Two Busy Days - Saturday

 Saturday and today were busy.  I just sort of blew off Sunday (I got up late and had to real "get up and go").

Saturday was outside stuff and not much went well (some did).

I started by soaking the ground around the birdfeeder pole, using a 5 gallon bucket with a small hole drilled in the bottom so that the water would drip slowly but deeply.  And then did it again.  When I installed it, I had the thought that a base of 10" black iron pipes in a square would keep the feeder pole upright forever.  Not quite, as it turned out.  It tilted any way.  Frost-heave, I suppose.

The idea was to get the soil muddy at the base so I could wiggle it level again and then use stakes and rope to hold it level while the soil dried.  It is said that "everyone has a brilliant idea that will not work".  This did not work.

When I wiggled the post, it seemed to move slightly.  But then the pole broke!  The feeder fell to the ground and also broke.  The seeds spilled everywhere.  Really, both the top and the base separated from the seed box part.  I laid on my back (the weather was decent and I was warm), watched clouds passing overhead and asked to myself "why me"?  Why now?  I had other things to do...

I shouldn't have been surprised at the collapse and breakege.  I built it 25 years ago and have made a few half-assed repairs on it since then.  Not to say "sour grapes", but I was planning to build a new one anyway.  Now I just have a more immediate reason to do so.

The bird feeder is back up, temporarily.  I pounded a 6' metal rebar stake into the ground 2' and used some zip-ties to attach the birdfeeder pole to it.  Then I applying a heavy layer of outdoor wood glue to the base and fit the seed box onto it.  Scooped up all the seeds I could and added them in.  The top was actually undamaged so that fit back on.

Then I used rope around 2 trees to triangulate pressure on the new support stake to get the birdfeeder pole level again.  It should last the Winter.  By then, I will have built a new one.  Same design, I like it.

The barrel and flat disc defeats the squirrels completely.  The board across the center bothers the blackbirds and starling somewhat (because they are large and don't fit under well) and the overhanging top keeps the seeds in the tray dry.  And it is made of cedar, which discourages bird mites.

And that was just the start of the day!  The weather forecast is for a snowy Winter.  So I decided it was time to bring the snow-blower into the garage.  I pulled it out of the toolshed.  I pulled the starter rope a few times and nothing happened, but it also has an electric starter.  

So I dragged out my heavy-duty outdoor extension cords.  I could find the snowblower plug.  Fell free to laugh, but I had pulled out the roto-tiller, which has no electric starter!  I sure had to laugh at myself about that one.So I got out the actual snowblower.  Plugged it in.  It started right up.  

Which matters, because it is heavy and is nearly impossible to move unpowered.  I had to make space in the garage (which seems to get more clutterred every year).  But there is a usual space for it.  I just had to move the stuff that was there to "elsewhere".

Got the Holiday lights (blue) lit again.  They stayed up last year.  Partly, I was lazy, and partly my neighbor (who helped me so much when I fell off the extension ladder almost 3 years ago) screams at me if I so much get on a 6' stepladder.  But I plugged them in an outdoor outlet, and set the timer.  They come on right at dark.  

I also had a female (the ones with berries  -  some people don't know that) holly tree with some drooping branches and I pruned them.  One big branch is hanging on the front door.  I put 2 smaller ones per side of the mailbox post.  I tend to try to look natural.  

Speaking of holiday decorations, I have seen people driving around with wreathes on the front of their cars.  I used to laugh, but I found a white one with pinecones at Walmart at a decent price and decided to do it.  I like it!

And that wasn't the end of the day.  The street end of my driveway is "barely" lower than the street and lawn.  Rain collects there.  I use a small grub-hoe to scoop a path into the lawn for drainage.  I really have to set in a perforated pipe there for better drainage.  But Sunday was not that day.

I ended Sunday with 3 loads of washer/drier loads.  Then made dinner.  After that, it was just TV and cats on my lap til bedtime.  And two joined me there all night.

Did Some Things

After complaining about minor problems, I meant to list things I managed to do anyway.  OK, I'm a couple days late...

