Puttering about the house

21 May, 2020; Vail, AZ

They're baaaccckkk . . . . 

Walked out my front door and chanced upon this fellow - he's twice the size of the one I saw last summer (and that one was the biggest toad I'd ever seen!).  Not afraid of me at all.  I was glad Phoebe was inside as they can be quite poisonous to dogs.

Sonoran Desert Toad - largest toad in America.  This fellow was probably 6 inches.

The summer heat has been interupting my morning tea on the patio.

I like to watch the sun rise in the morning, but as soon as it's up, it shines directly onto the patio and is soon unbearably hot.  So, I bought a sun shade and installed it.  It works really well - and now that I know it will work, the next one (this one should last a few years before the sun degrades the plastics) will be a custom fit and maybe even work with a remote!  This one winds manually and the stick is really too short - I have to stand on a footstool and still it's over my head.

Getting ready to install

I temporarily put a couple nails and a rope 'cradle' in the beam so that I could install the shade by myself.  It worked out pretty well.

I hope I don't disturb this nest.  It's a Gila Woodpecker nest.

Shades the patio pretty well - the next iteration may have a shade on the front too.

The Van Conversion drags on!

Discovered a defect when I tested my new Inergy Apex solar generator (lithium battery, solar charge controller, inverter, 12 v and 110 outlets all included in one lightweight 25 pound box) - everything works EXCEPT the solar input connection.  The most important thing!!!  Inergy customer service appears to be excellent though - after some troubleshooting, they sent me a box and the Apex is now on it's way back to the factory for repair - under warranty.  Unfortunately, I won't have it when I drive to Colorado next week for the interior conversion work to be done.  Not a huge deal but it would have been nice to have for the trip.

Since it's a battery, all sorts of shipping restrictions apply; I had to drain the battery to below 10.3, get special hazardous materials shipping instructions, stickers and a special FedEx pickup.

Well, the good thing is that it took days and days for this battery to discharge - I had everything I could think of plugged into it!

Ready for pickup!

We have liftoff!!

18 May, 2020; Vail, AZ

My hummingbird chicks have fledged!

I have so enjoyed watching the Costas Hummingbird build her nest, sit on the nest, hatch and feed her two chicks, and finally, to see them take their shaky first flight from the nest.  The nest was right outside my kitchen nook window and I spent a lot of time in the last 6 weeks watching hummingbirds.  The video shows them testing out their wings, and almost falling out of the nest!

In other 'lift-off' news . . .

The sourdough starter that I was making from scratch as an experiment, finally, after 22 days, decided to wake up and start to rise!

I couldn't believe how gorgeous the resulting bread was!  And, very tasty!!

For a quarantine, there is so much going on

6 May, 2020; Vail, AZ

The Van Conversion takes a major step forward

Yesterday, I loaded up the solar panels, the bars for the rack, all the wiring, the extension cord marine fitting, and the passenger side swivel seat. Today, I trekked over to Carl's RV for the install (I just wasn't keen on drilling holes in the van or the bars, and I'm not strong enough to take out the passenger seat and install a 45 pound swivel!).  

I sat in the waiting area (with my mask on) and sketched.  A few hours later and Voila! I have solar and comfortable seating in my van.

All I need is a foot rest!

It's starting to feel like a camper!  Now, if only Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona would open up travel restrictions a bit, I could zoom up to Colorado Springs and get the interior conversion done.  I've mapped out a route - I could do the trip in a couple of long days, stopping only for gas and disinfecting as I go.  The conversion itself will take only part of one day (the advantage of getting a kit - they have it all ready to go and are very experienced in doing the build-outs). Hopefully, by the end of May or into June.  I'm anxious to get it done, even though I don't expect I'll do a lot of traveling this year - Maybe a trip in August.

In hummingbird news . . . 

The babies are getting big!  I see them stretching their wings occasionally - the nest bulges when they move around.  I'm hoping that I get to see them when they fledge.  Mom is spending less and less time at the nest - she's spending a lot of time hunting and only comes back to feed the hungry babies.

The latest sketches

Colored Pencil

Pen and Ink - Practice unusual perspectives and angles - very fun to do !

Graphite pencil - done in the waiting area of the RV shop

Supposed to be an exercise in using white on toned paper, but I didn't have the right pen so it's a bit disappointing

1st Kayak Paddle of the year.

2 May, 2020; Vail, AZ

A paddle seems a great opportunity to be with folks - 6 feet away.

Some friends invited me to a paddle on nearby Patagonia Lake.  We agreed to meet early and hope to get our paddle in before a lot of other people showed up.  We were mostly successful in this - although the beach was fairly crowded when we finished up.  I think we were pretty successful n maintaining a safe distance within our group and away from others on the beach.

The  fun started for me when I paid my day use fee at the self-pay kiosk at the state park entry.  While I was filling out the form, a very large bobcat sauntered across the road!  Of course, I didn't have my camera ready - but what a sight!

I don't have many photos of the day as the battery in my old camera (the only one I risk taking out on the water) permanently died after only 2 photos.  We saw a lot of birds though and it was a beautiful day.  I saw a great blue heron, an egret, a zillion coots, ruddy ducks and cormorants.

It was the first paddle in almost 2 years!  I made several mistakes in setting up my boat - it's an inflatable and I had forgotten so much about getting it inflated - a little embarrassing but I'm sure as the summer progresses, I'll get back to my usual proficiency.  Another complication is that most of my paddling experience has been open water ocean kayaking - so, I dithered quite a bit on what equipment I would need.  I didn't need the extensive route finding, survival and emergency gear that I commonly carried for open water kayaking in much bigger, more remote and colder water.

Even though I remembered the sunscreen, my legs are quite pink today - I'm not used to paddling without a spray skirt - usually my legs aren't exposed to the sun!

It felt so good getting out of the house and on the water and getting to visit with friends. Even for an introvert, the quarantines have been challenging!

Two hummingbird chicks!

28 Apr, 2020; Vail, AZ

Today I saw the mama hummingbird feeding two little invisible heads!

Actually, I did catch a glimpse of beaks - but couldn't get it on video.  I had one worrying day when I didn't see the Mom all day, so I'm so very glad that she's back and apparently feeding 2 little hungry chicks.

The very big Spiny Lizards are back on my fence

This one was on my front porch - I almost stepped on her when I went outside!  Look at that shiny golden back!

More portraits from my online class

I've started to use different reference photos from the ones provided.  Sometimes their references just don't inspire.  I usually prefer older faces with a lot of character or unusual expressions or poses.

I loved the wrinkles and expression on this first one.  The constraint for the lesson was to render the figure using pretty much only parallel lines to set the values.

I did this self-portrait from a 20 year old sketch I had made of myself while I was watching TV one night.  In this version I corrected a couple of mistakes from the original sketch and strangely enough, made myself look even younger than the original sketch!  The technique in this one was to use graphite dust (with a brush) on toned paper along with graphite pencil - I also used a little white pastel pencil for the very white highlights and my (even back then) very white hair.

I think as an additional challenge for myself, I'll do a similar self-portrait as I look now.