Pretty birds

Sunday, 3:29 pm

By Kate

Feb

24

2008

It was a beautiful day to be out and about—not too cold with clear blue skies. A friend and I stopped by the bookstore to browse for a while. Then we hit the bakery/creperie. I ordered a spinach and feta crepe. Oh yum. It was fun to watch the other patrons. One gentleman was oblivious to his surroundings with his headphones on, plugged into his laptop enjoying the free wireless Internet service. Several others were scattered around on the various sofas and comfy chairs, busy writing in their journals or drawing. With a gas fireplace tucked in the corner, the place was cozy.

Afterwards, we headed down toward the waterfront to see if any of the bald eagles had come out to play. Indeed, they were out. There were a couple of adult eagles flying/gliding around over the river and one immature eagle, too. The youngster was clearly an eagle—very, very large and very, very splotchy. I read that it takes an immature eagle between four and five years to acquire its adult plumage. So I don’t suppose the two adult eagles were necessarily the young one’s parents. The two adults pretty much ignored the young one. Eagles are amazingly beautiful birds. And just eye-poppingly huge. It was such a pleasure being able to see some today. Within a couple of weeks, they’ll be busy nesting and raising their young. We’ll be extremely lucky to catch a glimpse of one for the remainder of the season.

There were also the usual seagulls zipping around, being their amusing and obnoxious selves. And a rather surprising number of Common Loons. Usually when I see a loon out on the river, it is alone. But today there were 6 of them together. Not exactly paying attention to each other, but bunched up together nonetheless. They were all dressed up in their breeding plumage which is very distinctive and pretty.

What a lovely day. I saw pretty birds. Just heavenly.

Poor tired house

Saturday, 2:43 pm

By Kate

Feb

23

2008

It was after visiting my neighbor that I came home with the inspiration to re-do my house. But I felt a little guilty about the idea. I’m trying to reduce my footprint on the environment, not go whole hog into a paint, wallpaper, wood panel doors, and mouldings frenzy. Until I really started looking around my house and counting on my fingers. It has been about 11 years since the lad’s former bedroom saw a paint brush. It’s been about 9 years for the rest of the house. I think it’s time.

My house hasn’t had any real updates on the inside since the lad became a teenager. Through his teen years my poor house has taken a lotta hits. A golf bag crashing into a wall here and there, a few scratches on doors. Finger prints washed off repeatedly until the paint is exhausted. My house looks tired. It looks as if it has raised a teenager and several of his friends. I’ve gotten over the guilty conscience involved in buying new paint and all the rest.

A couple of days ago, I made my first purchase. It’s a little inspiration to keep the rest of my inspiration at a fevered pitch. I bought a new quilt for my bed. Quilt and photo compliments of Martha Stewart. It’s not a hand made quilt, but I liked it.

This pretty little quilt replaces the pastel yellow and blue stripey comforter that has been in service for a dozen years or so. It has suffered the slings and arrows of a decade of cats, dogs, and kids. I’ve been eyeing this new quilt for some time. I’m going to turn my bedroom into a really pretty room, decorated around this quilt. I inherited a disaster room, but the quilt keeps me inspired. Boy have I got a lot of work to do around here. One room at a time. I will have to start practicing on making mitered cuts on mouldings soon. That will be an interesting experience, I’ll bet. Stay tuned.

Tastes of Tuscany

Friday, 11:59 am

By Kate

Feb

22

2008

My grocery store has recently remodeled, updated, and moved everything. Now I can’t find a thing in that store. But it sure is pretty. This week is their grand opening and the parking lot is festooned with strings of little flappy plastic flags—the kind often seen in used car parking lots. I thought that was kind of tacky, but whatever.

One of their grand improvements is a new computer system. Their cash registers now spit out coupons printed in color. With pretty graphics and all. The coupons are tailored to each individual shopper, thanks to the store rewards cards we get if we don’t want to pay the full outrageous prices. This must be a pretty good computer system because, for once, the coupons bear some resemblance to the stuff I actually buy. And color. I mentioned color, right? Dare we ponder just how much that upscale improvement is going to add to our grocery bills each week?

This week my colorful cash register coupons were all about cat food. My regular brand even. A whole $2 off a 3.3 pound bag. I’m delighted. I’ll use it.

But that coupon for Fancy Feast is something else again. I’ve never bought Fancy Feast for Abbie. Once in a great while I’ll buy her a can of Sheba, though. She thinks that’s the best stuff going and attacks it like she’d attack a mouse if she wasn’t afraid of it. I don’t give Sheba to her very often. Don’t want to spoil her too much. Besides, it’s ridiculously expensive.

This Fancy Feast coupon made me burst out laughing. The coupon is for a new line of Fancy Feast...their Elegant Medleys. I can save a whole dollar on 6 cans and my cat will love me for it because...these three new entrees are inspired by the tastes of Tuscany. Yes, that’s right. Tuscany. As if a cat would know Tuscany from Toledo. What does Tuscany taste like in cat food? The pretty color graphic on the coupon shows a fine china dish presenting the food so that it actually looks humanly appetizing...with a sprig of bright green parsley on the side. Serving suggestion, perhaps?

