Turkey Lurkey

This is Fernando the Black Spanish turkey.

I wasn't sure if he was going to be a tom,

but there's no question.

He's not Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner

or dinner at all.

He just spends his days hanging with his duck friends.

Make Way for Monarchs

Last year I started working on making my gardens

a monarch waystation

(you can read about that here).

I was little discouraged because I didn't really see many monarchs.

Actually, I didn't see any.

But I did see some swallowtails, 

so it was worth the work.

This year was entirely different.

I discovered that I have monarch caterpillars all over my milkweed.

And I also see 5-10 monarchs in the yard at any given time.

Hoping to eventually see a monarch chrysalis or 10

on the milkweed soon.

Bathroom Magic

In addition to being visited by the Bathroom Fairy, 

we've also been visited by his counterpart: The Plumbing Fairy.

Here you can see the shower basin in place with the Plumbing fairy

my husband Big E working on the shower faucet hardware.

There aren't many photos to show, 

but we have checked toilet placement,

and added plumbing lines for sink, shower and toilet.

I'm happy to report that there are no leaks

as I was instrumental in helping with checking the lines.

It is important to make sure when checking water lines that you have a bucket handy

just in case you can't tell if the faucet hardware is turned to the "on" position.

Also, remember to empty said bucket after it fills with water

from the turned on shower

so the Bathroom Fairy your Dad doesn't find his bucket full of water.

More Progress

After some setbacks in the bathroom,

we're once again back on track.

The shower basin we had ordered

turned out not to be what we needed.

So I went back to what I wanted originally- a 42"x42" square base,

and planned to move the toilet

(apparently you can't have your toilet and shower within a certain distance

which was causing design issues, but problem solved).

So the Bathroom Fairy showed up and built the partition wall for the shower stall.

The front (where the ladder is) will be a glass door,

and there will be glass on the top of the partition wall.

More has been done since these photos, 

and I will reveal that progress as I manage to catch up with posts.

Stay tuned!