Last evening ds1 came rusing inside to tell us "our" female pileated woodpecker was merrily tapping away at our shed (no worries as it needs to be torn down anyway).  I grabbed the camera and we all rushed outside.  We've gotten to know her quite well since December so we know she's rather skittish.  I kept my distance and was able to get one photo (unfortunately it's pretty grainy since I did some major zooming in).

Yes, the photo is posted correctly.  She was perched in this position tapping away at the underneath of a beam.  She tired of our presence quickly, flew away, and in swooped "our" male red-bellied woodpecker.

He's not as shy so I was able to get a lot closer for his photo.  If you look carefully, you can see the hole they have pecked out on the underside of the beam.

In all the excitement, I completely forgot I had a homemade pizza in the oven for our dinner.  It turned out more "golden" than we prefer, but was still tasted great and no one complained.  The recipe I use can be found here.

Happy Memorial Day!

Even with gas prices so ridiculously high, we took a quick drive around our immediate area last evening.  I just could not wrap my brain around how 3600+ acres burned ... now I can!  To say my jaw dropped open and stayed open is an understatement.  It's just as devastating as hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004, but in a completely different way.  The landscape around here is going to look quite different for a long while .......

To say that the firefighters did an amazing job is also an understatement.  They saved so many structures.  It took my breath away to see homes and barns where everything around them was completely burned yet they are still standing untouched.  Bravo, bravo, bravo to the firefighters!  There are some homes and structures we could never see before due to dense trees and foliage surrounding them ... they are clearly visible now.......

As I said before, unfortunately some homes, vehicles, and other structures were totally destroyed.......

We are at 70% containment in my immediate area as of this morning.  The hot spots are continuing to be monitored for flare ups.  We have a small chance of rain this afternoon. 

Thank you to everyone who is praying about the wildfire situation in Florida!

We are still not in the clear at my house.  A fire is burning to my immediate southeast this morning.  I can see the smoke going up as I look through my dining room window while sitting here at the computer typing.  Until we get rain, all this is far from over.  As it stands now, we have no rain in the forecast for the next seven days.  The winds are supposed to shift yet again today and blow directly in on us.  Our winds when things were so bad Sunday and Monday were up to 35mph ... today they are supposed to be up to 20mph.

The fire in my immediate area, as well as all the other fires in my county, appear to be the work of an arsonist or arsonists.  Please pray that this person or persons can be caught SOON!

"My" fire is up to about 3600 acres and is 10% contained as of the last news report I heard at 6pm last evening.  I live in a rural area where homes are on 1 acre or more so we have not had the massive amount of home losses that other areas have seen (some of the subdivisions that have burned in other areas have homes sitting on lots that are only 50 feet wide so homes are basically on top of each other).  I do know in my area homes, barns, sheds, and some vehicles have been lost.  It is very frustrating trying to get news as we don't have a tv station in our county so we don't have any true "local" news.  The reporters don't know our area well so they aren't getting street/road names correct and giving out other incorrect information.  They are not giving constant news coverage either.

We've been told to stay on constant alert and keep an eye on our surroundings at all times.  My vehicle is unpacked, but everything is sitting by the front door in case I have to load it up again to evacuate.

My Mother's Day was going great ... ds1 and I went to church then stopped by the natural foods market we shop (the same one that's closing).  They were having a Mother's Day Tea that ds1 and I attended.  We came home, changed clothes, and then headed out on a little shopping trip.  That's when my day went horribly wrong.  The lady in front of me when checking out was saying something about a huge wildfire.  She wasn't making sense about where it was so I asked.  Turns out it was more than one fire (they believe at this time 8 separate fires were set just in my area) and one was on my road and another was behind my house.

This is what we we were greeted with...

Horses being evacuated just north of us.  Unfortunately, I got to experience our sheriff's dept. at its finest (I mean that in the most sarcastic way).  The officer who had the road blocked off would not move her vehicle so the trailers could get around her.  People were screaming at her to move and she ignored them.  Finally someone shouted at her that they were going to move her vehicle, like it or not....

The fire helicopter was using the river to fill the drop bucket with water, but switched to getting water from a neighbor's pond to make quicker work....

More scariness from the skies...

A couple of the horses that dh helped round up to get in trailers for evacuation...

Out of control...

The view from across the road from my house last night as I was finishing loading my vehicle...

These were taken while standing in a neighbor's backyard last night.  It looked like a home and barn on this land were going to burn, but they were saved!  This just kept creeping closer and closer to my neighbor's (and my house!).  Dh stayed out until 1:40am this morning helping this neighbor keep things watered down....

