Backyard Tweets

Some exciting things have been happening in our backyard that past few days.  For one, we had a solid patio cover installed.  The wooden lattice patio cover was rotting and the paint was flaking everywhere. In five hours, the builders had the old one down and the new one up, complete with a ceiling fan.

Excuse the lighting as I used my iPhone for all of these pictures.  Anyway, it looks amazing, and it will be so nice to enjoy Spring and Fall days when it's raining, but not super cold.  The fan will also make hot summer days more tolerable.

We also bought some new patio furniture now that we have a solid cover to protect them from the elements. 

I love the way it looks, and it definitely goes really well with the patio cover.

The biggest excitement in the backyard was on Sunday afternoon, however.  We came back from Home Depot, where we had purchased the outdoor fan and some tomato fertilizer for my tomato plant.  I was filling up my trusty watering pail (see in the above picture), when I saw this little guy around the wooden play set:

 I immediately yelled for Chris to stop watching the final game of the NBA finals and come help me.  First, it was clear that this chick was hurt in some way.  When we would get close to him, he would attempt to walk away, but would tip over sideways instead.  We also had no idea what kind of bird he was until he started moving.  His neck suddenly doubled in size, and my first thought was a great egret or some other wading bird.  I also burst into tears because, next to him, was a seriously decomposed chick.  Chris also said that he almost ran over another dead one earlier that day when he was mowing the lawns.  I was just heartbroken because he was just so little and helpless and clearly his mother was no longer around. In any case, he had most certainly fallen out of his nest in the tree above the play set and was in need of help.  Charlotte was also very concerned by the little guy and exclaimed, "Oh no! Quack quack fall down!"*  She also tried to feed him grubs that I dug up, but given that the chick was so little, he probably needed the food regurgitated, and I wasn't about to do that.

But we had no idea what to do or whom to call.  Chris was saying something along the lines of "this is life," but I wasn't willing to give up so easily. So I turned to Twitter. I'm not much of a Tweeter (Twitterer?), but I figured there's got to be someone out there who knows something about birds (read from the bottom up).

Then I found the Twitter account for International Bird Rescue, @IntBirdRescue, and tweeted a similar message. They responded really quickly and gave me a link of all the Wildlife Rescue organizations in California.  They also sent out my message to all of their 3,000 plus followers to solicit more advice.

I located the number for the Sacramento County wildlife rescue, but when I called, they were already closed for the day and weren't accepting any drop-offs until 10AM on Monday.  I didn't know what to do as I had to be at work by 10 due to a presentation I was supposed to give, and Chris was on his way to Portland for a work trip.


Meanwhile, I tweeted the above picture to @IntBirdRescue and asked if it was an egret. They thought it was and directed me to immediately put it in a ventilated box and get it to the nearest rehab center.  Chris captured the little guy, and we put him in the box in our bathroom with the door closed, so Tandy wouldn't be tempted to have a midnight snack.



Luckily, we are very close to the El Dorado County border, so when I met up with my Playgroup Moms for drinks that night, they suggested Sierra Wildlife Rescue in Placerville as many of them live in El Dorado Hills (just up the hill from Folsom).

All night long, I tossed and turned thinking about the poor little chick.  I was told not to give him food or water, so I kept having nightmares that he had died.  However, when I checked on him in the morning, he was fine.


I called Sierra Wildlife Rescue in the morning and I was put through to the "egret lady,"  who told me to get it up to Placerville as soon as I could.  They were open much earlier than the Sacramento County one, so I hightailed it up there at around 8:30.  The ladies were waiting for me when I arrived.  They were very nice, and I found out that everyone who works there are volunteers (and they're open 12 hours a day, 7 days a week).  I handed off the little guy, and all the volunteers ooh and aahed about how beautiful he is.  One lady actually thought it was a blue heron.  She asked me if we lived next to a rookery, as apparently herons like to nest in colonies.  I said, it's just a nest in a tall tree in our backyard and to my knowledge there's only one of them (how crazy would it be if a bunch of herons decided to all nest in our tree?!).

