Been a busy few weeks.
We bought a nice new 6500 watt generator on sale half price. Had the electrician wire the thing to it's very own panel. Power goes out just flip a switch and generator kicks in. No more worrying about no heat in the winter or no water in the summer during an outage. I just wanted the furnace, pump and hot water tank on it but he said the thing would do the entire house so the entire house is wired to it...even the computer
Pellet stove installed! We have no basement, just a crawl space so the house can be damp in the winter. The previous owners used a wood stove that wasn't installed properly, when we took it out we discovered the furnace doesn't really heat the entire house so I was using an electric heater, won't have to do that any more. Took a hair under 5 hours. The guys did the inside work and drilled a tiny hole to mark the middle of the pipe. Then the company came to drill the hole in the wall. Almost 2 feet of wall. A BIG guy...with a kick-a$$ hole driller attached to the garden hose to keep it cool. Man that dude worked hard! A few times that thing jammed and it would of ripped a smaller mans arm off.
Up until now I've been very responsible. Took care of the needs of the house, roof going to be done, pipes wrapped under the house so they don't freeze, pellet stove so we're not cold and damp this winter, generator wired in as back-up to power outages. This one is for me though, I bought us a 1985 Pontiac Trans Am (Smokey and the Bandit, to show my age) Hubby is in heaven, there's an actual recognisable engine in there, no plastic, no sensors, everything within reach. 8 big cylinders and a rumble to match. Never winter driven and it shows. I've been wanting a sporty little car for Summer driving and when we saw this it fill the bill. Now I know how Hubby feels about the pellet stove....I've got a new toy and I can't play with it! Can't get a temporary permit until Monday and we picked it up Friday night. He even made room for it in the garage with the pigeons 
Tucking it in there was a big test of my backing up skills.
The "Golden" Pigeons have arrived! The 3 regal looking dudes are Reversewing Pouters. We imported 2 from Holland and 2 from Budapest but one died during quarantine. They went through 30 days quarantine overseas and another 45 days quarantine here in Canada...they are VERY happy to be outside getting sun on their backs and some fresh air. Total cost almost $700.00 for those 3 birds...but Hubby gave me a chance with my fancy geese so I'll give him a chance breeding fancy pigeons.
The other bunch are Birmingham Rollers. Those guys we got locally.
The loft is actually built as a building on it's own inside of the garage with the fly out outside. These guys are as safe as if they were in fort knox.
I have a perfect view of them from my garden swing. Love laying there listing to pigeons cooing :)
Awesome gardening day!
Hubby fine tuned the bed alongside the garage and we planted tall and short sunflowers and red glads.
He fine tuned the area behind the garage where the geese will go and made a new bed in front of that.
Not being ones to waste.not.want.not we re-purposed an old tv antenna tower that was left here. Instant trellises! Freshened up with a coat of paint. Yellow honeysuckle by the house and a red honeysuckle in the bed with the new rock.
They also left behind an old gazebo frame. Red trumpet vines on each end will soon cover that nicely. Also planted some geraniums and a few clematis vines.
Just for a cute factor a couple shots of baby geese.
Sooo...Hubby is gone to Montreal to get the golden pigeons. As he's leaving he tells Mom there's geese hatched and to tell me to go get them when I get home. Yea, right...go willingly into an enclosed space with one very protective Daddy goose, a very angry Mommy goose, and just walk away with her kids. Riiiiight. Just like that. Sure I will.
Being a tad smarter than the average bear I put on my winter boots, my heaviest winter coat and my fuzzy winter hat. Opened the door and shouldered my way past Bernie. Tons of hissing ensued. Sacrificing one arm to April to chomp and beat on I scooped the little ones into my lunch bag with my other hand. Meanwhile Bernie's banging like mad on my back and shoulder with his wings. A bit bruised on the one shoulder...even through the heavy coat but a successful mission.
Three gosling's nestled somewhat peacefully under a heat lamp in the bedroom...good luck getting any sleep for the next few weeks.
When we left the old house and moved here the first thing I noticed was that there were no birds. We had tons of birds at the old place, probably because we fed them.
I mentioned it to Hubby one day. He started putting out food for them and now we have hundreds of them. You can't look out a window without seeing a few birds. It's awesome, relaxing while listening to them chattering away. The yard was full of them over the winter.
Here's a few shots of the different birds we have. We have 3 different kinds of woodpeckers but I couldn't get a shot of each of them. Grackles and Starlings and Red-Winged Blackbirds as well.
