Sunday, April 1, 2018

Bathroom break.

Small update on the bathroom and some more stuff.




Got some of that tasty, tasty grey primer on there.  We double-coated the ceiling with cheaper latex primer, then covered it with a good bathroom paint - protected from mold and all that.

The grey was another cheap primer; for three of the walls, we've gone with black (which really pulls the room in), and then for the other wall, a red.  With sparkles.  Between three boys and one girl in the household, I'll let you figure out who wanted the sparkles.

Also; we've been doing some exploring and adventuring on our property, so here are some pictures of that:


An assortment of Pill bugs - the boys love these guys.  Kid 1 not so much, actually.  He's interested when they roll up into a ball, but he's done when their seven pairs of legs start creeping around.




I was pretty happy when wifey dug this up.  This is the larval stage of the Tiger Beetle - I've wanted to find one of these for so long!  They dig and hide in holes with their soft bodies anchored by small spines on a lump at the back of their body.  It sits with its hard head plate covering the opening of the hole, and when prey comes by and either steps on it or touches some of the small hairs on it, this larva juts out its huge jaw and grabs it.  It's a pretty mean beast - the adult is formidable, too.  It's an all-round incredible invertebrate.



We went for a walk on our field - the brush-hogged grass flattened nicely for us to make a path out of.  Kid 1 was nervous about the spikes - we have some brambles along the side of the field - but we made sure he was on my shoulders for those parts.  We ventured into some of the undergrowth around the sides of the place - we have a few structures that are far overgrown.  It's going to be interesting to dig them out and have a look at how old some of the buildings are, but I've also seen some much more recent rubbish that's been discarded over the last few years.  I can't wait to get the metal detector out in some of these parts!



This little medicine bottle has been here a while - I'm not sure how long, but it's got close to a closed ecosystem inside that's been thriving, evidently.  The soil supports the moss, when the moss dies, its nutrients decompose back into the soil.  There is moisture added from the opening of the bottle that goes into supporting this little micro-environment, too (so it's not completely closed).  I thought it was pretty interesting and, against all I hold true and dear, decided to leave it there instead of taking it to the Mancave to observe.



There are coyotes everywhere around here.  Everywhere.  This is the second deer fawn skull I've found at the back of our property in the last month.  I've got no problem with coyotes - in the spring, when all they've eaten for months is fresh kill or frozen carrion, their meat is fine for chili.  But through the summer, when they're eating carrion that's been sat by the side of the road for a few days in 90F+, then the meat gets a little... well... interesting.  The bad kind of interesting.  Or so I'm told.

Anyway.  Time for me to go again.

Peace.