u/michigancolt

The babies did some preening yesterday and this morning their wings look amazing! And they’re the colors I thought, so now the dark one is officially Gwenda and the light one Mair. Mair is the chill one and Gwenda is spicy. But both enjoy head scritches. The Google says they won’t start trying to fly for at least another 2 weeks and I hope that’s true because once that happens I don’t think I’ll be able to get leg bands on them (leg bands have shipped but may still take a while).

We also got two new guests yesterday! I got pictures of the one with the white tail but not of the one with white mottling all over. I hope they both come back.

I’m going to cross post this so sorry if you see it repeatedly!! All my pigeon presents arrived, so they now have a dedicated waterer that holds way more water than the dog bowl, plus a new seed mix, and little dishes so hopefully more can eat at once. I got rid of the stupid crap that apparently people throw at the birds which lands on my porch (plastic hangers are popular for no apparent reason). I also put out a little grit to see if Mama Brumby wants any. And I figured out how the babies like to be pet!! I am not a Bird Person but I do binge watch bird videos, and today I tried the super gentle ruffling action on their teensy heads. And they immediately settled and made themselves comfy (they’re always on alert when I first come out cause the adults all leave 😞). I adore them. I wish they wouldn’t grow up so fast though 🥺

I took delivery of many pigeon presents for the family on my porch. To be clear, they are not “my” pigeons, I’m just trying to be friends. I got grit among the presents, but I want to make sure I offer it properly. I plan to put it in its own little bowl.

1. When should I start offering it? The babies are 14 and 13 days old.

2. I have no way of making sure only Mama Brumby gets the grit. The Google says pigeons will not overeat when it comes to grit, but I’m worried she won’t get what she needs because the others will eat it. Anything I can realistically do, or just put it out and assume it’ll be okay?

3. How long should I keep grit available, roughly?

Thanks in advance!! Photos for tax

This looks way more yellow than it should, but I am nonetheless proud of my desk Tetris achievement. I had a bunch of loose stuff on top of the black five-drawer box (the fountain pens live in there), and when the transparent drawers came, I got so much stuff organized. And there is still a LOT of room in the drawers. For now the left side drawers are for stickers—top drawer can be used for any month, bottom drawer has month-specific stuff. On the other side I put my ink bottles (bottom) and the brush pens I use all the time. This is the calm (hahahahahaha) before the insanity: tomorrow my academic common planner and two of the three incoming sticker boxes will arrive!! One of the boxes is my giant subscription box. My insomnia won’t be going away any time soon, oh well!! 😁😁😁

Just curious, saw the babies doing this today and managed a video!

I’m verklempt over the appearance of adult-y feathers 😭 And their wee faces. I’ve been talking to them whenever I go out to fill the seed bowl. Fingers crossed they are my future friends.

I am not ready for adultish looking feathers 😭 They aren’t even 2 weeks olddddd

The family are going through the seeds like crazy. Good thing there were Prime deals on a nice seed mix and some grit for Mama Brumby. They have a dog bowl of water right now but Amazon also had a waterer for pigeons so they’re getting that too.

I have a pile of functional(ish) planner stickers that is growing at an alarming rate. Currently I can fit all my planner stickers into a box about the size of a USPS small flat rate box. I don’t think that’s going to work for much longer!! For those with limited space, how do you store your stickers, and do you have an organizational system that helps you find what you want faster? I’m trying really hard not to let the top of my newly reorganized desk get cluttered (it’s not big, and I have to share it with the desktop computer I use once a month LOL). The problem there is that if I can’t see something, it basically ceases to exist. I do have a little sticker album coming but I figure that’s more for making sure I have what I need, and ONLY what I need, when going on trips or something. Thanks in advance!!

Pic of my insane July calendar that looks totally under control and pretty because of the stickers 🤣

My porch has become a pigeon nursery and it’s so cool to know other people have become fascinated by their balcony babies too!! The pigeon couple on my porch are raising their second pair of babies, and I’m just in love with them. Also slightly paranoid—the parents were gone for a very long time on Sunday, and I ended up calling a wildlife emergency number terrified they’d abandoned the babies (who were under a week old). They’ve decided that my dog’s potty spot (wood chips in a kiddie pool) is the ideal place for raising children, which is kind of gross given that it’s a potty spot, but it’s handy also. If I check on the chicks and they’re in direct sun without a parent, I can easily rotate the pool to get them in the shade. The two babies from the first “litter” (I’m a dog person, I don’t know what word to use) come by pretty much every day to hang out and eat out of the seed bowl. Sometimes they bring their friends as well; so far (knock wood) the friends have not caused any issues with the parents or the wee babies. Somebody laid two eggs the other night and just left them on the bare cement of the porch; I moved them into the kiddie pool just in case. Brumby (mama/night shift pigeon) was definitely thinking about sitting on them for a bit, but then lost interest and sat on the babies again.

