Monte built a set of bookcases for a client and I spent the day helping him install them.
Nice, very nice…
I also learned a new joke from a friend who called just to share it with me. I’m working on trying to remember it, Pilar.
🙂
Category: inspiration
Looking for a snack.
I spied this crested caracara atop the telephone pole at the end of my driveway. I had just enough time to go back in the house for my camera and take this shot before he flew away. It’s not a terribly clear photo, but the best I’ve gotten of one of these big birds so far. Caracaras are in the falcon family, but they often hang out with vultures. You may have seen one feeding on a dead animal in a field or on the side of the road. They they also will eat small animals and birds that they can swoop down on and pluck off the ground. I think that is what this guy was scanning the area for.
Pumpkin spice.
I guess I should take a break from talking weather. Here’s a local pumpkin patch. ‘Tis the season!
Brrr-ski.
Last night a cold front settled down in central Texas. The high yesterday was 92 degrees. The temps today have dropped nearly 50 degrees. A rude awakening.
All but one of my hummingbirds have moved on. This one has spent the day under the eaves out of the rain, sheltered from the north wind, and with its personal supply of nectar. I named her Ellie. I hope she makes it.
Learning new tricks.
I drove down to the coast this week to join Lori and Mike on Trident to work on some boat projects. We sat through a day-long, hands-on class for “Marine Diesel Engine Introduction and Maintenance” which was delivered on-board Trident. I learned a tremendous amount, and now feel like I have a basic understanding of how a diesel engine works, and how some maintenance can be done. At night I dreamt of primary fuel filters, lift pumps, fuel pumps, engine fuel filters, injector pumps, injectors, oil extractors, heat exchangers, impellers, strainers, shut-off valves, stop-cocks, oh, my!
Today, after the lecture part of the class, Lori and Mike performed the following maintenance to Trident: primary fuel filter change, engine fuel filter change, impeller change, oil change, oil filter change, belt tension check, transmission fluid check, heat exchanger coolant check, raw water strainer cleaning). Nine hours of learning and doing. I’m looking forward to opening up Nirvana and seeing if I can identify all the components on her 3 cylinder, 30 HP Yanmar diesel.
Why do they put such big engines in such small places?
The engine and generator are inside this compartment, comically called the engine “room.” There is actually a guy (the teacher) sitting on the generator inside this compartment, pointing to components on the engine behind it.
Lori is changing the primary fuel filter here, reaching through the aft access door to the engine “room.” 
Fountain 4.0.
A year or two ago, I installed a small water feature under the oaks next to our back patio. It was a small fountain powered by a tiny water pump (4W, 80 gallons per hour). The birds have enjoyed it almost as much as I have.
The first pump lasted about a year. I clean it every few weeks. But one day it just stopped working. No problem. I ordered another pump from amazon and installed it. A week later some varmit pulled the pump out of the water basin, and it ran dry until it melted. 😦
I bought a third pump and the same thing happened; probably by the same damn varmit. 😡
This time, I’ve placed the pump under a rock and added a piece of plastic tubing to carry a stream of water through holes in the rock onto the pebbles below.
Wish me luck!
Happy anny.
We recently celebrated our anniversary. Tonight, we had Lori and Pooh over for dinner and popped open one of our oldies.
It was a bottle from a winery that we visited on our honeymoon – an almost 20 year old chianti that we brought back with us. The cork didn’t leak or budge in the last two decades, so the wine was really pretty good! I am very happy to be able to share it with friends.
Fall festival.
September 22. Autumnal equinox. I just googled it, and it’s happening right now – 9 pm central. Timing!
In honor of the season, we visited Live Oak Brewery today for their OAKtoberfest. Fun. Nice brews. Oompah music. No rain!
His and hers beer steins…
And the Austin Polka Band…
Prost!
I ♥ d’Orsay.
TripAdvisor just announced their list of top museums in the world, ranked by their travelers. At #1 is my favorite, the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. I’ve visited Paris on four different trips, and hope to make it a few more before I’m through. And when I do, I will walk through the entire d’Orsay again. It’s beautiful – a restored train station, the Gare d’Orsay, that was built for the 1900 World’s Fair. It opened as the Musee d’Orsay in 1986. Its exhibits are diverse and gorgeous.
