Owl pellets

If you have a weak belly, you might want to skip this post and photos.  Not sure if you are familiar with what owl pellets are, but at first I thought owl pellets were owl poop.  But no, it's actually pellets of what the owls regurgitate.  Ya, after eating their meals whole, the owls regurgitate all the "stuff" that it can't digest - such as bones and fur. Eeewww.... 

And if you're asking why we have these owl pellets, it's because we are going to dissect them!  How fun! Ha ha!  Graham had recently joined the Science Olympiad for school and this is one of the projects. Here's the diagram of animal bones we might find in the owl pellet:

So here goes!  And oh, did you know that you can buy owl pellets from the internet?  It comes wrapped up in foil in a ziplock bag. Who knew!

We had a bowl of water ready so you can soak the pellet first to soften it.  It didn't take long for us to find some sort of skull:

Look at all the bones we have uncovered!

It's amazing how you can actually distinguish the hip bones and the other leg bones, possibly a scapula, and who knows what else. And then we even found a wish bone! No, we didn't try to make any wishes :-P

Graham was actually a bit upset/scared when we first got into dissecting the owl pellet - to a point he was actually crying.  And then, once we started to dissect the second owl pellet, he actually picked up this skull with his gloved fingers!  I was really surprised but so glad he got through his anxiety.  So much so that Graham decided to put the photo as my background on my phone.  Little stinker!

Well, it was an experience for all of us to say the least.  I'm just glad we had some gloves and chopsticks handy:

I remembered that my older sister had to dissect a frog and a rat for Biology during high school.  Somehow, my class (2 years later) didn't do it as we were in a new curriculum.  Anyhow, we actually caught a rat at home and so she even dissected one on the front porch.  I still remember that to this day. Blaaaah!!!  I wonder if Graham will get through that when his time comes.  Fingers crossed!

Clogged sink!

We had a clogged sink the Friday before last.  Of course, it was almost towards the end of the day, so instead of calling the plumber, I asked Bobby to head over to Home Depot to get some kitchen sink drainage "stuff" and also perhaps a " drain snake".

Weirdly enough, I had asked Graham and Charlie to load up the dishwasher that night.  I don't normally ask them but figured it's about time that they start learning/doing it.  And when we ran the dishwasher, the water starting coming up into the sink.  Blah!!!

So, here's the drain opener gel:

I knew I should have saved the receipt because the label said that it's Guaranteed or it's Free!  I thought it worked as the water did subside when I dumped hot water down the drain the next day: 

But when I dumped the hot water into the garbage disposer, the water started coming up again into the sink. Boo hoo...!

So here's the "snake" that Bobby ended up buying.  Go big or go home!!!

It took us a few minutes to figure it out.  We were trying to turn on the auto-feed and once we got that working... and however many feet of wire later into the drain, the sink was unclogged! Hooray!!!  I'm so glad it worked and I'm so glad the end bit of the "snake" was able to unwhirl itself out of the sink.  Phew!  Well, definitely one handy tool to have.  This is the 2nd time it has clogged now since we have moved into this house.  Hopefully we don't have to do it again, but then again - another skill to master. Sink unclogging. Check! Ha ha ha!!! :-)

Some landscaping

Remember those pile of tiles on the side of the house?  I was going to get rid of all of them.  I'm glad I didn't especially after the rain we just had!  

Here's the before:

And after!

I think it looks okay :-)  I grabbed a few succulents from the front yard and just placed them above the tiles.  I also somewhat methodically placed some other broken tiles the other way after seeing some landscaping ideas online. The boys and I were also able to collect a lot of free rocks a few weeks ago, so those came in handy too:

I hope the plants survive in this area as there is no sprinkler system here.  The rain this past weekend will help for sure.  As for finding the molting of this snake... I hope I don't see the real thing anytime soon!

That big rock was a beast!  But I think it looks good over here.  I'm glad I didn't pinch my finger too badly while putting it into place. 

We need some sort of solar lamp or lighting in this area.  That will be on my list eventually.  In the meantime, I'm just glad the soil did not spill over during the brief but heavy rain over the weekend! But still can't escape the mosquitos around here. Grrr...

This mosquito obviously had quite the meal from 3 different spots!  Still have to figure this mosquito situation out.  How many citronella plants do we really need???

Random photos

 Just a few things happenin' around the house lately, although I think these were mostly taken in October. Yeah... still playing catch up on my postings!

We recently discovered how to make these super crunchy taco shells.  I think I saw it on TV.  So simple and easy!  

Pour some oil on the tortilla shell, put some cheese on top, and then put it in the oven for... hmm... 8-1 10 minutes in a preheated oven at 400F (or was it 425F).  Yuuummmmm...!

