Groundhog Day

Just after dinner we noticed this little guy foraging on the lawn and standing up every now and then to check for predators. It's the first groundhog/woodchuck I've seen and it was pretty comfortable with me following it around the garden to get some photos.

Groundhog on alert

Groundhog pulls 'Blue Steel' pose

We've had a couple of birds hit our windows this year, but luckily I've been able to revive both of them just by picking them up in some paper towel and moving them into the shade for an hour and then once I go back to check on them they quickly perk up and fly off. Apparently this one is a young 'Indigo Bunting', which if said repeatedly sounds absolutely bizarre.

Indigo Bunting.

Indigo Bunting, Indigo Bunting.

Loads of Wildlife and a Bed For House Guests

A family of deer make their way across our garden

This rabbit has been hanging around quite regularly. Here he is hanging out by the horseshoe stake.

One of the pair of hawks that hunts near the pond

Some butterflies mating

Woodpecker testing the willow trees by the pond

One of the resident turtles

A young deer at the back of the pond

One of the many Cardinals that live round our house.

In a previous post I joked that in winter, some trees have leaves and others don't. This one doesn't have leaves in summer either, because it's dead. It does make a nice home for loads of spiders though.

With family coming in the summer, I've been busy building a bed for them to sleep on. I designed it in Sketchup and went to a local sawmill to buy the wood. The sawmill was really impressive, a massive operation and a far better range and choice than is available at home depot/lowes, and much cheaper as well. Just the headboard left to finish and mount. I focused on showing the best looking wood grain on outside surfaces and hiding any of the wood screws from view making use of kreg jig pre-drilled holes. I managed to use up some older, less attractive wood for the slats as they will never be seen.

Queen bed design with storage underneath.