Chores on Douglas Mountain

Deets and Margo take their mountain chores seriously. They patrol the land looking for noxious weeds such as the Common Mullein, aka Miner's Toilet Paper. It's a very satisfying weed to pull out of the ground with it's shallow roots and soft, non-spiky texture.  They love watering the plants with Grandpa's super-soaker and hoisting up the newly filled bird seed feeders high into the trees. Almost immediately they get to watch giant blue jays gorge themselves. Margo and Deets helped with cleaning out my parents camper in exchange for taking naps/sleeping in it- they were both mortified to hear that we do not plan to use a camper when we move to Africa next month (as much as I LOVE sleeping on the ground...)

Probably the most entertaining chore of all is refilling the hummingbird feeders. My parents have several around the house and they go through about 3 gallons of boiled sugar water each week. With no wonder- at any time there are about 4 or 5 hummingbirds at each feeder, wings flapping up to 70x/sec and heart beats raging high as 1,260 beats/minute. Some are nice, others are bullies, dive bombing the others to gain position. Sometimes they dive bomb people too, so it's been an exercise in calmness and tranquility for me. I strongly dislike birds, but I have appreciated the challenge of capturing their movement mid-flight. 

Filling up the bird bath