June This-And-Thats

I've a few things on my mind and I have a new keyboard to get used to so I need to do some typing to see if I still like full size keys, so here we go!

• New computers come with a keyboard but they are cheap ones with flat, "chiclet" keys and I can't stand those.  For the last few years I've had a keyboard with actual keys, about half size keys, but keys.  There's nothing wrong with that keyboard but it is filthy, as keyboards get over time, so I ordered a new one that has full size keys.  What size keys do you prefer?
• 
  The bird food we have now is good but has some large dried fruit and lots of peanuts, and sometimes those clog up the feeder so I've been going through it and removing those dried fruits and many of the peanuts.  Now, without the clogging, the birds have been emptying the feeder in just about 2 days.  Plenty of entertainment for the cats, for sure, but tiresome to keep going through the bird food and refilling so often.  My wife knows more about bird food so will get something different soon, but there's still a few pounds left.  The dried fruit and peanuts that I remove I've been putting on the stump around the gnome for the critters.  I put the trail camera there to watch and while there's a few entertaining videos they are all pink still, hard to watch so unusable.
• Because of that, I ordered a new trail camera, this one.  I spent a bit more hoping it's worth it, and it should be here anytime, actually, maybe by the time I'm done writing here.  Then a few hours later a new SD card is scheduled to arrive, as well.  I know BW bought the same trail camera as I had, and I hope she has better luck with it than I did.  And I'm hoping I like the new one better since it has been very interesting putting it in different areas and seeing what happens when we're not around.
• Early this afternoon I want to paint the front door, so if the trail camera and SD card arrive in time I was thinking of trying a time lapse.  The door is currently a dirty white, and so we picked out a shade of purple to add a little color.  If I don't do it today it will be at least 2 weeks until I can get it done because we're going to be hot so very likely will have the air conditioning on for much if not all of that time so the door will have to be closed.
• 
  Because I just touched upon the weather, since I last reported on it we've had some very cool days and some comfortable days recently, but just a very little rain.  And while there is a small chance of rain today I don't see it happening and there's no real chance for the next week or more.  We've officially moved from "dry" to "mild drought" again.
• So we've still been watering the gardens and sunflowers every day.  One sunflower has really taken off, the pair seem to be doing okay still, just younger.  And the other seems to have been struggling a bit, so I hope it makes it.  I feel I should take the cage off the bigger one but I'm afraid a critter will fell it with one bite.  Precedence was established long ago.
• I made baguette again yesterday, and my latest baking purchase was a UFO lame for making the cuts.  I hate it.  It doesn't work as well as a sharp serrated knife and seems very dangerous when loosening/tightening as one slip and your finger would slip into the razor blade.  I'll stick with the knife, see the difference in the picture here.

• 

  Top two serrated knife, bottom UFO lame.

  Someone also mentioned the state of our street recently and I noted how there are worse.  In fact, the next block over is much worse.  Well, there's been a surveyor in the neighborhood recently and little pink flags started appearing on the lot lines, see bird feeder picture.  I talked to him the other day, and the city is looking to update our street and that other street, and I'm sure the sewer under it while they're at it.  He surveys and creates a 3D model which then is used for the planning.  Our two streets create a horseshoe so it makes sense to do them both at one time, and likely next year, he said.  It won't be fun while it's happening but will sure be nice when they're done.  

I think I'll get used to this new keyboard, but work will be the real test.  Worst case, I clean up and reconnect the old one.  Now I have to go fill the bird feeder again, and the trail camera is late...

Mom's Blind

I've noted how my Mom moved back closer last fall, and it makes it so much easier for me to see her more often.  She likes her new place and has been making it her own, and I've tried to make myself available to help when I can.  Her new place faces west, so in the late afternoon and evening the sun makes it difficult to enjoy her front patio, or even have to close the drapes when she's inside.  Her neighbor has an outdoor blind so she asked me about it, we researched, and a few weeks ago we ordered her one.  It wasn't cheap, but seems pretty nice and looks like she will find it handy.  Saturday morning we got it installed, and more easily than I expected.

This color blind allows 5% of sunlight through, so you can see through it, but a blackout blind I felt would seem too much like a wall.  We saw other colors that were only 3%, so I hope the 5% won't be too much light.  Strangely, we've not seen any p.m sun the last couple days so I don't think she's seen exactly how it will be yet.  This blind is as wide as this company made them, 94 inches, and I estimated 84 inches long since it goes out at a slight angle and it seems to be about right.

