Maryanne, we have owls, hawks, turkeys, vultures, herons, cranes, lots of big birds in the woods across the road and at the bottom of the yard along the creek. And every so often we get lucky to see one, but I hadn't thought about playing recorded calls to see who will answer. Did the leader play a commercially available tape?

That high school kid of Kat's could stay busy for a while, if room and board and air fare were built in. I have one of my own and two of his friends here this morning--they spent the night playing video games. I wonder if I could budge any of them to help cut up and stack the limbs I took down last summer? Probably not--working for mom isn't as entertaining as working for someone else. I removed all of the limbs but two main big tree branches are still intact on the ground. Maybe I need to get motivated and take out the saw and cut it up myself. What I really need is to get myself a chain saw. I'd use it several times a year, so would justify purchase versus rental, I think.

I've decided to break the day down this way: I'll garden for a while this morning. When I reach a logical stopping point (probably when the boys need to be taken home) I'll take along this week's load of laundry (including gardening stuff) and swing by the laundromat. Wash takes 25 minutes. Friends are coming over for dinner tomorrow, so I need to do some meal planning. The house looks pretty good, if I can cram all of my son's stuff into his bedroom. :)

SRS