Busy, busy, busy

It's been a very busy couple of months here. The birds are doing well, as are the dogs and the humans that share the house with them.

The holidays are chugging along much too quickly for my taste but that how it always seems to go once October rolls around. I have been crafting a lot this past month getting presents ready for the holidays which doesn't leave a whole lot of time for blogging unfortunately. :(

I have been spending quite a bit of time talking to my sister as she was getting ready for her art show this past week. It was in Tampa and as much as I hate crowds and such I was determined to be there and show my support for her and her work. So of course I took lots and lots of pictures to show everyone how incredibly awesome my sister is. XD

Metasoma by Rachel Johnson

My sister is a sculptor among other things. She has found a love for welding and making metal creatures like the amazing scorpion depicted above and below.

The title, Metasoma, is the scientific name for scorpion tail. I find it appropriate don't you?

Odonata by Rachel Johnson

If I had had more room, *the place was packed behind me* I would have gotten a shot from the side and shown you all more details. As it was though I couldn't really move around this piece well enough to get any really good side shots.The title, Odonata, comes from the Latin word for dragonfly.

Coelacanth, October 18th 1974 by Rachel Johnson

 I got a lot of angles on this piece, so brace yourselves. ;-)

Close up of the smaller "losing" fish.

 Close up of "attackers" head.

Another angle for details sake.

This piece is amazing. Every time I see it I find something new to marvel over. The Coelacanth was a fish that was believed to be extinct since the age of dinosaurs until one was caught off the coast of japan in 1974.

Nefandus by Rachel Johnson

Hmmm, he looks familiar doesn't he...

 Yes, he does, it's LOU! *Come on, you guys -knew- I would bring this back around to the birds some how.* Yes my genius sister made a sculpture of Lou with SILVERWARE! Let me tell you pictures don't do it justice. *They're also a pain in the butt to take because flashes and silverware don't play nice.*

Look at this detail people! I want this in my front yard so bad. Maybe I can talk her into doing a Sculpture of Trouble, my cockatoo for me. *hint hint* I can see her crest made out of butter knives already! XD

Oh and you guys have figured out what Nefandus means right? You don't really need me to tell you, do you? Come on, it's Lou, it shouldn't be that hard to guess. ;-)

Ok fine I'll tell you. Nefandus is Latin for devil. XD

Oh and I almost forgot....

"Don't take my Picture" by Suzanne Wargo subject Rachel Johnson XD

My sister, loving and hating the spotlight at the same time. ;-) Love ya Sis! XOXO    *Don't kill me...*

Bird Songs

Bird songs are a little different when you live with a parrot, or in my case, a bunch of parrots. Its not those pretty wild bird songs, though I guess if I could get a tape of them I could probobly hear them echoing off the walls at all hours. ;)

Not long ago, to combat Echo's screaming anytime I left the room, I started singing as I made lunch, washed the dishes...went to the bathroom. It's been working wonderfully. He gets so happy when I sing that he has figured out the first note and likes to try and prompt me into song when he is in the mood to hear it.

It's silly but I sing "My Bonnie lies over the ocean", it's one of the few kid songs that I know all the words to and can sing it with out music and Echo has been singing it back to me lately. Well, kinda. He has a few lines down like the first one, all the "bring back's" and "to me to me's" He will sing those for hours and pay very close attention to me when I sing to him. You can see the gears turning in his head as he tries to figure it all out. This is amusing me much more then it should I think.

I am thinking about "Soft Kitty" next once we are done with this song. it's simple and he should pick it up rather quickly. Anyone have any other suggestions?

Lying Lou

You guys remember Lou right?

"Hello!"

Our beautiful Green-wing Macaw that wants to eat me in his spare time? I was not the only woman Lou had no use for. In fact, He tolerated me being around, which is far better then he was with most women he met.

Until.... My sister showed up.

Let me explain... No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

We took Lou to my sister's house, for lots of reasons, none of which matter anymore. He was intrigued by her. Watching her every move, very calm when she was close by, agitated when she would walk away. It was interesting to watch, these were things he had never done before, for anyone.

