Bird Pad

Not all birds like all bird seed.  Ya just can't make all the birds happy all the time. 

What the picky eaters do is shovel aside the seed they only eat when starving to get to the seed that is tasty to their pallet (do birds have a pallet?).  This selective eating causes a big mess under the feeder.  To exacerbate the mess my feeder was over rocks.  To further exacerbate the mess, the birds would add copious amounts of poop.  As you may imagine after a few years this gets to be pretty disgusting.

I decided it was time to do something about it and the pictures below are my first attempt to remedy this messy situation short of just stop feeding the birds.

Yes ladies and gents, behold the "Bird Pad."  It seemed to me that I had to get rid of the rocks and provide an area for the seed to fall that was cleanable.  To accomplish this I shoveled out numerous wheelbarrow loads of clay soil, discarded bird seed, poop and rocks.  The hole that was left was filled with some stuff called road base.  I packed that down using a 6 X 6 timber and then put down a layer of sand followed by the rectangle concrete blocks.  I made a small retaining wall to the back to make it look nice.

You may have noticed the bird feeder isn't over the bird pad.  I haven't decided, yet, if I'm going to put the feeder there... or anywhere actually.  I'm considering making a few feeders that are similar to tables only the table will be a screen.  Pour the food on top of the screen and the birds can eat off the table.  Any water in the form of rain won't accumulate and the mess will be easily controlled.  It's just another to-do. 

Check back to this very blog for an update in the near future.

Whoohoo...

I'll Huff & I'll Puff & I'll BLOW...

When I was knee high to a grasshopper my dad used to say, "March winds and April showers."  Here it is 50 to 60 years later and it's March and the wind has been whistling along like ugly on an ape, like white on rice, like... well, the wind has been blowing a pretty good lick just like my daddy said, so many years ago.

Blowing enough to take down one of the stained glass windows I had hanging from my pergola.  The frame just came from together.  The frame broke.  The glass broke.  I now have another todo for my list.

The remains of the frame are still swing'n in the wind.

I guess these pictures pretty much tell the story. 

Whoohoo...

Spring... Ahhhh Spring

Spring is my favorite time of year.

It's early for it to be spring but it's got to happen sometime.  The calendar still shows it to be winter but my aches and pains say spring has sprung. 

Why do I think it's spring... let me count the ways:

• I had to put on shorts today as my sweat pants made me... yep, sweat.
• I used 2 as in two sweat towels today.
• I started a project that requires a wheelbarrow and shovel.
• I killed my first mosquito of 2011.
• The lily pads we planted last year are sending up... are you ready... lily pads.
• Leo the leo-pard frog has appeared again.  This time with better color.
• Broke out my wide brimmed sun hat.
• Put the snow shovel away for the season.
• Turned on the irrigation system so Alejandro F. can and does do his/her job.
• Cleaned algae out of the V-pan which is part of the detention area next to my house... someone has to do it.
• I had to spray the honeysuckles with dormant oil.
• Daylight saving time starts this weekend.

There are probably other reasons it's spring but that's all that comes to mind at the moment. 
So Happy SPRING!

Whoohoo

First Frog 2011

We're not talking about some French guy here, we're referring to the amphibian kinda creature that hops and stays wet... versus the toad.

Do you know why the French are referred to as frogs?  I do.  I looked it up.  Do you really want to know?  OK, here it is... kind of a let down methinks...

Unconfirmed story #1: In the 18th century, Paris was surrounded by swamps and the visiting French nobles called the people of Paris, frogs in mockery. The name became national later when all French became popular as frogs irrespective of their environmental surroundings.

Unconfirmed story #2: One popular story regarding the origin of the name states that there were frogs on the French flag at one time, before the adoption of the Fleurs de Lis. If at one time, the French indeed had frogs on their national flag then that could certainly be counted as a reason as to why they are called frogs at times.

Unconfirmed story #3: A more logical theory regarding the weird nickname is related to a French delicacy called cuisses de grenouille, which is a dish consisting of a kind of frog’s leg. The habit of eating frogs can actually give French people the nickname frog indeed.  They ate snails too but we don't call them snails.

Unconfirmed story #4: American soldiers are also rumored to have given the French the nickname frog during the second world war because the French soldiers excelled in camouflage quite like frogs in the wild that are perfect ambush predators adept in concealing themselves... perfectly.

Unconfirmed story but I believe it: This story is related to the Second World War.  It states that the nickname was given to French army officers because they wore coats that were closed with special buttons made up of wood and ribbon. These buttons were called “frogs,” and thus the name spread.

There you have it... but French frogs (not to be confused with fries) isn't what I wanted to tell you about.  What I wanted to say was the leopard frog that I told you about last fall (story here) made an appearance this afternoon.  His skin was really dark and I had to look close to see his leopard markings but it was him.  Don't know if he will stay out or go back to sleep... heck, it's just the 3rd of March.  That's pretty early for the frogs to come out.

A spring teaser of the breathing and hopping kind.  Cool huh?

Whoohoo