All Good Things

...must come to an end.

This has been a silent blog for a while, but it is going dark. Thank you for the memories.

2013 - tl;dr version

The highlights:
We bought a house and have TWO working toilets now, not to mention, a couch.
We went to Germany and the Netherlands.
We saw birds and birders. Notably, Rufous-necked Wood Rail, a ton of European birds, and local things. Laura Erickson is wonderful. So are her books.

The lowlights:
My dad died on moving weekend.
Steve (friend, mentor, birder) died right before Thanksgiving.
Jobs = chaos.

...that about covers it, I guess.

sockses

Nekkid dog has some paw pad irritation, so to distract her from licking at it loudly all night while gnawing it raw... socks! On both feet! Keeps her symmetry intact. Symmetry is important when it's all you have left. Dignity? Might be back in another week or so.

Big puppy is sad that he's not getting as much attention. So we cleaned his ears and that made him sad that he was getting the attention. Poor puppies. Nauga HATES the antiseptic spray.

sights of progress

Our guest Chihuahua for a few weeks: The Little. 

She's not too sure about the big puppy or the middle puppy, but she does like the back of the couch and the foot of the bed. Also, walks. Lots of walks. She gets carried for the rocky stretches though.

Left, button bush. Right, New Mexican olive.

Two mystery shrubs and a huisache, a barely visible New Mexican olive and even less visible flame acanthus.

Salvia greggii, rosemary, Salvia greggii, more rosemary.

Token bathroom shot for brainstorming. I really need to post 'before' photos of the house.
'After' shots may take a while!

Aaaand the problem bathroom. Surround is pretty much already dismantled. Not pretty.

House number, take one.
(Ingredients: found board - aged roadkill of a plank, several nails removed. Also, found and gifted horse and mule shoes. Gifted red spray paint. New white spray paint. Several new nails. Upturned pots via gifted plants, now in ground.)

House number, take two. (Chairs and table are dumpster rescues and a freecycle find.)

Not sure which I like better. Second version leaves nothing to the imagination!

Many, many more photos of plants yet to come - the only ones still in pots are the pomegranate (no idea where it should go), soapberry (ditto, but it has some time in the pot yet), mystery acanthus, one Salvia greggii, one Arizona ash, and one chokecherry that needs to be relocated.

Things already in the ground:

flame acanthus (2)

Arizona ash (1)

New Mexico olive (2)

Salvia pentstemmenoides (1)

Salvia greggii (1)

canyon senna (1)

scarlet bouvardia (1)

button bush (1)

Salvia regala (2)

Also need to get photos of various modifications around the house - some of our curtains (spider hiders) have been freed from their mop handles and are on REAL curtain rods, most of our wall art is actually properly hung, and so far most* of our plants are still alive. Triumphs, they are many.

Most triumphant moment? Realizing that 'ant traps' on hummingbird feeders can easily translate to an 'ant trap' around a trash can. Not sure how to minimize the space impact of a trash can sitting in a pan of water though... oh well. Redneck engineering at its finest!

Non-Brewster summer adventures

This is by no means a comprehensive overview of some of the madness, but...

Hey, check it - when you go to replace a tub faucet and the whole PIPE twists... that's a bad thing.

And a photo of Nauga that *almost* renders here semi-photogenic:

My life mink, at the Lake Waco Wetlands:

End-of-life dragonfly experiencing the kiss-of-death (hug-of-death?) from a robber fly, also at the Lake Waco Wetlands (not sure of ID on the ode, leaning female Eastern Pondhawk though).

I was not able to get a photo of the looong-legged robber fly that was a bright yellowish orange that was clearly a wasp mimic; at least two were slowly flying around, taunting me. One robber fly that did cooperate (but not for me) in College Station was a house fly mimic. Sneaky!

Speaking of College Station: the two folks in the center, Dr. Sharman Hoppes and Dr. Ian Tizard, are most wonderful people. I'm sure the rest of them are as well, else they'd not be doing the ground breaking for the new avian building at Texas A&M! It was an excellent crowd, with folks from AFA, NPRPF, and the Wildlife Rehab & Education Center - giant family reunion for me!