I think these new coupons are going to amuse me to no end. Now if they would just use those state of the art color printers to provide us with a road map showing where the heck they’ve moved everything. Really.

PS. You really need to click on the Elegant Medleys link. It’s just....well....I don’t quite know what to say. Except...have these people lost their minds? This is parody, right???

Nothing is ever simple

Thursday, 9:54 pm

By Kate

Feb

21

2008

While the lad was home for the holidays, we had a slight mishap in the bathroom. He was trying to hang a couple of heavy wet sweatshirts from the shower head when it cracked. It wasn’t a bad enough crack to warrant going right out to replace it, but the crack grew worse from the water pressure over the past couple of weeks. So, yesterday was the day to replace it.

I found one at Lowe’s. Just a basic chrome plated brass water saving shower head with an on/off switch. It delivers about 1.2 gallons of water per minute at my water pressure and it delivers a fine, but forceful spray. Quite nice, really.

I brought the shower head and the Teflon tape home and proceeded to remove the cracked one. Welll. It was stuck for the ages. I got out my small assortment of wrenches and tried to get that sucker off. It wouldn’t budge. I contorted myself in many different pretzel positions to gain enough leverage to wrench it off without breaking the rest of the plumbing. No go. It.Was.Stuck.

After using up my bad word vocabulary and trying a little more, I decided it might be a good idea to consult the internet. How to remove a stuck shower head. First hit led me to a page that gave me two possible options. If there was evidence of rust, I should apply WD-40. I have WD-40. Unfortunately, no rust. If there was evidence of lime deposit, I should use CLR. I definitely had lime deposits, but no CLR, I didn’t even know what CLR was.

Funny. I talked with a friend this afternoon. She is the most unhandy person alive. But she knew what CLR was and knew exactly where I could get it.

So, I set out to get a bottle of CLR. And an adjustable wrench with a smaller grip. And a pair of pliers, just in case. Somehow, several of my wrenches and my lone pair of pliers disappeared. Right about the time the lad left for college. Coincidence?

I brought my little stash home and spritzed the CLR on the old shower head. The above mentioned directions said to let it sit for 15 minutes or so. I went to do a couple of other things while it worked its magic. Fifteen or so minutes later, I twisted myself into a pretzel shape again and applied my brand new wrench. I gave it a good twist and almost ended up flat on shower floor. That CLR stuff works like a charm. The shower head came off so easily I probably wouldn’t even have needed a wrench. I was expecting some resistance and there wasn’t any. Nice.

Then I cleaned off the threads on the pipe and wrapped it in Teflon tape and screwed on the new shower head. It wouldn’t go on. The gasket/washer was too large. You would think that a manufacturer would include the right sized washer, wouldn’t you? I had to dig deep into the trash to find the old one. Waayyyy down in the bottom of the trash bag. Ick. I washed it off and looked it over...seemed in good shape. I stuck that in and replaced the Teflon tape that I’d torn to shreds. And tried again. It worked. Perfectly. Finally.

It only took two days to replace a simple shower head, but I did it. Nothing leaks, either. Yay me. Now I can save even more water. And maybe extend my navy shower to three and a half minutes. Oooh, luxury.

____________

And, by the way, we are having a snow storm (6-8 inches) tomorrow. See my radiantly happy face?

No ordinary cat

Wednesday, 3:01 pm

By Kate

Feb

20

2008

I have a mouse in the house. I’ve known it was here for a while now, but I’m just reluctant to put a trap out and then have to dispose of a wee mousie body. This sounds more like a job for a cat. A cat doing what a cat is programmed to do bothers me much less. Cats are supposed to drop mouse delicacies at your feet (or on your pillow, as the case may be). And then we praise them for being very good kitties.

Unless you have a cat like mine.

Our little house mouse likes to use the baseboard heaters as safe transit tunnels for getting from here to there. It makes little scritching noises against the metal in the evenings and fascinates Abbie completely. She sits and waits and waits and waits for the mouse to arrive. She runs back and forth with the mouse as it travels in its tunnel. It is, I believe, the best part of her day.

Until....

Last night Abbie sat by the baseboard heater in the living room monitoring the mouse situation. This has been going on for several nights now. I’m sure the mouse is aware of activity beyond its metal walls and, finally, curiosity overcame caution.

A little mouse face popped out of the side of the baseboard heater right beside Abbie. The mouse looked at Abbie and Abbie looked at the mouse. Abbie wheeled on a dime and tore upstairs as if all the forces of hell were after her. I don’t know what the mouse did. I chased after Abbie to see what in the world was going on with her.

I found her hiding under the sofa in the lad’s bedroom. With eyes as big as saucers. She was scared to death. Of a mouse. What a cat.

Reflecting on small victories on a warm day

Monday, 8:18 pm

By Kate

Feb

18

2008

We reached a high, today, of 59.3°. Never mind spring, that’s almost summer! Just a teaser, but welcomed, anyway. For once I wasn’t dressed 3 layers deep nor will I need a fire in the stove. And what is more natural than wanting to go outside on a nearly 60 degree day in February and do stuff?

