Updates

I know I haven't blogged for a while! Let's see what's been happenig to me recently.

I went on another great birding event down at the Kickapoo Valley Reserve, where I got increasingly better at identifying birds by sight and by sound. When Jacob and I repeated this trip on my birthday earlier this week, I was actually able to point out to him a whole bunch of birds - green heron, a common yellowthroat, yellow warbler, a female and a male orchard orioles, catbirds, house wrens, and more. He, on the other hand, spotted a male roufus-sided towhee, which I also identified for him. I am getting quite good, actually, but I also learned that it's best to go birdwatching with someone who knows more than you!

I got a gift certificate to the nicest nursery in town, and am going to buy myself a rose bush to plant on the side of the deck, next to the climbing red rose bush my best friend Ann gave me for my birthday last year. I love planting trees and bushes, in general. They are a bit like stock market investments (I learned this year!) - no good to you for the next ten to twenty years, but deeply satisfying when you get there.

I spent a bunch of time mulching today - weeded and mulched my lily-of-the-valley patch, as well as the said rose bush and the cornellian cherry tree (kizil in Russian, I believe), that Jacob picked out and gave me for my birthday last year. See, I am trying to increase the diversity of fruit I can grow on this farm, to add to my budding jam making business (something I am going to try this summer, see how it goes!). We already have a massive amount of elderberries, a large red and black raspberry patch, a sour cherry tree, an apple orchard, and a strawberry patch I personally planted two years ago. This year has been very cold, however, so there were barely any blossoms on any of the trees, and the strawberries are just starting to form. Can you believe it? We haven't even put in tomatoes and peppers for that reason, and it's already June. Little Josie helped with the mulching and is now uniformly covered with what we call "bullshit" - that is, literally the bull manure from the local bull sperm bank operation, mixed with sawdust, which served as bedding. (Don't worry, it's long ago composted into beautiful black dirt mixed with wood chips, and is not what you think).

Jacob and I planned our trip to NYC this summer, and made necessary arrangements armed with our debit card. I can't believe how expensive it is to stay at a hotel in NJ where my cousin's wedding is, but what you gonna do - I am planning to get wasted, and there's no question of driving. I am very much looking forward to seeing Ksusha and hopefully Ira in NYC during our stay - we are arriving on the 1st, and I am leaving on the 7th. I will be flying out of NYC instead of Boston, as originally planned, because it's simply not gonna work - sorry, K and Yorik! We'll be flying out of Milwaukee, where we have quite a few relatives, though, unfortunately, my favorite of Jacob's cousin's Peter is not going to be there, as he's currently in the army at Fort McCoy. Too bad, because the guy has a great take on the world.

Jacob and I went to watch Sex and the City: TM. I liked it, though I think the show worked best in 30-minute segments. I am now catching up on the 6 seasons of the show, of which I only watched a bit at AUBG. I am now on season 2.

I discovered a disturbing fact that the female bluebird is building a new nest. I don't think any babies hatched from the old nest, there used to be two blue eggs in there, now there's only one, and I have no idea what's going on - I wonder if it has to do with my touching the eggs back when I first discovered them. This time I didn't touch the egg but used a hand mirror instead, which is what you are supposed to do. I also discovered that the wrens, did, after all, stay to nest on my land, only instead of the front yard (where I could enjoy them), they made a nest in an old pole along the fence row on the back pasture. That's OK - I can still hear them on this side of the house. I also discovered a whole bunch of barn swallow nests. Gosh, I love birds.

I am going to La Crosse tomorrow, to the mall - something I do very rarely - so I can get myself a nice dress for that wedding in NYC. It can't be black - better be nice green or blue or my all-time favorite, red.

The grapes are looking good so far this year.

This weekend is the free for all fishing weekend when you can fish without buying a license, and Jacob, with his newly-discovered passion for fishing, is hopefully going to take me fishing for some trout. We both have no interest in any kind of hunting or fishing activity that doesn't directly translate into food on our table - so hopefully we catch the right kind of fish to keep.

I am warming up to John McCain, sort of, but I don't think Obama would be a disaster if he won. If he doesn't get assassinated or something. Unlike the majority of other people I know (except several Hundts, my husband, and my best friend Ann), I am not at all taken with Obama.

So that's what's new with me.