Oh, and home: the grape vine is huge, but the avocado tree (hulking beast on the left) is but a mere shell of what it used to be. A glorious, gorgeous, strong, vibrant shell of what it used to be. It once topped the roof line, but Hurricane Ike did a number on it - what you see there is too big for me to wrap my hands around (2-3 years of growth?!) but was a new shoot after it was cut back to the roots.

Excellent progress in 20 short years of work, my delicious little avocado friend. 

Mom and Sib. Aww.

Mom and Self. Aww. Think she was talking, whoops.

Base of avocado (2 of 3 pictured).

Important posts in the blogosphere

The first, a remarkably important topic tackled by Brooke McDonald. The second, a needed response.

http://blog.aba.org/2013/06/open-mic-the-field-glass-ceiling-women-mcdonald.html

http://paintedbunny.blogspot.com/2013/06/shards-of-glass.html

Bird on!

I-20 Wildlife Preserve

Without any intentional birding time scheduled, and no photos (whoops), I cobbled together a Texbirds post from March 18th's quick jaunt around the darn-new and mind-boggling site of Midland's new birding hotspot. Anyone wishing to attempt a birding trail, preserve, park, photography trail, whatever... this is a prime example of things done RIGHT. Quality blinds, trails, boardwalks and overlooks - not to mention feeding stations.

***

Folks unfamiliar with the new-ish I-20 Nature Preserve should really investigate it! Midland is somewhat short on birding options, but this one is conveniently wedged between Business 20, I-20, Midkiff and the loop; this means you will have zero sense of isolation (sounds like you're between two major highways, in fact), but the birding - and butterflying - definitely makes up for the noise of the machinery and general human chaos that surrounds it.

In a mid-afternoon jaunt on the 18th, Matt York and I kicked up nearly 30 species along the ~2 mile trail (mostly paved, some boardwalk) that runs the perimeter of the place. I lost count of blinds after the 4th or 5th - there are a few overlooks (2?) and a really sweet hawk tower. There are at least 2 RGV-style feeding stations that appear to be maintained daily as well. Someone has been writing roughly daily observations on their dry erase board and most of the bird/bug IDs appeared correct ("grackles" ...ah well)

http://www.i20wildlifepreserve.org/

Also, pretty sure it's my new favorite place simply because it bans noise making and noise makers. Guess if you can't hear yourself think due to nearby human activity, the birds should get a break from artificial noise as well.

Happy trails,
-h

Semi-annual Update

The 2012 review is up at Big Bend Nature.com and that means we're off the hook for more bird/bug updates for this post... right? Guess that leaves the pithy, lifey stuff...

Jan - hey, rare birds ARE life to us; Nutting's Flycatcher was some Herculean feat of masochism in spite of being a life bird for both of us. The bird called twice in something like two hours of our first observation and the call is what we HAD to record for confirmation. No pressure. Awesome bird. Great folks who chased it, as well. Kind of a who's who of birders, or an awkward family reunion.

Feb-May were somewhat nondescript, except when May rolled around we were both laid off from our part time jobs (same place - so there went our 20 hr/week gig, roughly 1/2 of our income, on 5 minutes notice... at the same time I lost my tutoring position due to graduation), but I guess at least we don't have to work at the checkpoint anymore! That was at the beginning of the week of finals and graduation. Not cool. I could have been studying!

Layoffs aside, May was wonderful; Matt's folks came out for my graduation and in the time-honored tradition of shirking rituals, I ate at CowDog instead of walking for graduation. Not quite a trip to the RGV (high school graduation), but CowDog with the best in-laws ever? Remarkably wonderful. We even introduced them to a black-tailed rattlesnake in the Chisos Basin! They stayed at Eve's Garden... not that we blogged their breakfast or anything. Ok, we did.

June saw a bit of travel; Matt held down the fort while I went to California for a wedding - not just any wedding, but that of a former solar car competitor turned bff/dear friend. While out there, I also managed to meet that 'new' nephew of mine who was already a year old! Whoops. I'm a bad aunt. Other than seeing a few birds during the wedding ceremony, no birding was done - but plenty of friends seen/met/stayed with in the process. Also, June was crafty... because I made a skirt into a dress for the wedding.

