A Few Quick Notes 610

-Yesterday evening snow started falling quite heavily.  Fortunately, after a few hours it seemed that the snow had stopped falling.  When we woke up this morning to about 5 cm of sticky snow we realized that we'd been wrong to think that the snow had ever stopped.  Amazingly, after a day of thawing it seems to have started snowing again (though hopefully we won't again wake up to 5 cm of snow).

-Oh man, I'm super tired and it's not even 8:15.

-Much to my surprise, on Saturday I started to install our recently acquired anti-pigeon spikes.

Initially I only installed a two foot section, hoping that I might get some sense if were indeed a functional pigeon deterrent.  Fortunately or unfortunately, by the time we returned from an afternoon there were fresh pigeon droppings on the other side of the porch - indicating that the spikes were working.

By the end of the weekend I'd installed all $100 worth of the stuff (aka 10 feet).  The only bummer is that we'll have to buy another 10 feet or so for next weekend/later this week.

-On Saturday Pierre we being particularly cuddly.  At one point he even took a rather long afternoon nap in my arms.

By that night and several hours of this excessively sedate behaviour we were starting to worry that something was up.

At about 2:00 AM Pierre confirmed that something had been up by puking up part of a rubber glove and some other garbage that he'd recently scarfed down behind our backs.  For a small cat he really managed to save up a fair bit of puke for the event.

Unfortunately for Jeannette, I found the smell so upsetting that I had to leave the room to avoid adding to the mess.  Fortunately, by the next day Pierre seemed to be back to normal (AKA the kind of cat that would sneak around trash cans to hunt for discarded rubber gloves to eat).

Because we don't have crocuses

We may not have crocuses, but we do have chives - and soon they'll be big enough to eat.

Aside from the arrival of a smattering of dead birds in our backyard, is there a clearer sign of spring then new growth?

The Birds Are Back

It's finally spring and that means that means the annual return of many species of birds to Regina.  Unfortunately, it has also meant the return of two undesirable types of birds to our house and yard.

The first type of undesirable bird to return were those of the dead variety.  So far I've found four dead birds in just the past few days.  Even more unfortunately, I've now also found my first dead robin AKA first dead bird of any real size.  I'm really hoping that these four are it for this trend this year.

The second type of undesirable birds to return this year are the pigeons.

A weekend or two ago we first heard the pleasant and distracting coos of pigeons roosting just outside of our bedroom window.  Since then it has become a relatively regular occurrence.  Maybe the most unfortunate development associated with the return of the pigeons is that they've started hanging out in the roof above our front porch - something we'd really like to discourage.

This morning I finally got around to putting up some of the mesh we used last year to discourage pigeon/miscellaneous bird roosting.  Unfortunately, because prominence (i.e. the front porch) Jeannette was reasonably hesitant to ensconce the works of it in anti-bird mesh.

This reasonable position finally motivated us to look for anti-pigeon spikes that had been recommended to us last year by our neighbours' friend.

At $10 a foot, these spikes are a little more expensive than I'd hoped, but they look as though they'll be a little easier to install and will hopefully be a little less noticeable than wrapping everything in mesh.

Of course, there are still likely to be at least a few locations where mesh will be our only option.

Fortunately for my laziness, it's started raining.  Now I'll be able to put spike installation off until at least tomorrow (though it really should be done as soon as possible so the pigeons don't develop more of a taste for our eaves and porch than they already have).

I've Been Benched

A few weeks ago Jeannette gave me an ultimatum: learn to knit or build a cat tree.

After a few minutes of trying to knit I decided I'd rather round up our scrap wood and build a cat tree.

A few hours later I walked away from a moderately satisfactory cat tree, or at least I thought so.  The cats only seem inclined to use it when we're also in the room with them, something that suggests that it's not really as attractive a play thing for cats as I'd hoped.

Even if the cat tree was as successful at distracting the cats as I'd hoped, I think it was successful in another area - it re-ignited my interested in making wood products of questionable quality.  So while I'm not knitting, Jeannette's ultimatum was successful in that it got me interested in making thing (which was really all she wanted).

After the cat tree process I began to realize that not having a stool to use at my work bench was a little frustrating.  Over the next few weeks I began to think about various commercially produced stools that are available at some of the local stores.  Of course, as I don't expect to use this stool all that much I wasn't interested in paying all that much.

Then, I think it was last Thursday (it could have been last Tuesday or the Thursday before that), I realized that we probably had enough wood left over from the cat tree scraps (which, as you'll recall, were themselves scraps) to fashion a quick stool, or at least something approximating a stool.

Almost as soon as Jeannette was out the door and on her way to band practice I got down to work on my stool.

Within maybe an hour or so I was done.

While I was relatively happy with my quickly conceived and constructed stool I was also aware that it wasn't the world's best stool.

Almost as soon as Jeannette returned from band practice she was shown my new stool.

Almost immediately Jeannette noted the stool's relatively unstable nature.  That both of Jeannette's feet are off the ground when she sits on the stool make this feature particularly problematic.

Of course, even before Jeannette was kind enough to point out my stool's various faults, I was somewhat aware that it was a less than ideal stool.  Hell, I even know that it was a touch 'tippy' if the user wasn't careful.

Almost as soon as I received this criticism I began to formulate plans for a bench that would be anything but unstable.  If the Titantic was to be unsinkable, than this bench was to be untippable.

To achieve this untippable nature, I decided to use an A-frame base that would be quite wide, much wider than the bench's seating area.  Of course this A-frame would then be braced in various ways to ensure stability and, most importantly, untippableness.

Of course, as easy as the a-frame concept was to devise, how I might attach a bench-like sitting area to an A-frame base wasn't immediately obvious to me.

I eventually settled on chopping off the top of the A-frame off and then just using a bunch of long screws to attach the sitting area to the base.

Once I'd designed the bench in my head (an approach to design that does not require one to take measurements or really even plan for likely problems) I had to convince Jeannette that buying wood and tools for this project was worthwhile.

Fortunately, Jeannette was relatively easy to convince and last Saturday after picking up about 90% of the necessary supplies I set about working on my bench.

Much to my surprise it started to come together quite quickly and easily.

By the end of the first day I'd cut all but two pieces (the 10% of the supplies I didn't have).  On Sunday I cut the final two pieces and began to assemble the base - which also came together quite quickly.

On Tuesday evening I started assembling the sitting area.  Unfortunately, relatively early on in the process I managed to snap a drill bit and basically bring the night's work to a screeching halt.

Finally, after getting a new drill bit yesterday after work, I was able to complete the assembly of the bench.

Unfortunately, this bench is also a little high for Jeannette (maybe one of the drawbacks of an all mental design process?) but just as sturdy and tip-proof as I'd hoped.

I've been doing a little sanding tonight and eventually we'll but some kind of finish on it and then we'll call it a day.  Jeannette's even hoping that by next weekend things will be warm enough outside that we'll be about to use on our patio.

Anyway, if you ever happen to come over please feel free not to test the untippableness of this bench.  As we all know, the power of hubris brought icebergs into the Titanic's path and I'm hoping to avoid a similar tipping related fate for this bench and those who might be sitting upon it at that ill-fated moment.