1.  I have 2 birdfeeders.  One is thistle seed for the goldfinches.  Actually 2 feeders there on a movable pipe stand.  Those are easy to refill.  I buy thistle seed in 50# bags and store them in gallon plastic jugs for easy refill.

2.  The other is the black oil sunflower seed feeder for the cardinals, jays, titmouses etc etc.  That one takes the 8' stepladder to refill and is awkward even then.  The stepladder was in the far backyard where I was repairing the garden enclosure chicken wire crushed by heavy snow 2 years ago. 

I dragged it to the sunflower feeder liming all the way.  It could have been worse.  I might have had to just drag it.  But I got it set up.  I had the bucket of sunflower seeds at hand and dumped them in.  And I refilled the 2 suet cages.  I can already see that the birds are appreciating both.

3.  Indoors, from outside, my tray plantings of lettuces and carrots and celery were a mess and there were aphids.  I clipped off what was useful of the lettuce and sprayed the carrots with an organic soap.  Took a week to eliminate them.  They don't seem to like celery.  

4.  I have a 2' x 4' plastic box I mix new soils in.  But this time, I dumped the empty trays of freeze-killed lettuce in.  Watered them slightly and pulled all old roots and a few weeds out.  Mixed in some organic fertilizer and refilled them.  Re-planted them.  Seedlings are emerging now.  Hurray.

5.  But that meant they needed light.  I turned on the light stand power and timer and discovered half the bulbs were burned out.  The lowest ones, of course.  It is really hard to get down on my knees to do bulb replacement.  I spilled a bowl of thistle seeds indented to the pollinator garden and had to sweep it it all back into the bowl.  More bending at the knees...

6.  I got the light stand lights replaced so all are working.  I buy them by the case.  If you want to know, 2500 lumens and 5000K is the best combination for seedling growth.  Since they are on 14 hours per day, they only last a year though.

7.  So, after the lights were working, I had to replant some trays.  And because the trays can overflow with watering and the are electric lights below, I had to get trays under them to catch extra water.   And I have to match trays and emerging seedling to height.  You want the seedlings to stay close to the lights.

8.  So I had to move trays around according to their height.  Lifting objects above my shoulder is literally a "pain".  But it had to be done and I did.  Ouch and all that...

9.  I dragged 2 trash barrels of mown leaves to the compost bin.  The previously composted material had dropped 8" so there was room for more.  Carrying them there was "left foot forward, then right foot forward".  Repeat for 100'...

10.  I collected fallen branches, slowly.  I cut them apart with the bowsaw.  I have enough for a small fireplace fire when I want one.  I had thought to do it New Years Eve, but I was too tired then.  

11.  I did some shopping at Walmart.  For whatever reason, they sell Fancy Food real cheap.  While I was looking for the varieties The Mews like, 2 ladies were also there.  One commented on my cat mask and asked about what I knew about getting their cats to eat.

I mentioned that sprinkling a few kibbles on the top got their hunger activated.  Also that dipping a fingertip in the canned stuff and rubbing it on their nose made them lick it and activated eating.  They were thrilled at the advice.  

12.  I repaired the vacuum cleaner.  Had to take it mostly apart at the bottom, but found the input chute was clogged.  That was a real pain to clear but I finally managed it.  Works great again now.  So I suppose I will have to clean the whole house now.

50 Days Of Annoyance

This is an update, but not the usual one.  There are effects of injuries that aren't strictly sore muscles and healing ribs...

I've spent more time in bed these past 50 days than the previous 2 months.  Usually, about 10-13 hours per night.  While I may be healing and can get around better now, my body still reminds me that I'm not going on long walks for a while yet, and I may never golf or bowl again.  Not that I've done either for several years, but it is probably not an option anymore.  

I have to be careful lifting heavy pans.  I can feel it when I lift a full mug of tea above my shoulder (I have a M/W on a raised shelf and may change that).   Lifting Marley feels like lifting an anvil (he's 18 lbs now).   I still have to be careful on stairs.  