July was an exhausting/exhilarating mix of anticipation and phone-tag during the crunch time of pre-festival madness; Matt scouted and I wrangled field trip leaders and the most awesome celebrities ever, but between the two of us and some seriously awesome trip leaders, I'd say ~22 people at a first year birding festival with Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman is pretty much a success.

Following the festival, we took a week of down time and took the small dog to Santa Fe to meet her cousin. It was great to see the long-lost relatives (we see them maybe every 2-3 years or so). The fall turned into a busy mix of shipping Matt off to the AZ/CA border for some field work and I settled into my new job at Pitaya Verde.

The shift to winter was a mix of job shuffling again; Matt focused on guiding and contract work, I put my name in the hat for a librarian position. After Thanksgiving - early December for anyone keeping track - a neighbor told us about a house with a "for sale by owner" sign out front... and we've been throwing ourselves into it, full force, since then. We do enjoy the little house of termites, but the Double Bacon, as much as we love it, is sometimes just a bit too much. There's no closing date yet, but we're up to our ears in surveys, inspections, roof quotes and generic madness. Add the new job to the existing job and the move across town seems like quite a challenge. It's a pretty hefty move: all the way from the NE side to the SW side. A whopping 17 blocks... that's clear across town, as the maximum would have been 22 blocks if we'd lived any further on the NE side!

So please bear with us through blog silence as we tackle the latest batch of challenges: we're still here and our PO box won't change (434), but we're swamped with "productive" things!

Anakin, Matt, Nauga and Heidi - Jan 2013, photo by Tom Lehr

Snow in Marathon!

Also, we're at 33233 page views for this blog, says Google. But more importantly, a real family photo! Anakin is wearing his fancy harness and new collar (not that you can see it under all that fur!) and Matt is wearing a camo scarf (that's why you can't see it) knit by Kindli. Nauga is wearing her thrift-store onesie under her windbreaker and harness, and I'm sporting the bright orange Kindli-knit scarf. Wonder what Anakin found so interesting...

Thanks for being an awsome neighbor, Tom, sorry to have hauled you into the cold from your cozy afternoon of rest and warmth!

...and I just realized that we're posed the exact same way. Hrmph. At least we're not accidentally wearing the same thing!

yard list revisited

No posts here since October!? Oh dear. We were tied up with the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival in early November (leading trips this time around) and then were up in NW Missouri for Thanksgiving with the family, and now we're recovering from a Lubbock County Northern Shrike Chase (27 hrs, 2 of which were spent watching the bird!)

Since the last yard list update, whenever it was (apparently January), we've added a few things:

The Double Bacon - 9/1/10
    1.    Inca Dove 9/1/10
    2.    Eurasian Collared Dove 9/1/10
    3.    Barn Swallow 9/1/10
    4.    Turkey Vulture 9/3/10
    5.    Prairie Falcon 9/3/10
    6.    White-winged Dove 9/4/10
    7.    Cliff Swallow 9/4/10
    8.    American Kestrel 9/7/10
    9.    Bronzed Cowbird 9/7/10
    10.    House Finch 9/7/10
    11.    Common Nighthawk 9/7/10  -- FOS 5/19/11
    12.    Lesser Nighthawk 9/7/10  -- FOS 4/17/11
    13.    Great-tailed Grackle 9/9/10
    14.    Lesser Goldfinch 9/9/10
    15.    Western Tanager 9/10/10
    16.    Cave Swallow 9/14/10
    17.    House Sparrow 9/14/10 est
    18.    Wilson's Warbler 9/26/10
    19.    Osprey 9/26/10 - 4/2/11
    20.    Summer Tanager 9/26/10
    21.    Black-chinned Hummingbird 9/26/10 (back? 11, back early Mar '12)
    22.    Scissor-tailed Flycatcher 9/27/10
    23.    Broad-winged Hawk 9/27/10, (4/15/11) 4/23/11
    24.    Blue Grosbeak 9/27/10
    25.    Upland Sandpiper 9/27/10
    26.    Curve-billed Thrasher 9/27/10
    27.    Northern Rough-winged Swallow 9/28/10
    28.    Brewer's Blackbird 10/3/10
    29.    Cassin's Kingbird 10/4/10
    30.    Common Raven 10/5/10
    31.    Canyon Towhee 10/7/10
    32.    Northern Flicker 10/10/10
    33.    Chihuahuan Raven 10/16/10
    34.    Anna's Hummingbird 10/28* (ID on 31st)/10
    35.    Common Poorwill 11/9/10
    36.    Cedar Waxwing 11/19/10
    37.    Allen's Hummingbird 11/20/10 (?back ~11/20/11, banded 12/7/11)
    38.    Great Horned Owl 11/20/10 (est)
    39.    Red-naped Sapsucker 12/11/10
    40.    Verdin 12/11/10
    41.    Groove-billed Ani 12/18/10
    42.    Bewick's Wren 12/21/10
    43.    Sharp-shinned Hawk 1/5/11
    44.    Red-winged Blackbird 3/8/11
    45.    Hermit Thrush 3/18/11
    46.    Lark Bunting 3/30/11
    47.    Belted Kingfisher 3/31/11, 8/11/12
    48.    Chipping Sparrow 4/1/11
    49.    Vesper Sparrow 4/2/11
    50.    Zone-tailed Hawk 4/5/11
    51.    Scott's Oriole 4/10/11
    52.    Harris's Hawk 4/10/11
    53.    Broad-winged Hawk 4/16/11
    54.    Yellow-headed Blackbird 4/20/11
    55.    Pine Siskin 4/23/11
    56.    Swainson's Thrush 4/23/11
    57.    Ruby-throated Hummingbird 4/26/11, 9/17/12
    58.    Green-tailed Towhee 4/26/11
    59.    Painted Bunting 5/9/11
    60.    Gray Flycatcher 5/10/11
    61.    Willow Flycatcher 5/11/11
    62.    Black-throated Sparrow 5/11/11
    63.    Orchard Oriole 5/11/11
    64.    Western Wood-Pewee 5/12/11
    65.    MacGillivray's Warbler 5/13/11
    66.    Vermilion Flycatcher 5/15/11
    67.    Common Yellowthroat 5/15/11
    68.    Yellow Warbler 5/15/11
    69.    American Redstart 5/15/11
    70.    Varied Bunting 6/1/11
    71.    Say's Phoebe 6/12/11
    72.    Cooper's Hawk 7/17/11
    73.    Upland Sandpiper 8/14/11
    74.    Long-billed Curlew 8/15/11
    75.    Clay-colored Sparrow 9/12/11
    76.    Baltimore Oriole 9/18/11
    77.    Townsend's Warbler 9/19/11
    78.    Black-throated Blue Warbler 9/23/11
    79.    Black-crested Titmouse 10/5/11
    80.    Double-crested Cormorant 10/29/11
    81.    Killdeer 11/18/11
    82.    Brewer's Sparrow 11/30/11
    83.    American Crow 12/10/11
    84.    Dickcissel 12/ 11/11
    85.    Gray Catbird 12/11/11
    86.    Brown Creeper 12/11/11
    87.    Brown Thrasher 12/14/11, 10/3/12
    88.    Sage Thrasher 12/25/11
    89.    Common Ground Dove 1/8/12
    90.    Eastern Bluebird 5/16/12
    91.    Barn Owl 4/1/12
    92.    Cassin's Vireo 4/12/12
    93.    American Pipit 4/13/12
    94.    Franklin's Gull 5/8/12
    95.    Black-headed Grosbeak 5/10/12
    96.    Northern Waterthrush 5/11/12
    97.    Mississippi Kite 5/18/12, 9/21/12
    98.    Canyon Wren 7/30/12
    99.    Rock Wren 10/9/12 heard only
    100.     Merlin 10/19/12
    101.     Red Crossbill 11/27/12

DIY and sharebox

At some point before wrapping things up at Sul Ross, I crocheted a string scarf of an amazing dark brown and iridescent, color-changing combination... don't recall the brand, but it was "fiesta" something-or-other as a name/dye batch/stuff. Crocheting with it was so fun that I made two more string-style scarves, but both in a sort of fishnet pattern. And I added some rainbow ribbon to each, to pull out the subtle colors (from a distance you see dark brown and sort of a straw color).

