8 March 2013 - Just Ducky

 After work today, I grabbed Jack and told him "Road trip." Actually I needed to drive across the valley to Gans Ink to pick up an order, but Gans is not very far from the Lee Kay Ponds and Decker Lake.  Thought it would be fun to see what kind of avian life was happening out there--now that I actually know how to find it, thanks to the Gull-Stravaganza.

We packed up the car with David's scope, tripod, two cameras, binoculars and liquid refreshments. I'm thinking there's gotta be an easier way. Jack navigated and we started at Lee Kay. We saw lots of gulls, most were too far away to identify anything other than the Californias. There were Canada geese, a handful of Crested Cormorants, many many pairs of Mallards and a big flock of male Red-Winged Blackbirds.

Most of the Canadas were up on the islands hiding in the grass, but their heads were sticking up like little periscopes. Fun!

The Mallards were all paired up on the islands as well. With the binoculars I could see they were surrounded in feathers and wonder if they were already starting to build nests. 

Since there wasn't much to see, we moved on to Decker Lake. It was cold, gray and windy today. Jack elected to stay in the car where he could be warm. I ventured out, but not for very long. The lake had coots, some common geese and hundreds of Northern Shovelers. When you see how long and broad the bills are, it is easy to understand why they are called shovelers. The males were in breeding plumage, pretty spectacular. 

In the middle of this huge flock of Northern Shovelers was one male Redhead and several females. 

Last Saturday, in our own backyard we had a pair of hawks. I am pretty sure these are Sharp-shinned Hawks. He is perched in our sycamore tree overlooking the bird feeder.

 

 

3 March 2013 - Snow woes

Woke to the sound of rain this morning.   Two feet of snow on the ground and it is raining--great. We are down to about a foot of  snow on the roof, but I still have foot high ice dams over the eaves across the front of the house. Along with the ice dams, we have ice stalagtites.

Since it was raining, I decided some printing would be a good activity for the day. So first thing, I went out to the shop to switch on the heaters to let it warm up while we had breakfast, read the paper and eased into the day.  Opened the shop door to discover water running down the walls and puddling up on the floor. The water was coming out of the electrical box.  I ran back to the main switch, turned it off, went back and started mopping up. Jack came out and got the wire that was bringing in the most water positioned so the water would drip into can.

We were worried the roof wouldn’t last through the winter, but last winter was so mild...famous last words. I tromped out with ladders, a snow rake and a leaf rake and started pulling down layers of snow and pine needles. We had been keeping the roof clear, but got behind on the last two snow storms.  Jack went to Ace and bought a huge tarp. While he was gone I called David and asked for help. He came right away. David is convinced  we have a leak in the valley right over the door. He is probably right.

It was quite a comedy. The snow around the shop is five and six feet deep from all the times we’ve raked the snow off. You would be walking along on top just fine, then whoosh, you’d take a step and sink to your waist. David went up on the roof and shoveled more snow off, then stayed up to help position the tarp. Jack and I were slogging through the snow dragging the ladder and bench around so we could tie it down.

It has rained all day and is still raining. There is a slight possibility it could turn into more snow tonight. I sure hope not, but we have snow in the forecast for later in the week, so I guess it doesn’t much matter when it comes.

Our paper had an article saying that this was the coldest February on record.  We had 34 straight days below 32 degrees.  it also was one of the snowiest Februarys as well, but we had a lot of really dry snow, it isn’t really helping with the water situation.

I got wet and chilled. I now have changed into dry clothes,and socks and shoes. I’m drinking hot coffee, and I’m cold.  I want to go out and finish my print job, and the rest of me says Couch! Nap! Vegetate!

25 February 2013 - Full Snow Moon

The February full moon is traditionally called the snow moon. February typically has more snow than any other month. Here in Salt Lake it snowed on the snow moon. Just another snowy day in February. And we had many snowy days. 

Currently we have about two feet of snow on the lawns and even more on the roof, not to mention foot high ice dams around the edges. Water is backing up and dripping through the overhang onto the balcony. The icicles are huge. We have been trying to keep them knocked down as I think it must be a huge weight on the eves. It is scary how fast they come back and long they get. 


I know, yet another picture of snow on Mount Olympus. I'm almost through my second winter here, and I am still not over how gorgeous Olympus is, especially after a snowfall. the snow on the trees reminds me of the crystaline structures you could grow in water back when we were kids. 

 

When the sun is a certain angle, the deer trails are easy to see on the hillside. 

 
 

20-22 February 2013 - Pick Pack and Store

Today more fun and games. Robin and I tackled her studio which was buried in boxes, bins and huge canvas bags full of stuff. Much of it was material for her annual memory books that were yet to be completed. We found room in bookcases where train books used to be to store many of the binders. Then we spent several hours distilling file after file of information gathered on their trips. This incurred many trips to the recycle bin. After we had downsized the materials to a more reasonable amount, I suggested that she store what she wasn't going to use anytime soon in her storage area. 

After she quit laughing hysterically, she took me down to see the storage she has in the garage. YIKES!  A locked closet full from floor to ceiling. Fibber McGee and Molly would have been proud--as Robin slowly pulled the door open she had one hand up inside the closet to keep boxes from falling out.  What is all this stuff? And better yet-- why did I not take pictures?  It was spectacular.

