matching tracksuits

fun in threes, sometimes fours

around the house

Notes on a Chipmunk

Sunday 12 July 2009 | 0 Comments

I'm not sure why cats feel they must lovingly share their kill with their owners, but I should focus on the "lovingly share" part and appreciate the generosity. When that sharing involves bringing the kill through the cat door, it's a little more difficult to focus on the "lovingly share" part. But when that "kill" is not yet dead and scampers away as soon as it's limp, dangling paws hit the floor, the apprecation is only a vague, theoretical possibility.

We had chipmunks in the basement on a regular basis for a couple of weeks. The big question: where do they live while they're stuck down there?

During the workshop-redesign-and-rebuild-preparatory cleanup yesterday, the answer was made manifest: in the carpet padding we'd stored under the work bench.

Visitor

Wednesday 01 July 2009 | 1 Comment

We have a large hunter that moves through the forested area behind our house with increasing regularity. Actually, there are a couple of them — certainly mates. I’ve tried several times to get pictures of our guests, but to no avail. Yesterday, I finally got a shot.

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These birds sail among the trees almost effortlessly, and their cry immediately confirms the identity: hawks. But they never came close enough or stayed long enough to get a good picture.

Until today.

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She (I think it’s a she — but my ornithology skills are not what they used to be) landed on our neighbors’ fence and I managed to creep close enough to get a decent shot. Soon enough, she flew away,

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but only to another part of the fence. Nearer and nearer — shocked at how close I was getting. The other day, we saw one of them land in our back yard; it appeared to have a limp. “Maybe that is the hurt one,” K said as I moved ever close.

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To be able to get a shot like this of a wild bird — quite a rush.

She flew away just as I began to wax philosophical with my silly thoughts,

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gliding only a few feet above the ground, telling me the session was over.

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But what kind of bird?

A quick check in our National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds–Eastern Region gives some hints, but it’s not until we ask the Internet that we get any kind of confirmation: a Red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), and I’m fairly sure it’s a a juvenile.

Yet we’re not convinced. Any ideas?

Growth and Stillness

Thursday 21 May 2009 | 0 Comments

I took a walk around our property to document the growth of our onions, radishes, tomatoes, potatoes, squash, melons, and flowers.

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Our hanging cherry tomatoes are growing wildly, though the experimental upside down one is hesitant.

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Our onions and radishes are onioning and radishing wonderfuly.

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Our squash has its first flower.

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And Bida is catching chipmunks and taking them into our basement, where they stop playing dead and hide in the piles of things stored in the corners.

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Anyone know how to catch a chipmunk?

Gardening

Monday 20 April 2009 | 0 Comments

We've planted our garden. Actually, that should be plural, because we're planting all over the place: some veggies in the back, some in the front.

Nothing we do will compare with Pani Barnas's garden in Poland. I live rented from her for a couple of years and every summer, she had a garden that amazed me.

Cabbage
Dream Garden || September 2, 2002 || Lipnica Wielka, Poland

"One day," I tell K, "one day we'll have a garden like this."

Then I go out to prepare our two small patches for planting. The next day everything aches in a most splendid way, and I think, "Why rush?"

Eviction Notice

Sunday 05 April 2009 | 0 Comments

He flew in with a beak filled with building materials, landing on our back deck banister. L saw him first.

"Tata! Look! A bird!"

We'll have to begin playing "I spy" soon.

The bird sat for a while on the railing, then flew into one of the juniper trees in our backyard. The ones which I'll drastically cut back at some point this spring, thus disturbing the bird, possibly spoiling a nest (though I'll do my best not to).

If only I could have reasoned with him: demolition work ahead. Best build elsewhere.

Planting

Saturday 04 April 2009 | 0 Comments

We planted our potatoes this week. I was worried because we didn't use "seed" potatoes. K insisted that organic potatoes would do just fine. Of course she's right: who's going to argue potatoes with a Pole?

We're growing them in large gardening buckets, with little to no soil. We're using mulch from leaves, compost, and more mulch/leaves on top. Will it work? We'll find out shortly.

L insisted on helping. "I do it!" is her motto of late, and we're certainly encouraging that helpful nature. Earlier this week, she helped make a salad, mixing the ingredients for the sauce ever-so-carefully.

Yet there are some things she'll be too small to do for quite some time.

By the time she's big enough to do this kind of work, she'll have her own list of chores.

How will we ever get her to do chores? Choice seems to be promising: like most people, L responds best to requests when given a choice. It's something that works wonders in the classroom as well.

Sprouts

Tuesday 31 March 2009 | 2 Comments

We seem to be clearing that first hurdle without much difficulty.

Can the next step be that much more difficult?

Spring

Sunday 22 March 2009 | 0 Comments

In South Carolina, spring comes when the calendar says it does: late March. The tops of trees, where the light is most direct, already have buds beginning to open.

The tulip poplars have buds all over.

In the brush beneath the trees, there is just enough light for some blossoms.

All this inspires me finish up with the leaves that have been blanketing the ground for four months now.

A new mulching mower makes relatively quick work of the leaves (except for those in the rocky, uneven areas that remained undisturbed this time around), turning them into a powder that will improve the soil for the spring of 2011, when we think we might get around to doing something with the backyard. This spring we're concentrating on getting veggies growing; next spring will be the front yard's turn.

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Faulty Installation

Saturday 07 March 2009 | 0 Comments

Apparently, everything in our beloved gas pack has been installed incorrectly.

A view that should be impossible from this angle
A view that should be impossible from this angle

This valve should be turned ninety degrees. That would prevent the droplet of water that's clearly visible from freezing, causing the whole unit to shut down until it thaws and the unit resets. This would have saved us the cost of a service call.

Then again, if I'd simply tried to turn it on in the early afternoon, I would have found the heating works.

Helping Out

Thursday 19 February 2009 | 0 Comments

The Girl loves to imitate what she sees. This can be quite practical, in our laundry "room" for example.

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1/60, f/5.0, 10 mm, Flash fired

Eventually, trash night will be her responsibility. For now, it's nice to have someone willing to load and unload the drier.

Fairly far down the list of our house renovations is the finishing of this room. By the time we get to it, I'm sure L will be helping with that as well.