Detroit Zoo and a Week of Vacation

I just had a week off of work and enjoyed quite a bit of that time with my family.  Charlie had to work so I took my mom to Detroit for a couple of nights.  We spent one day at IKEA (I'm in love!) and the other we went to the Detroit Zoo.  It was incredibly hot, and we were disappointed that most of the animals were not visible because they were trying to keep cool.  We did enjoy the creatures we could see though and had a good, exhausting time.

They had a butterfly garden (not as big as the one they sometimes have at Frederick Meijer Botanical Gardens)

They had a nice bird exhibit -- there were some birds there I had never heard of.

Some tired, hot animals.

They had peacocks, but we had more fun looking at the pea-hens and chicks that ran around freely.

We were really looking forward to the arctic circle exhibit.  There is a tunnel under water and the polar bear swims around so you can get a close-up view.  Well, the seals were having fun swimming, but the polar bear would have nothing to do with it.  

We were very exhausted after walking all over the place.  Probably because we spent 3 1/2 hours walking around IKEA the day before.  Did I mention that I love that place?
After the two days in Detroit, we headed home to my place and relaxed.  We went to the coffee shop and a few stores in Frankenmuth before Mom headed home.  Then, the next day I headed to her place.  I spent an afternoon with my grandma, making our favorite veggie soup (to freeze for easy lunches).  I helped her get her Super-8 projector up and running -- and was able to watch a vacation movie from 1966.  We have many more to check out in the future.
Mom and I also made a quick drive out to Spring Lake, MI to visit Lake Michigan.  It doesn't feel like summer to me if I don't visit the big lake at least once.  I didn't get my feet wet, but we walked the fisherman's pier and enjoyed the lake air.
This weekend, Charlie and I have just been chilling out and watching the olympics.  Tomorrow I head back to work.  It is always rough after a good vacation, but it'll only take me a day to get back into the swing of things.

The New Coop and the Quiche Factory

This is the new 4'X6' chicken coop that the chickens are going to call home this winter.  In the photo above, you can see that it has a row of nesting boxes that are accessible from the outside.  On one end there is a window and a door for the chickens to enter and exit (with a ramp).  On the opposite sides are the door that I can enter through and as you can see in the photo below (left), a vent for warm weather.
I've placed their water on a crate and hung their food from one of the rafters to keep the bedding from getting kicked into them.  I may get a heated water dispenser for the cold -- but I'm not sure.  Does anyone have any experience with those?

The interior has a couple of roosts and plenty of room for the chickens to run around.  It has 6 nesting boxes -- many more than 7 chickens actually need.  Here, the chickens are excited about the pile of treats I gave them this weekend (apple slices and the last of the garden squash).  I call the chickens a "Quiche Factory".  They are putting out a couple of eggs a day -- brown, fresh, and so tasty!

This is Ruby.  She is my most aggressive chicken at this point.  She comes right up to me to try to grab any treats I might have in my hands -- and she often ends up chomping on my fingers instead.  She is at the top of the pecking order from what I can tell.  She is a pretty chicken though and as long as she lays eggs and doesn't hurt the other ladies she can stick around.

Broomcorn and Chickens

I saw broom corn in a seed catalogue last winter and decided to take a stab at growing it.  No - I don't intend to construct a broom -- but I could if I wanted to.  I knew that broom corn is decorative and I pictured a large cluster of broom corn, pumpkins and mums on my front step.  That hasn't come together yet, but the corn looks nice leaning against the house.  I read somewhere that chickens enjoy broom corn after you take down your Fall decorations.  That convinced me to try it!
The broom corn did much better than my sweet corn did.  It was quick to shoot up and grew quite tall.  Bugs seemed to leave it alone and it was basically carefree.  Just plant it and a few months later, harvest it.  Now that is my kind of gardening!
Oh, and the chickens LOVE it!  I will stick one of the stalks in to the coop and they'll have the corn picked off within a couple of hours -- leaving the broom bristles behind.  I give them one stalk every few days as part of a steady rotation of treats.
They get chicken feed and fresh water every day, but that must get boring.  They get fresh grass when we move the chicken tractor around to a new patch of grass -- but that doesn't happen often enough because of how much it weighs.  So, every afternoon I try to give them something special to switch things up.  Today they got 2 pieces of stale bread and some leftovers from a baby shower I attended today (an oriental style salad with baby corn, peppers, chow mein noodles, etc. and some fruit).  Oh, and they got a couple of cherry tomatoes too.  That little bit of variety makes them very happy.

