7 August 2013 - Revisiting July part 2

Next up in July was a week long sales meeting in Chicago. I was very lucky that Robin was available to come and cat sit, house sit and water everything, every day. Did I mention it has been hot here? I created a spreadsheet of what needed to be done when. Control freak? Me? 

Robin was able to come out for a few days before I left so she could learn the routine and stay for a few more days after I got back. It was good to have some time to sit on the porch and do nothing more than watch the avian antics and the clouds float over Mt. Olympus. 

I practically wore her out on her first day. Picked her up at the airport then took a detour up to Park City to look at door handles for the shop. Found nothing. As a consolation took another detour from Parley's Canyon to East Canyon then back to Parley's. 

Here's Robin on the top of the world up at Little Mountain where East Canyon, Emigration Canyon and Parley's Canyon all converge. 
 

We also stopped to check out a section of the original Mormon Trail.  The area was gorgeous, but while walking down the trail we noticed that the waist-high foliage on either side was stinging nettle.  

On the UBird site I had read about a stable in East Canyon that takes people on trail rides. They owners put out a lot of hummingbird feeders and supposedly get four kinds of hummers. 

Since we driving by, we stopped. I only saw two varieties, but it was a good spot to stop and sit for a minute. The handler was getting horses ready for a big party coming in that evening. Chickens were wandering around checking out Robin's shoes. 

We finally got home to discover that David had stopped by and drilled holes in some 20 of the blue bottles I've been collecting. Wow. Robin had a go at it too. 
 

While I was in Chicago, David took some time off. He dug out an old lilac from the end of the porch, poured some cement for footings and built the frame for my bottle privacy screen project.  I need to get busy and drill out more bottles, but this is what it  looks like at the moment. Pretty wonderful!


Even with only three columns of bottles, when the sun hits them, it looks amazing.
 Robin and I went to the local glass recycle bin and I went dumpster diving for blue bottles. 

We got quite a haul since it was right after all the Days of '47 celebrations, barbeques and parties. Folks are starting to drink Budweiser's new Platinum beer which comes in blue bottles. 
 
It's tricky trying to fish bottles out of container like this, but we added another 15 or more blue bottles. 

Because people pitch the bottles in the holes you have to be really careful about glass slivers and broken bottles as well. 

Robin also spoiled the boys beyond belief while I was gone. She left them with all kinds of heightened expectations about getting brushed on demand, not to mention undivided attention whenever they needed it.  I'm having a hard time keeping up with their new standard of living. 

I came back to find yard work done, all kinds of cleaning and a fridge full of odd food. Robin went down to David's and picked a bunch of his grape leaves to make dolmades. 


Let me just say I am not a fan, however, she made these with a combination of couscous and tabouli instead of rice. They were delicious! The leftover stuffing was turned into a frittata with roasted tomato and shallot topping. Yum. That was just one of many many interesting meals she put together. And she left me with a list of what was left in the fridge.

This is my lunch made out of leftovers. Dolmades, shredded chicken, hot mango salsa, kale salad and bragging here-- tomatoes and basil from my garden. 




Even with all the work we did, we did have some fun. The Tracy Aviary has a colony of flamingos and three chicks were born this summer. I really wanted to see the babies and Robin was willing. We raced through the aviary to find the flamingos first. There was only one baby. We found out that one chick was buried in the mud when it slid out of the nest during a thunderstorm, and the second chick was abandoned by its parents, so it was being raised by hand. The baby that was flourishing was so darned cute. Who'd have thought that baby flamingos were born white with black legs?  Wonder when the black legs and beak start to turn pink?

 Unless the entire colony keeps an eye on the babies, my best guess is that these two adults are the parents. They were being pretty attentive, but since flamingos are champion squabblers, it is hard to tell.  I was surprised that no one stepped on him--it got pretty thick with legs on that little island. 

We also learned that flamingos will sit on any kind of bird's egg, so the aviary staff often use them to hatch other eggs.

 

The egg in this nest belongs to a swan. We watched her stand up, stretch a little then settle back down in a new position. Her knobby knees are way back under her tail. Doesn't look very comfortable.

The unexpected delight in this trip were the pelicans. Some child was having a birthday party at the aviary, and each of the kids was given a plastic container with fish to throw to the pelicans. This must happen regularly, because the pelicans were following the man with the bucket. All he did was call out "Come on, snappers!" and they came in mass, mouths open and ready. I asked him why he called them snappers, and he said "Well, you have to call them something."  And they definitely were snapping those long bills at the fish. 

The kids were up on the boardwalk to the left, and the pelicans were impatiently waiting. 

Here you can see a fish in the front pelican's pouch and another fish in the beak of the pelican behind him.

I learned something else about pelicans while watching this melee.
They have a sharp hook on their bills that would make it very hard for a fish to escape. If you look closely at the pelican in front in the next picture, you can see the hook.

It only costs two bucks to feed the pelicans. I am going to do it one of these days!  Add that to my bucket list of fun things.