This has been such a cold winter for this area. I've been waiting, relatively patiently, for Spring to make it's appearance. Just about the time I think it's going to be warm we get snow again, but I have some good signs that it's really here now.
One sign is the growing small peaches on my peach tree. Yes, they survived despite that snow when they were blooming. Another sign is that I mowed my lawn for the first time. It's growing well now.
The best sign though is that the barn swallows came back and are nesting over my front porch!!! They had been nesting there every year since I moved in here, but about 4 years ago I had siding put on the house. I didn't realize that when they put the siding on, they closed off a small ledge over my front porch where the swallows had always nested. When the swallows arrived that Spring they had nowhere to nest and went elsewhere. So that summer I put some small open boxes up there where the ledge used to be. The first year they ignored them. Last year they were around checking them out but didn't nest there. Later in the summer a small bird, house wren I think, built a twig nest in one of the boxes. This year a pair of swallows have built their mud nest on top of the twig nest in that box! I'm so delighted to have them back nesting there. I can watch them clearly from the small window by my front door. If course they make a mess of my front porch, between the mud for the nest and the usual bird droppings, but a messy porch to clean is worth watching them nest and watching the babies grow up. I've seen them have anywhere from 2 to 5 babies in a nest. One year I had two pair nest up there, but not at the same time. The second pair a
ctually waited until the first pair had raised their young and left. The second pair didn't do well though, probably because it was so late in the year by then. My house faces west and the front porch gets very hot during the summer. They only had one baby and it didn't survive. This year, there's just the one pair and they're happily building on top of the twigs and staying there at night. They haven't laid eggs yet, but I imagine they will soon. This is a picture I found on the web of what these little birds look like.
ctually waited until the first pair had raised their young and left. The second pair didn't do well though, probably because it was so late in the year by then. My house faces west and the front porch gets very hot during the summer. They only had one baby and it didn't survive. This year, there's just the one pair and they're happily building on top of the twigs and staying there at night. They haven't laid eggs yet, but I imagine they will soon. This is a picture I found on the web of what these little birds look like.Today its raining. It started yesterday and last night with some heavier rain, but now it's a light, steady soaking rain. My grass will need mowing again by the time it dries out. This is now the massive growth time of year for lawns, when mowing more than once a week is necessary.
Thursday I had a molar extracted. It was a crowned tooth that had decayed up under the crown. I'm going to have it replaced with an implant, but the first step is extracting the decaying tooth. The oral surgeon I went to was fast. He shot me up with Novocaine at 11:21 am and at 11:46 I was getting into my car to drive home. Amazing. I have a gaping hole in my jaw, but so far it hasn't been too bad. A couple Advil every 6-ish hours has been enough to keep it from hurting. I did take a prescription pain-killer Thursday afternoon when the numbness wore off, and half of one at midnight that first night, but since then Advil has been enough. I've been following post-extraction instructions religiously. I had a dry socket after extraction of my wisdom teeth a few millenia ago, and I'm hoping to prevent a repeat of that. NOT fun.
This will be my second implant. The molar behind this molar went through the same thing 6 years ago. A crown with the tooth decayed up under it. We tried to save that one ... remove the crown, drill out the decay and replace with a new crown, but the tooth was too far gone. There wasn't enough left to re-crown, so I had it removed and an implant done. The whole process takes 6 to 9 months, giving time for healing of the jaw bone, placing of the implant, various impressions, etc, etc. But I've never had a day of trouble with my other implant. It's just like having a good tooth back there. So I'm having another one done. Yes, it's more expensive than dentures or partials or bridges, but it's permanent and you don't have all the extra care you have to take with those things. You brush, floss, etc, along with all your other teeth.
Time to do the usual Sunday chores. I'll keep you up to date on how the nesting swallows do this year.
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