My sister was taken with him, and with the thoughts of maybe getting Lou to tame down some and be more social we decided to let him stay with her for a little while, to see how it worked out.

Well... I don't think we are getting our bird back.

In 24 hours after leaving him there, this is what we were treated to on Facebook...

Can you feel the hate and loathing? 

*Not Lou's, but mine.*

 Oh wait! Is he gonna eat her!! 

*this looks promising* 

 No, it's the got yer beak game!

*cries*

Hugging...really?!? 

*now your just rubbing it in.*

All kidding aside, Lou is happy, and that makes me happy, even if I have yet another thing to envy my sister about. ;-)

Taking Time

Digger is a beautiful Blue Quaker. I have been working with her for a few weeks now trying to get her to step up and in general be more social with me and less scared of people. It's been very slow going. I have noticed that with smaller birds it always takes longer to get them used to people, probably because they are small and we are huge in their eyes.

I have been very lucky with digger. She doesn't bite, heck she barely even nibbles. So if she ends up on the floor I can just pick her up and carry her back to her perch on the play stand. Makes life so much better if I am not bleeding all over the place. =D Besides, blood would muck up her feathers and she's so pretty I wouldn't want that. ;-)

"Ain't I perdy!"

This was the first time I got her to stay on the bird stand. Not only did she hang out there for an hour...she hung out there with 4 other birds for an hour! Only one of said birds was hand tame so getting them all there was an adventure in and of it's self. XD

Here are 4 of the 5, bottom left is Toro (Jenday Conure), top left is Digger (Blue Quaker). Right front is London (Green Cheek Conure) and next to him is Zora (Peach Front Conure) both of whom decided that this was the right moment to turn away from the camera. D=

Digger and I had a little, short lived break through today. She and Zora were climbing around their cages and for what ever reason got spooked taking to the skies. Zora zipped past me and landed on the floor near my bedroom. Digger landed on the arm of my chair next to me, stayed about a minute before panicking and flying away and landing on Echo's cage, which in turn had me panicking. (Everyone is fine, got digger off his cage rather quickly.)

So, were working on it. Small steps every day. It takes time to earn trust back, and I have lots of time to work on it. =D

What makes a man sexy?

Rachel Ray once said that "The most sexy thing a man can do is wash the dishes." I am not sure if there have been others saying this but I have always believed it. John, my sweet loving husband does the dishes often making him, in my eyes, the sexiest man in the world. But last weekend he did something else, that improved on his sexy and skyrocketed himself into the sexiest man in the galaxy!!

What did he do? One might ask how could someone gain such an elite status in one simple weekend? I'll tell you how..he fixed my house! XD Well, started to fix the house at least, and I HAVE PROOF!!!

His project was the back porch stairs. They needed to be moved from one end of the porch to the other and the ones that were there were all rotting and unstable, so finally...he fixed them. YEY!

Here he is after realizing that he needed 2, 5 tier risers and not 2, 4 tier risers. He had to go back to Lowes to get them. Which made him very happy indeed. ;-)

 Here John shows off his macho new sexy status. :-)

Always the comedian, John takes a moment to give a demonstration of what would happen if I tried to get up and down the stairs before he was done with them.

Yea yea, Har Har! :-P Yer loosing some of them sexy points there buck-o.

John displays his cat-like balance and climes the risers to get some more tools. (You can also see in the background of these last few shoots the frame work for the aviary. Another project just waiting for a influx of money to complete.)

The finished project...kinda. The two old boards there in the middle were the only two boards from the old steps not rotten through. They will be replaced with new boards once John has time to cut some more 2x4s.

Slow and steady, the house is coming together. Next project, ceiling fan in the kitchen!!!!

Friday Picture Post

Now that things are winding down, and John's fingers have pretty much healed, he's been getting some love from a sweet little birdie with a much smaller beak. ;)

"It's Kissy face time!"

"Birdie wuv."
Seriously, from the moment John gets near her cage, 'til long after he puts her back, all she does is make kissy noises. (She only makes kissy noises for me when she's nervous.)

 A brief moment of "OMG Momma is too close!" sent Zora flying around the kitchen. As soon as I stepped back she landed on Johns hand. (Zora only likes me if I have sunflower seeds or when John is at work.)

