The boys, the pooch, and I pulled in at 6:45 pm. I unloaded the truck and we headed into the keep to get out of the rain. I then did… nothing. It was great! I just relaxed the rest of the night in the keep with my two little buddies. We watched one of the Harry Potter movies and some episodes of Mythbusters and shared some microwave popcorn. The boys were both asleep by 10 and I headed back to the bedroom and read for a bit before dropping off.
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Looks better and deters squirrels. What’s not to like?
Lyssa, the boys, and I pulled in around 11:30 after the requisite Aunt Judy’s breakfast. It’s a little cool today, highs in the lower 60s, but it sure feels nice when the sun peeks out of the clouds. I opened the pole barn right away so Jake and Josh could get their Power Wheels out and they were patrolling the yard in short order. Lyssa went off in search of a nice, quiet place to read. I wasn’t much help in that regard; the first thing I went for was the chainsaw.
In reviewing the timelapse footage from the camera I installed last week, I noticed the squirrels still had no problem getting to the feeders. They weren’t getting around the baffle, though. This was an aerial assault. I always thought the dead lower branches by the feeders and garden shed were an eyesore anyway; now I had even more reason to get rid of them.
One of several rose-breasted grosbeaks we’ve seen at the feeders this spring.
I spent the next few hours clearing limbs and unwanted scrub growth from around the feeders. I’m getting pretty good at felling trees. I had to thread the needle a few times between the feeders and deck and thankfully there were no casualties. As long as I was clearing, I maneuvered my way through the overgrown area behind the outhouse and mostly reclaimed the little wildlife garden my grandpa planned many years back. The whole area looks a lot nicer now and it’s easier to spot the birds as they fly to and from the feeders.
I see you.
Very short trip today. Stopped in at 4:30 pm to grab all of my tools for a computer project back in Oshkosh. But as long as I was here, I dropped off and set up my latest project: always-on internet and live camera feed. The gear consists of a Verizon 4G router, Raspberry Pi server, and one of my old TrendNet IP webcams. The camera is trained on the bird feeder pole from inside the keep for now. Hopefully, I’ll be able to see how the squirrels are doing against the baffle, as the system records an image every 30 seconds. The Pi has a temperature/humidity sensor attached to it, too. I’ll be able to monitor all sorts of stuff remotely.
With the equipment in place, I headed over to the pole barn and loaded up my tools. I also dug out my external directional Wifi antenna and pointed it at the keep. It worked! The pole barn jukebox PC can connect to the network across the yard, even with the brickpile in the way. I’m sure it helps that there are no other Wifi signals anywhere near this place to cause interference, too. I headed out around 6:30, admiring the blanket of apple blossoms on the ground on my way out. No wonder I never noticed how much the trees in the brickpile garden bloomed before; they don’t stay that way for long.
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