We didn't expect the guide wires but hooks that she would have to clip on the corners when down so it doesn't blow around in the wind, but I think this is even better because she won't have to worry about that at all now.  It has a motor and remote control, so she can easily raise or lower it to any level she wants rather than all the way down as shown here.  For the stakes to hold the bottom of the guide wires I used the cutoffs from the handrail from when I built her ramp.

The only snag was because of that slight angle out, the blind would catch on the crossbeam and get stuck but I was able to change the screw hole where it attaches at the top and now it works perfectly.

It's always nice to go down and see Mom, even stay overnight and just hang out.  At only an hour away a day trip is always possible, but for avoiding the rush hour traffic times and just relaxing more I'm preferring the overnight visits.  Time to start a new to-do list, Mom!

Dry Pink Sunflowers

Well, I don't feel like writing but I should at least draft some notes of what I've been meaning to write about.

Recently the trail camera pictures and video have had a pink hue.  Well, I finally looked it up and it is a filter used for night vision that is supposed to move over the lens depending on the light level, but gets stuck while over the lens even in bright light.  I tried the couple hints of what to do without luck, but the last time I unloaded the card there was a small section of files that were in true color, so it did work for a short time again.

Four sunflowers still alive (out of 50 seeds) and all in the corner of the house/porch/stairs.  The first round of planting was pretty willy-nilly, and most if not all of those seeds got dug up and eaten.  Second round of planting was a bit more thought out, but similar results.  The last 8 seeds then got planted in this corner, and I put a little fence around them.  From those, one came up in the corner by the porch, the biggest one currently.  One was coming up further away from the porch side, by the house, and from one of the prior plantings.  I soon got a fence around it, too.  And there were two smaller ones coming up in the corner by the house from the last planting.  There was one coming up in a perfect spot by the back corner of the garage, but that got eaten and dug up before I had the wits to fence it in.  I'll know better next time.

Two weeks with hardly any rain.  So I mowed first time this year back on May 13 and not again until June 4, and even then I only mowed the back yard.  So far without rain the back yard seems to be holding its own for now, while the front lawn is almost fully brown.  We have a sprinkler for such a situation, but it's way too early to panic.  The sunflowers and garden get watered, that's enough for now.

So much for not feeling like writing, I guess.  I'll grab a picture of the sunflowers to add and call it a post!

Vacation, Plant Day, Jets, Ducks And An Ex-Stump

It's been a pretty good vacation, a nice time away from work.  I had all of last week off and tomorrow yet, before I have to return on Wednesday.  No big projects but some spring chores done and much needed relaxation.  I have one day left tomorrow, and I've been trying to keep it pretty clear so I can just relax most of the day and do whatever I feel like doing, so today I feel like writing.

Every spring I've had what I called Plant Day, the vacation day that I get a bunch of plants to pot or plant them around.  This year has been a little different; I got a couple hanging plants for out front plus the big pot out front and planted sunflower seeds for the first time, but so far haven't potted anything for the decaying stump area.  That option is still open, just not so urgent this year.  And out of 50 sunflower seeds I'm seeing 6-8 coming up so far.  I could see that critters were sniffing them out and eating them almost as quick as I could plant them, but thankfully it looks like a few survived.  More on this later, I'm sure.

I got a couple short videos the other day of some of our new F-35s coming in for a landing, they always seem to go in twos.  I don't see that they're louder when landing than the prior F-16s, maybe louder when taking off but they're up and out so quick it doesn't last long.  And from before the eggs were ransacked I got an interesting - and common - duck scene on video, too.  It was fun to follow Mother Duck as she tried to have her nest under our stairs, but it's just too exposed to end well.  While I have the destruction and heartbreak on video I won't be posting it and hope they don't try to nest here again.  Watch this instead.  :)

And while I wanted to sleep in later this morning, instead I was roused by the sound of large equipment running nearby.  Neighbor Jane's tree stump was getting removed.  Shortly after taking pictures of the bird feeder, seen here recently, there was fresh paint and flags for the utilities, plus someone came out last week and dug some test holes to verify just how deep those utilities were.  I watched through our front window as removing the stump was an interesting process to see up close, and just took a few hours.  I guess some other crew will be by to seed it and lay the hay mat over it, we'll see.

I'll put a few more pictures of the stump to terrace renovation after the break.