More kissing time. She loves to preen his beard, though she gets a tad over zealous sometimes and nips his lips and nose.

"We have talked about this touching thing, Mister."

"Hey! Off the feathers! I just got them the way I want them."

BTW have any of you noticed...no pin feathers all over her head and neck! XD I found a small finch branch perch that hangs from the roof of her cage and she uses it to preen. (She was doing that before John took her out, hence the funny "hair style" she's sporting here.) Thank goodness, no more holding her down and force preening.  I am sure she is just as relived as we are over that. ;)

Calm...for now.

These past few weeks have been a nightmare. I will spare you all the details of the boring home stuff and instead tell you the catalyst that started it all.

First I must say, I picked an appropriate name for my Cockatoo. Trouble is just that, and like all Tooies if she sees an escape she takes it, and fast.

Trouble's cage is on the back porch. I hate this, but I have little choice in the matter. If she spends more then a few hours indoors she starts to pluck, and she will pluck substantial a bald spot on her chest in about 15 mins. So she stays outside in the Florida heat most of the time and loves it.

The problem comes with the fact that as much as she loves the outside weather, she also loves me and I can't be in the heat for long. So I make micro trips out to talk to her and give her some head scratching through out the day.

Now, unless I move into her cage with her on a permanent basis, no scratching, touching, or talking is enough. Trouble being a typical Too is a Velcro bird. So, when John, in a rush, forgot to close one of her food dish doors, Trouble took advantage and had herself an adventure that lasted from Saturday morning to Monday evening.

Her first thought was to try and get to me. This was evident by the feathers at my back door. She more then likely tried to wait me out when something spooked her and she jumped flapped her wings and got just enough lift to make her work for it.

And work for it she did. When I went out to talk to her and found her cage empty I freaked. I hunted everywhere. Calling her, trying to keep my voice steady so I didn't start to cry. (it didn't work) I was still hunting when John came home. He joined in and a few hours later we heard her calling us...from a tree...in our front yard.

It couldn't be an easy tree either. It was the tallest and bushiest. So much so that though we could hear her, we could not see her at all. There was nothing we could do. John Sat on the roof until dusk set in trying to get her to come down to him, nothing worked.

We barely slept. In the morning I still could not see up into the tree and all day I never heard her call. I resigned myself for the inevitable, she was gone and I would never find her. John didn't give up though, and because he has always been the "finder" of the house he of course found Trouble. In a tree. Four houses away.

Over the next 2 days I sat on the side of the road where she could see me, with a bowl of food and a book. I called up to her and she'd get all happy and dance. I'd shake her food dish and she'd flip upside down and look at me. I could tell what she was thinking. "Come on Momma, climb up here and feed me!" That of course would defeat the purpose.

Monday evening she lost her balance for a moment and fell of her branch. She flew out and back into the same tree but this time was significantly lower. My loving and awesome husband, who is afraid of heights, Borrowed a ladder and climbed up the tree to a lower branch. She still would not come, until I was able to pass him the food dish. He shook it once and she ran to him like her tail was on fire.

John was able to grab her and while she tried to separate his fingers from his hands he managed, with some trepidation, to get down the ladder and put her in her travel cage.

I have the most awesome husband in the world. =D

I checked Trouble out after we got home. She lost a lot of weight so I kept her inside for 6 days to watch her food intake. She gained quickly and ate well so now she is happy back in her cage with freshly clipped wings. (I really hate doing that)



Trouble stuck in an inside cage where she was being spoiled rotten. She barely spent anytime in there at all.

"Drat! Foiled again!"

Neighborhood

 My schedule lately has been something like this: wake up between 4 and 5 am, wake up John about 7am, walk around the block between 7 and 7:30am, come home eat something small and send john to work between 8 and 8:30am, and of course passing out cold between 9 and 10pm. It's almost a rut, though a healthy good rut but a rut none the less.

So because I am so stealthy (not!) and adventurous (really not!) I brought my camera one morning just for the heck of it. ;)

This is the "jungle lot" at the corner of my street. Being a corner lot it's prime real estate and I am kinda surprised no one has snatched it up yet.

