Spring Wildlife

Three posts in one week, how crazy is that?  I guess I'm making up for lost time.

One of the highlights of this weekend, and the inspiration for the title of this entry, is some new wildlife we have around the house.  C and I had both noticed a "bald" spot in the middle of our phlox.  I just figured the boys had done something to it.  While we were all outside, C suggested maybe an animal had done it.  As we took a closer look, we noticed something moving, and then a baby rabbit poked it's head out, followed by two more.  We haven't seen many rabbits around lately, but I guess we now know what they have been up to. 

More expected was some new feathered "friends".  When C pruned the bushes a couple weeks ago, she discovered a robin nest in our burning bush.  There were three eggs in the nest.  We left this one alone, unlike the one we also found in the flue of our garage heater.  On Friday, we found one baby bird and two eggs.  On Saturday afternoon, there were two baby birds and one egg.  And finally, on Sunday afternoon, we saw the third bird climbing out of it's egg.  It has been great for the boys to watch, and I think it is the first time I had ever witnessed the hatching process that closely. 

The most intrusive wildlife this weekend was of the 6-legged variety. I have been working in the garage the past few nights with the garage door open.  About 8:30, the June bugs start to attack.  Normally they are just annoying with their kamikaze crashes into lights and other things in the garage, or their loud buzzing when they get stuck somewhere.  When one decided to climb up my back inside my shirt, that crossed the line.

Of course we didn't spend all weekend watching the wildlife.  Far from it.  We spent a fair amount of time getting ready for the garage sale.  I also had the Cat 5K on Saturday morning.  After that, we went out to check on the progress of the Cat Twenty Mr. Bates is restoring for the Cat Visitor Center.  It's incredible to see the tractor all painted and with the tracks back on, when I was just out there two weeks ago and it was just stripped down to the engine and powertrain. 

The boys didn't have much attention span for daddy and Mr. Bates talking old tractors, but they did enjoy checking out the forklift, loader and motor grader.  I think some day they will appreciate seeing the exhibit in the visitor center and knowing they saw it as it was going together.

Picking makes for Grinning - Spring '12 Edition

I've shared my bulk trash "picking" exploits here before, so I thought I would share my latest finds.
 A few weeks ago was Washington clean up week.  The "professional" pickers were out in full force, which made it difficult to come across any good finds.  I did manage to snag a couple items.  The first was a Power Wheels Cat Skid Steer.  As usual, it was dirty and didn't work initially, but after a good cleaning and a new foot pedal switch, it runs like a champ.  This one has stick-steer with the steering in the rear, so it is a challenge to drive.  Both boys figured it out fairly quickly, but they still get confused on occasion.  The "new" seems to have worn off of this one quicker than normal, but it's pretty tough to compete with our existing fleet.   

The second was a Power Wheels four wheeler.  We've had a couple of this model before, but it was cosmetically in good condition, which makes for good garage sale material.  I knew I had plenty of spare parts for this one, which appears to only have needed an upgrade to the current style of battery connectors.  Despite having had a number of four wheelers over the past couple years, this one has been surprisingly popular.  

East Peoria clean up was last week.  I didn't see as many of the professionals out, but I wasn't able to go out at "prime" time like I was for Washington.  Again, I made out with a couple finds.  I found a few Power Wheels, but the only one that I brought home was a John Deere Gator.  It is terribly faded, and I almost left it until I noticed someone had recently put brand new tires on it.  It had a broken shifter, and my intent was to just part it out.  I wanted to get it working, at least temporarily, just to test out the components.  As it turns out, other than the broken shifter, the only issue was a spot where a wire had gotten pinched and cut the insulation.  This caused it to short out and a fuse to trip.  With the wiring repaired and a substitute shifter in place, it runs like a champ.  We had one of these before, and it was so nice, and the going price for them so high, that I just couldn't justify keeping it.  This one is so cosmetically bad that I don't have to worry about selling it.  I forgot how handy these can be, as L helped me haul some flowers and garden stuff around the yard as we were finishing up our spring planting. 