The right clavicle will never be the same.  The orthopedic surgeon was being optimistic when she said that unless I was a pro athlete I didn't need surgery as "I could do about anything else normally".  So, this is a bit awkward and I don't WANT to sound sexist or questioning her judgement (though I am), but I don't think she understands how much stress men (and some women) put on their bodies in some hobbies.

BEFORE I fell, I did a lot of things that pulled on most muscles and left me sore a few days.  Partly (for me) it is living alone and HAVING to do everything myself.  Partly, it is WANTING to (otherwise, why do it?).  I can hire people to do hard work, but I don't want to.  

Unless the shoulder improves dramatically in the next few months, there are a lot of things I used to do that I can't anymore.  I won't be digging up and chopping out invading tree roots entering my garden beds. I won't shoveling out a trailer full of mulch to add to the garden soil to keep it enriched.  I won't be climbing the ladder to cut off droopy tree branches.

There are some psychological effects of reduced mobility.  Some of you understand that personally.  This is MY first experience with it.  I sit a lot when awake and I mentioned staying in bed many hours.  When awake, it is just easier to sit.  Oh, I move around regularly (cook dinner, do laundry, water plants, clean litterboxes, take trash and recycling bins to the street, etc.  

But I sit more because I'm depressed.  I don't (think) I mean clinically, I just can't do much these days and it is frustrating.  I actively want to, I just can't.  Carrying around a stepladder on ice is just too much for now.  

And I probably lay in bed more hours because "why get up"?  The waterbed is warm, soft, and comfortable.  And The Mews collect around me much of the time.  It is easy to just lay there in relative comfort.  It's more comfortable than sitting in the easy chair, and sitting in the easy chair is still more comfortable than walking around.  

As I said, I still "feel it" when I walk.  There is a difference between "can walk" and "comfortable walking".  One day, I will just notice I am walking again normally.   Or not.  There are just somethings you have to wait to find out about.  And some things I can do well enough and some things that make me hesitate...

For example, I looked at the birdfeeders today.  I have gone out in serious snowstorms to refill them in the past.  I got myself up to fill the thistle feeders yesterday.  Well, they are reachable from the ground.  But I looked at the 8' high black oil sunflower seed feeder and hanging suet cages.   

I sighed at having to carry the stepladder to the feeder (it feels heavy these days) but went into the basement to fill the tub with seeds and open 2 containers of suet.  No suet left...  I went upstairs and added suet to my shopping list.  The cardinals will have to find seeds at neighboring yards tomorrow.  I feel very guilty.  

Before I fell, I had a flock of 6 male cardinals and some number of females (they are harder to see).  I wasn't able to refill the feeder for a month+ afterwards. I refilled it once and was empty in a week.  Most have moved on.  Or maybe died (that's the "guilt" part).  I hope they are finding another neighbor who feeds them.  

They can probably find some seeds, but suet is high-density calories and they need that in Winter.  When the sleet stops tomorrow, I will put a pan of seeds on the deck rail.  They'll find it; I've done that before.  And go shopping...  But I bet suet is hard to find now.  

On the other paw, that means people are putting suet out for the birds and that is a comfort to me.  As long as they get it through these days when I can't provide it well, they will survive.

It was about time that I started to feel age creeping up on me.  I am glad it took a while, I am grateful for all those years.  But just as our pets have to go over The Bridge sometime, I am feeling "aging".  

Aside from the effects of the fall, I already had a "trick" right knee. It will just suddenly weaken randomly. I have some routine muscle cramps in the calves and thighs in bed, and rib cramps while awake the past few years.  More annoying then anything, but painful.

I have the occasional "finger-clench" finger thing that probably is a sign of oncoming Parkinson's.  It used to happen only when I did hard-gripping of heavy tools.  Now it surprises me when I haven't done much work.  My Mother had the "clench" and lead to Parkinson's, and it seems to be genetic.  So that seems to be in my future.

I'm grateful for all the many years without any problems, but age does catch up to you eventually.  This fall from the ladder is probably not going to help anything, LOL!  Hey, all you can do is take what life hands you...

Well, I better end this for today...

