Sunday, April 23, 2006

Birds & yard work

After church today, my wife and I went out to trim back out forsythia bush. It was over-grown 6 years ago when we moved here. I've trimmed it once, but just a light trim. Today, we hacked it.

We didn't hack it a much as we had planned because we ran across a nesting bird with eggs. And we didn't want to disturb them. Once the eggs hatch and fly away, well finish it off.

I also took a wack at a pine tree we had in the yard. The lower limbs are all over the ground making mowing very difficult. Plus, it just didn't look very good (plus my wife wanted those lower limbs gone) . So, we had basically finished with the forsythia bush, so off to the pine tree I went. Well, I finally got the lower limbs removed, but I really needed a bow saw. And since I didn't have one, I'll go back out and get some of those limbs a bit closer to the trunk of the tree.

In the process, I ended up getting pine sap on my arm. Specifically, my arm hairs. It is very, very sticky. Have you ever tried to get sap off arm hairs? Well, I tried one of the orange cleaners. Didn't work. I tried Dawn dish soap. I put some on, let it soak. Didn't work.
I finally tried some of the hand cleaner I use when I get grease and oil from working on the car. That took it right off. So, remember, hand cleaner you can get at any automotive store will take tree sap off your skin and hair.

Back to the birds. I'm trying to figure out what kind they are. They are a reddish brown to me. There are two of them which means the male stays around. It made a twig nest in the forsythia bush. I first thought the eggs were gold, but I looked later, and they may just be whitish with dark colored spots. I'm going to try to get some pictures soon.

Well, I'm sore and tired. I think I'm off to bed.

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