I was actually surprised when Bobby decided to trim some of the new leaves coming up from the tree in the very front.  They block some of our view when we back out from the driveway.  Brownie points for Bobby :-)

Graham is building his new project from his new "crate" that we've renewed (it comes once a month):

It's a ukulele!  He hasn't quite taken into it very much though :-\

Here is Charlie taking a selfie.  He looks a little chubby here somehow.  Ha ha!

And he's looking awfully sleeping and tired here.  Ha ha!

Oh, here's another one of Graham's handiwork with his cement truck.  "Aiyo...!", as I would say in Chinese!

Our Zebra snail looks like he is trying to escape again!  He gets so close to the top of the rim sometimes:

We went to pick up more firewood from this lovely old lady not too far away.  See, it's a good thing we still have our minivan:

And good to have the kids for the heavy lifting :-)

Ahhh... nice lovely fire the next day.  The only time we really have it is when the boys say they want s'mores:

It's like 10-15 degrees cooler since that day!  And the wind is blustering today too.  I guess perhaps I should have taken advantage of the hammock more:

I was going to say that Charlie will probably miss watermelon in this cooler weather, but I think you can find it in the supermarket anytime of the year these days?!  He ate the entire baby watermelon in one afternoon!

I saw this painting at a GoodWill store last week while I was looking for an empty picture frame that will go in our bathroom.  I keep thinking about it now.  I knew I should have just bought it!

Snuggle time!  This is Bobby's favorite part of the night.  I wonder at what point will the boys be too big for this?  Hope Graham and Charlie don't grow up too fast:

More random updates to come! :-D

Garden update

It's been a while since there's been a garden update, so here goes!  Although this first one is of the plant that I have hanging above the dining room table. First off, it is still hanging above the dining room table. Yay! Secondly, I've decided to switch it to succulents.  Somehow the ivy that I had growing there is dying :-( but the succulents look pretty good.  At least I think so :-)

I think this might be our last zucchini of the season - not as big as the first few ones, but enough to make some zucchini and apple muffins today :-D

Here's what's left of the zucchini plant - lots of dead brown leaves! There are still flowers growing but so far, only 2 tiny baby zucchinis:

There's the hummingbird!  There's actually 2 of them but they have yet to take any nectar from the lantana plant that I have in my hanging basket.  And oh, my other plant that was in the hanging basket - the fuchsias, died. Urgh!

At least the flowers in Mr. Snail is coming back.  Yay!!!

But the cucumber and basil are looking like their season is over too:

We got one last cucumber, although our pepper plant is doing well.  You win some, you lose some:

And somehow, the red potato started sprouting? I wonder if there are actually potatoes growing because my last batch yielded nothing despite having these green stalks growing!

And oh, the organic ginger is finally starting to sprout!  And what's funny is, the day I found this out was also the day my good friend Linda gave me an entire planter of mature ginger plants.  Ha!!!

The celery is growing really well.  I've yet to actually taste it but will probably be soon as I still have lots of humus in the fridge.  Good for an afternoon snack!

I recently bought more veggies for our Fall gardening - kale, broccoli, cauliflower:

Each veggie came in a set of 6, so I had plenty to spread around the garden.  And oh, also bought an eggplant plant.  I did get rid of the cucumber plant so it looks much neater now compared to what you see in this photo:

Look how vibrant these flowers are!  I hope they continue spreading around the flower bed some more.  I keep moving the mulch and weed tarp away so it can continue to grow:

And somehow, we still have tomatoes! I thought the tomato season was over???

I'll tell you about the caterpillar that we found on this tomato plant at a later time :-)

We needed a good sunny spot to put some more of the new veggies, so I decided to built a simple raised bed.  But first, we needed to clear up all the dead leaves in the area.  That's where Charlie comes in:

Omg, it took Charlie forever to pick up those leaves as he would also complain about how they would crumple in his hands. Don't let that smile fool you... he only cleared up what he needed to and dashed off! Little stinker:

Next, time to cut up some pieces of wood (leftover from our old fence) to size.  Graham helped with this although I couldn't take a photo of him doing it as I was also holding the hand-saw.  But here's our work "table":

Ta da!!! Not too shabby! :-)

It was tricky nailing and screwing the pieces together but Graham was a great helper:

I think it looks pretty good :-)

And oh, also have put some organic garlic in the raised bed and also in a couple of other bags.  Hopefully we'll have garlic in about 8-9 months??!  

Hopefully we'll get some veggies before something eats all of it up??!!! 

Urgh... so difficult to win this battle.  How do the farmers do it??! No wonder organic veggies in the supermarket is so expensive!