4 August 2009

A couple of nature notes.... Yesterday morning, our resident great blue heron was down by the water in the boat launch next door. It had caught a catfish that was about 10 inches, and was working away at it. Thing was, the fish was just too big for the heron to swallow whole (as herons do). So, the poor fella whose cup ranneth over was left to stabbing at the catfish over and over with its beak, and flexing its throat, trying to swallow again, then repeating this process a few times. You could almost see the frustration on the heron's gestures, not knowing how he'd actually eat this thing that was just too big to fit down his gullet, but not wanting to give up on a kill that he'd already devoted about 45 minutes on. Then, someone came down the boat launch and the heron flew off.

Today, just about an hour ago, I was kayaking out on the lake and saw what looked like a turtle head popping out of the water, so I paddled over to investigate. Most of the time in these encounters the turtle is long gone, but the stealth of the kayak (my second time in it) might not have scared it. I got to within about a foot of the creature and it just floated there, as if in suspended animation. Its head was about the size of my fist and its body/shell was roughly the perimeter of an elongated toilet seat. I've heard stories of larger turtles on this lake, but this is the biggest I've ever seen firsthand.

In bathroom work news, I grouted the tile floor yesterday. Spray painted the radiator with appliance epoxy (you should not use regular paint for baseboard, as it cuts down on the effectiveness of the heat dispersion), which has to dry for about 9 hours to handle (fully dry in 24 hours). Plan on priming the walls with some Kilz tomorrow morning, sealing the grout in the afternoon, then painting the walls tomorrow night.