The windshield repair appointment was at 10 a.m., in Casa Grande. When
Kim talked to the insurance lady yesterday, she advised that he have someone
follow him in a second car so he could leave because it could take a few hours.
Nope, no second car available so Kim was prepared to wait. I stayed in camp because
I didn’t want to hang in a repair shop for hours.
Kim returned from the windshield repair gig with the news that it can’t
be repaired…instead they’re coming tomorrow to the campground to replace it. Originally,
they couldn’t do a mobile repair until March but something changed because they’ll
be here tomorrow between eleven and four. That works for us.
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The smallest of the cottontails came zooming from under the camper this
morning, stopped to look around and then hopped all around the yard,
disappearing under the trailer a time or two. I named him Peter, as in Peter
Cottontail. I think he’ll be recognizable because of his size.
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I took a walk while it was still somewhat cool…made it four poles past
the big tire. Still worked up a sweat but not like yesterday. I had intended to
get out earlier than I did but got sidetracked by the birds. Yesterday, Kim
moved the watermelon under the tree, thinking that the birds might go for it. Last
night we noticed that one piece was out of the bowl and first thing this
morning we saw that that piece was gone. Okay, so who ate the watermelon?
I was just walking out the door when I noticed that two sparrows were fighting
over a piece of watermelon that was bigger than both their heads. Kim, could
you hand me my camera? One sparrow
managed to grab hold of it and drag it a couple of inches. It kept repeating
the process, with the other bird harassing it, until it reached the fence where
it had to stop because both bird and watermelon weren’t going through the fence
holes. Both birds lost interest in it at that point. But Peter Cottontail came along and found it
to be a tasty treat. It appears that both birds and bunnies like watermelon.
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The bees were back this morning, which was mildly disappointing. I moved
the plate of nectar into the direct sunlight, took down the bird feeder with
bees still busily eating and, with a stick, sort of scootched the bees onto the
plate. Then I replaced the feeder on the
tree. It worked for a hot minute but then the bees were back on the
feeder. Also moved the feeder 20 feet
away to a shady spot, then watched as the bees flew around in circles by the
tree, looking for the feeder. I felt no
remorse about their confusion as the plate of nectar was maybe ten feet from
where the feeder had been. It was there for the taking if they’d just follow
their little bee noses.
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Today I spent most of the day outside finishing one needle felted gnome
and starting another. I discovered that it’s easier to track dark green wool
against black wool out in the natural light, so we moved the picnic table into
the shade of the camper, and I sat out there surrounded by needle felting supplies,
camera, phone and Bluetooth speaker. Spent the day listening to music and
jamming needles into wool, occasionally taking a picture. It was very relaxing.
I asked Clayton to name the gnome, and Chet was his choice. Chet has already joined Burnie, Chad, Bendy Man
and Rocky on the shelf. The other
grandkiddos will also get naming rights…I just need to make more gnomes.
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By the time Kim got back, the nectar on the plate was crystalizing in
the full sun. So, he added a touch of water to the nectar on the plate, stirred
it up and suddenly there were bees bellying up to the bar, so to speak. A bee must have gone back to the hive, wiggled
its butt in just the right way to signal “Follow me, guys”, and then led his bee
buddies back to the plate. So many bees suddenly…hadn’t been that many on the hummingbird
feeder. We may have created a bigger problem trying to eliminate a smaller one.
By the time they were gone for the day,
the plate was emptied. I refilled it to
make sure they knew where to go in the morning.
I intend to get the third hummingbird feeder back out on the tree, in
the shade of course, and it’d be ideal if it was free of bees.
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As we were sitting outside today, a cottontail hopped right up to the
watermelon bowl like it knew what it was doing. No hesitation at all. It wasn’t Peter because
it was larger than he is. But it was definitely familiar with the watermelon.
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When I asked Kim about the images he took last night, he mentioned being
frustrated by a dark area showing up on his pictures. Said it was faint but it
shouldn’t be there. He pulled up one of
last night’s images to show me what he was talking about…I had a hard time
seeing it. Had to look at it from a different perspective, squint ever so
slightly and then thought maybe I could see it. Then he tried with another
picture…nope, didn’t see that one either.
He took
his camera apart and gave it a good cleaning, hoping to eliminate the
area. Won’t know until he sees tonight’s
images, but he’s been down there a couple of times to check how it going and
reports that he’s getting good images. He’s
hopeful that he managed to eliminate the smudge or whatever it was that was causing
the dark area I couldn’t see.
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