Visitor

This guy landed on our doorbell last night and he seems content to stay there. So I took a picture of him this morning. Click on the picture to get a closer view.


As of about 4 PM, today he's still hanging out and hasn't moved a lot if any. Maybe he's dead. Dead or not, he (or maybe she) is pretty cool looking.

OK, I'm back. This guy is a Luna moth. I looked it up. Actually, my picture is better than the one in Wikipedia. More colorful. Anyhow, they live in this stage only for about 1 week. Their only reason to be at this stage is to mate. They don't even have a mouth to eat with. Talk about single-minded.

The Fix is In

If we go back about 4 posts, we get to a story about how I put up a new bird house which we hoped would attract a family of bluebirds. The story was actually more about how easy it was for the cat to get to the birdhouse and leisurely wait for prey to show up.

This, obviously, was not going to work so we decided that a fix was needed. My wife suggested going to Lowe's and getting some kind of thin metal pole and attaching the birdhouse. I couldn't quite figure out how to do that and I liked where it was and, apparently, so did the birds, except when there was a cat paw stuck through the opening. So I decided that a cat barrier would be a better fix.

I went out to the garage and found a thin sheet of wood and took it out to the swing set and marked the width. I brought the wood sheet back into the garage and cut out a notch to fit it on the upper swing set bar. Then I took it back out and slid it onto the bar. It was such a tight fit that I couldn't easily move it once I got it on. So I left it where it is. Here's a picture:


There is some debate as to whether the position of the sheet is adequate to keep the cat away from the birdhouse. I haven't seen the cat back up there since, but... An added attraction is that the bluebirds like to sit on top of the piece of wood and get a good view of their surroundings. I may eventually go out and move the barrier farther out on the post but, until I deem it necessary, given it's tightness, I'll probably leave it where it is.

I'd like to get a picture of the bluebirds at home. If I do, I'll post it here.

That's all for now.

Singin'

Not to be outdone by my daughter, I sang a duet for the Good Friday service with another choir member. He's the baritone with the better sounding voice. I'm the tenor. I thought it sounded OK, maybe a bit dark. You can hear it here. I think I need to keep my day job. Wait a minute, I don't have a day job.