Anyway, I snagged the spouse for a photo of the scarf and DIY wedding skirt as well as 'sharebox' tops. The tank top might have been purchased in 2006 or 2007? The jeans (now skirt) are from the late 90s, the Teva flops are quite recent.

Generally I'm proud of myself for getting out of bed before noon... dressing myself is another challenge entirely. Managing to get out of the house looking like the outfit was mildly intentional? Rock on. Also, since I own roughly zero things that match peach, I ended up with the pairing of pastel plus pastel plus... pastel. Eh. Pockets. That's all I ask in life.

Also, I think the blog needs to be introduced to my lovely cranky-bot. No, not the washing machine, that's already been introduced. The cranky machine that helps me sew. It is a Dutch-purchased Singer sewing machine, hand-cranked (it could have a pedal, if I had the setup for one), purchased on Valentine's Day of 1946, though it's a slightly earlier model. It has been passed down from my great-grandmother and still works like a charm. Because things were actually made to last back then. Sigh!

Thanks, Spring Valley Elementary!

Wow, Midway ISD has some great bugs. In the past, there have been some first county records for moths (Vine Sphinx comes to mind) and Mrs. York, a counselor at Spring Valley Elementary, has been kind enough to send more photos to us! All of these are from September 2012.

Cicada species, possibly Tibicen genus.

The bug above is a cicada - they make that whining noise in the middle of the day in summer when everything else has gotten quiet and gone to find shade. If we're not mistaken, the critter above is one of the Genus Tibicen - "Annual Cicadas" or "Dog-Day Cicadas"  On occasion, you may find their crunchy, empty exoskeleton when it has been shed.

Waved Sphinx (Ceratomia undulosa)

Waved Sphinx (Ceratomia undulosa) is a really exciting moth - it is a second county record! The first county record* for McLennan Co. was found in 2009 by another of the York household; Mrs. York's husband!

* officially the first one we found was not accepted due to its rough condition, but the 2010 Waved Sphinx found by Mrs. York's son, Matthew, was accepted!

Virginia Creeper Sphinx (Darapsa myron)

Virginia Creeper Sphinx (Darapsa myron) - this is an adult of the caterpillar that eats the leaves of Virginia creeper, which is a native vine, related to the grape vine. The vine can commonly be found growing along fences or trees in McLennan Co. Sometimes people mistake these vines for poison ivy ("leaves of three, leave them be") Virginia creeper is NOT poison ivy! Instead, it is dinner for caterpillars that will grow up to be these beautiful Virginia Creeper Sphinx moths!

Virginia Creeper Sphinx (Eumorpha vitis)

Can you tell the difference between poison ivy and Virginia creeper? Vine Sphinx and Virginia Creeper Sphinx need to know the difference!

Thanks to Mrs. York for sharing these neat bugs from Spring Valley Elementary!

one shirt, two shirt, red skirt, blue skirt

Sorry for the false advertising, no red skirt here. However, these are my non-jean skirt projects (t-shirt skirts are amazing!), in almost-chronological order of completion:

Original tye-dye. Modified in 2009,
the least-innovative of the shirt-skirt
designs, though most iconic in shape.
Made in a chemistry class sometime
around 2004 or early 2005... good times.
(Here's the how-it-was-made link!)

Gift tye-dye. Courtesy of an awesome
neighbor, modified in 2011, first
zero-waste attempt, resulting in oddly
scraggly edge (~2 square inches on
either side did get chopped off eventually).

Bonus: it's reversible. Inside-out, anyway.

Rec'd Aug. 2012, modified Sept. 2012.
Another gift shirt! Swirly pattern was
perfect for a wavy hem, though the
hem isn't quite as wavy as it could be -
this is about as low-waste as the tye-dye
one above, but has much cleaner lines.














Not a shirt-skirt at all, but it started out as a skirt - rec'd Feb. 2011(!!), modified May/June 2012.