Probably Inevitable

 

Cloudy But Happy

 It's not the warmest or brightest day today, but it feels good outside.  I made baguette this morning so the house smells like bread, and I just mowed for the first time so the outside smells like freshly cut grass.  Well, mostly mowed, as the duck is on her nest so there is a small patch in front and below in this picture that I'll need to get later this evening when she's off to feed.  The lawn looks sharp, freshly mowed, the hostas haven't fallen yet and the lilac is blooming nicely - and more purple than I remember seeing in recent years.

We found out that late neighbor Dave's daughter and her husband will be renovating the house next door and hope to move in come fall.  The house is in pretty rough shape and they outlined some big plans, admitting it is a daunting task, but they have a contractor friend that will be doing much of the work.  No small kids and no renters, so we're happy so far and hope all goes well for them.

There's a slight chance of rain and the wind is supposed to pick up this evening, so doesn't look like I'll be having a fire this weekend, but I'm on vacation this coming week plus a couple days after that.  I don't have a ton of plans, just a list of spring chores to do and I'll make a trip down to see my Mom sometime since Mother's Day is tomorrow.  Anyway, Kate is off caring for her Dad so despite the gloom of clouds I'm going to stay happy, get out of the house and go grab a bite to eat and see what's going on in the outside world.  Have a great weekend, everyone.

Oh, I also wanted to mention the cat's little present, a bird feeder just outside the front window for their entertainment.  I'll put couple pictures after the break.

Duck Update

Well, so far so good, as far as I can tell.  I got a pretty good look in the nest today while the mother duck was elsewhere for some reason, and there's at least 6 eggs in the nest.  This picture was from an open window and I'm not sure why she left them uncovered for a bit.

After work today I brought in the trail camera to empty the SD card and see what's happened so far.  I saw all the critters previously mentioned poking around the nest area, some while the mother duck was right there.  Apparently squirrels are slightly afraid of ducks.  

But I did also see a mother opossum come around, which I was hoping I wouldn't as we suspect it was an opossum to get at the eggs the last time.  It doesn't appear she went after eggs this time, but there is a short period between when the camera will take these short videos so it's possible if she was quick about it.

But mostly so far has just been mother duck fussing about her nest.  I put a handful of dead plant I picked from nearby and she used that up quickly.  Later I put some of the failed nest from in back of the garage nearby and she's used some of that, too.  I'm not sure why the video is so pink/purple now.  I thought maybe because the sun was on it but that can't be all the time.  When I replaced it I put it under the other side of the steps so we'll see what it looks like next time.

The duck seems to leave the nest in the evenings before sunset and come back in the early morning to spend all day.  So later yesterday evening I was finally able to get out and plant sunflower seeds in that corner.  But now today I'm waiting for her to leave so I can water them.

The Duck Is Back

We have a duck under our back steps again, maybe the same one as 5 years ago.  We knew that a duck had been there, but there were a couple times we accidentally scared the heck out of them so thought they had moved on.  But, weren't sure so I moved the trail cam to behind the first step and under the second step facing the area.  I've used the trail cam in a few areas since unloading the SD card, it began overlooking the firepit area from the corner of the garage, then I moved it under the step here, then used it for a timelapse of a firepit last night, and after that a timelapse of a nest that was being built on top of the bat house on the garage.  The nest failed, sparrows I believe, everything blew off in the wind.

We hadn't noticed any more duck activity in several days, until today Kate noticed a female mallard land in our back yard and sure enough, she made her way under the stairs.  Just a bit ago I went out and got the trail camera, unloaded the card, then put it under the stair again.  Very carefully, of course, as to not disturb her while sitting on her nest, and also there was a male around the other side of the porch that I didn't want to rile up.  I hope it's at a good angle, but it's there now.

I hate to bring it up, and I'm not hoping it happens again, but it did not end well last time.  While reviewing the video shots of that area just now I've seen a couple different kinds of birds, squirrels, chipmunks, a rabbit, and a cat investigating the area before I saw this clip of the duck waddling in last Tuesday morning.  It's illegal for us to disturb her nest, but eventually something will and it will not be good for the ducks, unfortunately.  I don't think there's eggs yet, but it looks like there will be soon.

Beef and Spring Chores

Yesterday I made the drive to pick up another quarter cow, a split half - meaning we get cuts of meat from the front and back half.  We defrosted and cleaned the freezer maybe a month ago and ordered the beef 2-3 weeks ago.  The place is outside of Mauston about 73 miles away, or about an hour and a quarter drive one way, depending on traffic.  I was hesitant to do that driving on a weekday with weekday traffic but it's light out now until 8:00 pm (and will be until sometime in August!) and I'm glad to have it done and not have to spend the time on the weekend.