Aren't the girls beautiful?  And they are quite large now too!  My little chicks have grown up it to lovely young hens.  Oh, and they finally started laying eggs to earn their keep.  I'm steadily getting one or two eggs a day between the seven of them.  I'm sure production will increase as they mature.  The eggs are small, but beautiful.  They are different shades of browns, and different sizes and shapes as well. 

This week we ended up purchasing a new coop.  This is the last one, darn it!  Charlie had bought me one for Christmas last year -- but it ended up being too small and I had some security concerns (it didn't look predator-proof).  Then, we built a nice summer home for them.  It worked out very well, but I'm concerned it is not going to keep the cold of winter out and that it is still too small for seven full grown birds.  So, we broke down and did it.  We bought an Amish coop.  It was not cheap.  I hate spending that kind of money on some chickens, but the coop will last for many years to come.  Let me tell you -- keeping chickens is an expensive hobby.  I know we could do it for a lot less money than we have so far, but I guess it is part of the learning curve.

Tetons, Yellowstone, and Little Bighorn -- the Last Batch of Vacation Photos

This is the last batch of vacation photos that I am going to post.  Enjoy...

Just east of the Grand Tetons

View of a Glacier

A view just north of the southern entrance of Yellowstone National Park

Old Faithful

The effects of fire

Wyoming was a beautiful state -- this was shot as we were leaving and entering Montana

Wide open spaces, awesome wildlife!

We took a back road -- desolate and beautiful

Buzzards - catching some rays

Finally, we visited Little Bighorn.  So full of history you can almost hear an echo of the battle.

Native American encampment area at Little Bighorn.

You can click on any of the photos to get a larger view of the details.  I know a lot of people compress their images or add watermarks to their images to prevent theft.  I don't compress mine very much.  Perhaps I should, but I tend to trust most people not to steal my photography.  If you want to use one for something, just ask me.

Anyway, we've been back from vacation for a couple of weeks now.  I'm getting used to my new position at my company.  It is VERY fast paced and the day just flies by.  Things are still new to me and I can't wait to feel comfortable with my daily tasks.  

It is almost 9:30 PM and I am thinking about going to bed.  4:30 AM comes quickly and I need to be well-rested.  I have some nice Autumn photos to post this week and I want to show you how I am putting up the harvest.  

Happy Halloween!

I've been very busy with work lately -- working lots of overtime.  The paychecks are good, but I haven't really gotten out much.  Subsequently, my blog has been kind of neglected.  Anyway, I'd like to kind of catch up on a few things.
The same day I shot the portrait of Sassafras, I got some photos of the stray cat and her baby.  The baby kitty was finally getting friendlier (it was very wild compared to mama cat -- who rubs against my shins to get food).  Sadly, I found the baby kitty had been hit by a car just a couple of days after taking the photos.  I know that stray kitties don't have a long life span, but this was particularly tragic -- she was just a baby.  :(

(The black one is the baby, and the grey one is the mama)

Sassy doesn't mind that the baby is gone though.  She doesn't like sharing her backyard with the other cats.  Sassy doesn't go outside a lot, and she has always been a scardicat.  She goes outside when I am out there but when the stray cats come around, she goes on the defense.  The day we shot the photos, the kitten was trying to play with Sassy - unaware that Sassy wasn't really amused.  I snapped a photo at the very instant Sassy decided to take a swat at her.  I guess she just got a little to close to my big old cat.

I've been feeding the birds and enjoying their presence right outside our front bay-style window.  I've had finches at my thistle feeder, a couple varieties of woodpeckers on the suet, bluejays going after corn, and chickadees, nuthatches, cardinals, and juncos enjoying the sunflower seeds.  Oh, and a tufted titmouse just flew up to remind me that they like the feeder too.

A pretty chickadee -- when our trees still had leaves left on them.  

All the leaves came down last week with that huge windstorm that rolled through the midwest.  I work in customer service at one of the large electric providers in Michigan -- needless to say, we were busy this week.
Last night I met up with three of my friends from work as they were getting ready to go to the bar.  I had fun taking photos of their transformations.

Getting ready

Elizabeth as a sadistic June Cleaver, Cristin as Marilyn Monroe, and Nikki as a sexy skunk.  We also hung out with Liza (Elizabeth and Nikki's good friend) and some of their guy friends...

Liza as a peacock 

"Where the Wild Things Are", "The Hangover", and a couple of beat up zombies.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween!