...basic scarf skirt with lime and lavender
hints among the orange and teal and blue
and white. Roughly two and a half silk panels
make up the skirt, the waist is an additional
panel - it covers the pleats - and a long white
sash is on the right side, to be tied on the left,
where the side zipper is.

It turned into this!

wedding dress alteration

No, I'm not talking about the DIY dress I wore to a wedding... though it somewhat counts...

The original material:

 

It was after cutting up the jeans that I realized that they were technically 1/2 of my wedding attire. So the before picture is... plain jeans. They looked like jeans. That photo there? Matt and I had just gotten married. So jeans totally count as a wedding dress. At least in my world.

I never did wear jeans much, simply due to lack of pockets. That pair (why are jeans 'pairs' anyway?) had been at least somewhat affiliated with my wardrobe since sometime in high school. Let's call it '02 or '03 for the sake of a conservative estimate. All I know is that they were still 'nice' when I left Illinois (nice = not worn in the solar car shop!) and that within a few months of living in Marathon, the left knee was ripped straight across from one seam to the other. I've been wearing jeans a lot out here and I guess those were just the most threadbare. Some of my solar car jeans are still intact! Must be the epoxy holding them together.

Anyway, all of my previous skirt sewing adventures have been with t-shirts. My only non-shirt projects were dog beds and a sewing machine cover - so fairly heavy duty canvas. Denim is a new thing; especially because it's not the really heavy denim. And it's not stretchy, like the jersey knits. Intimidating!

Photos should have been taken mid-process, but that would have required a bit of effort, and once in the sewing 'zone' it's hard to step back long enough to take a photo... because once you're that far back, you might as well have a snack, check email, water some plants and two years later, the sewing project is still sitting there. True story.

The peach ruffle is actually 2/3 of a skirt that I snagged a 'sharebox' type event* - it's technically a medium (for who? an ice skater? it's SHORT!) and held on to with this specific denim skirt idea in mind. This skirt ended up being longer than originally planned - I cut everything at knee-rip-height - but it's a perfect length for work. Because really, nobody at a cute little boutique really wants to see my shins.

* Sharebox (Also: Share Box. Noun, verb. Adventure!) - a box located in the basement of each dorm on the Principia College campus. Useable items being discarded may be placed in the box. Items of interest may be removed from the box. It is a free exchange with novel and admirable outcomes.

As you can see in both photos the peach ruffle is still safety-pinned in place until further notice. It was interrupted tragically by a thread tension disaster that took the better part of a week to clear up. A few more projects have been tinkered with in the meantime, but it'll take a bit of courage to get that ruffle firmly in place. It doesn't help that the skirt's side seams will have to be taken in about 1/2 inch total because the skirt is ever-so-slightly wider than the ruffle. Not bad for the first round of a new experiment!

Adventures with Nauga

Back story: Nauga was adopted in March of 2011. At the time, she had a litter of four pups and the shelter, Grand Companions, had asked if we wanted a puppy. We do not do puppies. But having a soft spot for nekkid dogs, we came home with the mother of the batch. Ming is now Nauga. Lo, I think, was the father (he looked like Naug, but black with a white mohawk). Pups were Han, Leia, Chewy and Yoda. Three fuzzy, one nekkid.

Fast forward to about a month ago. Grand Companions called to ask if we knew anyone who would want Leia. Leia? Leia. The pup, now somewhere around two years old, ended up coming back to the shelter.

Here's the photo they circulated:

 So after a friend in Kingsville (Katherine) expressed interest and a bit of "meet the granddog" ensued (our dog's offspring is our granddog, no?) ... and eventually a meeting was coordinated. On Monday afternoon, Leia was delivered to Alpine from Fort Davis. Tuesday morning - original RoadTrip day - Leia was brought from Alpine to Marathon by a friend (Lauren!). Due to technical difficulties (dead car battery), the date was pushed back one day.

Anakin is a house pup, all 90+ lbs of him. He has three beds, a few gallons of drinkable water, a window a/c unit and bright or dark rooms in the house that are free for the napping. Nauga, when unsupervised, has a kennel. It's cushy, sure, and the a/c is there... but it's just not comfy or well watered for an all-day affair. 

