How we spent our weekend....

It was a warm, er well 40 ish and sunny Saturday afternoon so I went down our fencelines (we own the property on both sides for now) and cleaned out the bluebird boxes. I don't expect the bluebirds for at least another month, but when they come home for the summer they will want their houses move in ready.... I use a cordless drill with a phillips drill bit, and of course I always carry a refreshment.

We spaced the bluebird boxes twenty five feet apart, but swallows will also use these boxes as nests and usually every other box will have been occupied by a swallow. There is a difference in how they build their nests. The bluebirds fill them fuller. None were empty so I was quite satisfied.

On Sunday my son invited his buds over for a little male bonding. They cooked Gumbo. Someone's mom gave them a recipe and helped them with the shopping (where to go because it is hard to find ethnic foods like anduoille sausage in this area).

They cooked what normally takes about four hours and condensed it into two with tricks like high heat and the boys each did a 15 minute rotation on stirring, like every 15 minutes it was someone else's turn. I offered suggestions like, you should brown the meat first for better flavor but i was over ruled.

The put the minute rice in with the water and then boiled it (sigh).

I think they were happy with the results. I went out before they were done and while the kitchen was pretty neat when i left (they were cleaning as they went) it looked like a hurricane went through after that, even though amazingly all the dirty dishes were in the sink.