Bird Brain
Today's Day Without Electricity was one of the most relaxing days I've had in a long time.
I mentioned earlier in the week that we got two new baby chicks from a friend. The first obstacle we had to overcome was the fact that for the first week of baby chick's life, it has to be kept at nearly 100 degrees. We've got kerosene lamps, but they give off a lot of vapors that I was afraid would hurt the chicks. We decided in the end to keep a fire going on the wood stove. The added bonus was that we loaded the top of the wood stove down with pots of water that we used later for washing dishes, etc. The chicks passed the night and day on a chair covered in a blanket next to the fire and appear to be none the worse for wear. YAY!
I spent the day doing landscaping. I got a chance to test out the torch the Pirate bought me a few weeks ago, and it's everything I was hoping for. It attaches to our 5-gallon propane tank, and it's both fun and scary. Last week, the Pirate had taken RoundUp to the patch of overgrown grass along the walkway up to the house. We intend to put down wood chips there, but have to kill the grass first. By today, it was dead, brown and dry, dry, DRY. We touched the torch to it and it went up just as you'd expect dry grass to.
I sort of thought that I'd walk along with the torch and touch the fire to the grass, which would wither and burn and then stop burning. That's not really how fire operates. Fire touches this bit of dry grass, and the dead leaf powder between the bits of dry grass, etc. I only touched the flame to the grass once at the top, and then stood there with the hose keeping the fire heading in the direction I wanted it to go.
After the grass burning came the cleanup of the path up to the house. It had become covered in leaves and dirt so thick that it had grass and periwinkles growing in it. While I was shifting wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow-full of dirt, I came across two - count 'em TWO - juvenile Norwegian rats. I dispatched each of them with the shovel, and now I'm starting to worry. If they're walking down the driveway bold as brass, how big is that midden?
The bright spot of the day was standing in my bedroom and watching a steller's jay trying to build a nest on top of the security lights mounted on the side of the house. He would fly off, then come back with a stick that he would carefully place on the top of the pair of lights, but by the end of the day, his little nest didn't look any more impressive.
I went outside to take a closer look and saw what the poor bird had been doing all day.
This is the roof of the shed just below the security light. There are NO trees near it. All those sticks are the ones that the poor bird had been carefully placing on the lights. Well, I'll give him this - the little guy was persistent.
Then inside to hang out with a good book and to make dinner. I'm off to bed now, and after all the stuff I got done today, I'm going to sleep like a BABY!
I mentioned earlier in the week that we got two new baby chicks from a friend. The first obstacle we had to overcome was the fact that for the first week of baby chick's life, it has to be kept at nearly 100 degrees. We've got kerosene lamps, but they give off a lot of vapors that I was afraid would hurt the chicks. We decided in the end to keep a fire going on the wood stove. The added bonus was that we loaded the top of the wood stove down with pots of water that we used later for washing dishes, etc. The chicks passed the night and day on a chair covered in a blanket next to the fire and appear to be none the worse for wear. YAY!
I spent the day doing landscaping. I got a chance to test out the torch the Pirate bought me a few weeks ago, and it's everything I was hoping for. It attaches to our 5-gallon propane tank, and it's both fun and scary. Last week, the Pirate had taken RoundUp to the patch of overgrown grass along the walkway up to the house. We intend to put down wood chips there, but have to kill the grass first. By today, it was dead, brown and dry, dry, DRY. We touched the torch to it and it went up just as you'd expect dry grass to.
I sort of thought that I'd walk along with the torch and touch the fire to the grass, which would wither and burn and then stop burning. That's not really how fire operates. Fire touches this bit of dry grass, and the dead leaf powder between the bits of dry grass, etc. I only touched the flame to the grass once at the top, and then stood there with the hose keeping the fire heading in the direction I wanted it to go.
After the grass burning came the cleanup of the path up to the house. It had become covered in leaves and dirt so thick that it had grass and periwinkles growing in it. While I was shifting wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow-full of dirt, I came across two - count 'em TWO - juvenile Norwegian rats. I dispatched each of them with the shovel, and now I'm starting to worry. If they're walking down the driveway bold as brass, how big is that midden?
The bright spot of the day was standing in my bedroom and watching a steller's jay trying to build a nest on top of the security lights mounted on the side of the house. He would fly off, then come back with a stick that he would carefully place on the top of the pair of lights, but by the end of the day, his little nest didn't look any more impressive.
I went outside to take a closer look and saw what the poor bird had been doing all day.
This is the roof of the shed just below the security light. There are NO trees near it. All those sticks are the ones that the poor bird had been carefully placing on the lights. Well, I'll give him this - the little guy was persistent.
Then inside to hang out with a good book and to make dinner. I'm off to bed now, and after all the stuff I got done today, I'm going to sleep like a BABY!
posted by Aoibheall | 10:51 PM
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