Kennel in the back seat, harness in the front seat - Leia rested comfortably while Nauga kept an eye on the passing scenery.  Below, stretching their legs at the park in Uvalde - wish I had a better angle; Leia has loooong legs!

The video below is shortly after Nauga saw (and ignored) her 'life' Great Kiskadee in Del Rio after Leia was safely transferred. Also, since Leia doesn't really work as a name, Katherine is taking suggestions!

More photos may eventually follow - chaos on the porch and such, but for now, we're recovering from a long day yesterday!

shoestring; shoes on a string

I am not a shoe enthusiast. I do not collect shoes. I dislike shopping for shoes. I barely tolerated flip flops until college - prior to that I was a wearer of socks. Shoe tolerance has always been iffy.

The recent influx of additional flops into my life caused me great distress. Crafting angst occasionally sneaks up on me and Something. Must. Be. Done. As was the case with the soulless flops (ok, they had souls, just very worn ones that didn't do well with thorns or gravel), I needed to get the flops up from the furry corners of the house and into some sense of organization. Closet space is precious, over-the-door solutions sometimes prevent closing doors that need to be closed... dilemma.

Maybe putting nails all along the hallway, with a flop on each nail would work. It's barn wood in the hallway and nails wouldn't be noticed. Actually, it's so dark that they wouldn't be easy to see - and empty nails could snag if you brush against them. No luck. More agonizing. But the idea of getting flops off the floor wouldn't leave me. Even keeping them in pairs - I've never been one to have a pile of unmatched shoes...

At some point around 2009 I had a hanging toilet paper storage system all figured out; I've been too lazy to do anything about it since the move. Add flops. Somehow it could work.

Ingredients:
1 nail
ball of yarn - lengths will vary per set of flops
1 pencil per set of flops

So I hammered a nail into the wall behind the living room/kitchen door and stared at it. Some dark green yarn that didn't have a designated project was located. A super long chain of crocheted shoe-string was created. The Vibrams are just hooked on the nail at the top.

Crochet skills (if you can even call making a chain a 'skill') are not even required for this project. I just didn't like how thin the yarn was. Starting with a small loop at the top - to go over the nail - I tied a long loop (maybe 6 inches long) just below the nail. After hooking a pair of flops through the loop and securing them with a pencil, I moved down another 8-10 inches and tied another long loop. Added another pair of flops and kept going...

If the loop was much longer than necessary, I doubled the loop back on itself.

If the loop was too short or just right, I'd just slip the yarn through the straps and secure with a pencil.

To make the project super-exciting, jumbo colored pencils - the color swirl kind! - were used to secure the flops. Creative shoe storage has never really been an intentional part of my life - but if flip flop storage can be vertical, out of the way but convenient enough to use frequently... and looks weird but not hideous... I'm all over it.

Texas Rat Snake dilemma

Friends on facebook who have been following this adventure know that it started with an update:

BEST HUBBY EVER!! Brought me a Texas Rat Snake =D Yes, Sky, it is has been taken into custody until further notice. My sewing tote will need to be laundered after this, though.

 ...Sky Stevens was tagged in the note because last time the snake - this snake? - was found and identified, there was a bit of hesitance on the actual identification. Texas Rat Snakes (Pantherophis obsoletus lindheimeri) aren't supposed to be here. And they're certainly not supposed to be startling guests around town; that's how they get killed. And we don't want that to happen. They are NOT venomous and they eat House Sparrows among other things, what's not to love?

So Friday morning, when a handsome fellow showed up while I was at work and presented me with a lovely Texas Rat Snake, I was thrilled. It was alive, well fed (check out the lump in its belly!), gorgeous and definitely 100% Texas Rat Snake.

Snapping a few photos, the question soon became: how to keep it until 1) ID is confirmed by someone else, 2) it can be released where it won't return, since returning means eventual death, 3) ???

Not working at a pet store is kind of a down side - we end up with enough birds going to rehab that we probably should have some empty cages around. But while rehab birds can - and should - go into dark cardboard boxes lined with paper towels, well, that sounds like a recipe for escape with a snake. Canvas tote bag, it is! Sewing projects don't need a tote anyway.

