Gourd Trellis

I had not seen a gourd trellis until late spring, 2010.  Yep, just last year.  How could I live so long on God's green earth and not see one of these cool inventions?

We went to a local farm to purchase some veggies and off in a field was a small structure covered in leaves.  I couldn't resist check'n it out.  When I arrived at the structure I found it was open in the front and back (or side to side if you prefer) and inside were gourds hanging down like bells in the belfry.  I just stood there with my mouth hanging open.  I had no idea that gourds could hang like that.  I thought their weight would cause them to break away from the mother vine, falling to the ground.  That obviously was not the case.

Since this is the first year of the gourd trellis I don't have any pictures to show but here is one I found on the internet to illustrate the gourd trellis:

There are all kinds of ways to make a gourd trellis.  You can make them, as I did, out of re-bar and 4x4 fence wire.  The picture on the left is obviously made with wood.  They can be shaped in rectangles or circles or Quonset hut shape.  All you really need is something the vine can climb and a little imagination.  Oh, maybe a small amount of sweat would help.

So my gourd trellis is finished except for the all important gourds.  That's Ginger's department and since it's still winter and I had to use a pick to break the icy soil to create the planter I be think'n it's going to be 4 months or more before we even see the beginnings of a leaf covered structure yet alone the fruits of my labor (pun intended). 

I might add that I do have a "plan B" in mind in case the gourd plant takes off and the trellis starts to sag under the weight of all the swollen ovaries we call gourds.  I'll resist implementing "plan B" until I see how our growing season develops.

Here are a few pictures of my gourd trellis:

The planting area is 3.5 ft. by 2 ft and the span is about 6 ft.
The fencing material is 4 ft. wide with 4x4 inch openings.
The re-bar is 1/2 inch for the vertical members and
5/8 inch for the horizontal members.  The re-bar comes
pre-rusted and they don't charge extra for that. 

I guess this can be called a "coming attraction!"  Kinda get's you excited about spring... well, it gets me excited! 

Whoohoo!

There's One in Every Crowd

One picture | Thousand words.

(You can click the picture to see it full size)

A non-conformist Whoohoo to ya.

Ghost!

I could only see it with the dark tree in the background. 

It's kind of spooky in that the poor whowho birdie that crashed into my window on January 2nd (story here) would leave a trace of himself on the window. 

I hope the pictures are clear enough for everyone to see.  The photo looks a little abstract but in reality the trace is quite clear.  If you study the first photo you will, hopefully, see the "ghost" of the whowho birdie.

Here are the pictures for your consideration. 

  The wings are spread, the head appears to be looking
to it's left (photo right) and tail feathers spread wide.

In place of Whoohoo, for this post I give a memorable Whowho.

Alfred Hitchcock ~ The Birds

Just 7 days ago the Sharp-shinned Hawk was making backyard history and today we relive the epic Hitchcock movie "The Birds."

It snowed overnight and when I opened the blinds I was rewarded with a picture perfect winter scene.



 About 10 AM Ginger said there was a "herd" of birds in the backyard.  I asked her if she meant flock and she said no, it seemed more like a herd to her.  So I went to check it out.

The following pictures are of Starlings.  They are known for their large flocks but I have to say that I've never seen anything like the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds... of birds that stopped by for a bath.  Maybe not rare for Starlings but rare for me to witness.  They were on every waterfall en masse.  Some, that were apparently too low in the heirarchy, had to make due with snow baths.  It surely was a "bathing frenzy."  For those relegated to snow baths, some looked like they were making snow angels. 

If you wish to see the original sized picture just double click the picture and by magic the original will appear.

And here is a video taken with my tiny camera and held in my shakey hands:

If you watch closely you will see that every now and then a Starling will get washed over the falls or pushed over, not sure which.  You would think these creatures had never seen a waterfall before.

They were here in force for about 25-30 minutes and then the crowd stated to thin and now they are all gone with nothing left except tracks and crap in the snow.

Whoohoo!!

Boink! The Hawk is Here...

Today was the third straight day I've seen the Sharp-shinned Hawk in the backyard.  Today was a bit different ~ here is the story.

It's a Sunday and I'm reading while comfortable in my chair.  Ginger is making pizza dough and the TV is making noise but I can't tell you what noise it was.  Then came a LOUD CRACK and I thought the window that looks into the backyard must surely be shattered.  I jumped up, my book falling to the floor, saying "What the hell was that?" 

The window was intact.  There were feathers stuck in the screen.  I rushed to the window and looked out to see a whowho birdie (mourning dove if you haven't been reading the blog) laying on the cold concrete.  Dead?  No, it was moving a bit.  The bird rolled onto it's belly but was obviously dazed. 

Not at all dazed was the Sharp-shinned Hawk sitting about 10 feet away from the whowho birdie!

The dove rose to it's feet and was twitching it's head like it was trying to get focused.  It wasn't completely recovered.  The hawk just sat on the birdbath. 

It was obvious to me that when the hawk had came to the yard this caused the birds that were feeding under the bird feeder to flee.  This poor whowho birdie in it's flight for life had forgotten to watch were it was going and ran into the window knocking itself senseless.

What surprised me was the hawk didn't pounce on the easy meal. 

The whowho birdie finally seemed to regain it's senses.  I decided I would try and get a picture of the hawk and whowho birdie in the same frame.  As I reached for my camera the whowho birdie decided to make an exit.  The hawk immediately took off with the whowho birdie in it's sights.  The whowho birdie made it about 20 feet when the hawk intercepted it and down to the ground they went.  It seemed to me the whowho birdie was dead by the time they reached terra firma.

I stepped outside with the hopes of getting a picture but as soon as I stepped out the hawk took flight with the prey firmly gripped in it's talons.

Whew!