An Update

Getting better, but it has oddly varied the past few days.  One day or even hour is fine then another is not.  I've been avoiding even ibuprohen the past few days (4 weeks of it is a lot of even mild meds to my way of thinking).

Sitting is actually a problem.  It is comfortable, but the longer I sit, the harder it is to get up and walk around.  I need to be careful about that.

I am really a lay-about recently.  12 hours in bed seems good.  Well, it IS a heated waterbed.  Hard to leave, LOL!

On the other paw, I can walk better when I get myself up out of a chair.  I am still careful on the stairs but level-walking is a lot easier.  I went out to get the mail/newspaper, and it was "almost" normal.  I may actually be being more careful than I need to be.  Some "push" on the muscles is apparently good.

It's the good/bad moments that are annoying these days.  But there is sure a lot better than just "bad moments".  I'm recalling the first week when it was nearly impossible to get in or out of bed without grunts and serious pain, so it sure is a LOT better now.  

Driving the car and shopping is easier.  I even managed a delivered 50# bag of thistle seed and a 40# bag of black oil sunflower seed.  Not like I could lift them, but pushing them into a trashcan on its side and leveraging IT up worked.  I cut the bottoms and slowly lifted the bags up to spill into the containers.  I used a small hand dolly get the trashcans into the basement where I carefully scooped seeds into smaller containers.   I've gotten good at doing things "easy".

I AM refilling the birdfeeders and suet cages regularly.  A 6' stepladder is not a 12' extention ladder and I make sure it is solid. It's not like I have to stand on the top step.  Besides, I'm not trying to pull a cat off the birdfeeder...  LOL!

Bad Knee

I'm not a person who sits around much except while eating lunch and reading the newspaper or at dinner.  So movement is not usually a problem.

We had 8" of snow recently and I noticed no birds at the feeder.  Bad timing to run out of black oil sunflower seed in the feeder.  But this is exactly when my bird polulation needs a little help, so I went to pull on my boots to go outside...

And my right knee said "NO".  Really, I sat down to pull on a boot and my right knee suddenly went painful.  No hint before.  I managed to lift it into the boot top and put on the other.  Ans limped to the stairs.  The stairs were and adventure.  One step down  with the left foot and follow with the right.

I limped across the basement to the metal can I keep the 40 lbs of black oil sunflower seeds in and filled the bucket marked to how much the birdfeeder will hold.

I was dreading carrying the stepladder to the feeder.  It hurt to walk to the basement door.  I undid the security bar, and turned the doorlock...

And the knee was suddenly just fine again!  I carried the seed bucket out, carried the ladder to the feeder, and opened it.  I had a twinge climbing the ladder but just for a moment.  Filled the feeder, but away the ladder, brought the bucket inside, and hours later, no problems.

I wonder what causes that to happen?  It would make sense if the knee kept hurting or that if never did.  But what would make such a temporary problem?

Getting old is weird...

Simple Useful Work, Part 2

The other minor project was to re-install the sunflower seed bird feeder.  There were problems.  The feeder itself needed some repairs (being 25 years old and damaged a few times), the pole was loose in the ground (just set in soil), and when I had some tree work done recently, one of the crew pulled it up (in case of an errant falling branch).  He leaned it against another tree and it fell over.  I've damaged it twice myself, taking it off the pole and trying to use it on the deck ahead of serious snowstorms for easier refilling. 

Anyway, It has been reglued and rescrewed several times.  I wasn't sure it could be again.  But with some work and more screws, it should last another couple years. 

The pole is designed to thwart Evil Squirrels.  It WORKS!  Just below the feeder, I have a wide flat baffle 5' up the pole.  Immediately below, I have a barrel baffle.  It works perfectly, no Evil Squirrel has been able to get at the feeder.  If you have a problem with the tree-rats, just do THAT!

But it means I have to haul out my 8' stepladder every time I want to refill it.  So I had this idea that if I could put a hinge on the pole, bend it over 90 degrees, and refill it from ground level (with a large funnel though the output opening).  I finally found a pipe hinge designed to do that.