Canvas bag courtesy of Irene Trudell, Texas Rat Snake courtesy of Matthew York, hand modeling and identification confirmation courtesy of Craig Trumbower. We have awesome neighbors.

Back to the snake - if it's the same individual that was found a few months ago and released a few blocks from the location... it's still healthy, bright eyed and well fed. Meal favorites are suspected to be House Sparrows, since it was caught among their nests last time.

A few less-than-flattering portraits of the lovely critter, held gently but firmly by Matt:

The patterning is really quite something when the photo is enlarged - most of the scales are edged in a bright, bold orange-red color! This photo also highlights the less-mouthy and more-stinky end of the snake... you can see where the ventral (belly) scales go from being double to single; and the cloaca is right where that transition occurs.

 To keep the discussion brief: these snakes don't belong here. They like to climb trees and eat baby birds... heat and humidity are part of their lifestyle. We're just not in their range. But shipments of plants, trailers of supplies, plenty of trucks and trailers and room for stowaways... most of the traffic out here comes from the direction of Dallas, Austin and/or San Antonio. Prime habitat, really.


 

The blue stripes are Baird's Rat Snake (Pantherophis bairdi) - most of Texas is shaded brown, where Texas Rat Snake is supposed to be found. We're also in the range of the Trans-Pecos Rat Snake (Bogertophis subocularis), but that's another story entirely.


Back to the quandry -
Texas Rat Snake of full-tummy has been upgraded from canvas tote bag to spacious tupperware digs; lovely cavern of overturned dog bowl and deer antler for ambiance. Spinach tub, trimmed down for a pool... filled with roof-caught rainwater. This whole featherless-bird housing issue is strange.

Well, now what? We have neighbors who occasionally head to San Antonio who could release it - but how good are the odds of survival? Better than a bird's would be, I have to assume. If released around here, eventually it will probably be killed by a person. Even if suitable enough habitat - like Post Park - could work, it stands a chance of interbreeding with locals and we have friends doing DNA work on snakes out here that would not be thrilled. A captive life would be cushy but... we like things to be living as naturally as possible. Does it have mites/ticks/other things that it could transmit to other populations? It is already here and probably still has whatever it came with - but is that a big issue with reptiles?

These are the things we are musing over. For now, a large plastic tub on our porch has a fat, healthy Texas Rat Snake as a guest. And it's a safe place until further notice.

Return of the bike flops

In May of 2011, there was a lovely post about Bike Tire Flip Flops. Last time we saw them on the blog, they looked like this: flop + glue + tire.

And that lasted all of perhaps two months. School kicked in and "real shoes" became part of the routine and my crafty angst was pent up for... a while. I kept looking at the curled tires, still glued securely at the heel of the blue flops, and wondered where I went wrong. Surely other glues would end in similar results. Gorilla glue 'eats' foam - a hard lesson learned working on the solar car project. Sewing would be a cool option if I had a needle that could survive bike tire stabbing and if my fingers could manage. Smashing nails into the tire edges to make holes was an option, but thick enough thread? Oof. Staples might have crossed my mind, but fleetingly.

July of 2012 rolled around - school finally done - new flops are on my feet. Black Teva Olowahu Mush. But I feel I've betrayed the old flops. Original black Teva Olowahu pair dates from 2004 and blue Teva Olowahu pair dates from 2005. Blue fared a wee bit better in sole condition, the black ones are beyond shot - but they did sneak to CA for the wedding that required a dress.... without sole improvement. On the return trip, I bought the new ones. And it started to haunt me.

Glue? No. Tried it and failed.
Sewing! My poor fingers. What threat to use? What needle? How to get through the tire?
Staple gun?
Staple gun.
STAPLE GUN!

Thankfully, after a few walks around the block with the dogs, both shoes are still intact. I'm glad there was enough flop-sole thickness left around the edges to hold the staples. And I'm sure when these come apart, I will dissect them... and make more staple holes around the edges, glue the sole to the shoe, alternately staple through the tire/sole where some holes are and make sure there's a consistent pattern of staple holes (without staples) around the edge to sew through. Sheesh!