This year's haul was more expensive overall but much more meat compared to last year, 108 pounds then and 143 pounds this time, so I think we got a bit of a smaller cow then as the last two before that were about 131 pounds each.  We received all the promised cuts of meat and roasts and a whopping 63 pounds of ground beef compared to 39 last year, so that accounts for 24 pounds of that difference.  And best of all, it actually cost less than last year per pound, ~$5.98 last year and down to ~$5.60 this year.  For everything; steaks, roasts, ribs, soup bones and ground.  You can't get plain ground beef for that price at the grocery store, at least not near this quality.

I know the picture is at a weird angle, I was trying to get it all in  You can't really see how much is in the bottom layer, but another layer of taller baskets and you can see the top of a shopping bag filled with tubes of 1 pound ground.  Everything here is the new beef but for one roast and a few soup bones in the hanging basket from last year.  (After the pic we replaced the other hanging basket with other foods and a few frozen pizzas.)

As usual, I stocked up on the prepared meats from their brand new store, they had a devastating fire last year shortly before we got our last one, so good to see them rebuilt bigger and better.  Anyway, some snack sticks and jerky, some bratwurst and 4 packages of the natural casing wieners that are so good.  I wish I would have grabbed more dried beef, I haven't tried it yet but it sure looks yummy.

This has been a yearly ritual for us since 2016 except for 2020, and we didn't miss that year because of the pandemic but because we got the 2019 cow in October, the last one we got through a friend of a friend.  And probably one year too long for dealing with that as we're so glad we just do it on our own now.  

*          *          *

The weather finally turned warmer today and we should be above normal in the 70's ºF (about 24 or so ºC) for highs in the foreseeable forecast.  It wasn't nice of Mother Nature to tease us like that last month with almost a week of 80ºF as it made the 40 and 50 degree days since feel much colder.  And while it should be nice it also looks like it may be a little too windy the next couple nights for a fire this weekend, but we'll wait and see.

With the good turn of the weather my to-do list lengthens.  I believe I'm going to plant sunflower seeds this weekend, we got a new TV and I'm going to attempt to hide the wires in the wall, the kitchen faucet needs repairs, windows need cleaning and I'll have to strim the edges of the lawn.  And I forgot about No Mow May, but I believe that's for normal people who have weeds.  I don't think the pollinators will be affected if I mow my grass lawn or not.  Around our yard they'll have the flower beds and gardens.

Okay now, let's fire up that grill!

New Ingredient

I think I'm getting this baguette thing down pretty well now.  My latest bread-related purchases were heavy duty reusable bread bags and of course the diastatic malt powder, and I tried them both out this weekend.

Yesterday, with diastatic malt powder added.

I wanted some kind of bread bags for freezing and for transporting, like taking bread down to my Mom, since I was using so much plastic wrap.  I think what I got will work well, but I may try to make the loaves a bit shorter as the standard bag length seems to be 18" and the baguette is about 16".  They fit, but barely enough left to twist and tie well.  

I tried the malt powder for the first time yesterday and it did seem to make the crust more golden and, well, crustier.  It is very good bread and we couldn't help but snack on a whole one yesterday.  The other two are in the freezer in one of the new bags along with the last loaf from what I made a week ago.  The malt powder package called for 1/2 to 1 teaspoon for every 3 cups of flour, and this recipe calls for about 3 1/2 cups so I used a full teaspoon, but I may try using just a half next time.  On a side note, I much prefer recipes in grams and weigh my flour and water, plus the other ingredients when I can, but I do use the teaspoon and tablespoon for smaller amounts.  Overall, I am very pleased with the results and it has me wondering what other bread I could make and use this in.  I'm open to suggestions!

Last weekend's bread.

I don't have a baker's lame but I'm finding a sharp serrated blade works well.  You can see how I've been trying different cuts.  I've found that the longer cuts tend to flatten the loaf a bit and I should try to keep the cuts above the 'shoulder,' as well.  The shorter cuts in the middle loaf of the top picture are less dramatic looking but seems to work out the best

I've also decided I'm not going to spend my time on hamburger or hot dog buns as what we get from the bakery is good so I just don't think it's worth my time and effort.  I've been making baguette almost every weekend recently and can still make other breads when I feel like it, and that's enough for now.  Cheers, everyone.