And the rain continues!   I am trying my best to keep things mowed but with rain pretty much every day I will likely have to have to do 3 passes on the drainfield if it ever dries up!   Never fear I always have stuff to do and honestly we are grateful for the rain.

I have to share that the wild birds here this year are pretty spectacular.   After having the oriole visit earlier this spring, I now have also seen a Western Tanager and and Evening Grossbeak which I have not seen here in about 15 years.   This has prompted me to rearrange my living room now so I can sit and actually look out the front windows and watch the birds (and the neighbors drive by).

While my old timey purple iris out back are still going strong the Japanese Iris (or what we call wild iris) are just starting to bloom and I am just starting to see buds on my other big iris.    In between rain storms I was able to get out with the macro lens and get this photo of the wild iris and just to take a fun one of the now defunct daffodils.

Am still working hard at more interactions with Iago and this week her travel carrier (which cost WAY too much money for what I got) showed up.  While I'm disappointed in it we are still going to use it and if I don't get a new DIY one done before we start to travel again then I'll have it.   So I got the walnuts out and we started "crate training".   I didn't get all fancy with her and use the clicker as I was pretty sure I could just work with treats and praise.   For all her weirdness she really does catch on pretty quick.  It took her a while to warm up to it but within  about 15 minutes she was  going in and out both ends and getting on the perch following the treats.  I'll take the win for now.   Her camper cage parts should  be here this week so that will be next on the list of projects.

PVC has been purchased and the netting showed up for the end of the yard.   Am hoping I can maybe get away without the horizontal supports this time (cuz dangit PVC has also gotten expensive!)   

The Universe also gifted me again at the grocery store where I ran into a long  time friend who now lives elsewhere and is back visiting.    Dinner was had and the most marvelous catch up.

Meanwhile this is pretty much the dogs' life.   Louie tries to get every sun ray possible and is loving the option to go out front when he wants pretty much.   The rest of these guys - dunno what to say.

Last weekend was pretty quiet as I had registered for a bunch of online music workshops as part of Quarantune.   I have no fewer than 4 instruments I am slowly working on and want to get those opportunities in when I can and this is a great way to do it.   I took a super basic 101 of my autoharp, a couple new chord lessons for my mountain dulcimer, a great hammered dulcimer class and a beginner 101 Irish bones class.   All were super fun and I learned a lot.  Summer is hard though as I just have too many other things going on to get in the practice I need.   No problem though as I still have the materials and the contacts if I need to go back.   

The week did give us a couple days of sunshine-like weather where I booted dogs and parrot all outside.  Also mowing the lawns but didn't have time to get to the acreage sadly and now it is back to raining every day.  It's never gonna dry out!

My project THIS weekend was to get Iago's camping cage completed and I accomplished that!   Time is getting short before our next camping trip.   I also had a few odds and ends in the trailer to get completed and since it was rainy all weekend good time for those!

Of course it involved a couple extra trips to the hardware store and it isn't  professional looking at all but it fits her and it works so I'm good with it.  The sides are acrylic 1/4" pegboard, used so that I don't have to worry about her chewing on walls or anything in the camper AND she's a bit more secure from the dogs.  The top, bottom and door are recycled dog expen panels  cut to size and then used the dremel to smooth the exposed ends where I cut them.   The stand is a childs folding table which once I got it into the trailer think I may just remove the legs from it for easier moving.  I installed handles on the sides to not only carry (it's pretty heavy) but also to secure it  both to the bottom and then in the trailer as needed.   We'll see how it works out.    

Cage in, trailer sorta cleaned and some tweeking of the shelves and pegboard are done (and bed is now made.   Poodles (well one of em) supervised but the old man decided it was more fun to wander off and not come when called - so he got put back in the yard.

I did get some more flower photos (my iris are blooming like mad) but will share those and hopefully more of the gardens next time (if the weather ever cooperates).   One hazard of trying to use the macro lens is that if there is even a small breeze we get blurry photos.    There should be a bunch of bitterroot blooming as well once the sun comes back out.

I'll end it here instead with critter shots!  LOL

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