OK. Here is another sign of Spring. The Chickadees were checking out their house again.
He is really looking in that hole. Let’s zoom in a bit closer.
Still checking out what is inside the house.
Zoom in.
He is really doing a thorough inspection.
And he doesn’t even know that he is being watched. HA!
Oops. Busted!
Oops.
Sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn’t.
Our neighbor across the street just took delivery on a brand new snowblower…. and it is a nice, expensive one too.
No more snow this year.
Yay.
I have been experimenting with my Ciabatta bread, trying out some on-line suggestions to make it more tasty….. like letting it sit in the fridge over night…. which was a disaster….. or in this case letting it autolyse for an hour before adding the salt and yeast. This experiment is not going well. Check out my latest result.
Yikes! I think it got over-hydrated or something. It was flat as a pancake when it went into the oven. The holes on top are sort of out of control.
It even looks a little angry….
It ain’t pretty when bread goes bad.
Dirt! Ewwwww!!!
Due to some allergy problems we have been having….. and to deal with that New England Catarrh…. which appears to be one of the costs of living here in New England….. I put an air filter in the basement.
It looks like this:
Yep. That’s right, it’s just a cheap box fan from the Big Box Home Improvement Store (BBHIS) with a cheap Heat/AC filter stuck on the back of it. It looks like this from the other side.
When the fan is running, the filter sticks to the back of it. No mechanical connection is required. This setup cost me less than $30, and it replaces a HEPA system that sells for $800…. plus $200 for each replaceable filter insert.
I know it is working because after about a month and a half, the filter looks like this…..
ewwwww…. look at that old filter. I have put a new filter down next to it so you can see the difference. Gross! That filter is supposed to last for 90 days. This is what it looks like after half that time.
We’re breathing that?
Ewwww.
Well, I guess we aren’t breathing it any more because it’s stuck in the filter.
Oh, and here are the construction instructions…..
Go to the HarDware store and get:
Directions: Turn on fan; put filter on back of fan; take care for proper air flow direction; enjoy clean air.
Even an old Software Guy can do this.
The word of the day is….
“LITHOPS”
A lithops is a little desert plant, also called a “Living Stone”, that looks like this;
… or like this….
They don’t do much. They just sort of sit there looking like rocks or alien brains or something. But every now and then, they decide to bloom, and they do this.
Pretty cool. Here is the official name of the plant that is blooming.
And here is a closer view of the flower.
There are some amazing things in our basement.
The Chickadees were back at their house today to check it out.
The two of them come by occasionally during the Winter and take a look. They never go in, but they poke their heads in and look around…. and then move on.
Is it Spring yet?
Happy New Year!
New Years Resolution: Blog more.
It has been a few months since I blogged. Been busy. I will come back after I think of something clever to write.
The Chickadee house is back up for the Winter.
Say what? For the Winter?
Yah. We have seen the chickadees checking out the house all Winter long. They will stop by and look in the door, then move on. We want them to remember that the house is still there.
We put up one just one house this time to discourage those wrascally wrens from trying to take over the neighborhood again. We shall see how that goes.
I usually don’t do book reviews on this blog. But this book was such a shocker that I thought I would pass it on. If you had told me a month ago that I would read a laugh-out-loud book about how lexicographers write dictionaries, I might have used the word “bonkers”. But here it is. I really did laugh out loud at this book.
Kory Stamper takes on the “peevers” who won’t let go of the nit-picking (incorrect) rules that they learned as children. She explains why the words “ain’t” and “irregardless” are, indeed, words and are therefore in the dictionary. Her excellent use of the language makes the book entertaining.
Anyway, give it a look.
Um. Is that correct English?
