the man that sent 5,000 young American men off to an un-wise, un-necesarry war to die, thought very much the same about them as this woman did about her grandson-in-law.  It's okay for those with no other options, but not for them or theirs.

Birds are Back

Got up this morning and headed in for breakfast, looked out front and there were birds every where.  Haven't seen that many birds since last fall. Three Northern Flickers, two Stellar's Jays, about 20 Mourning Doves and flocks of Mountain Chickadees and Red Breasted Nuthatches.  At least there weren't any Pine Siskins, when ever they come in, they come in such large numbers that no one else can get near a feeder.

They all like the suet feeders, though the doves always eat on the ground.  Plenty down there, those Flickers and Jays drop as much as they eat!  Fortunately the Doves do a good enough job that the squirrels aren't invading . . . yet.  I see an occasional Chickadee stop by the thistle feeder, but there is some thing about it that they don't like, they barely touch it before taking off.  Not sure if it's placement, type of feeder or what.

In getting ready for The Great Backyard Bird Count, I put out a large feeder for the little guys.  Stocked it with shelled sunflower and thistle plus the left over seed from my Canary that died on Thanksgiving day. You may remember, I said never again to putting a large feeder out last fall, but, well, I did put it about 150 feet from the house, so, with a little luck, the squirrels won't be tempted to come in any closer.  With no Pine Siskins, that feeder should be good for a couple months.

OMG, there must be a 100 birds out there right now.  Hmm, getting ready for migration?  Nah, I think it's that small bird feeder.  Maybe having lots of little guys around makes the big one's more comfortable.  Geez, the things been out less than 24 hours.

Hey, back to the Great Backyard Bird Count.  If you're interested, it's Feb 18-21 and only requires 15 minutes of your time, more if you like.  Go to http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/  to download a check list and get instructions on how to participate.

At this rate, I should get a pretty good count.  I need to head down the road to see if I can gain access to the river where I photographed that Bald Eagle last fall.  There were at least three at the time and they looked like they planned on staying.