Ramblings of a rural(ish) geek

Saw (and heard) Red Winged Blackbirds in the yard this AM. Also saw a couple of woodpeckers at the sunflower seed feeders.

We had a thunderstorm yesterday morning, with hail. Small hail, but still....

And I neglected to mention the small turkey in the middle of the road last night on my way home from rehearsal. Young male, completely befuddled by 'road' and 'cars'. He eventually moved far enough out of the center of the lane that I was able to get past him. I suppose the proper thing to do would have been to stop and chivvy him out of the road, but it was far enough around a blind bend that it would have been a two person job -- one to deal with the bird and one to go up to the bend and deal with traffic.

well, not so much right now, but it was very cold (between -5F and 10F) at the beginning of the week.

At rehearsal Tuesday night, my saxophone was so cold that it really couldn't be tuned -- it was nearly a full step flat, and even by the end of rehearsal it had only warmed up to a half-step flat. I can't shove the mouthpiece on that far! Even the tubas were closer to being warmed up than the baris were.

It was a bit annoying that we had lovely clear sunny days and the solar panels were iced over so we didn't get any power from them. It's currently snowing, too. I'd rather have snow and 15F than no snow and 5F, even though I do have to go out in it. The weather people tell us that it will be above freezing (and raining) by the middle of next week. J and I decided that we didn't need to shovel the driveway today -- it will melt soon enough, and it's not slippery snow.

I did not get the holiday cards done last weekend. sigh. I have hopes of getting them done this weekend.

We got almost all of the AV ballots sent out yesterday -- there's a handful more to be done today, plus whatever came in yesterday's mail (the mail hadn't arrived by the time we left at 5:15, so it's Friday's mail).

The birds discovered the mealworm feeder that I started putting out after Christmas. I have to fill it every other day or so. They really like the sunflower seeds - those feeders get filled full every day, and they're usually down to about 1/3 full by evening. (we bring the feeders in at night so that the deer and raccoons don't eat the birdseed/break them.)

there are at least three toads trilling in/around the pond. We heard spring peepers on our way home Friday through the areas where there are spring peepers.

there were a pair of Baltimore Orioles at the seed feeders Friday afternoon.

I have deployed the solar burbler in the birdbath in the E gardens. I am very far behind in *weeding* the E gardens, but the birdbath is set up. (It's been chilly and damp, or I've been working, since the middle of April. Maybe I can start to catch up this week... )

There are a pair of male red-winged blackbirds in the backyard.

I was thinking it was bit early for them, but then I realised that it's already the middle of February, which is about when they've been showing up.

All of our snow has melted and it's dreary and brown outside. The sun is shining today, which makes it much better.

I spent 7 hours yesterday transcribing the 10 sheets of Children's March into something a bit more manageable. It's down to 6 pages, so that's a big improvement, and I'm not hunting around at each page shift to find where I am. (because the parts are so very different, the pagination is very different, and the start of one page on on part is halfway down a sheet on the other part. I kept missing notes because I was trying to figure out where I was....) I still need to go through and do a final proofing, but that won't take nearly as long.

again with the warm on Tuesday/Wednesday, cooling Thursday, shovelling quantities of snow on Friday. I only shoveled the top of the driveway, leaving the straight portion for J.

The flock of red-winged blackbirds is much larger than it was last week -- there were about 50 of them hanging out in the trees this morning, waiting for me to fill the birdfeeders.

There's 3 inches of snow on the ground, and they tell us that the temperature will drop into the teens(F) tonight and stay well below freezing until Sunday afternoon. And I'm going to be going into A2 both tonight and tomorrow night to usher at Hill Auditorium. It's not a long walk from the parking structure to Hill, but I'll still need to dress appropriately (the wind tunnel effect isn't as bad as the one on Tech's campus, but it's still noticeable). I'll need to dig out the warm winter coat.

Errands yesterday. More crowded than usual for a Thursday, and most places are running with fewer cashiers than usual, but no really long lines. Still gaps, mostly the same as last week's, and it's apparent that the local grocer has different vendor supply chains than Meijer, as there are things there that aren't at Meijer and vice versa, even though there's shelf labels/space for them. I am hoping to stay away from Meijer next week altogether, but I may not be able to.

There's enough snow on the ground that the birdies are eating birdseed rather than poking in the fields, so the birdfeeders are half empty in the morning. I did get a nice shiny galvanized bucket at the local feed store -- it looks a little odd in the kitchen sink in the morning, but it's easier to use than the pitcher I'd been using, and holds more water.

J is outside clearing the inch+ of fluffy snow off the solar panels - heavy snow will slide off, but the fluffy stuff just sits there.

I called the optometrist's office yesterday to check on my new glasses, and turns out that they're closed. "we hope to open on Dec 16." Well, then. Can you say 'positive test for covid'? No point in calling them again - they'll call me when they get through the shipments after they open again.

