I remembered the nest and I thought I would check it out again since it had been 5 days since I had last peeked.   I wondered if I would see baby birds yet.   Nope, just 2 more eggs.   Now we have three robin eggs.  So then I thought I would research a little bit about Robin eggs.

Robins usually lay four eggs and then stop. Like most birds, they lay one egg a day until their clutch is complete. If you remove one egg each day, some kinds of birds will keep laying for a long time, as if they can stop laying only when the clutch of eggs feels right underneath them. Robins lay four eggs (or sometimes five) and then, even if only two or three eggs remain in the nest, they stop laying.

Until they've laid a full clutch, robins allow all the eggs to stay cool so the babies don't start to develop. That's pretty smart! It means all the babies hatch close to the same time. Mother robins may start incubating their eggs during the evening after the second egg is laid, or after all the eggs are laid. They sit on the eggs for 12 to 14 days. The female usually does all the incubating. Even in good weather, she rarely leaves her eggs for more than 5 to 10 minutes at a time.

The eggs usually hatch a day apart in the order they were laid. Naked, reddish, wet, and blind, the babies require A LOT of food. It's a full time job for both parents now to protect the nest, find food, and feed the clamoring babies during the 9-16 days they spend in the nest.

So I guess I will be waiting on egg #4 and then perhaps another 12-14 days after that happens we'll have baby robins for a week and a half.

  The nest is so close I could get a photo like this just by standing on the bottom stair of my deck, after the Robin got scared temporarily and flew off.  She was reprimanding me from the tree near by and I have no idea why she chose this bush rather than a tree.  

Today was the disaster drill in our town that I mentioned I was going to be an actor in before.  It was an explosion and fire at the Nursing Home, with hazardous materials present (although what those were I don't know) My "role" was that I was an 82 year old schizophrenic woman with diabetes, who had a head injury and low blood pressure.

It was very interesting.   And LONG.  Even though I got done early I thought it was LONG.   We all arrived at 4 for breifing and makeup, the drill started at 5:30 and was to go until perhaps 9:30 but my own part ended at about 7:30, and the rest were wrapped up by 8.  First we had to assume positions at 5:30 and wait for the rescue crews to arrive (15 minutes laying on a cement driveway with plywood piled over and around us)  Some people were "walking" wounded, and some people were playing the part of agitators- coming to find family members and getting in the way.  As I said the first responders got there in about 15 minutes and began processing.  There were I think about 30 live actors, and they also had dummies too... so I don't know exactly how many 'casualties' in all.   One fellow lay down in the bushes to be injured and they didn't find him for a half hour... oops.   But that was a good call- and a good teaching experience I thought.  For my own case- I got first treated in about 30 minutes from the time of the start of the drill.   People came to talk to me, but I first got aid after 30 mintues.  I was put in a neck brace first, then on a wood strecher board and given oxygen.  I was on that hard board and in that neck brace for probably an hour maybe an hour and a half and let me tell you I am sore.  That was no picnic.  I did get three ambulance rides, and I had to go through decontamonation twice...  That part was a bit of an error, since I was only supposed to go through decontamination once and go on the ambulance to the hospital and back.   So that part could have gone smoother... but all in all I was impressed by the whole operation.  They had units from all over the county come in and they all worked together very well and seemed to be coordinated.  I assumed I lived although my injury was classified as "red" which is the most serious.  There were four classifications, Green which were walking wounded, Yellow which were somewhat more serious but not life threatening, Red which was life threatening, and Black- DEAD.  I saw for sure there were at least two people that got the black cards.

Tony Chestnut Nose I Love You

Wanted to have a link to the Tony Chestnut video still available in case anyone still wanted to view it.   Soon, I am going to be posting a new one from Payton's soccer game yesterday.  He really had a good time, and we were proud he decided to play.  He loves going to soccer practices, but the last game he didn't want to play no matter what we said we could not get him to go into the game.  This time we didn't force the issue and I just told him we'd let him decide.  At first he said he didn't want to but then was asking who else was playing... and then right before the game was to start he said he wanted to go.

Earlier that morning Dad came out to go mushroom hunting and didn't find much.  I decided rather than fry the few there were I would try to make a sauce.   It wasn't that successful.  The mushroomy flavor didn't really come through.  But I tried something new.   I know there are dozens of morel recipes out there.   I didn't have time to properly research them.