I did go outside and stood in my backyard. In snow up to my mid-calves. That was kind of a surreal moment.

It was a good day to do some basic tidying, though. I cleaned out the wood stove and spread the ash in one of the raised beds. Then I turned my attention to the woodpile. That glorious mess. Finally. FINALLY, the ice melted enough so that I could pull the tarp all the way back and off the woodpile. I spent the next hour or so restacking. The dry wood on one side and the wet on the other. The wet wood needed to be raised off the ground and consolidated so that it will receive some air circulation and sunshine (should we ever get any). And I brought a two week supply of dry wood inside. By the time I was finished slinging wood around, I was quite toasty. And happy. I have a lot of wood left. It should easily get me through March. Maybe even a few days in April if spring dilly-dallies.

On days like today, there is no need for a fire. Even with the back door open, the kitchen and dining room rose to around 65° and the rest of the house was about 68°. One day of wood saved. Tomorrow will be much cooler, but I’ll still probably only need to burn one small fire in the evening. On a mid-40s day, sometimes just burning some tightly bound newspaper and a few sticks of kindling are enough to heat the stove so that it’ll give off a gentle warmth for a few hours—enough to maintain temps in my comfort zone.

It was sometime in early January that I devised an emergency plan to start saving wood. With the lad home and needing heat upstairs, I was burning through wood at a scary rate. Since I am not, not, NOT going to turn the furnace on this year, when I run out of wood, I am out of heat. Period. So, it seemed prudent to figure out how to conserve my wood without freezing.

The quilt solution, preventing all my heat from flying upstairs, has worked very well. I got to thinking that heating rooms that no one is using is really silly. It just makes the stove work harder and burns more wood. So, I installed a sheer curtain in the doorway between the living room and the dining room and kitchen. That blocks off about 200 square feet.

You wouldn’t think a sheer curtain would stop that much heat or air, but it does. Now that the lad isn’t home, the only room in the house that truly benefits from the stove is the living room. When I have the stove running, gently, the living room temp can easily reach 74 degrees. I usually only run the stove three or four hours in the evening. It’s enough to keep the living room between 64-68 degrees until the next evening, while the kitchen and dining room will remain a fairly constant 56-58 degrees. And, of course, when I cook, that provides quite a lot of heat in the kitchen, too.  Just enough heat manages to pass through the sheer curtain to maintain enough heat to prevent problems. That’s really all that’s needed. The upstairs, similarly, has rarely gone above 60 degrees most of the winter (except for when the lad was home).

I’ve gotten used to this large variance in house temps. I don’t mind being in colder parts of the house as long as there is one room where I can return to be warm. In fact, I have grown used to much colder temps in the house all the way around. I certainly sleep better with my bedroom on the cold side. And, really, the living room is where I spend most of my time at home. It’s where my desk, television, and comfy reading chair reside. If I spend most of my time in that room, why waste heat on the rest of the house? That seems to fly in the face of conventional wisdom (or habit), but really...why heat infrequently used or unused rooms?

Consequently, I still have a lot of wood left. From 3 cords of wood, I will have kept myself comfortable and kept the rest of the house warm enough for six months. Possibly seven. That’s pretty good, I think. My entire winter heating has cost me $795 in wood. My neighbors have spent twice or three times that with natural gas heat (and complain bitterly about it). Though, there are at least two homeowners, that I’m aware of, who thought my quilt idea was worth a shot and have installed quilts/curtains blocking their upstairs with significant (and happy) savings. In the process, they’ve also reduced their carbon emissions substantially, though I don’t think that was quite on their radar. Makes me happy, though.

It’s kind of funny, or maybe a little bit sad, that people really aren’t all that tuned in to reducing carbon emissions, but saving money makes eyes gleam. Climate change and pollution are something to think about and (maybe, to some) something to worry about, but not something that most people think they can do anything about, if indeed they want to. It’s apparently not enough of a perceived threat to hit home.

High utility bills, on the other hand, hit home hard. I could probably talk until I’m blue in the face about conserving energy and climate change and all the rest. But when I mentioned my $20 electric bills, my neighbors got wide eyed and wondered how in the world I did that because, BOY, would they like to have a $20 electric bill instead of their $300+ one. They were very open to suggestions because, standing before them was living proof that it could be done. And I do seem to be living a normal lifestyle. Which just confirms my longstanding belief...people are much more motivated to change their behavior when their wallets are being drained.

The thing is, saving dollars on utility bills has the exact same effect as consciously conserving energy to reduce emissions. Exactly the same. Yet the approach is different. Rather than thinking about using only their fair share to help preserve the global environment, they’re thinking about the dollars they can peel off their utility bills. One neighbor who has quite vociferously claimed that conservation is for liberal loonies, nevertheless doesn’t seem to see the irony when toiling away at cutting energy use to save money. That’s not conservation. That’s saving money. I wisely kept my mouth shut. Small victories where you can find ‘em.

Anyway. It was a lovely day in spite of the on-again-off-again drizzle and I’m kind of pleased with the results of my labor today. I got a lot accomplished. And it’s a heat-free day, too. Gotta love one of those.