Here is a pic from my last visit, it looks just like any other taken of its expansive great hall, around and through which its galleries are placed.
And another pic of the old clock, with a bit of my own artistic treatment (using the Brushstroke app).
You simply must visit on your next trip to Paris.
Simple pleasures.
This is a picture of the Pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia pulcherrima) shrub in our yard, finally in bloom!
I have nurtured this for several years. Though the brutally cold temperature dips appeared to kill it to the ground every winter, it popped up green shoots each spring. But, this is the first year it has flowered for me. While we were out of town for the month of August, I hoped I could keep it and some of our other flowering plants alive with an automated sprinkler. Upon our return, I was so pleased to see that not only did they all survive, but this plant had 2 flower heads ready to bloom. A happy gardener, here. 🙂
FWIW, I would recommend the low-tech sprinkler controller I picked up at Home Depot, since our underground sprinkler system is out of commission. But I’m also overjoyed by the unending rain we’ve had since we returned at the end of August. I’ll happily take every drop.
Sterling silver jewelry cleaning technique.
I’ve read about an easy do it yourself way to clean up tarnished sterling silver jewelry. I finally got around to trying it today.
You’ll need:
– a piece of aluminum foil
– bowl
– boiling water, 1-2 cups
– baking soda, 1 Tablespoon per cup of boiling water
– some tarnished silver jewelry to clean
Crumple up the foil really well, place in an empty bowl, and nestle each piece of jewelry into the foil so it is making good contact with the foil. This is really important to ensure the electrochemical reaction required to clean the silver.
Boil the water, add baking soda, stir well and then pour into the bowl with jewelry and foil. The chemical reaction to remove the tarnish from the silver will bubble while it’s happening.
Wait 15 minutes or so. Remove jewelry and rinse well.
Tarnish results from silver reacting with sulfur-laden substances in the air, forming black silver sulfide on the surface of the silver. This technique reverses that reaction, causing the sulfur to instead move to the aluminum in the foil.
Before:
After:
Wasn’t that easy?! 🙂
Wrapping it up.
We took the scenic way home from Rachel’s, dropped Rebecca and Aaron off, and then came home and whipped up a delicious risotto for dinner.
The next day we stopped by my nephew Jared’s new house, and then had a fun family get together at Noreen and David’s.
Then, FINALLY, we had one glorious, clear summer day on Hood Canal. Jake went for a hike with us and then we met up with James for dinner.
These are two pictures from the same place, taken at about the same time of day. The first is from one of the smoke-filled days, the second one was taken 5 days later.
I MUCH prefer this one….
Blue sky days.
We headed west with a mission to see where the Pacific Ocean meets the state of Washington.
Along the way, we stopped in Aberdeen, home of Kurt Cobain, former frontman of Nirvana. We stopped at a modest but touching memorial to him.
We thought this sign at the neighbor’s house was especially funny. 
And we did finally make it to the coast. It was our first smoke-free day, and it was lovely. We spent a day at Ocean Shores…
And another clear sky day at the coast, this time at Westport…
We spent the night at our niece, Rachel’s, new home, joined by Fran, Aaron, Rebecca, Noreen and David. We had fun exploring the area and enjoying our time together.
Island hop.
The next day, we drove to Colleen’s house. She cooked pulled pork, from scratch, and it made for delicious sandwiches. We visited with her, Lee and Jake all night. The next morning we headed to Whidbey Island for a day trip.
The smoke and haze was very bad. But it’s a beautiful destination.
Whidbey Island Distillery makes a nice whiskey, and delicious berry liqueurs. They use a continuous still, homemade – see the copper pipes and tubes in the second picture below.
I walked down to the beach to get a view of the Deception Pass bridge…
We popped into the Admiralty Point lighthouse…
Then we hopped the ferry to Port Townsend…VERY smoky. This is a shot from the deck of the ferry of the sun setting over the beautiful Olympic Mountains. 🙂
Sheila365 