Winter Home

So the other day as I lay down in bed I spotted a dark spot in the corner, where the two walls meet the ceiling. "What is that?" I wondered. So I grabbed my glasses and saw this ...

If you bigafy the image you'll see if is a group of Lady Bugs. They've been there over a week now. I think this is their home for the winter.

We'll see what happens over the winter. Kinda cool if you ask me.

Hood Ornament

On my walk to the Thompson-Wright Preserve I came across this:

And I've nothing more to say.

Head Banger

This past Sunday we had friends over, and while we were all sitting in the dining room Patty remarked, "What's that banging?" It was coming from the living room, where our two cats were, unknown to us at the time, somewhat bemused by this guy:

A male Wild Turkey. 

It sees its reflection in the window.

And considers it a rival. One that won't back down!

And thus the standoff. With banging.

This fellow was the "Head Banger" of the post's tile, as you can see by clicking here.

Fortunately, the window held.

The Spider and the Flies ...

Lots of flies.

Friday morning I noticed quite a few tiny insects flying around outside my office window. 

Not the first time ...

And then, from my desk, I saw the scene in the image above. 

A spiderweb covered in dew. 

In the afternoon? Wait what? That's not dew!

It's the flies!

If you look closely at the upper left you'll see some flying around (along with a flower fly).

There were so many ...

... they broke the web!

That spider hit the jackpot!

Yeehaw!

Drama at the bird bath. A Northern Parula and an American Redstart.

I'll just let the pictures tell the story.

Yeah, I don't know what went on here. 

Not the Four Seasons ...

Due to a scheduling error, we needed a room for the night as we traveled from New Hampshire to Maine. And we found a place in Bangor.

As it had beds and bathroom it met our requirements.

But I'm not sure the wiring was quite up to code ...

Note the use of masking tape above, which seems to be poorly implemented, and below, which seems to be structural.

As my brother commented, as long as the AC works what is there to complain about.

The AC did work. And we had a good night's sleep. So I think he was right.

One Ringy-Dingy

While on road trips we consult the Roadside America app, which lists quickly things to see along the way.

Which is how we came to be at the worlds largest telephone.

This monument to ludditism is in the town of Bryant Pond, Maine. The last place in the US to use hand cranked telephones, doing so until 1983.

For what it is worth, the crank on this giant phone turns. Although it did not do so smoothly.

Almost Back

The grey pin on the map below is for "Dragon Way Farm".

Remember this Yard Critter post about horses? Well those horses were on Dragon Way Farm.

And the white triangle in the blue circle. That's our place. 

Not good.

⛈  ⚡️  ⛈  ⚡️  ⛈

July 6th. Not a good night.

It started out ok, with lots of lightning off in the distance. I like lightning. When it is off in the distance.

When it hits the power pole at the end of my driveway, not so much. 

Not good.

I woke up around midnight and noticed the clock was off. Not good.  I rolled over and went back to sleep. But it was just a matter of time. Until the alarms started going off. The alarm for the the sump pump, telling me the system was on the back up battery (an alarm that can't be turned off. WTF!! I know the power's out, there is nothing I can do. Grrr ...). The alarm for the alarm system, telling me the power is out. Thanks. At least this one can be turned off. As can the alarms on the UPS systems, telling me the batteries are drained.

Both UPS systems failed by the way. APC units. I won't be buying that brand anymore.

Not good.

⛈  ⚡️  ⛈  ⚡️  ⛈

When I took the screen shot shown above, it had an estimated power restore time of 10:00 am. 

Always take the over. Always.

Around 9:00 am a truck pulled up. A Comcast truck. They have a large box on the pole. It was not in good shape. "The transformer's blown", the Comcast guy said. Not good.

Then he hooked up a generator.

It was not enough.

⛈  ⚡️  ⛈  ⚡️  ⛈

A JCP&L truck came to a stop at the end of my driveway. A little before ten. Myself and my neighbor went to see what was going on. 

"Move back fellas", he called out from up in the bucket, "I'm gonna try to recharge this transformer. There could be a loud bang." We moved away. There was a loud bang. He tried again. There was a second loud bang. He came back down. "That's not good," he said, "the transformer's blown."