When dh came in at 1:40am this morning, all appeared to be okay.  His clothing and hair smelled horrible so he went to take a shower.  Not five minutes later I saw flashing lights everywhere in front of my house.  I threw open the front door and saw my neighbor across the road's backyard engulfed in flames.  The wind had shifted and that quickly it all went up in flames.  Embers were flying into our yard and further.  Dh and I ran around for a good while stomping them out with our shoes.  One of the firefighters came and asked if we were ready to go if necessary.  I told him my vehicle was packed, but I did have two children and a dog I had to load so I had to have enough notification to take care of that (ds1 was wide awake on the sofa by the front door and ds2 was sleeping beside him).  He said if the fire made it to the road at our neighbor's that it would jump the road into our yard.  He said we would not be able to get out if that happened.  At 2:40am things were so bad that he gave dh the nod that it was time for us to leave.  Dh chose to stay and help so the kids, dog, and I went to a grocery store parking lot (we had nowhere else to go) to wait it out.  Thankfully, ds2 stayed asleep, but ds1 was restless so I passed the time praying aloud and reading aloud from Psalms.  At 4:10am dh called and told me they said things were okay around us and I could come home.    It was definitely a long night with extremely little sleep.

We are aware of two homes that have been destroyed - there may be more.  So many roads are blocked off right now that it's hard to know for sure.  This is what's left (nothing) of one of those homes...

This is what's left of my neighbor across the road's backyard...

Ash is covering my entire yard front and back...

Please keep our area of Florida in your prayers.  Things are still smoldering and could ignite again.  Two fires are burning around us still.  More fires are going in other areas and others have just started in the last couple of hours.  I'm watching a house burn on tv right now.  So sad.  The winds are blowing fiercely.  We haven't had rain since the beginning of April so things are extremely dry.

See what ds1 and hubby discovered in our pond - very interesting! 

Stop by and see what we've been up to.

I'm sharing these pileated woodpecker photos especially for Melissa.  We have a couple of pileated woodpeckers that have visited us every few weeks since the end of December.  I was headed outside to do some yard work last Sunday and came upon our gorgeous visitors in one of our oaks.  Unfortunately, my going back inside the house to get the camera frightened the male away, but I did get a few pics of the female.  I ended up getting too close to her for comfort (her comfort that would be) and she joined the male in another of our oaks hiding amongst the leaves.  They then flew to a pine in our wooded area, but I again was only able to get photos of the female.

Our garden is coming along well so far.  These photos are from last weekend as well.

Remember this blog entry where I mentioned the twisting and turning road?  I finally located a few pictures that might help everyone envision this better (look in the lower left corner of the second picture and you can see the roadway there - imagine the twists and turns getting down to that portion!) .......

And here are some random pictures to enjoy.......

I finally got over my laziness this morning and took some pictures of our garden efforts.

San Marzano tomato (growing in a container)

Genovese basil

Moss curled parsley

Our new garden patch we finished up last weekend

Homemade compost tumblers.  The one on the right is the original.  The one on the left I've just gotten started.

Parsley

and basil

growing in containers in our garden (photos were taken a couple of weeks ago).

My friend, Kellieann, recently had a post on her blog unlike any I think I've ever read before.  She was open and honest and ... inspiring.

It's easy to put on a big smiley face when we can hide behind the facade of our blogs, isn't it?  Well, here goes ... the good, the bad, and the ugly of the moment.......

Remember our dishwasher saga from weeks ago?  WEEKS would be the key word.  Sears dragged the ordeal on and on and on and on.  The first repair person took a quick peek and told my hubby (with me standing right there) to tell me I was using too much dishwasher detergent.  Uh-uh ... no way dude!  He left and the dishwasher (without any detergent I might add) still leaked.  Repair person #2 (I forget how many days later) tells us there's a 90% chance it's a seal that needs to be replaced that is causing the leaking.  He replaced the seal, but then the door latch wouldn't stay clicked together so we had to use a 2x4 to attempt to hold the door in place and flatten the new seal.  He ordered a new latch and we were to schedule yet another service appointment.  The 2x4 wouldn't hold the door, but it didn't matter because the dishwasher still leaked.  Repair person #3 comes and is another one of those that talks down to women and doesn't let the woman get a word in edgewise.  *sigh*  We had discovered another problem while waiting for this third appointment and he argued with me and blew me off about everything I tried to explain.  To be the big macho man and prove little ole dumb me wrong, he proceeded to show me how I was wrong only to wind up being embarrased because little ole dumb me did know what I was talking about after all!  HA!  This actually turned out to be a good thing because he then discovered many more things wrong with the dishwasher - as in it never should have made it out of the manufacturing facility from the start because it was a lemon all the way around.  To keep this saga short, we still got the runaround (we had a protection agreement but Sears could not decide if they were going to repair or replace the dishwasher) and things dragged on.  A very ugly, un-Christianlike telephone conversation (with me being the ugly, un-Christianlike one) took place during all this hemming and hawing around because I'd had enough of the runaround.  There ... I said it ... I have a temper and it's a bad one!  Finally, only by the grace of getting someone at the local store involved, did we get some action and Sears finally gave us a new dishwasher.  So, six long, miserable weeks without one and finally my agony is over.  Hubby still has to adjust it so it sits straight, but hey, it works!!!