One of the most fun bits is that like clockwork, when I get up to feed my dogs, I can peek through the blinds and the chicks are always getting breakfast too. The adults are still super wary of me and fly away any time I come out briefly to refill them on seeds or to rotate the pool, so I’ve been talking to the babies anytime I’m out there. Today one of them was definitely looking me over, and she just looked calmly interested. (I know it’s fifty fifty and she could be a male but since I’m not planning to DNA test them, I gave the first two boy names and these two girl names. My friend insisted even though I can’t really tell anyone apart except the parents. I don’t make the rules.) I really hope I can make friends with them. I have to be really sneaky for now about watching them LOL. If they see me and they’re not busy eating or feeding, they usually leave.

Here are some photos of the new babies. They are 9 and 7 days old today! I can’t believe how fast they grow.

I’m just wondering! Even if my porch pigeons never stop flapping off when I go to refill the seed bowl, I’ll keep giving them seeds and trying to figure out how to tell them apart. But it would be cool to know if people have established trust/friendship with pigeons that don’t start off as pets.

Photo of the current porch babies at about 1 week old (one is 1-2 days behind the other one) during bowl refill, when I don’t have to get my phone camera to focus through my dirty sliding door.

Has anyone gone from an A5 to a B5 in the common planner, and how did you like it? I’m enjoying doing daily pages even though I also have my regular journal (writing only). I try to track some things regularly and lately I’ve been feeling squeezed, to the point that some days I don’t get everything onto the page. Obviously the B5 would give me a lot more space, but 1) I don’t know whether the months/weeks would then look barren and 2) there isn’t a B5 subscription where I get my functional stickers. Are all the boxes for days/weeks bigger or is there just added note space (the latter would be ideal). I’m definitely committed to my A5 the rest of this year, and I already got an undated A5 to use for 2027 because I have no restraint. I could just save that though, since it’s undated, in case things with the B5 didn’t work out. I’m a noob so I figured maybe there are others who have tried this. Thanks in advance!

Pic of my current A5 for tax

I figure you really can’t do better than an Irving last line. Yes I practiced this over and over with my Pilot Custom Heritage 912 <FA> and every time it came out different 🤦🏻‍♀️ I know, more practice more practice. I don’t absolutely hate how it came out so I’m calling it a win. (For inquiring minds, this is the last line of The Hotel New Hampshire.)

Earlier this year when I went down the fountain pen rabbit hole, I redid the left side drawers and shelves, plus the center, of my desk to be friendlier to my fountain pen activities. Now that I’m also down the planner rabbit hole, I completely redid the right side so I have places to put all my random pens and stickers and Washi tape etc. I then declared Ephemera Day and put my favorite finds on today’s page. Left a little room for more pens in case I get a third wind and try to work on pen pal letters tonight. In addition to finding my little STI cards from the Dickens Faire I found a bunch of brightly colored, TRP-friendly pens/markers. And pencils should I want to try making different layouts. Winning!

I am really pleased with how my first week in my first planner is going but alas, I feel like every daily page has something on it that shouldn’t go online. This little dilemma can go though!

I’m at a loss as to what to do with the “title” page. Any ideas? It’s a half-year undated Sterling Ink A5 planner. I was so excited to find a use for my random stickers of book return slips LOL.

Tentatively breaking in my half-year, undated Sterling Ink Common Planner. For whatever reason, despite having June 1/2 ready to go, I decided to try June 3/4 first. (I am keeping notes in a free notebook so I have the information to backfill.) I have literally never done a planner so please be gentle, I am teetering between excitement and panic over how much work this is going to be to set up before I can just open it every night and fill it in (I’m using it more as a record of what already happened). And because I’m absolutely nuts I already ordered a whole year undated Common Planner.

Of course my sticker tweezers disappeared as soon as I had zillions of microscopic stickers to lay down. I know I could have been smart and done a dated academic planner but knowing the undated stuff doesn’t sell out and you don’t have to fight people for it (figuratively) makes it worth it. I’m not even getting a Hobonichi and anytime I hear about SEPTEMBER RELEASE I immediately get anxious nausea so yeah, I want my planner experience to be fun above all and not an added source of stress. I already totally messed up the June monthly spread (learned: put the date numbers on FIRST, do not rely on your spatial skills!) so I feel like I can kind of relax with that out of the way.

I’ve already decided to return the stamps that bleed; the colored pens were included in a bundle and I figured I should at least try them. Better ones are on the way. The current green pen is just so muddy, it annoys me looking at it. I’m definitely glad about my decision to look up obscure national “Days.” Recommendations for little emoti stickers most welcome since the stamps are out. I have a lot more random stickers I plan to decorate with later.

Constructive criticism is welcome, just please not about Maddie’s bit. I’m a dog walker and I’ve been walking her over 10 years and only found out today. I was supposed to see her and her “brother” tomorrow 😢