One last find was a garden wagon.  I don't really need another wagon, but I can't resist them when I see them.  This one is bigger than our other wagons, which could come in handy since the boys are getting too big to both fit in the one we currently have. Of course there was a reason that it was in the trash; the handle is broken.  I just need to repair that, and we'll be back in business.

Home Sweet Back-Home

The end of April/start of May is always a hectic time around our house. Including the extended family, we have three birthdays and mother's day in a two week span.  Starting last year, we also inserted a tractor show into the schedule.  Throwing my sister's graduation and my brother's work schedule into the mix, makes pulling it all off all the more complicated.  The final plan brought us back home to Lexington two weeks in a row.  Not a big deal considering we are the closest ones to home, in fact, it was two nice weekends. 

The first weekend was actually C's birthday weekend.  To celebrate, we did a dinner-and-a-movie date.  It has been way too long since we went to a movie.  Usually, we look at what's playing and decide there is nothing worth seeing.  This time, C had something in mind she wanted to see.  Working around our baby sitter's availability put us in a little time crunch to enjoy dinner and make it to the movie. I figured it wouldn't hurt to miss some of the commercials and previews.  What I didn't count on was the movie actually being full.  Oh, we still got to see the movie, but the only seats available were in the very front row.  I only sat in the front row at a movie one other time, which, believe it or not, was at "Ernest Saves Christmas" with one of my grade school classmates.  The movie probably won't win any Academy Awards, but it was a little better than Ernest, and was good enough to make for a nice date. 

The trip home later in the weekend for the rest of the birthdays was also nice.  The boys and their cousins played nice together.  They are finally getting old enough you don't have to watch them all the time, and we can enjoy the visits a little more.  We brought home a couple little "baby" trees from grandpa's flower beds.  We'll see if they can grow faster than the Earth Day give-away oak trees I got a couple years ago that are maybe a couple inches taller than when I brought them home. 

All the birthday festivities took up quite a bit of the weekend, but I did find time to get the Ten put back together.  I debated on it, but did end up buying Cat bolts to use on the Ten since they were only a little more than the bolts at Menards.  More surprising was that I could still get valve cover gaskets, and that they were only $2.50 each.  I got it all put back together, and after a few turns of the crank, it fired up.  We didn't go far, but the boys and I took the Ten for a quick test drive just to make sure it would run for the "big" Lexington tractor show. 

I had forgotten how much work it was to get ready for a tractor show.  Thankfully, I was able to still borrow a trailer, and the owner did all the check-out on it ahead of time.  Still, I had to go get it, and get the tractors loaded the day before, since we planned on leaving first-thing in the morning.  I decided to take Junior along with the Ten since we had plenty of room on the trailer, and I had just finished redoing it. 

The tractor show was nice.  The weather was better this year than last year.  C decided to come, which meant L got to come too.  L helped me get the tractors in place while N played at the inflatables.  When we all came back to check on the tractors, it's funny the hear the boys repeat what I tell them.  They are very quick to point out to others (including me) that certain parts are hot and shouldn't be touched (even if it's been hours since the tractor was running).  They also told someone else not to sit on Junior so they don't scratch the fenders (I wonder where they heard that?) 

Both boys headed home after lunch, which let me enjoy some time at home by myself.  It was nice to relax a bit and spend some time with just Mom and Dad.  We went back up for the end of the show and the awards ceremony.  The little Ten took home 1st place in the unrestored class again this year.  It's nice to win, but really for me the best part is just the opportunity to take it out to a show that has stuff for the boys to do, and allows us to spend time with family.  Oh, and it wouldn't be a trip home without bringing home something from mom and dad's basement.  This time it my old wagon for my pedal tractor.  The boys have been wanting to pull stuff with their tractor, and the little trailer fit the bill just right.

With the tractor show out of the way, it was time to get caught up on some overdue yard work. I had been keeping up with the mowing, but I got some extra help this last time.

 The boys and C had started some garden plants and flowers already.  I finally got the garden tilled, so we got them put into the ground.  So far so good.  I think all the plants that started in the pots took when we got them in the garden.  Hopefully over the summer and fall we will have peas, carrots, corn, pumpkins and watermelon.