My oldest has been behaving not poorly, but atrociously for the past 9 days (yes, that would include today) and I am at my wit's end.  In the midst of that, the youngest needed new binkies - no, we've not broken the binkies yet.  We were near a Super WalMart so we stopped by and I went in only to find 5 display racks where binkies should have been and they were all bare (gee, doesn't WM advertise that I'm supposed to be able to find anything I need there?).  Off we go to Walgreens (our only other choice).  They have one type available and I grabbed it without really looking.  It turns out the binkies are not smooth, but have dimpling to them which my youngest cannot stand.  He will put in in his mouth, immediately take it out, and make a face.  Now, this may be just what we need to break the binkie habit, but I may go insane in the process from all his unhappiness.  Shoot, the oldest is well on his way to driving me over the edge with his latest antics (will not behave anywhere we go, drops food on the floor in the dining room on purpose and claims he didn't, and I could whine on and on).  It's not always the rosy, sunshiney place my blog makes it look to be.

I am not sleeping, or I guess I should say getting enough sleep.  Sleep deprivation leaves me very cranky - very cranky.  And mean - did I mention mean?  I am not a pleasant person to be around (may as well lay it all out there).  I wake up every morning around 3am.  It's stress - I know it is.  Maybe I should stop watching the news.  I don't think that would matter much because it's obvious prices are rising everywhere you go ... the gas pumps, the grocery stores.  We heard a few days ago that gas prices may very well be $4/gallon by the end of spring.  The average price in FL is already $3.23/gallon and rising fast.  Last night we heard that because of budget cuts (mainly from Ammendment 1 that just passed and lowered our outrageous property taxes a wee bit), the state is going to add a mandatory tax onto gas prices to make up the difference.  *sigh*  It seems no one can win.  You feel like you get one small victory only to see it eaten up by something else.  Hubby also will not be on call any longer (to the point that he has to go out and actually do calls) since he was finally put in the management position for which he was hired.  This is good and bad.  The good is we will have him home with us instead of him running on fumes for 7 days straight every 4 weeks.  The last time he was on call he had several nights where he came home (late), sat down to eat, and his phone started ringing again.  He came dragging in after 11pm a few times only to have to be up at 5am and off to the races for a full day of work again.  I don't see how the guys do it.  The downside is that this will drastically affect his paychecks.  All that OT was helpful in getting our garden finished up.  On the upside though, I won't have two screaming, crying, upset, tantrum throwing children anymore because Daddy just got home and has to turn around and leave again and won't be home at bedtime.    

We spent all of this past weekend finishing up our garden.  The natural foods store we shop had a change in ownership and has suffered greatly in the fresh produce department as a result.  It's just about all conventional and not organic - what's the point?  I can buy conventional way cheaper at a regular grocery store, but we don't want conventional products.  Even local farms are no longer an option - some have not even opened up this season and others are pricing their products outrageously (I know they are feeling the crunch too and doing what they have to do to keep their heads above water).  So, we are giving gardening a go again.  It's not easy here in FL.  Our growing seasons are fall, winter, and spring.  The heat, poor (sandy) soil, and other factors make it difficult at best.  One of the farms we deal with has expressed to us how hard and frustrating it can be.  We made a patch last fall using the lasagna method (I posted about it previously on here, but am too lazy to go look it up and link it - how's that for honesty?) and let it cook down until this past weekend.  It didn't cook down quite like the book implied it would, but oh well, it's time to get on with things.  Two excruciating trips to Home Depot (excruciating only because hubby has to wander all over the store looking at other things) and lots of work and sweat and it's done.  We got a walkway put around the entire bed, posts and fencing up (to keep out the raccoons, possums, armadillos, and even our own cat!), and hubby even fashioned a little door.  Where's the picture you ask?  I was too tired to take one.  The bed is 4x16 so I laid out 2 foot squares with string.  I have worked the last couple of days on getting all the seeds in (I don't claim to be an expert gardener nor do I claim to even do everything right - I put seeds straight in the soil - no starting anything indoors and then transplanting - it worked 3 years ago when we had raised beds so I'm hoping it works again).  We ran out of money so there were no "teepees" or "stakes" purchased for things like tomatoes.  We have plenty of oak trees that need to be trimmed so I got to work cutting smaller sucker branches from those, stripping them, and fashioning those into "teepees".  Hey, you do what you have to do, especially when the well ($$$) has run dry.  I had forgotten how much I enjoyed gardening, but I also had forgotten just how tiring it can be as well.  I ache all over.  I'm exhausted.  You'd think that would help me sleep at night, but no such luck.  

So there you go - a brief, REAL glimpse at life as I know it right now. 

I am a bird brain ... heehee!  Seriously, I have birds on the brain.  This Great Backyard Bird Count has been loads of fun for our family this year.  Tomorrow (Monday the 18th) is the last day to participate!  Head on over to the site to find out how to join in the fun if you haven't already.