After finally cutting the pole to attach the hinge, it wobbled when attached.  I decided the fitting was actually metric, so I used some metal strapping to tighten it.  It wasn't easy.  And it didn't work!  THe wobble was in the hinge itself.  It allows very little wobble, but over a 5' pipe, that adds up.  It was unsatisfactory.

So (having cut the old pole in half, I needed a new one.  But at least this time I could make sure it would come loose in the soil.  It needed sideways braces in the soil.

So I went to the DIY store and looked at pipe-fittings.  I came up with this...

The aboveground pipe is 6'.  There is a 10" extension, a 4-way connection with  3" pieces out the sides, another 10" extension, and a 3-way at the bottom with 3" pieces out the sides at 90 degrees.  I dug a 2' hole, set the post in it, propped it up level N/S and E/W and added soil back in 6" at a time with water and hard tamping with a 2"x4" board as I went.  When I reached ground level, it was still perfectly vertical.  I gave it a day to dry in place, then rotated the birdfeeder (there is a screw on flange on the bottom) and when it was tight it (wonder of wonders) was facing straight toward the deck.  HURRAY!

It is perfect again.  I still have to use the stepladder to refill it.  I guess I'll have to live with that.  Sometimes you have to do some work just to get back to "normal".   But with those pipe extensions at 90 degree angles in the deeper clay soil, I bet it never leans or twists around in the wind again, LOL! 

So, being pleased with my work and it being only 4 pm, I decided to remove weeds from my butterfly/bee/hummingbird bed.  It is hard to tell, but it is a 10' circle with edging around it.  There were some mock strawberries.  AND some viney weed with similar leaves but small sharp thorns along the stem.  I had to dig them out individually with a trowel.  The roots don't have thorns, so I got down in them to pull.  I got mostly roots, so those are set back a few years at least.

On the other hand, there isn't much growing there either.  I think the seed mix I bought was mostly annuals.  Fortunately, I bought several kinds of perennials that fit the butterfly/bee/hummingbird requirements and will be adding those soon.  And I saved seeds from there that I will scatter tomorrow and cover lightly with compost.  And I planted 4 sunflowers in the center around a 2' tall 12' wide cage to support them.  Being clipped to the top of the cage really helps support them when they reach full height (6').

The meadow bed is growing like mad.  It is mostly perennials, but I am growing some self-seeding annuals that are natural to meadows.  It should look good this year and better next year. 



The separate meadow bed

About Birds And Cats

I don't want to make a big thing about all this interest that cats have in birds.  But I saw another complaint about cats catching songbirds recently (elsewhere).  I understand that cats DO catch birds.  I understand that bird-lovers don't like cats very much because of it.   Well *I* love birds too.  It's not like I feed them to be food for my cats.  Black Oil sunflower and thistle seed is way too expensive (than the canned food the cats happily eat) for THAT to be worthwhile.

They probably catch voles, mice, and moles 100-1 compared to birds.  The neighborhood hawk, on the other hand, catches 4-6 birds per day (not usually from my feeders, of course, or I would have nonbe).  I see the scatterred feathers on the ground infrequently.  If we want to protect songbirds, kill hawks.

My cats stalk birds.  They also stalk squirrels (but never catch them - and I wish they could) and rabbits (and though they do catch the occasional young rabbit the world isn't going to run out of rabbits.  And my cats have a varied diet of beef, chicken, turkey, tuna, duck, and rabbit.  So if you are sad they eat rabbit (or any of the other animals), consider that they are eating rabbit because people raise them just to be eaten.  There are predators and prey (and that started about 500 million years ago).

There are more songbirds thriving here after I cleared the property somewhat than before I moved in 30 years ago.  I originally had a pair of Cardinals.  Today there are a dozen pairs.  I never saw a Goldfinch for the 1st few years, now there are some dozen of them.  I didn't even know what a Purple Finch was until they started nesting around the yard attracted to the feeders.  Between the thistle seeds and the black oil sunflower seeds and suet and peanut butter smeared on trees in Winter, I think there are more than 10X the birds here as when the lot was undeveloped.

