Squirrels on the Birdbath

We still haven't seen the cute little birds at the new birdbath. We have seen the giant Hawk, the Owl and now the squirrels. Here the squirrels are using it as their own jungle jim and water bowl. It has been very dry lately so the bowl of water are probably refreshing for all the critters.

Great Dane Helps with Ecomposter Ball

My wife thought it would be a good idea to get our Great Dane to help roll the ball around to mix the compost. While Ernie is really stubborn about learning new things, he loves this ball. He immediately pushed it into a planter where he patiently waited for help to get it out. Then he pushed it around the back yard. That is what my wife wanted but eventually Ernie will push it toward the back of the yard and it will roll down the fifty foot hill. He hasn't figured out how to push it up the hill so he barks until we help him get it back into the yard. See the video on youtube Ernie shows how talented he is.

Ecomposter Ball

As my wife has become more interested in composting, she realized she would need another composter. She loved the design of the Ecomposter Ball and found it on Woot.com for a good price. It took about three hours to put it together but that part is done. In the first picture is the ball on the stand. In this configuration, the ball rolls on the stand to mix the compost. The second picture shows the ground level stand which holds the ball. In this configuration, the ball is rolled around the yard to mix the compost before returning to the stand for safe keeping.

I Need a Bigger Bird Bath Part 2

So where are the cute little birds like Robins or Sparrows? Last week we had the picture of the giant Hawk and this week two nights in a row, one of the Owls that frequent the neighborhood stopped to perch on the new birdbath. Once again too big for a bird bath, maybe a cool drink or just a great spot to spy little critters for a midnight snack. It has been extremely dry since the beginning of the summer so the water may come in handy for a thirsty bird.

I Need a Bigger Bird Bath

Last week I cut down the rest of the peach tree in the back yard. I was planning to use the stump as a pedestal for a plant potting table but my wife had another idea. She thought this was the perfect location for a bird bath so we visited a number of stores looking for a ceramic bird bath. No luck but we ended up at Pier 1 where we found these light blue colored bowls. This gave us a three tiered bird bath. The lower one is just the right height for a Great Dane water bowl but so far Ernie has showed not interest. We setup the camera to see who came to visit and look who showed up three days later. This is the biggest Hawk I've seen in our yard. He looks much bigger than the Hawks we have seen fishing in the ponds.

Small Pond Big Bullfrog

When cleaning the small pond I disturbed a number of frogs including this medium sized frog. Its a bit scary draining the pond and something big is splashing around. It turned out to be a giant Bullfrog. This guy is bigger than my hand so I had to get the bigger net to catch him and move him to the temporary bucket. Hope he didn't mind the bucket was pink. Once the pond was clean and refilled he reclaimed his domain. While there were six smaller frogs, there was only one Bullfrog who claimed this pond as his domain.

Small Pond Inventory

It was time to clean the small pond again and check up on the residents. The Sweet
Flag had grown very large and the Anacharis was spreading so much I was able to harvest a bunch for the small frog ponds. With all the plants removed, I was able to get a good look at the fish and frogs that lived there. As you can see there are six large Goldfish as large as 9 inches and 15 small Goldfish 1 to 2 inches. Right now the small ones all look black but some will eventually turn gold. Everyone looked healthy and happy. Below is the clean pond with some of the plants back in place.