Timber!

For those who haven't heard, we bought a very old house last fall, and have been thoroughly enjoying having a place of our own. However, as everyone knows, home ownership is a lot of work, and in our case, adding a few decades worth of neglect adds to the excitement. There was a huge old tree hanging over our roof, which Adam and a few neighbors were finally able to take down a couple weeks ago. In addition, Adam has taken down a few more smaller dead trees and dead parts of trees. We've been told our yard was quite the jungle some time back. We've definitely had our work cut out for us this spring!

Sonny-boy

After 15 years of dreaming, I finally took the plunge and bought a canary this past week. What a sweetheart! I didn't realize that even baby birds (he's only 2 months) could be so social! We're calling him Sonny (or Sonny-boy) right now, though that might change. We've been back and forth on name possibilities, but so far Sonny is sticking. He is a quiet but cheerful little guy, very busy in his cage, and very curious about everything going on in the house around him. He seems to enjoy having his cage brought into the kitchen so he can be close to the girls and I during breakfast and morning chores. The girls think he's great, and love saying "Goodmorning sunshine" to him when they get up. Kaelin gets most excited, and will just start to squeal and laugh at him. We're not actually he is a "he" yet, since he's so young, but of all his sibblings (there were 4 babies from his nest), he was one of the most active. He talks a lot, but because he's a canary, it's a quieter chirping, almost like he was outside. Once in awhile he really gets going, and it sounds like he's ready to break into song, though that's not supposed to happen for a couple more months. By the way, here's an interesting trivia fact - songbirds, like male canaries, have to have a special "songfood" to help them develop their vocal cords and make them sing! He'll get started on that in a few more weeks, and then we'll see what happens.