Baby Birds

We have baby birds in our back yard!! Awhile back we noticed a couple of mockingbirds bringing sticks and twigs into a big bush that is against our back fence. Yesterday we were sitting outside with James watching the birds and the airplanes and we noticed one of the birds bringing a worm into the nest. "There must be babies!!" I squealed. Sure enough, I crept up to the bush and saw this inside:

For some reason it just cracks me up that the baby birds just stay in the nest like this all day with their beaks wide open. Feed me, feed me!! It has been fun to watch the birds take turns bringing the babies food. You can't really hear them squeak until the mom or dad bird goes in with a worm. Then you can hear them across the yard!

Here is mom or dad getting ready to go in with a worm. They are really cautious about going into the nest, they will sit and wait until they are sure no predators are watching them. It is kind of fun to watch, but then I feel bad because we are probably making them nervous by staring at them and James shouting, "burgie, burgie" while pointing. (I think it is a combination of bird and doggie, maybe he thinks all animals end in -gie?)

James still doesn't like to walk around in the grass. He isn't a fan of uneven or strange textures when it comes to walking. If we are walking on a sidewalk, it is like having walls on either side of it because he will not walk off of the side walk. It comes in handy when we sit outside because all we have to do is put a blanket down. He will crawl and walk all around on it, but will not get off of it.

We are getting so excited for our vacation to North Carolina!! Only 6 more days!! I can't wait for James to have fun playing with his cousins!! My sister hasn't seen him since he was 4 weeks old! So excited!

Our Garden

Our garden is doing so well!! I think we are having success this time because we are definitely paying more attention to it. Every day we go out and check it for insects, make sure they are well watered and generally evaluate. It has been a real help that we only have a few plants because we've really been able to focus our efforts on learning what each plant needs and how to make it produce.

Here is our squash plant. We've only been able to get small squashes from flowers that we hand pollinate, so I'm not sure what we need to do to get bigger squashes. Something is better than nothing right?!

These are a couple of heirloom tomato plants that some friends gave us. They started them from seed and they have probably doubled in size since we got them. I can't wait to plant these babies!!

Here is tomato plant number one. It is slightly smaller than the other tomato plant, but look at all of those tomatoes!! I can't wait for them to ripen.

 Here is tomato plant number two. We have had to tie supports multiple times to this guy because the tomatoes are getting so heavy for it. Plus, there is another branch of it growing out of the ground and I think there might be a way to separate it so that we can relocate it where there is more room.

 Here is our jalapeno plant, Anthony's favorite!! We haven't harvested any of them yet, Anthony wants to wait until they are the spiciest they can be :)

 Amongst all of this garden goodness, yesterday we discovered a potentially big problem...A swarm of grasshoppers! So far they seem to be staying away from our vegetables and concentrating on this landscaping plant, but I'm not sure how concerned I should be. Do you see how huge they are?? On the one hand, I feel like if they wanted to eat the vegetables they probably already would have but on the other hand maybe they are waiting until they eat all of this one... Anyone have any experience with grasshoppers? I guess we could pick off each one individually and squish it but that sounds really, really yucky.

Hopefully we will be able to start harvesting some of our tomatoes soon and I can post pictures of our delicious, homegrown veggies!