girls, cracked pipe, and squirrel bafflement

So what was I planning to write when I sat down last and got hijacked by the hijinks? Just some miscellanea of the past week. I went over to my daughter's house Wednesday and Saturday for more visits with great grandgirl Paisleigh. 

Audra arrived on Friday and the little family is headed back to Arkansas today or maybe tomorrow but Mikey and Audra both have to be back at work on Tuesday. Jade also had come in on Thursday so her dad could add some weather stripping on the hardtop of her jeep she just bought and we spent time together Friday and Saturday until it was time for her to head back.

Friday afternoon I went over to the shop and while I had already looked inside to see if there were any exploded water pipes like last winter (none shattered) I had not yet turned on the water to see if there were any leaks through cracks I couldn't see. So that's what I did, turned on the outdoor shut off valve and then walked through the shop looking for water spraying out. All looked good but as I walked back towards the back door I could hear water gushing. Great. Went out to turn off the water again and that's where the water was coming from. Well, damn, it wasn't like I hadn't insulated and taped up that pipe coming out of the ground and into the shop because I had. It cracked anyway. And it's not like it cracked in a convenient place that would make it easy for me to cut out and replace that section of PVC, no no, it cracked in just about the worst place possible and it wasn't even the pipe but the collar that connects two sections of pipe about 1/2” above the shut off valve that Rocky had repaired last winter.

My plan is to get some FlexSeal paste and goop it up real good and cross my fingers that works, at least long enough for me to have the hose while I torch the burn pile. If that fails then I'll have to call Rocky.

I collected all the piles of debris from around the yard and tossed all that on the burn pile on Friday. Still have yet to cut down the banana trees so I guess I'll do that this next week. All the roses, the azaleas, and the camellia have lost all or nearly all their foliage, even the monster rose bush is nothing but branches and stems. The holly ferns (of which I have many) and the Boston ferns are all brown. They'll come back but it will take two years for them to fill out again and that's if we don't get another winter in the teens next year. The two yew trees are going through a major leaf drop which happened last night. I had just cleared the deck yesterday of oak leaves and today it is covered again with yew leaves as is the ground all around them. The big ponytail palm though is surprisingly intact. Some of the bottom leaves? fronds? have turned brown but all the necks that I can reach are firm.

Today I worked on my latest attempt to keep the squirrels off the bird feeder. The little bastards spill more than they eat and the ground underneath has a thick layer of millet and sunflower seed shells and uneaten sunflower seeds. The shepherd's crook it had been hanging on didn't allow me to attach the 'squirrel proof' hood on the pole underneath the bird feeder and we know that hanging it over the bird feeder from the wire did not prevent at least one squirrel from getting to it. So I bought a new straight pole that came in sections with a piece with arms that slid over the top and clamps down to hold it in place. Then I cut a piece of 1” x 6” and drilled a hole in the middle and pounded that onto the top of the pole and resting on the arms, cut small pieces of lathe and glued them onto the piece of 1” x 6” that hold the bird feeder in place so that it is stable but I can easily lift it off to fill it when needed.

Then I assembled the whole thing, clamping the squirrel hood onto the pole under the bird feeder.

So far so good.