Chickadee Tantrums

I spent the day outside!

(That was going to be half of a sentence, but I decided it expressed the happiness of my day quite well all on it's own.)

I spent the morning exploring the back corner of our property, looking for more plants for another terrarium or a dish garden for the deck. This is the terrarium I replanted on Sunday. Only a couple of trees were doing very well, so I took out everything else and started it over.

I also wanted to transplant Beech Trees to the little "grove" in our front yard. Beech Trees are one of my favorites and they're popping up all over the place on our 20+ acres. Except where I want them. Fingers crossed I got a big enough root ball.

I've been helping Tom all spring get next winter's wood up to the house for splitting. We're borrowing dad's ATV and trailer to get down into the woods where his truck would have a hard time going. This was one of my better ideas. Given that I'm the one that usually lugs the sawed up pieces to where the truck can get to. When I saw how far away I would be carrying the last section he cut, I decided it was time for a new plan! Tom is having a blast on the thing and is going to miss it when we give it back. I suspect he might be on the lookout for one of his own.

I had staked out a tiny "hackmatack" tree that I thought would be perfect for a dish garden, but when I went to dig it up, it had an extra foot long trunk growing under the moss. Not going to work! So I kept my eye out for another "perfect" miniature tree. Of course you never find one when you're looking for it.

I wandered to where I remembered a few cedar grow to look for small seedlings. I found three! I never see small cedar trees around here. I think the deer eat them as fast as they get started. Tough luck guys: I raided YOUR garden for a change :)

In the afternoon I cleared out one of my gardens that had grown over badly with weeds. There are several bird house boxes hanging out there and I suspect one may have been home to a family of Chickadees recently. This little guy put up quite a fuss when I started sawing limbs off the trees hanging low over the lawn. I've been mowing this section all spring while Tom hauls wood, and some of the branches just about took my head off trying to go under to mow.

Was afraid I must have sawed off a limb with a nest in it by accident, judging by the fuss this Chickadee was making. Decided he was too small to be a mom. He was one noisy juvenile delinquent I can tell you! Pretty sure his mom came over to see what all the fuss was about when I noticed this much larger chickadee on a branch above.

About the Hacmatkack tree. I swear that was what we called it when I was growing up. There was one growing on Mom & Dad's front lawn and you NEVER park under it because sticky stuff drops off it constantly. I decided to google it to see if it was a real name.
Also called Larch Tamarack
One site said Hackmatack was also called Balsam Poplar.

No sir! Two different trees entirely.