Cactus on Los Alamos Road

Our skunk blockade seems to be working. They have moved on to other holes in other fences. The stickers on the windows that only birds are supposed to be able to see aren't working. We picked up another little bird body today. This prompted us to sit outside for awhile and contemplate alternative locations for the bird feeders. The bad thing is that we probably won't be able to watch them from the living room. The good things are that they will be further away from the windows, and our back stairs won't be covered in a carpet of dropped seeds and shells.

The cactus on Los Alamos Road, which is just at the end of our road, are another example of the micro climates everybody loves to talk about around here. I always picture a cactus like this growing in Mexico, with a guy in a big sombrero sitting at its base. But here they are, flourishing on the line between the suburbs and the farmland in Santa Rosa. Our back hill is mostly spiky, desert-like plants, it is bordered by Oaks covered with bright green moss, and grey lichen and dripping with Spanish Moss.

We are living a bit like refugees. Right now I am holed up in the bedroom with the door closed to get further away from the drone/hum of the sanders and the fumes of wood filler and primer. David showed us some more of his tools today--his 5-in-one tool for scraping glue and caulking off our huge butcher block counter, and his "4- legged tool" for carrying it out of the house and down the stairs. He also brought his son, Andrew to provide two of the four legs. The 4-legged tool looked like two wide orange straps to me. I fled before seeing how the straps were going to help. But there is our counter, leaning against the wall by the driveway.

I'm looking forward to dinner at Dana's house....