Not good.

It you took the over ...

⛈  ⚡️  ⛈  ⚡️  ⛈

... you won!

A 4:00 pm they arrived in force. Two bucket trucks. Three pickups.

They were quite efficient. One guy went up to remove the blown transformer, seen here in the truck driving away.

And the other bucket operator was bobbing and weaving amongst the trees and wires to winch up the new transformer.

They were done by 5:00.

My fun was just starting.

Not good.

⛈  ⚡️  ⛈  ⚡️  ⛈

The good news, we had power.

The bad ...

... the alarm for the sump pump would continue until the battery was recharged ... through the night.

... my cable modem, on a UPS and surge suppressor unit, was non-operational.

... my Mac mini, on a different UPS and surge suppressor unit, on a different circuit, was non-operational.

... Both were APC units ...

... but, most everything else plugged into these units, and other surge suppressors, survived.

...  I lost a hard drive enclosure, but the four drives inside seem to be ok. But I wouldn't learn that until I got my Mac mini back.

... and one of the APC units was now showing that the battery had failed. And the battery isn't user replaceable. Not that I'd want to. That alarm ended when I unplugged it.

⛈  ⚡️  ⛈  ⚡️  ⛈

I ordered a new modem and router, Comcast told me my old one was obsolete anyway.

The Mac went to the Apple store ... and three weeks later came home.

In the mean time ... July 21. Around 2:30 PM. 

Not good.

💥 ⚡️ BAM! ⚡️💥

Power is out. Thunder outside and inside.

A GFI outlet blown. As was my brand new router. I actually heard a loud bang in my office, over by the router.

Not good.

The power was restored that day, although if you took the over you're on a winning streak.

⛈  ⚡️  ⛈  ⚡️  ⛈

The Mac mini arrived home last Friday. The offsite backup drive had arrived the day before (Backblaze, check them out).

The new (non-APC) UPS unit is up and running as are the new modem and new new router (Comcast was right, they are better than the old modem). Update: the new UPS unit is failing with a charger fault. Not good. 

Today my new surge suppressor arrived.

Tomorrow my new drive enclosure arrives.  (Two stand alone hard drives are acting flakey, and will need to be replaced, but they are redundant drives, with on and off site backups, so I'm not too worried. Still - not good.)

And then I'll be 100%-ish back.

And that is a good thing.

Gravity

The Phoebes did eventually make a nice nest, as we saw in the last post, although it took them a while to figure out how to use the platform.

Watch as this bird brings a bit of mud to add to the 'nest' ...

Its got a nice bit of mud in its bill.

Where to put it? Over the edge here looks good.

Don't want to mess up this nice clean platform.