We pretty much emptied everything out and sorted it into piles.  All the camping gear went into a pile for the Home Away kids. Tools and other odd things went in a pile for SCRAP, and yet even more went into a pile for Good Will. We hauled it all upstairs, cleaned it up and did more sorting. Then hauled it down to the car and loaded it to the gills. 

21 February
After a leisurely morning we started out to deliver all the giveaways. Home Away for the Homeless was thrilled to get the camping equipment. It felt really good to donate things where you knew it would be really appreciated and put to good use.  We wandered back across town to get to SCRAP. Robin has been telling me about this place for years, so I was happy to get to see it. First, SCRAP is an acronmyn for Scrongers' Center for Reusable Art Parts. It was amazing and such a hoot to poke around in that warehouse. They get lots of donations from businesses as well as people like Robin. 

I loved their swinging hand side outside the donation door. One whole section was filled with tile samples like you would see at Lowes or HD. Major Lust!  I could think of so many interesting mosaic projects and/or garden art that could happen with those gorgeous glass tiles.  I ended up buying a four inch high stack of metal samples. Yep, ooh shiny! Don't ask. I have no idea, but $5? What a deal! 

Many artists, art teachers, preschool teachers come here to get inexpensive stuff for kid's projects. The warehouse is filled with opportunities waiting to happen. And in case you don't have any ideas, they have some for you. Here is a room divider or hanging screen made of balls of leftover yarn. Not really for me, but why not? 

I liked a sample wreath made from book pages that were rolled into cones. I could see lots of possiblities with this concept, adding color or using magazine pages for example. 


 They had boxes of buttons sorted by color! And this was just a small part of the button boxes. It was a marvelous and overwhelming experience.

Robin and I were exhausted, cold and hungry so we ended our day with dinner out at a fish joint right on the water with a great view of the shipyards. 

Even though it was a fish place, I had a big fat burger and it was wonderful.  

 On the way home we passed a pilot boat docking area. It was fun to see all them all lined up. 

 
 

19 February 2013 - SF Day 4

What, you think a vacation is nothing but fun and games? Well, yes, but the definition of fun and games might vary. Yesterday we started cataloging Bennett's very large collection of railroad books, as he had requested they be donated to a train museum in Sacramento. 

I am so naive. I thought we could whiz through this in a couple hours. We spent several hours on this project on Tuesday and finished up this afternoon. Robin had some banker's boxes to pack them in, but with 200 oversized (coffee table book size and bigger) books, we needed more boxes. 

Off we went. On our way, Robin says "Oh my gosh, we are going to pass Arch. You must see this place!"  Arch is an art supply store that not only has more stuff than any one person could ever want, but also has a large section of whimsical, arty and curious gifts, cards, gadgets...you name it. 
 
What a fun diversion. It is housed in an old warehouse. The name was made out of bundles of wire.  I have always loved old hardware store displays and even have a very small one made out of old wooden cigar boxes. It sits on a pedestal and can spin around. The one in this store was beautiful, it still had the original cabinet base with all the cubbies.  The drawers had the original labels for screw, nut and bolt sizes. The entire unit was about 5 1/2 feet tall. Wonderful. 

A tiny bit of parking was available behind the store, and as you should know by now, I adore painted signs. This rather steam punkish passenger pigeon was painted on the corrugate sheeting. It was at least 16 feet tall. Loved it! Between the corrugate and the fading colors it was hard to get a good picture, but you can certainly get an idea of how fabulous it is. 

Continuing on our way to Office Max for boxes, Robin says, "We should stop! We are about to pass the San Francisco Center for the book. It has moved since you were last here and you should see their new location." Absolutely!  Not only was their new space incredible with lots of room for presses, room to work, a binding room for book artists, there were two areas for art shows. 

Currently on exhibit are broadsides and handmade artists' books made in response to the bombing of bookseller's row on Al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. A grim subject with stunning and thought provoking pieces. Here are a few:

The director of the Center saw us looking and came over and talked nonstop for at least 30 minutes about the exhibit, the artists and their work.  Interesting, but exhausting. Robin finally got a word in edge-wise about our limited time and we made our escape. Back in the car and headed towards boxes--again. Next door to Office Max was a Peet's coffee. We decided we needed some refreshment before box hunting in a big box store. 

We settled on coffee and a cookie. Since it was warm and sunny, we sat outside. Looking around I noticed birds perched on and underneath every empty table and chair. My cookie bar was quite crumbly. I swept some crumbs from my lap and started a riot. Brown-headed cowbirds came in from all directions to snap them up. I pinched off a little piece of cookie and held it out.  

Two birds immediately landed on my hand and one snatched the crumb and flew off with the other in hot pursuit.  I amused myself feeding the birds for a while. They were sitting on my feet and my knee, even landing on my hand and arm. Robin thought it was pretty Hitchcockian. I thought it was fun until I got to thinking about the bird flu, so I went and washed my hands really well.

We drove home along the ship yards, and looking at the huge cranes, I had quite the epiphany. Think back to the original Star Wars. George Lucas and his Industrial Light and Magic were in San Francisco, and I'm sure they had this same view every day.

 It seems like a very logical step to see this crane and get to the Walkers. I still remember how scary these were in the first movie. 

We galumphed home with our boxes, packed up the rest of the books and ended the day with a call from the museum volunteers scheduling a pickup on Sunday. Great accomplishments and lots of fun.