The birds - part two

So that same night in January, after the bird went out the door, under his own wing power, my husband blocked the hole where the bird  had (apparently) gotten in through the outside vent. 

Those (above) are two 1’ lengths of 2x4’s blocking the hole.

We very tired of birds at this point and did nothing more. 

Friday morning, as soon as the middle dropped off the pups, they went right to the fireplace. And following them, I could hear a bird in the fireplace. 

Big sigh. 

I went and got heavy brown paper from another room, scissors and tape. With my back to the fireplace, I started to cut the paper to cover the light coming in the big living room window, so we could release the bird, and have it go out the front door toward daylight. 

Chaos ensued behind me. I turned around to see a bird loose in the room with the dogs jumping and snapping at it. All three went toward the front door with me hot on their trail to open the door. 

I turned around, after propping the glass security door open, to see two quiet dogs and no bird. My husband hunted all over the house, and could not find a bird, so we assume it went out over my head the minute I opened the door, and I just did not see it.

It was definitely not the same bird as last night. It was much smaller. 

We looked outside and the boards were still on top the vent. So we think this second bird was already in the vent. And we blocked this second bird in when we put the boards on the vent and reclosed the fireplace. 

And I think the dogs actually let the bird out of the fireplace by nosing the panel on the bottom which opens to the controls. 

We removed the boards from the vent outside, took the glass off the fireplace and my husband blew air up the vent to encourage any other birds to flee. I was watching outside, no birds flew out of the vent. 

We put a wooden box in front of the control panel. I stuffed bags in the vent. The dogs are keeping watch.

That was the end of birds in the house, two was definitely enough for a lifetime. 

We borrowed a shop vac and middle and my husband cleaned out the chimney vent from the outside of the house. 

They replaced the screen on the outside vent. They added a second screen inside the outside vent, directly over the pipe opening. So there is now an original screen on the bottom, a new screen on the top and a new screen on the inside. And my husband is adding this outside vent to his mental check list. 

We did not use the fireplace until the fireplace guy was able to come clean/check. It was more than a month wait, they are very busy. The inside logs have to be in very precise locations for the fireplace to work correctly. Ours were all over the place/askew.

The birds - part one

On a Thursday in January, just after 11am when I had finished putting away the Christmas decorations, the puppies and I sat down in the living room and I heard a noise. 

I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and realized a large black bird was in our gas fireplace. This is a sealed gas fireplace, so the bird was behind the glass. The bird had clearly come down the vent. 

I called my husband and told him to come home very quickly. 

He said he would, but commented that he had no idea WHAT exactly he was going to be able to do, so I needed to figure out a plan/think. 

Next I called our neighbor who is a retired engineer, woodworker and very practical guy. He said he would be over in about a half hour. But he also said he had no idea WHAT he was going to do. He also said I needed a plan. 

I was freaking out this whole time, with the bird flapping and pecking, trying to get out. 

I called the local company who installed our fireplace. He said one service man was on vacation and the other was working out of town and there was no one to help. However, over the phone, he told me how to get the front off the fireplace to get to the bird. I listened very carefully. 

I called two critter control places. The first was on vacation, out of town. The second said he had a busy day scheduled, but could come in the evening if needed. And he told me an important thing, he said if we could get everything dark, and the open front door was the only “light” thing, a released bird would simply fly right out the door. 

Our problem - the living room window is huge, does not open, is very “light” all day. 

This is what we tried - 

The front is off the fireplace. That is a huge plastic bag taped to the fireplace and to a chair. There is a wooded box under the bag.  Inside the bag, on top the box, are several pieces of wood for the bird to land. There is a light for encouragement. 

Two puppies and I were on the loveseat, my husband and neighbor were on the couch, we were on bird watch all afternoon. 

The bird would fly into the bag, but would not stay in the bag long enough for the guys to grab it. 

Periodically they would send me up to the attic with a roll of wrapping paper to beat on the fireplace vent pipe. That would stir up the bird, but it never stayed in the bag long enough to get it. 

All this took the entire afternoon. And then at some point the bird made its way behind part of the fireplace and was quiet. We thought it was stuck, dying. We disassembled our trap and the guys put the front back on the fireplace. Our neighbor went home. 

