I love books. Real, paper books. I love the feel of the paper, the weight on my chest, the smell… I purchase books to support the authors and so I can make notes in the margins and underline passages. I only keep the books I might read again and donate the others to local library.
With the recent discovery of some new (to me) authors (Robert Crais, Walter Mosley, Mick Herron, Don Winslow), I was out of room. Stacks of books everywhere. So time for more bookshelves. I can almost hear them sigh.
In the last few years I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the woods clearing brush and thinning scrub cedar trees. Just playing with the chainsaw as much as anything but the brush piles resulted in some paths so I’ve toyed with the idea of a walking trail.
With no shortage of rocks I decided to line the entrance and that work is just about done. Here’s a “before” look.
Yesterday we had a couple of big rocks moved to where they can be seen and appreciated. Took the landscape guy (Brad) about half an hour.
Raining off and on all day. While I’m more than ready for warm, sunny days, I never mind a good rain.
Regionally, the American Southwest is in the grips of a 22-year megadrought, the worst in recorded history and the driest since at least the year 800, according to a new analysis of tree ring records. (KQED)
The door in the photos below is to my tool room in the Annex. Guarding the door is our resident Black Snake, Murray. 
Wikipedia assures me Murray is a “good” snake (my word, not theirs);
Rat snakes live in a variety of habitats; some overlap each other. Rat snakes are excellent climbers and spend time in trees. They live in habitats ranging from a rocky hillside to flat farmland. It prefers heavily wooded areas and is known for having excellent climbing ability, including the ability to climb the trunk of large mature trees without the aid of branches; the snake is also a competent swimmer. During winter it hibernates in dens, often with copperheads and timber rattlesnakes. This association gave rise to one of its common names, pilot black snake, and the superstition that this nonvenomous species led the venomous ones to the den.
While Black Snakes are harmless, I give this guy a wide birth because… well, he’s a snake. Like the article says, where you find Black Snakes, you’ll find copperheads. I killed at least a dozen last summer. Fortunately, they tend to stay on the ground. Like Indiana Jones, I hate snakes. But they’re part of rural living, so…
We have a lot of Bluebirds coming to our feeders this year. We keep them supplied with meal worms which they seem to love. We only have one house which is home to the nest below.
I thought this was a male, based on the plumage but apparently not.
Only the female incubates the eggs. The male does not participate in the incubation of the eggs. The male protects the territory and brings food to the female while she is incubating the eggs. The female takes breaks to feed and poop in the morning hours and throughout the day. — Bluebirds Nests and Eggs: All you Need to Know
When you start clearing brush there are no good (close) places to put it so you just start a pile. Or several piles. As you make progress you quickly see you should have put the piles where they would be less visible but now it’s too late to move them. I got tired of looking at a couple of piles so it was time for the Big Chipper.