O.M.G. What is that fiery ball doing in the sky!!!


 Another shot of the jungle lot, on the right side you can barely see the roof of the house next door.

This is one of the 3 dogs that run loose in the neighborhood. This ones name is Lisa, and the most problematic of the 3. She is some sort of rat terrier mix and if I tell you that my urge to punt her in her tiny little snout would you look down on me?

Seriously though, this dog is a problem. She has almost nailed me twice now. The "owners" don't give a shit and I am just waiting for her butt to get run over. She has some serious LDS, (Little Dog Syndrome) and she runs full bore at Gunnar who has like 80 pounds on her and is waiting for her to get close enough to eat.

I am a stealthy predator and I -will- get your pesky ankles some day....soon.

Believe it or not this 15lbs menace is not the smallest one. There is some sort of "teacup" Chihuahua that is allowed to run lose in the street to harass anyone walking by. Again it doesn't look twice at the huge boxer and thing, "Hmmm, that thing could eat me." Nope, just runs out barking, doesn't flinch for traffic or anything.

Some people should not be allowed to own animals. :(

Weather

It's rain season here in Florida, which, in a nut shell, means it rains..a lot. When it is not raining, it's hot...and muggy..and basically, yuck all the way around.

The birds are thriving in this though. Understandable, it feels like the Amazon rain forest out there so their quite at home and love being rotated out into the heat and wet. Kenya is loving it. The only water she lets touch her is rain anyway so it's good to get her out there and take advantage while we can.

On the other hand, any outdoor activity I do, must be done and completed before 10 am. After that I'd melt, or at least wish I would. So for the last week or so I have been walking Gunnar, rain or shine at about 7:30 am. It's the only out door activity I can get normally during the week, and now with the rain, the only thing I get to do on the weekends as well.

I wish my neighborhood was interesting enough to post pictures of, but I think if I walked around with my camera and just started randomly shooting, people would get suspicious and want to know -what- I thought I was doing. I highly doubt the explanation of "There was this nifty bird in the bush by your window." would exactly sooth things over any.  :(

So unfortunately no picture posts for a little while at least. The good thing about all this icky weather is I have gotten a lot of art done and I am thinking about opening an Etsy shop to try and sell it in. I have found a source to get my art put on note cards and they have been turning out really nicely. So what the heck. I'll give it a try and see what happens. Nothing ventured, nothing gained right?

Bird Blogs and Mash

I follow a few other bird blogs, A bird for Keeps has some interesting posts. This post here followed by this post  here are all bout making mash for your birds. It is also a great resource for other articles about bird health and behavior. I would suggest anyone interested in such things to take a look and follow the blog for great insight on parrots and their care.

Mash like bird bread is a home made fresh option to feed your birds. It's chock full of healthy grains and legumes along with veggies that our birds should have in their diet. I have been researching mash recipes and will be (hopefully) trying my hand at it next weekend. We will see how it goes, and of course I will be reporting it all here, the good, the bad, and the messy. ;)

Until then, have a great weekend everyone.

Photo Friday: Plague Season

It's plague season here in Florida. I was outside on the front stoop trying to get a picture of a woodpecker (he wasn't cooperating) when as I turned around I was surprised by this guy.

While not technically a locust, (I don't think) This thing was HUGE! So I am calling it a locust, a big pissed locust with friends! I found his bigger and badder brother on the back porch later that day.

 Big Bad Billy Locust (BBBL for short) is here to KILL YOU! (And all you little plants too.)

So after the plague of Locusts it was time for.....
FROGS!

Found this cute little guy on my back door when I was bringing the dogs in. Awww, cute widdle baby froggy.

The next night, Big Bro showed up on the door. Still cute!

And the next night, Momma showed up hiding behind Lou's cage.

Though you can't really tell by this picture, she was much bigger then the first two. We've been finding frogs all over the back porch at night and last night one hit the front window so hard I squeaked from the unexpected noise.

So that was my week, how was yours?

Going Out

Well I have never claimed to have an exciting life. In fact, sometimes I prefer dull and boring since the latest "excitement" has included sick and hurt animals and thats not the excitement I'm looking for.

