[dropcap]Y[/dropcap]ou came close to seeing a photo of a roadrunner on the big boulder birdbath just outside our kitchen window. BUT, a dadgum cat moved into view.
Beep Beep. I went barreling through the front door screaming, “CAT!! GO AWAY!!!” RonTom headed through the garage door to see the roadrunner taking one short flight after another to make its escape into the ranchland behind Lynn Cobb’s lot.
Bird sightings are picking up. Get stocked up on bird seed and suet and peanuts in order to participate in the 2018 Great Backyard Bird Count, Feb. 16 – 19. It’s not just for the backyard. It takes place wherever you want to count birds for at least 15 minutes at least one day.
If you’re not yet registered with a Cornell Lab of Ornithology project (a previous GBBC, FeederWatch, NestWatch, eBird), register now at BirdCount.org or eBird.org With eBird, you can easily continue to report birds you see anywhere, anytime. And, eBird stores your reported observations. This is all for free!
More than 160,000 join in the effort to take an annual snapshot during the long holiday weekend each February. Scientists learn migration patterns, year-to-year changes, and long-term trends. Citizen scientists are we!
I wanted to provide for wintering hummingbirds recently when a frozen morning loomed hours away. I set 4 cups water and 1 cup sugar on the burner and sat down in front of my computer with an intent to turn it off in 5 minutes. Let me tell you, aluminum can melt on an electric burner. My stainless steel pot was swimming in its molten aluminum clad bottom when we discovered the smoke-filled kitchen and living area.
With logs burning in the bedroom fireplace, the odor was not an alarm. And, the smoke detector in our bedroom hallway did not sound an alarm. Alarming it became to see flames shooting up from the charred ball in the center of the pot. Safe we are, thank God.
When the aluminum cooled, it bonded with the glass stovetop and peeled away chunks of glasstop. Yikes!
Hays County residents can now drop off many types of non-working or unwanted electronic devices for recycling at the county’s two recycling/solid waste centers. This is all for free!
The centers are almost equidistant from Mountain City, 1691 Carney Lane in Wimberley and 100 Darden Hill Road ,in Driftwood. They’re open Tuesday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., except for county holidays.
Take your old electronics so the toxic components do not contaminate soil and water.
If you’ve been hanging onto an old tube television, that they will not take. Our Recycling /Solid Waste Centers do not accept anything pressurized, nor do they accept hazardous waste and biological waste.
For a disposal fee, they will accept mattresses, tires, appliances, and more.
It’s probably too late to be of help this year, but DisposeAll, our trash service, will accept live Christmas trees. Greg told RonTom he prefers to see his customers take their tree to tree recycling stations.
It’s never too late to send a tidbit. I’ll store it up for later if it misses the next deadline. [email protected] (subject: Tidbit) or 512 268 5678. Thanks! Love, Pauline