Since the verdict was still out on what kind of wading bird it was, I turned back to Twitter this time asking the Audubon Society of California:

I got confirmation this time that it's actually a green heron.  I had never heard of a green heron before, so I immediately did a Google Image search, and sure enough, that's what it is.  It's not endangered in any way, but it is rare to see them as the adults are usually only active at dusk and dawn.  This explains why we never saw the mother bird going to and from our tree (albeit the nest is up really, really high), and gives me more insight into the cracked teal blue eggs I found in the yard a few weeks ago (I was certain they were robin eggs).  This might be boring to the average person, but I thought it was amazing to have such a beautiful bird nesting in our backyard.

Picture of Green Heron and Chicks from PointsinFocus.com

In any case, I am feeling pretty good about social media right now. Thanks to Twitter, I was able to find out exactly what to do, and I hope I saved a life. It's also really amazing to think that there are such kind-hearted souls out there who do nothing all day but nurse little animals back to health. Kind of renews your faith in people.

*Since then, Charlotte has gone outside each day asking "Where'd quack quack go, Mommy? Where'd quack quack go?"

Learning the Quirks

We’re five days in to living in our new home, and we’re starting to get an appreciation for both the really cool stuff and the not-so-cool stuff.

Cool:

• The pool.  The pool is awesome, and Charlotte loves splashing away in this really great blow-up floatie thing.  It has holes to stick her feet in, along with a canopy to protect her from the sun.  Although it takes a few minutes for Charlotte to warm up to the water (literally), once she has, she just has a blast.
• The bike trails.  Folsom has an amazing network of bike trails, the majority winding their way near creeks and around oak trees.  I’m reminded that although it’s only 25 miles east, Folsom does not have the same topography as Sacramento at all.  We are in the beginning of the Sierra foothills and there is wildlife!  Yesterday, I took a bike ride (first time in more than 18 months) through the bike trails.  I saw quails and beautiful black birds with red chests and almost ran over a squirrel.  The best part? The bike trails are so well-designed that you never have to cross a street because the City built the trails under the major streets.  I went all the way to the west edge of the city, although I could have kept going and connected with the American River Parkway, which would have taken me all the way to downtown.
• The marshy parkway.  The bike paths closest to our house wind through this really cool marshy area.  I took Charlotte on a walk yesterday, and we stopped at a pond to see a little boy and his grandpa feed bread to the ducks.  Charlotte was so excited that if I had let her, she would have gladly gone straight into the pond to grab all the baby ducklings.  I have a feeling that we will be visiting that pond quite often when Charlotte is walking.
• Ceiling fans.  We have ceiling fans in all of the rooms, something we couldn’t have in our old home because the ceilings were pretty low and the attic was so small.  This has made a huge difference (see not-so-cool below).
• The big bathtub!  We have a sizable bathtub in our master bathroom.  Charlotte loves taking baths in there because she can stand up and cruise around the tub.  It’s so deep that I have started just standing in there to wash her hair, because it’s easier than lunging over. 
• Space.  We obviously have oodles of space.  Our master bedroom is so large, I don’t know what to do with the very ample sitting area.  I guess we’ll have to invest in some nice reclining chairs at some point.

Not-so-Cool:

• Teenagers.  One of the reasons we moved was because our old neighborhood is aging and there aren’t a lot of kids.  There are plenty in Folsom.  But apparently because our new home was built in 1990, there are plenty of teenagers living nearby.  Now, this could be cool because we might have our pick of potential babysitters for Charlotte, but right now? Not so much.  We have no fewer than 5 backyards touching ours.  The one that touches ours the least happens to have the “popular” house that each night you can hear teenaged boys yelling.  Friday night they hosted a party.  It was so loud I couldn’t sleep, even when we closed the windows.  Would it be as big of a deal if we could sleep in? No, but since Charlotte wakes up no later than 7, it’s impossible for us to.  Anyway, after enduring shrieking and yelling after midnight, I got dressed, walked around the corner to view the address, and called the police department.  It was getting warm, so we tried to turn the air conditioning on so we could keep the windows closed and eventually get some sleep, which brings me to the next not-fun discovery:
• Broken A/C.  We’ve had an extraordinarily mild Spring so far this year so we haven’t had to turn on the air conditioning, but this weekend was the first hot one.  Figures that it would be then that we discovered our A/C isn’t working.  Luckily, we required that the sellers buy us a home warranty to cover any problems in the first year, so all we have to do is pay a service fee to get someone out here and look at the unit.  Chris called yesterday morning and was promised a return call within 24 hours.  By yesterday evening, we were baking.  Chris called again and was told that the only way they could get us faster service was if the house was 105 degrees inside.  105? Please. We’d never be able to breathe.  We were uncomfortable enough at 85.  Chris played the young baby card, and our request was bumped up.  We’ll have someone here tomorrow, but I can tell you that it is hot!!  Fortunately, the ceiling fans and ample windows have helped some, but I still put Charlotte to bed in a diaper and nothing else.  However, keeping windows open last night required me to put in ear plugs to drown out the noise of those damn kids! 
• Other weird things.  The water heater is on the complete opposite end of the house from the master bath and kitchen.  Therefore, it takes forever for the water to heat up, thereby wasting gallons in the process.  This makes me feel horribly guilty, so maybe I should collect some of the water and use it to water the plants? That’s what my dad does, as my parents’ house in San Diego has the same problem.
• The carpet in the computer room smells horribly of wet dog or pee or worse.  The sellers had two large dogs, but I never smelled anything when we were looking at the house.  We had the carpets cleaned before we moved in, but I think it just brought those smells to the surface.  Ick.  I bought some powder to sprinkle in the carpet, but I can’t use it until we’ve unpacked the room and brought the vacuum back from the old house.  If it doesn’t work, I may have to replace that carpeting sooner rather than later.  (I can smell dog in the carpet in certain other rooms like the living room, and what was the sellers’ young son’s room, but not nearly as strongly as in that computer room).  In the meantime, it is hard for me to stay in that room for very long.
• We have a lot of stairs as it’s a multi-level house. This doesn’t actually bother me at all, except for the fact that the house is much taller than our last.  Yesterday, Tandy fell from the second story all the way down into the living room.  We were really worried that she was hurt, but she seems fine.  It was about a 14 foot drop.  What I’m worried about is that there is a much higher drop from outside the master bedroom (you go up a handful of steps from the other bedrooms).  There is an open spot that looks down into the family room.  It’s got to be 18 feet? Not sure, but I just know that Tandy is going to fall from there too.  Charlotte is very interested in the railing outside our bedroom, but we’ve been keeping her away.
• The commute.  I have a long commute now, somewhere between 30 and 40 minutes without bad traffic.  Chris has been the one with the long commute for ten years, but now it’s switched.  I’m making it work by leaving for work at 7AM.  This avoids most of the traffic toward downtown.  I leave for home at 4PM for the same reason.  Fridays I’ll be working from home and every other Wednesday.

On the whole we love our new house.  I just hope we can meet some cool neighbors, ones that don’t think it’s fun to have parties into the wee hours of the night.  (I realize this makes me so old and crotchety, but you’d feel the same way if you had no power over what time to wake up on weekends because of a baby.  And now that I get up at 5:45 to get ready for work, I need my sleep!!).

One more fun story before we go.  I mentioned that I had to take Charlotte to her 12 month well child appointment.  I was sitting in the exam room, holding her while chatting with the doctor when Charlotte, who had been wriggling nonstop, suddenly jammed her finger up my nose.  It hurt a lot, but I didn’t realize the damage she had done until my nose started bleeding profusely.  Charlotte’s doctor stared at me, his mouth agape, as though he’d never seen anything like it before, and then handed me a dozen tissues.  It kept bleeding all through Charlotte’s subsequent blood draw (a test for anemia).  The next day, her doctor emailed me to let me know that everything was normal and said, “I hope your nose is okay now!” I guess that’s one way to be remembered.