Few birds are more industrious than the Carolina Wren. This flitting, active, vocal, terrestrial birds investigate every nook and cranny of your property and possessions to find a suitable nest. And they make several nests before deciding on one.
The alacrity of their nest building means that the grill of your truck will be empty in the morning, but stuffed full of mossy and grasses by evening. Putting a towel over the grill helps. And speaking of grills, I opened the gas grill on the deck and found that these busy builders and considered this a suitable place. they had to enter through the back vent...not very convenient, but these little guys can fit many places.
Earlier in the season, when I found the nest (no eggs), I put it in a black plant pail and put it at the bottom of the grill. Still an nestly protected place. They moved on. But about 3 weeks ago, I decided to check on it, and the female flew out.
Today I note that at least one as fledged as I spotted him begging for food (quivering all over with his mouth open) in a small, low sapling. I think that the parents are trying to coax others out. I surmise this from the parent having mealworms in its mouth and chipping. It finally gave up and went to the nest. And when the mealworms were gone, he chipped and chipped at me (he can see me through the kitchen window) asking for food.
I like using my grill when I'm canning because the burner is so powerful, the water comes up to temp quickly. Plus that keeps the heat out of the kitchen. I didn't want to cause an early fledge, so I did not mess with the grill...both timings were certainly coincident...their "fixin" to leave, and my "fixin" to can. I used my gas cooktop. I had already made one batch of relish with 15 lbs of jalapeno peppers. I bought 30 lbs of peppers this time. I scaled my prep over three days of slicing and culling the innards to make ready for grinding. Grinding takes just a small amount of time. Sliced in half lengthwise, an apple corers makes it easy to scoop out seeds/wall.
To that I added red onions. Further, I went out to the garden and picked green tomatoes...they won't turn as August has a progressive waning of the sun. Of course my husband chastised me that I should have taken smaller ones. We cannot eat the tomatoes we have, and we give many away. He's a tomato hoarder!
I cut them up ground them. I then set them in a sieve to drain.
By the end of the day on Saturday, I had been on my feet for hours. All in all I had made 62 pints/half pints. We will enjoy both using and giving as gifts.
