Bird Nest Relocation

These birds (house finches) tried to build a nest in the middle of our carport. Click here for more information. It kept falling down, so I bent the edges of a license plate and set it where they were trying to build, and they were successful in building the nest and raising a family of baby birds.

 After they flew off, I took the nest and plate down and cleaned everything up.

This week, a couple of finches returned and were trying to build a nest next to the house again. Marcia wanted me to block these two places where birds had built nests in the past and discourage these birds from building there because of the constant falling down of nesting onto the carport and car. She suggested a free-standing birdhouse, but I decided to do this instead. Marcia loves the birds, not the mess.

Next to the house

Center of the carport

I built boxes that extended from the 6x6 to the roof. Then, the birds came back and saw that their "home site" had been blocked. They seemed very frustrated, so eventually they moved to the other end of the carport to try to build their nest there. But, there was not enough room, and the nesting material kept falling down. Therefore, I decided to have mercy on these sweet little birds, and I installed the license plate to give them more room.

Nesting material

Ledge too small to accommodate a nest. It kept falling down.

License plate gives additional room for the nest.

View from bottom

Momma bird approves of the addition.

 We went to eat and returned about an hour later to see that the little birds had been able to add a significant amount of material to their nest in that short period of time. I will be documenting their progress with more pictures. So, bookmark this page and check back every week or so if you would like to follow along.

More nesting material.

Hay Baling

The guy returned today to rake the hay, getting it ready for baling.

Later in the day, the guy returned with the hay baler.

Fun to watch.

Would like to try my hand at hay baling.

Hay Day

Today, there was a guy who showed up to mow the hay in the back pasture.  Marcia said, "Hay, there's a guy mowing the field."

He went back and forth until he finished it all.

It smelled good, too.

Hopefully, I will be around the day they bale it. If I am, I will take some pictures of that. I understand they make the big round bales.

New Front Steps

To start with, there was one concrete step in front of our porch. The porch was 16 inch high and the step was 7 inches high. That meant that there was a 9 inch step from the step to the porch. Uneven, and of course, difficult for some people, especially of the older variety. I had cut a couple of one inch boards and put them under each end of the step which made two 8 inch steps, but that is stretching it for normal steps which are between 6.5 and 7 inches.

When I moved the step away, I found that a toad had made a nice home under it.

 

I cut out stringers and risers, and just laid them out to see how they fit.

Here's the finished product. Two 6.3 steps and one 6.3 step to the porch. So, now three small steps to get to the porch. Easy for young and old alike.

Our Snake

This is our black snake. We have seen him other times (or one of his cousins). Today, he was right outside the side door on the carport.  I gathered him up and put him across the fence. Marcia doesn't like having snakes around the house.  He stretched out and slithered away. He was about 3.5 to 4 feet long.

Later in the day, I found this snake on the carport. Different snake? Don't know. Probably. However, this is not comforting to Marcia.

Snake 2?

About 4 ft long.

I attempted to pick him up and take him to the field, but he got away and slithered under the steps to safety.

Bird Nest

About three weeks ago, we had a little bird trying to build a nest in our carport.  However, the ledge it was trying to build on was only about an inch wide and the nesting material kept falling onto the top of our car, and when we were away, it fell onto the floor of the carport. The little bird would not be dissuaded, however. I finally took pity and retrieved one of several old license plates and made a couple of bends in it so that it sat securely across the two beams above the carport. I took material that had fallen and put it on the plate and the little bird finished making her nest.

Now the little bird has been nesting for a week or so, so I expect to see little ones soon. Today, we had ServiceMaster out to clean our carpets, and the truck sat in the driveway and made a terrible racket while the technician did his cleaning. The little bird stayed on her nest the whole time.

I did not know what kind of bird this was. The daddy has red on his chest while mommy is plain in color. After looking at many bird pictures, I think these may be house finches. I will try to capture a picture of the daddy.

Update: May 26

It is too tight to get up to take any pictures, but today, I saw the daddy returning to the nest and feeding about three little heads. If you look closely, you can see the tops of the heads moving. I stood and watched from the steps and he knew I was watching. They are used to us and trust us. He was a good daddy, providing food for his family. No pictures of the daddy yet.

The Great Switch/Receptacle Switch-out

The one thing I wanted to change about our new house was the type of switches and receptacles that were original to the house. These were totally new to me. I had never seen one. Each was self-contained. These pictures are of the very last one I replaced. First I unscrewed the two screws which released the switch from the wall.

Standard switches would consist of a box, the switch, and a face plate.  This switch was an all-in-one unit. After taking it out, I cut the wire.

Below, I have put the wire through the box and installed the box in the hole in the wall.

Here I cut off the insulation and stripped the wires.

Here I have connected the wires.

Screwed the switch into the box.

Last, I screwed the face plate onto the switch.

OK, I found three receptacles that I missed. These are also all-in-one units.

I take the receptacle from the wall.

I cut the wires from the receptacle.

I stripped the wires.

I installed the wires in the box and the box into the wall.

I wired the receptacle.

I screwed the receptacle into the box.

Lastly, I installed the faceplate onto the receptacle.

I am glad that this project is done. Switches and receptacles all look great and look modern.