Birdhouses and

Yesterday afternoon we met some friends at Red's in Kalispell for an early dinner and drinks. I'm not a real social creature, and I'm definitely not a "let's get drinks" guy. And I'm horrible at talking (shouting) over loud music or a blaring TV. But I had fun yesterday with Monique, Martha, Chris, and Karen.

Today as Monique took the ornaments off the outdoor Christmas trees, I built a birdhouse from a cedar fence plank. I was slow -- I meant deliberate -- and the house turned out great. We'll put it on the cottonwood by the river, and hopefully a bird couple will like it.

The wild turkeys are hanging out with the deer again, which is fun to see. The raccoons are also active again -- lost another suet block to the handy little twerps. I don't want to deny them food, but if just left to the chickadees, nuthatches, and woodpeckers, a block of suet would probably last a month. One raccoon can take the whole block with him/her in one night. And it's hung on a branch that isn't exactly accessible. I take down the bird seed feeder nightly, but it's not practical to take the suet out of the aspen every day.

We don't have quite this much snow anymore, but winter's not over, and this was a great sunny day.