Dog Days of August

All has been quiet on the blog front this month. Mainly, we've just been trying to keep cool. Birmingham had 15 days of 100+ heat in August, far above the normal high of low to mid 90's. Combine that with a 100-year drought, which we're also having, and mother nature has not been kind to us. Finally, this week the weather has "cooled off" back down into the 90's with a few thunderstorms. Yesterday I watched the creek flow for the first time in many months.

There is some good bird news, though! The hummingbirds have been loving the heat, and they come by our feeder from morning till night in bunches. Totally unafraid of us, they hover within a couple feet when we're out on the deck, checking us out. August is also the month of baby birds venturing further out from their nests, visiting our feeders with their scruffy feathers and mottled coloring. We've seen Cardinal and Titmouse babies for sure, and also a leucistic Chickadee, which means that they are partially lacking pigment (similar, but not the same as, albino) so this guy is bright white over most of his body instead of the usual dull gray. Just last week we put out birdbaths, and have been awaiting our first sighting of a bird using one. We have promising preliminary evidence in the form of a Cardinal feather floating in one of the baths yesterday.

We also stopped in on the 2007 Stokin' the Fire, the Birmingham stop of the pro BBQ cooking tour. We ate some good South Carolina style 'cue, and checked out the ridiculous RV/BBQ kitchen on wheels that all of the professional competitors brought to the event.

Katie took a work trip to Chicago while I held down the fort here and survived the IT onslaught that is the start of the fall semester. We did some projects around the house and now the workshop is ready for Katie to get into all of her woodcraft projects she's been wanting to do. Hope everyone out there is doing well and looking forward to autumn!