Later, as dusk was falling, suddenly we heard a lot of activity and the bird reappeared behind the glass. Clearly the bird had been taking a nap.

I put the puppies in their crate, we turned off every light in the house, closed every door, lowered the living room shades. I turned on all the porch lights.  

My husband took the fireplace front off, again. And we simply let the bird out/loose. And it went right out the front door. The relief was immense.  

This whole process took about six hours. Little did we know, there was part two, the next morning. 

Risotto

I make a very good risotto. I have several different recipe I use. I add lots of roasted/cooked veggies and shredded chicken.

Every time, I think of the Top Chef judges who (I think) did not like any risotto any chef contestant ever made. 

My secret? I start in my rice cooker. I “cook” the rice and the spices. I start with boiling hot water/broth. 

When the cooker switches to “warm”, I add the rest of the smaller ingredients, the move to a bigger bowl to add the chicken and vegetables.

My forced tulips bloomed in February and were gorgeous.

My island cook station is working very well for me. 

I am still cleaning out and organizing every day

As I clean out, things need to prove they have a purpose. 

Creativity has been necessary to find a productive place for a few things I really wanted to keep. 

Here is an example - 

That is a large, wooden Lazy Susan. Most definitely vintage. I love it. 

I have tried it several places. 

Add a large recipe holder and a couple small containers, and it has a wonderful new life. 

The tiny crock and basket are to hold things. I use the basket for spice bottles. I use the crock for vegetable trimmings headed to compost.

The recipe holder is large and very secure. It can hold a book, sheet or card. The Lazy Susan raises it to a very nice height for reading. 

Aisha Harris (Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast) does a set of three, deep dives, into three iconic movies

 “Today we debut Screening Ourselves, a new documentary series hosted by Aisha Harris. The Godfather is considered an American film classic with an enduring legacy that still shows up in TV, hip hop, and even Muppet culture. But the film also sparked a complicated relationship with the real-life Italian-American community about how they were seen and screened. In this episode, Aisha looks into the politics and the legacy of representation in Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather saga.”

1 The Godfather

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pop-culture-happy-hour/id278974813?i=1000585119243

“In the second chapter of our special documentary series, Screening Ourselves, host Aisha Harris revisits the politics and legacy of Basic Instinct. Paul Verhoeven's 1992 thriller is a sexy and violent cult classic. But the film was also a problematic mainstream portrayal of queer women at a time of great political crisis for LGBTQ politics and representation.”

2 Basic Instinct

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pop-culture-happy-hour/id278974813?i=1000585910011

“In the final chapter of our special documentary series Screening Ourselves, host Aisha Harris recounts the debates ignited by Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple. The 1985 film is remembered as a fan-favorite centering Black women's lives, but the acclaimed adaptation of Alice Walker's novel was received quite differently among female viewers and male viewers.”

3 The Color Purple

 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pop-culture-happy-hour/id278974813?i=1000586756684

I did not realize this until last week

https://www.troutfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Sean-Anderson?obId=26756239

How terrible for his family. 

His blog was abandon several years ago. 

His family is posting on his Facebook page 

https://www.facebook.com/seananderson505?mibextid=LQQJ4d

New life for an old piece

Our middle lived through the pandemic with us. She moved home after grad school to take a much needed break and study for her boards. One year turned into four. And we got a lot done in those four years. 

She traveled before the pandemic hit. She passed her boards. She found her job and has thrived. She helped me when I recovered from sinus and then rotator cuff surgeries. She got puppies and it took all of us to get them out of puppyhood and into good dogs. She built a house and moved. 

As she moved her things out, we have rearranged our house. 

One small change that has made a big difference, for me, is a set of shelves. 

They have been in the girls’ rooms for years. Now they are in the hall, right outside our computer room, holding my genealogy binders. Very valuable use for me. The top is perfect for opening a binder to find something or file. 

Hide games for dogs

This set went to Youngest’s old roommate’s dog - 

This set was under the tree for middle’s puppies to play with at our house. It replaces a previous set they dismantled as small pups. Now, they can play without destroying.  