So since we really had no plans other then meeting friends online this weekend, John and I decided to venture out of the house for an hour or so and see what we could find.

Anything nature oriented was out of the question, Rain started falling in sheets once we left the house. So after dropping off a photo print order at the local drugstore we ventured out to the local pet store on what we affectionately call a "Bunny Run". (Bunnies are the feel good critter for me. Can't be depressed around a bunny!)

So off to the local pet store where the one lone bunny did not hold my attention for long, not when I saw this face...

"Are you my new Mommy?"

There is a reason baby cockatoos are cute. It's an evil plot to make me want to take them all home with me!! ARGH!

This aboslutly adorable baby Goffin Cockatoo melted my heart very quickly. To say "I want!" is an understatement.


Next to the Goffin was this fella...

"Hello, you want to take me home too don't cha."

This is a Cherry Head Conure, and from my experience with these guys at the store I worked in, they are m-e-s-s-y! They also tend to get cage bound quickly, which this guy, at the admission of the lady that works there, is on his way to being. :(

The star of the day though was this little beauty...

"Yes, Ohh and Ahhh you silly human woman, I -am- a pretty bird."

This is an Eastern Rosella Parakeet.  I have to admit I gasped and squeed just a little when I saw it. So pretty. Upon talking to the bird person I have been informed that these guys don't talk, (but they chirp really cutely) and they are not snuggle birds. IE. You can get them to step up but one that will let you pet and/or scratch it is very rare. :( Bummer.

But remember I said they chirp? Well it was so cute I took some film of it for you.



See I was thinking about you guys. XD Enjoy!

Friday Picture Post

It's been a rough month here, with everything that's happening there has been very little time to get out and actually enjoy ourselves. I have been busying myself with fractal making in the hopes of keeping my mind off some of the more traumatic incidents that have recently been daunting us. And on occasion snapping pictures of the animals when they do something that makes me smile. These are a few of those pictures.

Gunnar (front) and Scarlet (rear) were running around and playing until I pulled out the camera. Scarlet went for the instant sitting girl pose while Gunnar was curious as to what he might have been doing wrong at that moment.

Echo posing pretty for his close up.

This is London, one of the green-cheek conures we have here. She is pretty feisty and very brave for a smaller bird.

As I was feeding her London made a break for it and flew over to the kitchen window. Lou is outside watching the action and wondering if she'll get close enough to grab.

Slowly life is returning to normal, life moves on even if I don't really want to. So I will try and get out a little more and of course, take pictures to share with everyone.

See you guys next week, have a great Memorial Day Weekend!

Wait - What did you call me?

As I have said before, Kenya, our Congo African Grey prefers my husband to me. In fact if I were to suddenly disappear from the house I doubt highly that this would bother her much at all. Well, she might miss having someone to terrorize and lunge at when feeding time comes around.

Because of her rather intense mistrust/dislike of me, she doesn't talk much when I am the only one in the house, and defiantly not if I am in the same room as her. That is not to say that she doesn't make noise while John is at work. She whistles and calls the dogs, by name, on occasion. She also tosses her food out of her cage, one pellet at a time to lure the dogs in so she can get a closer look at them when she is bored.

Her favorite time to talk during the work day is while I am typing at the computer. For a few reasons, First and foremost, I am not in the same room as she is. This is important because she is not relaxed with only me in the room. I can ignore her or talk to her, it doesn't matter, she just does not trust me. The second reason is that even though I am not in the same room she can still see me, therefore making sure I am not trying to sneak up on her. The third reason seems to be her trigger though, they clackity-clack of the keyboard for what ever reason seems to make her want to talk. So the moment I start typing she starts chattering with hellos, good girl/boys and Whooos.

My typical morning routine for the last... oh lets say 6 months with her has gone something like this:

I wake up, roll out of bead and shuffle to the bedroom door and open it.
Kenya: John?

Me: No, I'm Mommy, not John.
I continue to shuffle in silence to the bathroom. Kenya makes no noise, echo stars his morning chorus of greetings, IE. Hello, Ole, and HI!
I come out of the bathroom and shuffle towards the living room.
Kenya: John?

