I Didn't Think Pelicans Came This Far Inshore?

I live in Florida.  So besides all the weird news, strange people, and insanely hot weather, we have a lot of wildlife.  Anything and everything you can think of we have.  For bird watchers it's a perfect place. 

Years ago the Pelican was on the endangered species list.  I had no idea how since every time I went near water there were hundreds of them.  It just seems they are bunched up here in Florida, and nowhere else.  Which brings me to something strange that happened to me today.

I walked out to my truck, and yelled, "Oh crap!"  Namely because a bird took a giant crap on it.  This was no mere seagull.  Although, it might have been a sandhill crane.  It was so large that I knew it had to be a pelican.  Which is funny since I live 30 miles east of the ocean, and 20 miles north of the bay.

Pelicans usually hang near the saltwater, but as long as there is water they can land in it.  Let's go to the photos!

I know you can't tell from the photos, but "it" is all the way down my windshield.  It's also on the hood.  So I took my waterhose and sponge and cleaned everything off.

I know this isn't exactly big new.  Birds poop on vehicles all the time.  But I haven't had this truck for even a year now, and I'm a bit protective of her.  I have to keep her for at least another 11 and a half years so I try to keep every little thing perfect on my truck.

Make a Little Birdhouse In my ... Backyard? Part 4

So I have even more news about the chickadees in my birdhouse.  But in case you haven't seen the previous three parts here they are.

Make a Little Birdhouse In my ... Backyard?

Make a Little Birdhouse In my ... Backyard? Part 2

Make a Little Birdhouse In my ... Backyard? Part 3

So when we last left off we had six eggs in the birdhouse.  The good news, is that, all six of them hatched!

Say, does that one look like it's saying, "I'm naked, but feed me anyway?"

But they wouldn't stay naked for long.  Just a week later all six had feathers, and were still doing fine.

The chickadee on the upper left decided it was getting a bit crowded in the nest.  Besides, he was a little too big at this point.

Just a few days after that a few of the others had gotten so big they needed a bit more room.

The good news was that all six chicks were still doing well.

A few days after that it looked like all their feathers had grown in.

Again, all six were there.  But do you know that 15-18 days after hatching the chicks leave the nest?  Yes, they are ready to fly out onto the world.  So this is the last photo I have of them. 

I'm glad to see all six made it this far.  As a former pet shop employee I've seen the odds that baby anything have to overcome to reach adulthood.  It ain't pretty.

I'm glad to see my little birdhouse made a little bit of a difference.  Things actually went according to plan.  I put the box up in the fall so it could be used in the spring.  Let's see if another family of birds will move in sometime.  If they do, you can be sure I will be there to blog about it.

So now it's time to play the "Success in Birding" song.

I Joined A Fight Club

I know I'm breaking the first two rules of Fight Club, but I had a bad time.  I broke my right hand.  I shouldn't have done it.  Now life sucks for five weeks while I have this half cast/splint on my right hand.

All projects are on hold.  Just typing this is exhausting.  I can't play guitar.  Anything to do with water is difficult, like trying to wash my hands.  Eating left handed makes me look like an uncoordinated five year old.  I can't exactly cut food.  Overall it just really sucks.

That's all I can type for now.  It's taken me forever to just type this.  So here's the photo you've been waiting for.

So A Turkey Walks Into My Neighbor's Yard...

The funny thing about living in Lutz, is that, it's on the edge of Tampa, but it's still a bit country.  I am surrounded by great wildlife.  Yesterday, the red tailed (or red shouldered) hawk flew by.  There are new baby birds in my birdhouse.  This morning three sandhill cranes flew over my head honking the entire time.  And yes, they honk like a goose, and are very loud doing so.

But as I was woodworking I looked into my neighbor Dale's yard.  There, right in his yard was a turkey.  I had my camera next to me because I was taking photos of my wood projects.  So I decided I would take a few photos of the turkey.  I figured I wouldn't be able to take too many photos before it got scared and flew off.  Boy was I wrong.  It just hung around eating stuff out of the flower beds. 

I managed to take a ton of photos.  Even after I discarded the out of focus or redundant pictures, I had thirty pretty good quality photos of the turkey.  I even managed to take two somewhat okay video clips.  I hadn't had a chance to test out how far my camera would shoot.  I have to say I was impressed with it.  The photos turned out great considering how far away I was taking them.

So enough talk.  Here's the thirty photos I took of the turkey in Dale's yard.

Normally I would add the two videos I took, but they are over the host limit.  I'll try to figure out how to edit the size down, and post them later.  Until then, I hope have enjoyed your turkey day.

Cutting The Cutting Boards

Ten years ago my Dad started woodworking as a hobby.  One of the first things that was suggested for him to build was cutting boards.  So he glued up a number of butcher block cutting boards.  He finished a number of them.  We use three of them in the house to this day.  Many more were given to relatives for presents.  However, there were still two that he never finished.

He put them away, and never got back around to them due to other projects.  Not to mention they were tucked away behind other equipment and wood.  I was cleaning out the garage when I came across the two unfinished boards.  It was then that I decided to finish the projects.

First up, this is what I was working with.

It was then that I found out why these were never finished.  I was thinking of planing the boards through my thickness planer.  However, I once I learned that they were constructed end grain up I thought better of it.  With the end grain sticking straight up a planer would chip it up in no time.

So I aimed to run it through my thickness sander.  That's when I discovered that the thickness planer needed some work.  Again, that's one reason the boards had been sitting for a while.  Without a thickness planer it would have to be sanded by hand.  Luckily, I had my mind set out to finish this, so it was onto work.

Luckily, I didn't have to sand  it all by hand.  I had the help of my belt sander and my random orbital sander.  So, I'll make a long story short.  There was a lot of sanding involved.  I started at 36 grit on my random orbital sander and 40 grit on my belt sander.  After that I sanded all the way up to 400 grit.

Here's what it looked like after all the sanding.

Pretty sweet right?  Dad did a good job putting these together.  The are made of maple, black walnut, and cherry.  So now the next part was to put the first coats of sealer on them.  I've been using a tung oil plus catalyst mix for my latest projects.  I love it since it's idiot proof.  Even I can't screw it up and that's saying something.  So here's a photo of the boards after one coat of the tung oil mix.

After this I will start applying butcher's block wax.  Once a few coats are added they will be ready to go.  The good news, is that, I already have a buyer interested in them. 

I have to say, I am extremely happy with the way things turned out.  I was also able to finish another project.  I have plenty of projects started, it's just finishing them that seems to be the problem.  So to cross one off my list feels good.