Bird troubles

 

This is a Sharp-Shinned Hawk.  We noticed him hanging around starting in December.  At first I thought a hawk might be a useful bird to have around since they eat rodents, and we get mice and voles in the field by us.  Then Ethan saw it swoop down one day and catch a sparrow in our yard.  Kurt also saw it go after a bird one day.  Now we rarely see any sparrows or finches.  I guess they don't feel safe.  No wonder. The hawk is perched directly above the bird feeders.  Kurt hasn't had to worry about keeping the feeders full anymore, and he used to refill them every other day.  I will be so sad if we don't get any gold finches this spring!

Mule Deer

There have been lots of deer all around our area the last few winters.  We have had one or two in the yard this winter, but the other day we had 8.  They were nibbling on dried flower leaves around the deck.  Then they all moved over to the south border of the yard and curled up for an afternoon rest under the trees.  I just watched them for quite awhile and took some pictures.  I love being out in the country.

Happy New Year

I regret not keeping up the blog after we returned from our mission.  I finally got the mission blog published into a book that we could look at and enjoy.  Since I am not a good journal keeper, I realize that more than a year's activities have elapsed with no record kept, other than my memory.  That means that basically there is no record kept!  

I guess the debate going on in my brain is not whether or not to continue with the blog, but do I go back and try and catch up last year's activities or just start with this past Christmas and more forward?  For today I will at least  do this post and change my background.  Maybe that's enough action in the day for me.  I don't want to go overboard and burn myself out!