So just drop it to the deck!

~~~~~~~~~~

Bigafy the images to see the bird drop the bit of mud over the edge and down to the deck. It took a couple trips, but eventually they got the hang of things, as shown in the previous post. But the mess on the deck continued to grow for a while. It is all good now.

Work Zone

We had people over Saturday evening after we returned from the Flower Show, for the first time in forever it seemed. And the day before we tidied up the place, including Patty sweeping the deck.

So it was a bit of a surprise when I walked around the deck and found this:

WTF? 

And this:

WTF² !

What (who?) was throwing mud at the top of our window? And why? We were stumped. And it had happened why we were at the Flower Show that morning. Very curious.

Later that day I was sitting at my desk when I spotted this:

A feathered tail. Ah ha! What birds make mud nests? Swallows? That's not a swallow tail though.

Mystery solved. Eastern Phoebes were the mess makers. Buy why this spot?

They had fledged four chicks from the previous nest. And the platform on the garage would seem better suited to the task at hand.

The ledge they were trying to build their nest on was clearly non-optimal. So I helped them out a bit.

A bit of scrap fit nicely in the siding slot above the window.

And the birds took to it straight away.

Crazy if you ask me.

But they seem to know what they are doing.

Although I wonder how long it would have taken had I not installed the shelf?

Surely Not

This was the sign on the way out of the Flower Show ...

Luckily, it was incorrect. 

In fact, I'm enjoying a glass of wine while I'm typing this.

Cheers!

🍷  🍷  🍷

It's Gotta Be The Bees

In April I received the following letter back in April.

Now, I know we've been planting quite a few native plants these past few years. And the deer fence has helped tremendously. 

The Census of Agriculture. Yep, it really is a thing. Apparently it happens every five years. Which means we should have received a letter like this five years ago.

We didn't.

So how did we get on whatever list these folks used?

It took me awhile to figure it out. Really, I found it quite puzzling. And only when I found this letter on a pile of papers on my desk this week did it hit me. It had to have been the Honey Bees.

In New Jersey you can register your bee hives, so various government agencies know not to spray your yard for various undesirable insects, like gypsy moths or mosquitos.

Our bee keeping ended after one season (and I told the registry people such). Our place on some list lingers on.

New and Improved! (Improvements Not Included)

I received the following email not too long ago.

Straight up marketing BS.

The key point as it pertains to this blog, is that some time after July, there will no longer be emails of the posts. 

I don't know how many people subscribe, although apparently I can download a list and find out. Not that it would do me all that much good, as I've investigated and all I could find was paid services to replace what Google is taking away as part of its 'modernization' efforts.

Now you could use a RSS reader to get updates when they happen. But that's another thing to check in addition to email. And of course you can visit the blog directly, go ahead and set it up as a favorite if you haven't already.

But neither is a easy and convent as email. 

Thanks Google!

(It seems to be a theme with them.)

Walking Buddy

For reasons still not quite clear to me, I, along with Patty and five other family members*, are planning to hike up to the top of Mt St Helens. And back down again, later this summer.

It is a ten mile round trip.

So to prepare, this morning I went for a walk around the block. 

I turned right out of our driveway. I then made the first for lefts. And nine plus miles later I was back at that driveway.

It's a big "block". And unlike Mount St. Helens, very flat.

And as I was in the final quarter mile I heard something running up from behind. I dog I thought.

Nope.

A Rooster.

As you can see it came right up to me. As if I was a long lost friend.

After a couple of hundred yards or so, when it became obvious I didn't have any food, it tired of my company. Or the journey. Or both. But instead of turning around it just wandered off into the woods.

Our neighbors, if you can call them that, on both sides of us, as well as others down the road, have chickens. Most of which are free range. So this fellow could be from anywhere around here. I hope he found his way home before the rains came.

~~~~~~~~~~

* Patty's brother and her nephew Stephen. My brother-in-law Steve and his son and daughter. 

43% Steve's.

Good For Nothing

We've been enclosing more of the yard with deer fence, and part of the process involves hanging the fence from the line with clips, prior to permanently securing it.

Clips like this:

Look carefully at the "Caution" section on the right side (the back of the package). 

Specifically this line [emphasis added]: "DO NOT use this accessory for load carrying, overhead lifting, or in any application."

????

🤨  🤔  😵‍💫  🤔  🤨

I ignored the caution and used them will installing the fence. They held. 

As apparently did my luck.

It's a Bird. It's a Mammal. It's ... Wait What?

These days Artificial Intelligence is all the rage. At least with marketing folks. Although I suppose that is a bit harsh. Although while at he same time no doubt true.

But machine learning is quite a fascinating technology. The stuff of SciFi when I was a kid (I go to stay up late on Fridays to watch The Wild Wild West and Star Trek with my Dad) I now talk the the air in my house, and lights turn on and off. 

Well sometimes. There are still to many, "I didn't hear back from your devices" replies for my liking (to be fair, this may be because of our WiFi, it's Comcastic!).

And then there are examples like this.

iNaturalist, and its sister app Seek, are clever bits of technology, with the audacious goal of allowing one to tack a picture, or sound recording, and have the app identify the species.

Recently I took part in the City Nature Challenge, where one submits as many observations a one can over an extended weekend. And I took a picture of a Bluejay on one of our platform feeders. And to its credit, the first suggestion of the iNaturalist app is Bluejay.

But that second suggestion, Eastern Chipmunk?

A bit of a head scratcher that

And I'm not sure the three gentlemen mentioned at the bottom of the screenshot really want to be associated with the set of suggestions.