This set was used as white elephant gift for Youngest’s Christmas party -

We wrapped it in this paper 

We wrapped it and put a note so people at the party would realize it was a dog owner gift. After this photo was taken, I wrote “hint” on the dog cutout.

Very good house shoes

This was an early Christmas gift for me from my oldest and his wife. I opened it at Thanksgiving because I was in great need. After a week, I ordered a second pair to save for when the first pair wears out. 

I have arthritis, I have foot issues that require support. These come with a larger price tag than most slippers, but are well worth it. 

They offer warmth, good support and I feel very steady on my feet. I wear them in the house only. We do not wear street shoes in the house. 

I normally take an 8, I followed the directions on the website to size up, and the 8.5 fits perfectly. I have a thin but slightly wide foot. 

Green Chef

Our youngest is a vegetarian who belongs to Green Chef meal service. She subscribes to the two serving, vegetarian, option. It gives her dinner and then leftovers for lunch out of each bag. (I think she goes out with work friends for her fifth lunch each week.)

She brought her Green Chef bags home over Christmas and cooked for herself. So I saw the process and liked it. 

I subscribed for one week to try it. I did not like the idea of raw meat being shipped, so I used the vegetarian option also. (I always have cooked meat of different types in my freezer, so it is easy to thaw/add some to each meal.)

We are three days into our first four Green Chef bags. 

We like the meals, and the cooking process is very simple. The meals are nudging us to eat more diversely. So, we are pleased. 

The bag procedure I use is to order two serving size vegetarian meals. I add more vegetables and some type of meat to it. This works extremely well. 

The first night (bag 1) I added more rice/mushrooms/and chicken from the freezer, there was enough for dinner and lunch the next day for my husband and I. The second night (bag 2) I added sliced turkey and mushrooms to the sandwiches, no leftovers. Last night’s pasta dish (bag 3) I added cooked lean ground beef/black beans/onion that was ready in the freezer and a few mushrooms, enough for both our dinners and today’s  lunch for my husband. 

I only ordered one week’s worth to start/try it. So next week we are on our own (regular meals/cooking) and I will be able to see how I feel about that process vs the bags. I have already placed orders for the following week to meet the deadline.

A very good gift idea from this just past Christmas

Middle got an electronic photo frame for me a couple years ago. Mine came with a funny little story, it was loaded with photos from a bar mitzvah and we had a heck of a time removing them. 

The kids and I email photos to my frame. I really enjoy it. 

My brother and I buy one expensive gift a year for my mother. This covers Christmas, her birthday and Mother’s Day. She is turning 82 and does not need a lot. It has just worked out that I have been able to think of one big thing each year. 

The first year we contributed a big gift certificate to her landscaping redo. The second year was a new garage door opener with key pad and safety shut off sensor. Last year was a new (big) TV. This year was a 15” photo frame. 

I am envious of the 15” frame. It is pretty great.

My calendar

The pandemic caused my long time hair stylist to rethink her life. She switched careers and moved to a warmer climate. 

I found a new stylist, who I love. The forced change was very good for me. 

New stylist has a very full schedule and that requires advance scheduling. During the first two years, I scheduled two appointments forward/in advance. And we determined 8 weeks is my needed/preferred schedule. 

Every other appointment I get cut and highlights. The in-between-appointments are cut only. 

This third year, we scheduled all of my appointments for 2023 at my last 2022 appointment in December. That felt really fabulous. I love my calendar. 

I do the same thing with my doctor’s appointments. Some appointments are annual, some are every six months. Almost all the offices allow me to schedule a year in advance. I bundle my appointments, 6 mos apart, targeting May/June and December. 

I started this proactive medical calendar in 2019 and as we entered lock down in 2020, I was current on all my appointments, tests and shots (shingles, pneumonia, etc) and very relieved to have been proactive.

Dog bed covers using boxed corners

At my house, my 9’ window seat, the cushion covered with marine vinyl, is basically a very large doggy bed. Bonus - they love to look out the window. 

We bought two new dog beds for middle’s house. They are orthopedic beds with a very good/firm cushion. We bought one sleeping bag pad/mat and cut two pieces out of it. These are in the bed/under the cushion for added support and warmth. We made two covers using no pill premium fleece from JoAnn’s. 

