Ramblings of a rural(ish) geek

So I seem to have solved the "leak" in the rill. Yesterday I was outside doing yardwork, part of which was pulling some of the weeds & grass that had grown up between the rocks. They pulled out very easily, from essentially mud. I thought that was weird, because the old leak is only about halfway up the rill, and there's no real way that the top of the rill should be soaked from that (water doesn't wick up dirt/sand piles that well, after all). I poked at the rill, and noticed that there was a small puddle behind the weir at the top of the hill. So I moved the flagstone that's over the weir, and realised that the water was splashing over the back of the weir because the bio-filter bag was so badly clogged. I pulled the filter bag out, weighed the fiber filter down with some fist sized rocks, and replaced the flagstone. That was over a day ago, and the water level has not dropped more than one would expect from evaporation.

I suspect that we'll still rebuild the rill, but it's not as critical.

- despite two days of near or above freezing temps, there's still ice in the pond, even though we added two inches of water on top of the ice (the water level had dropped due to evaporation when the rill was running in 20F weather). However, it's mostly a floating sheet, and should be completely gone by later in the week. It's not supposed to drop much below freezing until Thursday night, so we should be able to get the pump out. There were birds bathing in the rill even when it was cold -- they seem to prefer the running water to the still water in the birdbath (which has a heater & a thermostat so it doesn't freeze unless it gets really cold).

- yesterday's bonus "cello" performance at church was not horrible. It could have been far better (it could have been far worse, too). I needed some actual rehearsal time with just the pianist, so I could get her tempo changes. It helps that I'm used to singing with her, and am familiar with how she bends tempos, but still....

- I've been swapped down to alto for some of the Christmas music. The soprano part is just too high for me, and while DS would prefer to sing alto (less stress on her voice), she can sing the soprano parts.

- DB managed to hold off a cold for most of November (didn't have time, between the show and then finals), and so was sick over the holiday break. OTOH, Assassin's Creed IV was fresh out, so he and SR spent much of their weekend playing that. And Skyrim.

- Thanksgiving was quiet. Just the four of us for dinner, and I skipped most of the fancy sides. Salad, cranberry bread, roasted potatoes&apples, ham. With pumpkin pie squares for dessert. We forgot the crescent rolls, so we made them Friday and Saturday. By Sunday, we were pretty much out of leftovers -- there's a plate of ham shreds in the fridge, but many of them are too small for anything but putting into salad or soup.

- We got the tree up and decorated (we had to rearrange the living room to make a spot for it), and JO dropped by with the wreath we'd ordered, so it's beginning to look like Christmas is coming. Kid pix will be the weekend after next, so there's no need to start the letter yet. :)

- Sometime last week I strained my quadriceps. again. And a couple of days later, my knee started complaining. So back into the knee brace. mutter. Do Not Like. I like pain less, so there you are.

The froggie count is now eight. I think there are more, but I have only actually seen eight at one time. There are three different species (mink, leopard, pickerel) in the pond, and some toads and tree frogs live in the yard. Today I was out doing the frog count, and a chipmunk popped out from under the ornamental grass next to the rill and stared at me. Yesterday, a squirrel meandered past me on his way to the birdseed on the ground (the jays and sparrows throw seed off the feeder platform as they eat).

I played Esme for the first time since she came back from the shop, and the first time in nearly a month -- there are some new pads and they're a little leaky. That was a bit disconcerting.

I pulled a lot of blanket flower out of the east garden today. It rather takes over, and I was tired of it being the dominant flower in the bed. There's still some out there, and it will be back next year anyway. Next up, I need to thin the sea holly. ick (it's got pokey leaves *and* flowers, especially once they've dried out a bit). The milkweed in the NE garden got pounded by the hail last week, and many of the stems are falling over. I may go out and put the peony rings on them, just to keep the leaves & seedpods off the ground.

DB has band rehearsals T-W-R this week in the afternoons. Of course, it's supposed to be hot. OTOH, we need to move SR up to campus this week, and it's supposed to be even hotter in MP than it is here. OTOOH, she's doesn't have Band Camp this week, and by the time DB and the high school band step off in the fair parade on Saturday it's supposed to be much cooler (and fair parade uniform is T-shirt and shorts anyway).

J's been laying new concrete (see?). He's nearly done with the floor, but then he has to move everything back in. I'll help some, but a lot of the stuff is things that I don't know where they go, or are too big/bulky for me to handle.

I put out the heated birdbath. It seems that there is indeed a leak in the pond somewhere, so I unplugged the heater and the pump. But the birdies still need fresh water, and with the temperatures below freezing since Monday afternoon (and looking to stay there through Friday afternoon), I figured I'd best dig the birdbath out. The red winged blackbirds have arrived en masse -- there was a large flock (70-80) swarming around the feeders yesterday. There was also a bluebird.

The squirrels have figured out how to access the hanging tube feeder -- actually, there's a couple of ways. In one, the squirrel jumps onto it and wraps himself around it, using his back paws in the lower feeding ports as support while he digs birdseed out of the upper ports. In the other, the squirrel leans out to the feeder and pulls it toward the deck, using his front paws to get food out of the lower ports. The birds prefer the second method, as a lot of birdseed spills out of the feeder onto the ground....

Elder Urchin successfully moved. yay. Student housing has come a long way since I was a student. Apparently, the complex is mixed housing -- undergrads, grad students, and the 'general' public. She's closer to campus than she was, and there are sidewalks all the way.

Spent about 45 minutes pulling QueenAnne'sLace out of the east flowerbed, where they were blocking the view of the hibiscus *and* the sea holly. There's a lot of dead stuff in that garden. Some of it is to be expected, because there's a lot of cornflower and california poppy out there, and they die back once they've flowered, but the second flush never started. But it rained last night, and again today, and it was cloudy and cooler today, so stuff may actually come up soon.

I am going to take some credit for the rain, as I dug out the sprinkler and watered the vegetable garden on Wednesday. We're still way behind on rainfall, though.

Current frog count is 12 plus three tadpoles. There's a leak in the pond. We hope it's in the hose, not the liner. I think it's too fast to be the liner. We'll see tomorrow, after the pump's been off for 12 hours.