A Menagerie In Our Backyard

This has been an amazing first week of May here in the Cleveland suburb of North Royalton. We've seen lots and lots of wildlife in our own backyard! This is one of the reason I love sitting on the back screened-in porch.

One of the animals we saw were ducks. They landed on our neighbor's pool cover. They did this last year and the guy had them even when he opened his pool. He ended up keeping a big float toy in the pool to scare off the ducks.

This is year 2, we'll see what develops there.

Tim saw a coyote in the woods behind our house. This is the first one of the season. We'll see if he decides to stay, or if the city animal catcher gets him and transports him to a better area.

We've both seen two turkeys in our yard. It was sad to see the one turkey trying to figure out how to get over the fence to be with the other turkey. The girl next door walked toward the turkey and he suddenly remembered he could FLY! LOL It was so funny to watch.

The other day a red fox poked his nose out of the trees. It was so beautiful that you really forget they are wild animals.

Tim put up the hummingbird feeder a few days ago and lo and behold, we've had a few visitors. It's funny how they put multiple areas to feed on the feeder. Every time another bird comes near, it gets chased off by the one feeding.

 This year is our first year with Baltimore Orioles in the yard. Tim put out feeders to attract them. This is the nut roll we put out for all the birds. Several orioles sat and ate here before flying into a nearby tree.

 This is the oriole feeding area. The bird ate the orange and the jelly under the orange where the bird is sitting. We hope they will nest here. We've been like little kids here with the addition of this new bird to our little sanctuary.
Ben was over today and he smiled and shook his head as we talked about the birds.
We said we knew we sounded like old people but when he got to be our age, he'd understand.

 I found this cutie in the laundry room on the counter sleeping on the towels. She opened one eye, saw it was me, and went back to sleep.  If it was a small child, she'd have high-tailed it upstairs.

Well we've been busy the past two days. First we both went through clothes, books, CD's and all sorts of things to pull out for the kid's former school to sell at their garage sale tomorrow.  Whew, what a lot of work. I found lots of yarn and some crafting things that were given to me that I wanted to share. I'd rather donate it to the school than Goodwill or some place like that.

I went through my clothes and you know how long that takes. I pulled out many work clothes that I no longer needed. I pulled out clothing that I hadn't worn in over a year. I did that hanger thing where in January you place the hangers backwards. When you wear something the hanger gets turned the right way. Things with backwards hangers are supposed to be taken out if they haven't been worn in a year.  I got a huge garbage bag of clothes to donate.

Then we had to take the remaining clothes, shoes and things from our closet to closets in other rooms of the house.  Our bedroom is the next room in the house to be re-done. Here it is with its horrible, green carpeting. This came with the house. I never liked it but so much was covered by furniture that it wasn't a big concern.

Well now it's time for Tim to plan and do his magic with this room. I can't wait to see what he does with it.

 We are fortunate to have another room that we could set up for our bedroom. This is the mauve room. It used to be Ben's bedroom when he lived here.  I just love this with the new paint job and flooring. I'm feeling like we've moved to a new house with all the changes Tim's done. It's been 10 months of work. He's finished the living room, family room, kitchen, laundry room and 3 bedrooms. Being retired really helps with all of this as well. I'm blessed that he's been able to do this so we've saved lots and lots of money on the remodeling of the house. Thank you Lord for the talents you've given him.

I thought of  Dad on May 1st. He and mom would have been married 65 years. There isn't a May 1st that I don't think of him. He and Mom only had 29 years together.  Tim and I  have 25 right now, I can't imagine only having 4 more with him. Dad I miss you so much. I wish you could have shared so many things with us from my wedding to Tim, and our kids. You would have been an amazing grandfather.  I'm enjoying being a foster-grandmother, and I know it's only temporary, but fantastic.

Verse of the Day: Psalm 62:7 With God is my salvation and my honor. The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.


Instead of a song to listen to, tonight I'd like to leave you with a video by an amazing Christian man, Tim Tebow.  If you aren't familiar with him, he began in football and outwardly praised Jesus when he could. He played a few years then wasn't playing. God needed him in another area affecting the lives of millions of people with disabilities. He is especially drawn to kids.  He's an amazing spokesman for God. Give this a listen.


Blessing of the Day: We were so blessed to have Ben come over and help Tim move all of the furniture from our bedroom to other rooms in the house.
He also helped Tim take the items we were donating to the school to drop them off.  Thanks Ben!
He got lunch out of it. He also said, It's the least he could do since Dad helped him many hours at his house!
Thank you for stopping by.
Blessings,