Then we made a new no pill premium fleece cover for a dog bed we already had - 

We boxed the corners, on this one/above, and it turned out great.  (Instructions - https://youtu.be/B6NNi0wZJvc ). 

The cover fits snuggly. 

There is a zipper in the back seam on all the fleece covers.

I have one more dog bed, under the counter in the computer room at my house, that needs a cover. That is the next project. 

The story of two benches

This post is about two benches.

I am 61, the red bench (below) is probably at least as old as I am, maybe much older. My mother says my paternal grandfather made many of them. I wonder how many are still in use, loved.

The red bench, in my kitchen, serves several purposes:

I set grocery bags there to unload.

It keeps my husband from kicking the dogs’ water bowl, which is actually a huge problem.

We pull it up to the end of the kitchen table when we have a crowd. 

It is a safe haven for one of the puppies. 

That is a puppy with a fresh haircut. She loves to lay under the bench. 

A woodworking neighborhood came and looked at the red bench and I also sent him photos. 

He made a second bench for middle’s new house, six feet long and slightly larger scale. 

The 6’ bench is made with a 21’ long 100+ year old board stored in his family barn. The board looks new because it was  planed and sanded. Middle plans to paint it. 

The 6’ bench is made with pegs and the legs are inset with dado joints. So in other words, the new bench is made with very old wood and is constructed with old school techniques like the red bench. 

Middle is very pleased. And my guess is she is the only great grandchild, of that Grandfather, who knows of and loves his benches. He died in 1982 at the age of 66.

Suddenly too small

I used to be able to buy tall kitchen garbage can bags/liners and they worked perfectly. 

Sometime in the last couple years, maybe Covid manufacturing related, the bags are too small. Or what my store stocked, changed and I did not realize it. 

I looked and most tall kitchen bags are 13 gallons. 

Trash bags are 30+ gallons, too big. 

I found 20 gallon x-large tall kitchen bags on Amazon -

They seem to be working perfectly. 

My old 13 gallon tall kitchen bags fit perfectly in a slightly smaller tall kitchen can in the garage. So they will not go to waste. 

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good

I had Bose blue tooth earbuds for a while (2019-2021) which worked great for me. 

They were connected to a U shaped collar which I loved. I used them every day. After two years of daily use, I wore wore them out. Since they had a warrantee (purchased thru Best Buy), I tried to replace them, but by that time they were obsolete/no longer made. (Best Buy refunded me $400 which went toward a new living room TV.)

And here is the problem - the Bose were expensive and in a class all to themselves. There was nothing else made with the same features at that time. So I went back to wired gummy ear buds. And they drove me nuts for over a year. 

I went back to Best Buy in early October 2022 and got help. There was a product similar to the Bose style for $50. 

And here is the important part. 

The guy helping me said - no they are not the same quality as your old Bose, but they are good. 

In other words, Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. 

And, I cannot tell the difference in the sound quality or the features. The $50 pair (now) feels the same as the old $400 pair. 

A professional sound engineer would probably not agree, but the new ones are perfect for me. And it is such a relief to be wireless again. 

Bonus, at $50 each if I wear them out every couple years, it will not be nearly as sad to replace them. 

Yes, the kids all have small wireless blue tooth ear buds that sort of sit next to their ears. I need something that goes IN the ear and is more noise cancelling. Plus I like being able to pull them out of my ears, but still have them available for quick access around my neck, like if my phone rings while out walking.  

Every thirty years

One of my husband’s uncles was a family genealogist like I am. 

At least thirty years ago he organized his materials, typed/copied/distributed his research work. 

In those papers, one page talked about the contemporary family. It was first name and birth year only. 

At the wedding in Chicago in October, one of the oldest members of the family asked for that one page to be expanded/updated. 

I volunteered. 

It was been quite the project. Frankly it would never have occurred to me to do this. But it is an extremely valuable collection of data. Consider the records a family would have if every 30 years someone updated/recorded. 

There are now 58 members on this side of the family starting with my husband’s father and two uncles, and including their children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and all the spouses. This 58 does not include the short term spouses of two of the 11 cousins. Both guys are embarrassed by these marriages. I was willing to let them go, a marriage of just a couple months with no children, okay. 

