Another Cardinal at My Door

This time it's a male. He's been trying to get in ALL. DAY. LONG.

He hops from branch to branch a few times, cheeping, and about every ten or fifteen seconds he flies into the window. I've tried to chase him off, but he comes right back. Poor fellow. I don't think he realizes that there's nothing for him in here, except dogs that want to kill him. He's literally been at this for about five hours now.

And speaking of killer dogs, my little attack pastry finally made herself useful this morning and killed a mouse! I'm so proud. Did I mention I'm AT WAR with the mice, now? It's official. They've decided that my oven would make a delightful residence (the drawer under it, actually). I've decided that they need to die. Oh, you can call me heartless if you like, but they're eating my food and crapping in my oven. Therefore, it is ON.

Hubby got the worm bed almost finished over the weekend, too, so on Friday I will be meeting a local lady I met on Craigslist and taking delivery of two pounds of red wrigglers. That should be an interesting trip. Mmmmmmm....squirmy. The bees seem to have mostly moved into their hive (as best we can tell) and are doing their little bee thing. The chickens are fat and happy as ever, the arrival of the ducks was delayed due to inclement weather, and we're looking forward to our sheep shearing excursion in a couple of weeks.

The weather here took a rather abrupt turn this week and we suddenly have nights in the upper 40's to lower 50's. I've never seen such a sudden shift from summer to fall, and I'm thrilled! My only lament is that my beloved fire pit is still standing at the old house, and I'm desperate to sit under the stars by a warm fire with a glass of wine. We need to make a trip to town this weekend, so maybe we can disassemble it then and bring it down. I'm not sure how long I can survive without fire.