Christmas will be quiet here - I have no idea on gifts for people. DB just got a new winter jacket (his old one was from his junior year of HS, and his shoulders have gotten wider since then); J just got a hand-me-up pair of boots (DB's from sophomore year, when he wore a size 10, which still hadn't made it to the donation center). I usually get J sweaters for work, but he's mostly been wearing old hoodies. I did find a little thing for Mum, but it's not been shipped yet, so she probably won't get it until February.

is when a sandhill crane starts warbling and hollering at his reflection in the front door. Ten feet (~3m) from the open front window. And you didn't know he was even in the front yard. That was yesterday. Earlier today, when I went past the front room, I noticed that there was a crane peering at the house from awfully close up. So I went up to the front door, and he was on the front porch! It's not a very big porch - 12'x8' (~4mx3m) or so.

In other wildlife related news, one of the old plastic birdfeeders broke a few days ago -- I don't know if it was plain old age or if it had help from the wind or a large bird pulling on it (the cranes have been eating out of the bottom openings) -- I went out and the hanger and upper part of the tube were still hanging on the hook, but the body of the feeder was laying on the ground under the feeder, nestled into the volunteers from dropped seed. With a black-and-white critter working on the seeds that had spilled out of it. I didn't realise it was a black-and-white at first, because all I could see was a bit of the white at the tip of its tail and I assumed "bunny", as one does. erm. Not so fast. Fortunately for me, I did not spook the skunk enough, and he trundled off toward the pond, slightly annoyed that his snack time had been interrupted.

Still no rain - the storms that went through the area over the last couple of days have dropped about a dozen raindrops per square meter here. My garden work has been limited to cutting back dead flowers and spreading mulch.

Memorial Day I wandered off to the Franklin cemetery for the annual rendition of Memorial Day in small-town-America. I wound up sight-reading/transposing on the fly the Tuba part, as there was no tube player. I *think* there is a bari-sax folder in the bin, but I saw the tuba folder first. I probably should have grabbed the B-sax folder too, if only to lessen the amount of flailing I did. OTOH, it went fine. I only got irretrievably lost once, and there is some suspicion that the bass line has a different arrangement than the other winds for that piece, so it may not have been entirely my fault.

Tuesday, I went off to Livingston County Community Band rehearsal. Their summer folder is packed -- there are 56 pieces in it, and concert programs are pulled from those pieces. Most of the pieces are bog-standard HS band things, but that doesn't mean they're easy. Many of them I have played with the FCB, but some I have not. There is also some chatter that I may swap up to tenor, as there may be more baris than anything else, if everyone shows up. That will be fun (fsvo), as I haven't played tenor in a concert band in over a decade.

Garden wise, it keeps raining! I pull a cartful of weeds every day, and am still falling behind. I have been able to get into a few of garden beds, but the east flower beds are getting out of control. The smaller ones I can work most of without stepping into them, but the east beds are too big for that. The strawberries got weeded last week, just in time for them to blossom. The irises started blooming yesterday, and the peonies are not far behind. The alliums in the side garden have bloomed, as has the one up in the NW bed (that I didn't plant. I suspect a bird.) There is a columbine up against the house that wasn't there last year -- I planted a similar one in the middle of that bed a couple of years ago, and it wasn't doing well. I have no idea how it moved five feet over the course of a winter.) The bleeding hearts popped late last week -- they really seem to like all the damp we've had this year.

The orioles have been hanging about, although since the couple of days last week when BirdBrain was pecking at the windows I haven't seen them. The neighbor across the street has more trees closer to her feeder, and says that she has orioles most of the summer.

I have heard frogs croaking, as well as two different species of toads trilling, so that's good.

DB saw sandhill cranes in the backyard. He says they were dancing and warbling at each other a lot.

I did not see them, as I was not home during the daylight -- wait, that's not quite true. The sun was completely up (barely) when I left at 0730, and had not gone down when I returned at 1745. I still didn't see the cranes, but I'm sure I will see them tomorrow.

I was off being helpful at the high school for MSBOA festival. This year's event was mostly middle school groups, with Detroit Catholic Central and Chelsea being the only HS groups on the program. Some of the 7th grade bands are very bad, others are quite good. Saline's is far too large -- it needs to be split into at least 2, maybe 3. There's no way a beginning student can get a good foundation in a group of a hundred, and there's no way the teacher can find a struggling student and help them before they develop bad habits.

Chelsea's groups were all very good to outstanding. The Wind Symphony played The Earl of Oxford March, which I have never heard "in the wild" other than when the FCB played it during our anniversary year. SR was concerned about the new middle school band director when she was hired two years ago (having gone to school with her!), but so far she seems to be quite good -- at least her bands are good, which is all I really have to go by.