Me Singing "Umbrella" by Rihanna

Umbrella is a great song! I really love Umbrella by Rihanna and I wanted to share it with you. I hope you subscribe if you like it.

Top 25 Coolest BBQ Grills

Muscle Car GrillDavid Klose’s Baby Carriage BBQ Pit The Bar-B-Q Shack Chevy V8 Grill Classic Holden Monaro GTS Grill The King of Barbecues Grill The Supreme - Diamond Plated BBQ Grill Dragon BBQ Grill Motor Head Grill Handgun BBQ Grill HEMI-Powered BBQ Grill Vintage Jaguar Austin-Healey BBQ Grill Monster Pitt RUB Restaurant’s Mobile Barbecue Pit Traeger’s Novelty BBQ Grills
Redneck Pool Heater Santa Maria Superior Welding’s BBQ Swing-A-Way Grill Talos Outdoor Cooking Suite Gator Pit’s Texas Legend Texas Six Shooter BBQ Grill Locomotive BBQ Grill BBQ Under The Hood USB Grill Texas Lil’s World’s Largest Transportable Smoker
Check out some of the most original BBQ grills and smokers on the planet! Especially David Klose's 25,000 lbs. 18 wheeler BBQ smoker! These guys have got BBQ down to a science!

An Alternative to the Ubiquitous Lanterns

Image via Design Sponge

Well it took three full days to get the tree up, but most of our Christmas decorating is finally done. I’ll try and post a few photos of the highlights in the next day or so.

But, never satisfied without a looming task, I keep coming back to this DIY project from Design Sponge. I love these modern paper ornaments, and they seem super easy to make… at least easy enough for Audrey to help with. Plus, if it involves cutting paper, she's in.

Maybe it’s time to retire the rice paper globes in our dining room...

Common Redpolls in southern Wisconsin

Be on the watch! Many birdwatchers are reporting Common Redpolls at their backyard feeders in recent weeks. A bird of the boreal and taiga regions, irruption cycles occur with widespread failure in seed-crop production, causing them to head further south for sources of food and spend the winter months. I haven't seen a Common Redpoll yet this fall/winter, but with the recent snowstorm, I'm sure it will only be a matter of time. These photographs of redpolls were taken in 2005 in my backyard.





Common Redpoll images 2007 Mike McDowell

Kill the Cat That Kills the Bird?

An excerpt from an article worth reading...

"In the past decade, at least a dozen studies published in top scientific journals like Biological Conservation, Journal of Zoology and Mammal Review have chronicled the problem of cat predation of small mammals and birds. The takeaway is clear: cats are a growing environmental concern because they are driving down some native bird populations — on islands, to be sure, but also in ecologically sensitive continental areas. At hot spots along the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf Coast, cat predation is a growing threat to shorebirds and long-distance migrants. And as wild habitat becomes more fragmented by human development, even some inland species are under increasing pressure from both house cats and their feral cousins."

Link: Full article from the New York Times