Me: No, it's still Mommy.

Now remember, Greys are pretty swift on the uptake. If they want to learn a word they do it fast. Case in point, I was teaching Echo to say "I'm a little stinker." Because he is. Kenya picked up on stinker and thats all she wanted to learn, so now she just sing-songs stinker at any given moment. This happened in less then 2 days after I started, so yea, if she wants to know a word she learns it, fast. So any hopes that I had of her saying my name or addressing me at all flew out the window a long time ago.

So today, as I was sitting here typing an e-mail I was half listening to her babble when I heard this...
"I love you......Bobby." I have to admit my fingers tripped all over themselves and I had to close my eyes and listen closely because I knew she would say it again and she did, and it was Bobby and not Mommy, but hell, I was tearing up anyway because that is the first time in the last 4 years that she has acknowledged my existence with out drawing blood, or trying to.

And yea, I'm a sucker.

Time passes, Things Change

It's been a few weeks since my last post for a few reasons. The first being that we had a tragedy here that resulted in the loss of some of my dear feathered friends and the emergency hospitalization of 3 others. The second and slightly less traumatizing is that Blogger has changed their damn layout so much I am having a difficult time figuring it out. If you have not picked up on this yet, I don't take well to change, especially sudden and with out warning change.

So while I figure out how to navigate this new and "improved" site, hrmph, my posts may be a little sparse. And if anyone knows how to get the old style back, please for the love of pink and purple bunnies, tell me!

Zora Gets Pinned

Zora does not like being touched. Fingers are for stepping on, not for scritching or any other crazy idea we might have. So when her head and neck if full of pin feathers and she just looks like a little hobo bird we have to pin her down and give her some well meaning scritches, and boy does she let you know that she is not happy.

*please ignore the overly fuzzy husband, we had a window of oppertunity here and we/he grabbed it.*






There really has to be an easier way to do this. Something just a tad less traumatic for both bird and human.




She is soooo not happy here.

The house of the sick

Good news, Gunnar is feeling better. No accidents for 2 days (from him at least) and it seems that the rice is working. This of course is not counting the ton-o-grass he munched this morning and promptly puked up.

Now the bad news, seems Scarlet has the runs, so off the kibble she went today and onto the rice and broth. Hopefully this helps her a little faster since I am not waiting like I did with Gunnar.

Of course a house with 2 sick dogs is just not enough of a challenge for us, so I have a case of the cruds as well. I am running a slight fever, enough so that I want the house not at the 72 that it is but at a nice crisp 60 or below. The key here is I want it like that but birds and husbands over rule me on my present thermostat desires.

Weekend

We have gotten next to nothing done this weekend. Gunnar is still sick, and this "sick" has coincided with a new bag of dog food so we are thinking that that might be the issue.

He will be on boiled rice and broth for the rest of the week and if he is still having issues on Friday, (when we get paid) he will head over to the vet to see whats going on.

To say I'm worried is an understatement, I always worry, about everything. This though, has me almost panicked. I am not liking what I am seeing and all I can say defiantly is that it's not Parvo. Thank goodness.

Sick as a Dog

I have a new reference for that phrase now. Gunnar was ill last night, not puking ill, that would have been better actually. Nope his sick was all about the other end.

Imagine if you will a 80 pound boxer running past you at super speed, his face over wrought with anxiety with a fountain of dark brown sludge propelling him. =8O

Oh yea, it was a fun night. Of course this happens at midnight so trying to keep him outside wasn't happening. All he did was bark and whine and that wouldn't be put up with for long by the neighbors.

He's doing better today, back to his old non-fountain self. Thank goodness.

Wild Front Yard

Apparently since I did not visit a lake this weekend to see the birds, they decided to come to me. XD







The house was really quiet then all of a sudden the birds started flipping out, then the dogs. When I got to the front room this flock of Ibis were scouring the yard for insects.





Eat up and be merry I say. I am not a huge fan of bugs myself.






It was pretty cool that they never flinched as I opened the front door to take these pictures. They just walked around and grabbed all the bugs they could find.