Journal of Progress--August 17-23, 2020

 We had a new visitor at our bird-feeder this week--a lazuli bunting.  Barbara loves that you can see a bird you don't recognize, put in the browser to find a small blue headed bird in Utah mountains and an exact picture of the bird in question comes up in addition to recordings of its call and songs.

The following photos do not do it justice. Its bright blue head is a stark contrast to its vivid orange breast, on a white background.  It looks like a modern art painting, but it's alive and it flies! 

 

This spotted towhee has learned to balance on this feeder.  Last week he could grab one seed and then fall off.  We are trying to decide if it is only one that can balance or it is more than one.  Barbara thinks it is at least one because the coloring of one is kind of dusky and the other is the richer blacks of one who has molted.

In this picture you can see the white tail feathers of the spotted towhee.  You can only see these from the underside or when he flies and spreads the tail out.

New water cooler. Buying water five gallons at a time and recycling the bottle is lots cheaper than buying 16 ounce bottles, cooling them in the fridge, and then throwing the plastic bottles away.

Here Don is cutting temporary counter tops out of fiberglass-clad paneling. The stuff is amazingly hard to cut, and weighs a ton. Barbara had to help him lift the sheet onto the saw horses for cutting.

Cutting out the back panel for the "island" cabinet was much easier!

Ta-da! Starting to look like a kitchen.

Lovely crepuscular rays from the clouds this morning.