Closer view of a young wild turkey

The new flock -- Eastern wild turkeys

We are starting to catch site of some young turkeys.  Aren't they great?

What's new?

I am feeling the need to leave a blog post just because I haven't done one for a while.  It's not that I don't have anything to blog about, I just don't feel like I have much time.  We have a bunch of projects going on that are half completed that I wanted to blog about when they are done.
Spring is progressing nicely here although the weather has been a little peculiar this year.  The weather has been all wrong for morel mushrooms.  Apparently it has been right for tent caterpillars though.  We have a multitude of them and they are driving me over the edge.  I am plotting ways to kill them (usually I leave other creatures alone).  I wish I just had a bunch of free ranging chickens or even a pair of guinea fowl to munch on them.
Charlie and I are working on building some raised bed gardens this year.  We have the lumber and have it cut -- we just have to get it all assembled.  We also are making a "salad garden" for the back patio that is also in the works.  We bought a Cub Cadet tractor last weekend and finally mowed the lawn (looking for a small mower or a weed whacker to take care of the small areas the riding mower can't reach).
I saw a new bird at our feeder this morning.  It is a Rose-breasted Grosbeak.  Recently we have also been getting Blue Jays, Nuthatches, and Gold Finches.
This weekend my good friends, Rich and Jen came over from Grand Rapids.  We went out to eat at the Frankenmuth Brewery and went to a few stores as well.  Mostly, we have just been sitting around enjoying each other's company.
Once I get a project complete, I will blog more.  Until then, I hope you are enjoying your Spring.

Say "Ya!" to da U.P., eh?

If you are from Michigan, you know what the U.P. is.  For those of you who don't know, I'm talking about the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  Actually, it is a peninsula attached to Wisconsin -- and only connects to Michigan by the Mackinaw Bridge.  Charlie and I took a little vacation to the U.P. this past Thursday - Saturday.  Thought I'd share some photos...

Going North on the Mackinaw Bridge

The view from the bridge.  On the right is Mackinaw Island.

This is a snapshot of Castle Rock -- just across the bridge.  I'm not sure why Paul Bunyan and his blue ox are hanging out in the Upper Peninsula....

This is the lobby of the Hotel/Casino we stayed at in Saint Ignace, MI.  We both enjoy a bit of gaming every once in a while.  We got a complimentary hotel room from this casino, so it worked out well.

After our first night, we headed West to Escanaba.  It was a nice trip and we enjoyed beautiful scenery.  The scene above was shot in our hotel room in Escanaba.  The room was gorgeous!  

Escanaba in Da Daylight.  (If you haven't seen "Escanaba in Da Moonlight", may I highly recommend the movie.  It is a comedy -- and has some pretty funny scenes.  It gets a little weird at the end, but the beginning is a hoot!)

On the road, heading back East.  US-2 runs right along the Northern edge of Lake Michigan.  In the summer, you can hop out of the car, walk 100 feet,  and stick your feet in the water to cool off.  The water was a little too cold for that on this trip.  

I was very excited to get a photo of an Eagle!  We first spotted him about 10 feet from the car, nibbling on a deer carcass.  We turned around but by the time we got back to the road kill, the Eagle had taken off.  I popped on the zoom lens and this is what I was able to get.  

More scenery...

And once again, we were back to the bridge.  We always get a bit depressed at this point.  The U.P. is just so relaxing -- it is sad to leave it behind.
Now we are back home and gearing up for another work week.  I work 55 hours this week.  Supposedly this is the end of the really long shifts for us for a while.  They have reduced our shifts to 9 hours a day - 5 days a week after this week.  Hopefully there won't be any forced Saturday shifts to go with my 45 hour shift.  Anyway, the trip to the U.P. was a much needed break from work.

Birdwatching

I put a new piece of suet in the feeder today.  It is specifically for woodpecker types of birds (because that is mostly what we get over here).  They have been loving it!  I thought I would try to snap a few photos to show you.  Above is a Red-bellied Woodpecker.  Below is a bird I haven't seen here before today.  The top is pure black, the bottom is bright white.  It was hanging out underneath the feeder, so all I can figure is that it is a Junco.  I thought they were a little lighter in color though.  Anyone have any thoughts on what it is?

Lastly, while I was checking out our turkeys this morning, I was delighted to see a half dozen Blue birds.  I thought Blue birds went away for the winter.  I have also never seen more than 2 at a time.  They were all hanging out together on the back of the house.  It looked like they were getting water from the melting snow.  Blue birds are one of my favorite birds -- so I'm thrilled!