The Daily Squirrel

One squirrel has learned that there's an easy meal in my backyard and shows up every day to partake of it. A few Sparrows show up but only a few and not very often. So I'm putting out seed for one squirrel. I made the decision to take down the Oriole feeder and the Finch feeder today. Haven't seen an Oriole in weeks and weeks and the House Finches stopped visiting the orange half so it just rotted out there and turned a lovely shade of black. Ick. I ran out of Finch seed so I soaked that feeder to get out the caked seed in the bottom of it and I put out the last of the safflower seed in the platform feeder. When that's gone I'll take down that crook and feeder. I'm debating what to do with the suet nuggets. It seems like nothing is eating them lately so they're rain-soaked and kind of mushed together. Evidently unappetizing. Should I dump out what's in the feeder and let the squirrels and chipmunks and rabbits have a feast? Probably.

 

I visited DS at Zambaldi this morning. He was brewing Maple Brown Ale and getting the tank ready to pump it into once it was done sanitizing and the beer finished cooking.

 

While the sanitizer was spraying around in the tank he drained off the yeast from the tank next to that one. He puts in something to "crash" the yeast out so it falls to the bottom of the tank and he can drain it off. It looks like liquid Silly Putty to me. It doesn't smell bad, it just looks gross.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Signs & Symbols so I decided to draw the symbols for different types of money. I had to stop and think which angle to cross the cents sign because it's been so long since I've seen one. Evidently nothing is cents anymore, only dollars.

 

In the afternoon I worked on the manuscript. I realized that I can go back to the original title of the story, Anneke's Legacy, and that's a better title than, The Summer of Blue-Black Nights, because it takes place in the winter. Therefore it fits the story better. 

 

And I drew a gratitude journal page for yesterday. I was glad to have the pest nerd come and take away the two dead mice and was happy to have a stack of landscape photos to choose from for watercolor class tonight.

 

Speaking of watercolor class, I'm not done with my painting so I left it there in a rack and forgot to take a picture of it. Nuts! I feel like it ruined it at the end anyway so I may start over next week which is the last class.

I've got knitting with friends tomorrow night. I said I'd bring garlic bread which I can't wait to eat. And I have to figure out what I'm going to knit. I could start another mitten even though I'm not done with the first one or I could just knit on the dishcloth/washcloth that lives in my car door and have something totally mindless and simple to work on. I confess that's the way I'm leaning.

My computer is frustrating. I had to do an update the other day and whatever it did, or didn't do, has made it so slooooow it's driving me crazy. It was nice and zippy and now it's slower than molasses in January.  Gah!

--Barbara