I am including full names, birthdates/locations, parents names, spouses full names/birthdate/location/parents names/mother’s maiden names, wedding date/location, and educations for everyone. I have everyone’s high school name/location/graduation year. And I have everyone’s college name/location, degrees and graduation years.

As I gathered information and typed, I sent screen shots to the specific individuals to proof. 

This is all rolled into a pdf to send to the extended family. 

This project has also updated my address book greatly, which added names to my holiday card list. So we are better in touch with extended family. 

Shutterfly policy change

 I received an email from Shutterfly, last week, warning me of an important policy change. 

This is very major for me. Shutterfly is one of my backup photo storage places. 

Instead of getting irritated, I did my photo holiday card from start to finish on that Friday. And my plan is to order from Shutterfly every year, so I have an automatic order every 12 months. 

I ordered 120 custom 5”x7” cards with envelopes with free shipping. They should arrive today.

I think, this is the least I have spent for the most amount of cards. 

I did not special order rounded corners. I did not special order photo/print on the back. I did not special order off white stock/envelopes.

Having a total of four photos and very limited text on the front was helpful. I had to edit my text very tightly to convey our year in about 105 total words, including greeting and signature. 

I embraced the editing challenge and am very pleased with the card order. 

Using the $5, not spending more, not adding clutter

We do our Amazon returns at Kohl’s. Each time we return something we get a $5 coupon. 

I know the Kohl’s marketing plan is give customers a $5 coupon and they will wander the store looking for something and end up spontaneously buying all kinds of things. 

I do not fall for that. 

But I take advantage of the $5. 

The gift wrap section is right next to Customer Service at my Kohl’s. It is also a store location that is very easy for me to use/close to my house, with a good/safe/not busy parking lot. 

This is what I buy with my coupon each time. 

It uses up most of the $5 without going over. I buy a generic print and color each time, not event specific. The girls and I use the tissue paper with gift bags. 

The transaction adds very little time to my trip, like under five minutes to grab two packages of tissue paper and check out. 

Someone not wanting tissue paper could use this same philosophy with socks or hair accessories or greeting cards. 

Marine vinyl

We have a large window in our living room that the puppies love. 

Early on, I bought marine vinyl to protect the cushion on that window seat. The cushion protects the wood from the puppies’ nails. 

Marine vinyl is the stuff used to make seat cushions on boats. It is thick/sturdy, water proof fabric. I bought it at JoAnn’s. I bought enough length to cover the window seat plus a little extra on both ends. 

We then spent months straightening the marine vinyl that was just wrapped around the window seat cushion loosely. 

Finally, a few weeks ago, I took the matter in hand. 

I laid the vinyl on the floor, right side down, and put the cushion on top of it. I then carefully wrapped the vinyl around it to see just how close the two edges were to touching  in the back. It was shockingly close, like just a 4-5” gap. 

I added about an 1” to my calculations and then went to hunt for something sturdy in my sewing supplies to bridge the gap. 

I found a long piece of canvas and cut a 10’ x 5-6” strip. I can’t remember the exact numbers. 

I was able to sew through the vinyl fairly easily. The only difficulty was the awkwardness of the huge volume of stiff vinyl fabric on my little sewing table.  

Youngest was home, so after I sewed the vinyl into a large tube with the muslin filing in the gap, I flipped it right side out and started feeding the cushion through the long tube. Youngest stuck her arms up into the tube and pulled the cushion while I guided it from the other end. The vinyl is slick, it slid in surprisingly easily. 

I did not sew the ends. We just tuck them under. 

This was a very quick project. And it is very nice to have the cushion stay tidy all the time. As long as we have dogs, the vinyl will stay in place. If I was ordering cushions now, for another house, I would use marine vinyl. It is very sturdy. 

I still have to adjust the vinyl, but now it is just every few weeks. 

The canvas/gap fill started out in the center bottom/underside of the cushion. The puppies, jumping up, nudge it every time they jump up, so the canvas/gap fill slides to the front over time. 

Then I flip the whole thing to put the canvas on the bottom against the window wall. When I start to see canvas peeking out the front edge, I flip it again. It takes several weeks.