When one of the cats catches a bird, it has to be pretty dumb (other than birdicide against a window).  I've observed it a couple of times.  The birds sits on a low shrub branch, one cat comes near it, the bird stares at the cat stupidly, and the cat grabs it.   DUH!  The dumbest bird in the flock has been removed from their gene pool, LOL!

Sometimes the attacks on cats as bird-killers bothers me,  so I wanted to give some personal experience.  Cats don't catch the smarter birds or many of them...

Put another way, I just saw a picture in a National Geographic magazine.  A hyena is carrying away a flamingo.  The flamingo is alive (its neck and head are upright) and not acting very distressed.  It doesn't seem to be struggling.  In fact, it seems to have no idea it is about to eaten alive by the hyena.  It is just like "huh" well, carry me other to that next pond, OK"?

Sorry, I go "off" sometimes, LOL!

Record Snowfall For Washington DC

Well, in SOME areas around here.  We came close in my town but DIDN'T break the record.  By only 2 inches.  I think (since the record was almost a century ago, that counts as SERIOUS SNOWFALL).

It started here at precisely 1 pm Friday (I was looking at the window, and one minute there were no snowflakes and then there were).  Sort of like looking at a digital clock as it changes minutes...

So it started.  At the time, I doubted it would be all the snow predicted.  Forecasters prefer to suggest the top range.  That way, people aren't so annoyed when it is less.  But if it is MORE snow, they get upset.  A forecaster explained that in a moment of honesty...

But the forecast nailed it to the inch in most places around here.  The Friday morning snowfall maps had a dividing line right through my town.  18" - 24" NW of me and 12-18" SE, so that put me on the 18" line.  We got 18"!

OK, before I forget, here are the starting pictures...

A pre-flurry not connected with the real storm left a trace of snow.   But since it remained, it meant that everything was cold enough for any new snow to stick. 

The yardstick in place so I could measure the snowfall...

 The accumulation by dark Friday...

It was serious by morning Saturday...

About 12" deep, but drifting from high winds (up to 45 MPH in my area, higher in others).

The snow that accumulated nearly a foot softly on the deck rails during Friday were whipped clean by the winds in the night.

I had temporarily installed an old sunflower seed birdfeeder Friday morning.  I forgot that the lower 3' of the pole were previously in the ground, so it was a bit higher than I expected.  And note that the open tray of the feeder is set opposite from the general wind direction.  Well, first, I didn't want the seeds to be blown out and second, I thought it would give the birds some protection from the forecast high winds.

I even kept the 8' stepladder on the deck so I could use it to refill the feeder.  It was barely high enough to reach the top of the feeder, but "barely high enough" is sufficient. 

I was still thinking it was going to be a lot of snow, but in a normal way.  Level and even after the wind spread it around after it stopped.

OOPS!!!  More tomorrow about how bad things got (and could have been worse).

Mild Underved Destruction

One of the things I had to do when I expected the excavator contractor to show up "any tomorrow" was remove the birdfeeder.   It wasn't easy.  Try setting a pipe 3' deep in the ground for almost 30 years and see if IT is easy to pull out! 

It took work.  But I did it.  But then I had this thing with a 24" saucer under it and a 18" baffle below  (successful squirrel baffles) and no where to put it.  So I set it against the deck where the 24" saucer fit in tight.  Seemed safe.

Nope!  I went out today and the whole thing had fallen over.  And falling over, it broke!  I don't think it is repairable.  I'm going to have to build a new one.

Now, on one hand, I'm sad it broke.  It lasted 20 years (all cedar) and the cardinals and finches loved it.  On the other hand, I wanted to improve it a bit anyway.  I'd rather it had stayed intact, but I'll take advantage of the damage to build it better. 

A lot larger to begin with, and with an interior slope to make the last seeds go down to the feeding tray. 

But I wouldn't have to worry about this if the excavation contractor who said they would be here had come here instead of begging off for better jobs.  I'm still p&*@ed about that!

I hope the new feeder is as well-built as the previous one.  Some things just go better the first time around and you can't duplicate it.  So maybe the new one will be better and maybe not.

We'll see...