Cheap Thrills

I have seen this not-so-little guy hanging out in our backyard three times in the past week, always right before dusk. I know it's not exactly a good picture, but I just so happened to have my phone with me when I took this photo from inside the house. Since I always see him (or her, how does one tell?) on the fence or on top of the shed, I suspect his roost/nest must be close by. My husband and sons think it's a hawk, and I agree, but I couldn't figure out what kind, although I looked through the field guide we have in the house.

Goes to show you don't have to spend any money to be entertained. We have two large undeveloped tracts of land on two sides of our neighborhood as well as a state park on the other side of one of those tracts, so we do get our share of wildlife around here. Certainly a far cry from what I was used to growing up in Tokyo, Japan, which was nothing more than an asphalt jungle. I do miss it sometimes, but glad I don't live there anymore. The most I saw of wildlife back then were some sparrows, crows and pigeons.

Yesterday, I was at a loss as to what to make for dinner, so I threw some chicken bones I had in the freezer from past chicken dinners with some water and boiled that for a while until the broth turned a beige, murky color. I then strained the bones and other bits, added about 4 diced carrots, 2 stalks of celery, an onion and a bell pepper with some chicken bouillon granules and let all that simmer until the carrots were cooked through. In the meantime, I took out a pound of ground pork from a pig our neighbour raised but we shared the cost of upkeep and mixed in an egg, some grated Parmesan and tamale flour (my husband is on a low carb diet right now so can't use bread crumbs). I made little meatballs with that and dropped them into the soup to cook. My version of Italian Wedding Soup.  I know it needed some greens, but the rest of the family won't eat it if I had put any in there.  Everything was already on hand, and it was cheap. Best of all, everyone seemed to enjoy it, even the picky eaters of the family who shall remain anonymous... I wonder if the hawk would eat any of it if I put some outside?

You might enjoy taking a look at a live feed of nesting eagle chicks @ www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles. This morning, they were off the air but there are links to when the chicks hatched. My son told me about this site which he viewed with his class at high school live. He said while they were watching, the mother bird brought back a fish and the father bird brought back a rabbit for the chicks to eat.  Free fun is everywhere, if you care to find it!