A Few Sheets of Drywall

 

More progress was made in the old bird room (it's too depressing to call it that so now I think I'll call it the craft room). We got a few sheets of drywall hung, but have to make a trip to the store to get a few more. After that we'll need to tape and plaster the joints.

 

Dorothy asked what we'd be using the new room for - well, my first thought is a craft room. The light is so good that even on a dreary day it will be brightly lit with the centre fluorescents turned on, there is lots of room to create storage for supplies, and there’s room for a really big table to spread things out on. She wondered if we'd be using it for doggy things - agility and trick training. I think it's a bit too small for that, but once we get the main room finished I'll certainly be using it for some practice work. It's basic size is 24x38 which might even leave room for a tunnel or other such obstacle.

 

Can you believe there are still geese! December 16th! With no snow on the ground and temps above 0C we could be tricked into thinking it is the middle of November instead. But since we are just 1 week away from Christmas Eve we better not be lulled.We've had lots of grey days, but lucked in with some sun today - I took advantage and spent some time reading on the futon in a sun spot.

 

The other day at Costco I picked up "Spontaneous Happiness" by Dr. Andrew Weil. I'm about 1/4 into it and am enjoying it very much. I've also flipped through the book to see what else it offers. There are a lot of suggestions that I can apply to my daily life to help to smooth my moods and I dare say that anyone with an interest in improving their outlook would benefit.

 

I got my hair cut the other day, but asked to have too much cut off - it's so short it stands on end on the top of my head! Yikes! I'll be the round bowling ball head in all the Christmas photos... which reminds me of a few years back Mom arranged for all of us to go to Wal-Mart to have a group photo taken (we were 10+1 child). So the attendant arranges us in 3 lines and takes the photos. OMG - we all laughed so hard when we saw the outcome... they had to peel us off the floor we were laughing so hard... I don't have a copy to include but picture this... 3 rows of 4 round heads one on top of each other (I guess you'd have to see it to know... but we are all pretty round headed, so just a bunch of floating heads... you couldn't really see our bodies... OMG). Anyway, we ended up taking the photo ourselves on the main staircase at my parents house which turned out pretty good as you can see.

 

My mom likes to get a family photo every Christmas, but I guess she'll be out of luck this year again - 1/2 the family is in NZ - if only Santa's magic sleigh could bring them back home.

 

As I'm writing this Grace is cracking me up with her "oops!" followed by laughter - she's babbling on about lots of other stuff and whistling too. Carm's not around so she's particularly chatty. She listens to everything he has to say, and learns most of her words from him - we can tell cause she usually speaks in his voice - parrots are a lot of work and a fairly demanding pet, but gosh can they ever be entertaining! I never tire of listening to her.

Finally

Did you ever have one of those jobs that just seem impossible to tackle. You know, the one that you put off month after month until years have gone by. Well, today  we finished a job that we have been dreading for years... vapour barrier and drywall ripped out from the old aviary. As it turns out, the job only took a three hours - how crazy is that - all those years of stressing. Oh, there are a few more little bits and pieces left, but NBD (no big deal) :-)

When we first moved into the house 17 years ago, we were accompanied by 5 breeding pairs of parrots - 2 pairs of red-sided Eclectus, 1 pair of Blue & Gold Macaws, 1 pair of African Grey Timneh and 1 pair of African Grey Congos. We knew that we wanted to build an aviary that was easy to keep clean, could easily be disinfected, bright, and had room for large flight cages. Thus the "birdroom" was born. The floor was coated with a special rubber paint, the walls were carefully sealed using a huge piece of thick vapour barrier (see below), the baseboards were made with rot proof cedar, 4 sets of full spectrum lights were installed in the ceiling, and large flight cages were built using dog ex-pen panels (which are now in use on the camper).  The floors of the suspended cages were wire, so all food and feces just fell to the floor. Every night the floor was swept - we had a pretty active composter in those days. On the weekend the hose would come out and the whole room, except for the strip on the ceiling where the lights were, was hosed down and scrubbed. The room functioned perfectly. Many many baby birds were hatched in that room.

The wallpapering of the birdroom with vapour barrier deserves its own special mention. Have you ever wallpapered with your spouse? Well I'm here to say that wallpapering with regular old wallpaper is NOTHING! Try instead to put up one continuous sheet of plastic around a 14 x 24 ' room. With no holes punched through, and not only does it have to go along the walls, it has to go across the ceiling - uh huh - divorce time. Seriously though, there were words. It seemed an impossible job and we had to yell and scream at each other until we came up with a method. Which we did. We built a jig out of 2x4s that helped us get the job done. And the amazing thing? Once we got our method worked out not a shout was heard again (for that task anyway!).

 

I suppose part of the reluctance to tackle that job was not wanting to face the empty room...

He Went Down in History

One of the things I love about Christmas time is all the charming TV programs. Last night was the 1964 version of "Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer". I can't even begin to count the number of times I've seen it, but Christmas wouldn't be the same without it. Don't you just love Yukon Cornelius! "We're on the island of misfit toys..." :-)

Hundreds of little black birds landed on the back lawn this morning - they didn't stay long, perhaps there wasn't much to eat. I love watching them swoosh through the air in an aerial display that would leave even the Snowbirds envious. How can they fly so closely in such formation?

We headed out this afternoon with the idea of getting a Christmas tree. After driving around getting our other errands done (including getting the best eggnog ever and a pear cider to try), Carm decided that he just wasn't up for it today. He's not feeling very Christmassy this year - probably because of the loss of his dad. Saturday would have been his 86th birthday - the whole family is missing him. We'll get our tree later in the week when Carm's more in the spirit.Or maybe we'll just cut down one of our trees that line the roads. Not a big one, but one of the Charlie Brown trees where they've been planted too closely. I just want a little tree - 4 1/2 to 5 feet would be perfect.

I think we've finally nailed down the recipe for the bread machine. We wanted a smaller loaf (2lb) and 100% whole wheat. The recipes in the booklet that came with the machine were for larger loaves and only 50% (or less) whole wheat. So we've been experimenting. Last night's loaf was almost perfect. We also changed flour brands (to Great Plains from Loblaws No-Name). The GP whole wheat is finer and also has better flavour. The other thing we've learned - no matter what time it is finished baking we MUST have a slice ;-)

Still big flocks of geese flying over!

The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.
Henry Miller