The Birdfeeder
Archive for February, 2008
St. Pete Beach get-away
Al and I spent the last 4 days in warm and sunny St. Pete Beach, Florida. Here’s the view from our room. Poor Al was cooped up in conference rooms most of the time while I took long walks to neighboring beaches like Pass-a-grill and laid by the “adult” pool (no screaming splashing children). The hotel was a resort on the beach much like one I worked at while living in the area 15 years ago. I tipped well remembering the disgust I felt at all the well-to-do tourists in $200/night rooms who stiffed me. I am not nostalgic about those years spent in the hospitality business. I feel for all the people my age and older I saw working behind and counters and carrying room service trays.
With the extreme winter we’ve been experiencing this year in Iowa, Florida has never felt better. It was wonderful stepping out of the airport into warm, balmy air and seeing green, LIVING plants and trees, some of which were even in bloom! I did visit one garden center in St. Pete. Plants were marked something like: hardy, half hardy, and tender. No zone info. I considered purchasing a gallon pot of society garlic marked “hardy” but restrained myself. It’s a good thing I did because I googled it back in the hotel and found that it was hardy in zone 7. I enjoyed looking at the selection for whatever zone Florida is and smelling annuals in bloom like sweet allyssum.
This is a sand dune with what I believe are native Savannah grasses and flowers.
Bohemian Acres Episode 2
Purple Day Lily
Bat House Progress
The college was closed yesterday on account of all the snow. SNOW DAY! And today we are on a two hour delay. PARTIAL SNOW DAY! All that extra time affords me some quality project progress. The project du jour was the bat house. According to many bat friendly resources (here is one), just one of these flying mammals can consume nearly 1000 mosquitoes in an hour. Bats are also great pollinators and seed spreaders. Just too many reasons not to try to attract more. If you look closely at the photo below, it appears as if there is some interest already.
Plans for this single chamber bat house are free on the Bat Conservation International website. They also have good tips on where to locate the bat house once complete. I adapted the plans only slightly since I was using reclaimed lumber from the barn. I still need to caulk up the seems and give this home a few coats of paint.
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! (It is the year of the Rat today, but from what I have learned, bats are not related to rodents).
For the Birds
During our recent deconstruction of the kitchen we found ourselves with a surplus of wood pieces and other scraps. Anne had been talking about bird houses for a while and even found several books on the subject at the library. The books featured some castles and other crazy palace like structures people have created for their yards. Ours would be more rustic, Anne told me, and she was right.
I’m tempted to leave you guess who built which ones, but that would lead me to question your guesses. So, no guessing allowed. The two on the left are my design and the two on the right are Anne’s. Most of them are held together with simple butt joints and nails. Nothing too complicated and nothing that will last more than a year or two. A good little weekend project and nice re-use of scrap materials. Now I want to build a bat house and a purple martin house.
