Jul 15 - noises in the night

Bears ? That's what I thought when Sandy heard noises and wanted me to get up. I dutifully went into the kitchen, turned on the outside light ... nothing ... went back to bed. In the morning, however, she talked about said noises -- it was bats she was hearing, having exited their lodgings they were trying to get back in but my insect screen hanging over their entranceway was defeating their attempts to get back home.

I made the rounds in the morning, noting where the cotton had been disturbed and then moving it back into place. This morning I'll go out again and check and hopefully the cotton is still there this time, indicating that the bats had left and couldn't get back in. I'll monitor the holes daily and after a week or so will plug them. It could be that momma bat is in there with babies and I wouldn't want to stop her from leaving, now would I ?

I hung the bat house that I built last year but so far it has no occupants. I suppose that it would have been occupied by now had I hung it on the house by one of the other spots, but who knows. At some point bats may find it ... or not ... just like bird houses.

Speaking of birds -- last year we had a bird build a nest over top of our back door. It was killed at some point and the nest and its eggs not tended. It was not occupied this year so I should probably knock it down. In the front of the gazebo there is now a bird nest. I have not brought a stepladder down to look at it but when we're sitting there the birds are in and out. They're not making a mess or disturbing the screen, so I don't mind.

Birds continue to kill themselves running into our windows. Hardly a day goes by without finding a dead bird on the deck or on the ground below the deck. I suppose that they have a high mortality rate in the wild from hawks but this suicide business ... I don't know.

It's been a busy year for hummingbirds. They empty our feeders quite quickly. The goldfinches congregate at the front where we have the thistle / niger feeder and the purple / house finches gather at the side for the sunflower seeds. Oh oh -- I see a goldfinch standing on top of the thistle feeder now -- it's empty -- they get quite demanding.

Most nights I put the feeders into the shed. I forgot last night but they weren't disturbed (bears) ... I do have the perfect solution to any bear activity at the feeders though -- the feeder is right by the electric socket for the effluent pump -- you know where I'm going with this -- it would be a simple matter to hang the feeder by a short length of rope (insulation) and attach a hot wire to the feeder. That would jolt any bear into finding another source of food !

The other thing that I could do is hang a motion sensor by the feeder (I suppose that this is gentler / kinder) and attach a noisemaker since a light might not bother the bear. I'd need a dog recording ... or a truck air horn ... no, too loud ... that would disturb us too and the neighbours.

Ok ... I'm prattling on ...

Rain threatened through much of the day yesterday so I undertook a project that has been pending ever since our move. Having assembled the shelving (more on that) I sorted my CD's. I've got 3 or 4 hundred CD's so sorting them into alphabetical order is a chore. They had been sorted before packing for the move but of course in and out of the boxes a couple of times and while some grouping was still in evidence, this process took a couple of hours.

Putting the shelves in place took more than a little effort, since I'd left those pins in FL and would have needed a trip to IKEA to purchase some more. I checked and found that 1/4" stove bolt was the perfect diameter for those little shelf holes so I made a trip to town (Loring) stopping at Timbrmart, the General Store (mail) and Clapperton's (gas) filling up three jerry cans and the Whaler gas tank and finding that Timbrmart had not only the 1/4" threaded rod but also 1/4" smooth rod. Well, $1.99 later for a 1/4" x 36" threaded rod (didn't we go metric a long time ago ?) coupled with my reciprocating saw and my grinder and you cannot tell the difference between the ones that I made and the ones that come from IKEA. Ok, that's not quite true. The ones from IKEA are all exactly the same length while mine are a little variable and the ones from IKEA are always perfectly ground at the end while mine have some variability. I think that mine have more character ...

I went over, at Bonnie's request, to look at Pam's trailer parked in their yard. The door was not closing properly. I determined that was because the levelers had sunk into the soft ground, needed something below them to distribute the weight, and therefore the trailer had twisted slightly causing the deadbolt to mis-align with its hole. Bonnie's solution of a stick through the door handle was working perfectly ... I'll let someone else do the leveling. She was worried about a bear getting in but without some smells like garbage to attract a bear, he/she is not going to break a door down to get in.

Sandy went for a kayak ride yesterday down past Sherars, stopping at their dock to deal with the large dock spider that was wandering around in the bottom of the kayak. Eventually Jack, their grandson, managed to kill it. She continued on, having chatted with Doris a bit. Ken was out and about on the property with his 4-wheeler so she saw him but did not talk live.

I have not checked today's weather forecast yet but am hoping to get out for a bike ride. I installed the Dura-ace cranks in the Hummer because I'm having a problem with the Ultegra compact cranks. The shoulders of one of the Allen Key pinch bolts are ruined and I've ordered another from Excel Sports that should come in by mail. Hopefully it will arrive before the 600k on the 25th, but it might not. I can live without it for that ride but really want the compact crankset back on before the Granite Anvil 1200 where there is more climbing.

It poured rain at dinner so I did not go fishing. I'll have to check my minnow supply this morning, ensure that I still have enough left alive for another fishing trip, otherwise I'll go out with the minnow traps today.

That's it.