Roosting Box, Fire Building, Finishing Touch

1. We put up our first roosting box for small birds. A roosting box differs from a nesting box in that its intention is a warm home for winter rather than a place to nest and rear young. We're hoping the bluebirds find it first. A section of capped dryer duct attached to the pole serves as a snake baffle.

Wire mesh around the entrance will deter racoons, cats, etc from reaching in.

2. Steve spent the rest of the day making music with the chainsaw. Tess drove the pickup truck around the field helping her dad haul and pile the wood. It will be her October birthday bonfire : )

Amassing the wood.

She separated the wood by size. That's a pile of black walnuts mixed with grass in the foreground.

3. Audrey, Jared, and Ian joined us for dinner and we ended the day with a perfectly decadent chocolate cake.

*I'm on an alternating combo of extra-strength Tylenol, 600mg Motrin, and Hydrocodone following a root canal last week. Dental work for me will never be easy. I surface through the pain for an hour or two as the medicine kicks in, then down I go again. It was a glorious day in which I wish I could have participated more. I was merely an observer of this one.