Reading, Writing and Ravens
I think the meds are finally starting to get my allergies under some sort of control.
I can breathe, the dizzy spells are getting further and further apart and I'm finally starting to get some sleep.
I had a very good weekend. mongo42, spinsono, dragonherder1 and I all worked on the TARDIS. We got the base cut, two of the uprights fitted with their inital mouldings and the first side totally roughed out, glued and screwed.
Spinsono and I slathered all the screw holes with wood putty and side one's ready for finish sanding. I can't wait until we have all the sides done. I'm ordering fittings, looking at paint and primer choices and trying to figure out all the fiddly bits (mongo42's got the structural duties, I'm in charge of the finish work). I'm all but wriggling with delight as the parts come in.
But the really happy news is in my title.
I'm finally getting back to my reading and writing and I've got another flying project.
The 'raven' portion of the above is actually a crow and I can finally tell you all about him now that he's technically 'legal'.
About three months ago, Dragonherder found this on the driveway:
It was so ugly, he thought it was a baby vulture.
It was a baby crow that had fallen thirty feet from a nest in the top of one of our oak trees. It was mostly nekkid, sunburned and covered in fire ant bites.
I brought it in, cooled it off and started feeding it. Dragonherder made the command decision not to turn it over to Wildlife Rescue. We really didn't think it'd survive the week.
It could barely stand, it definatly couldn't grip and it was slowly being covered with yellow lumps of diseased tissue. Its beak was the worst. It had several bites across the top of its bill and one just inside the edge on the lower jaw. These graduly twisted its beak out of true and it has a bit of underbite as a result.
But it ate and ate and ate. And 'talked' and 'talked' and 'talked'. We decided it was a a he and named him Corwin.
We found out that by keeping him 'captive' we were certainly guilty of a misdemeanor and (most) possibly a felony, so we tried to keep him as quiet as possible. With all his loud jabbering, this was surprisingly difficult, even out in the country.
After two months, his feathers had come in and he'd started to learn to fly. He'd learned how to grip and was starting to learn how to pick things up with his beak. We moved him from our screened in porch to our empty chicken coop and started feeding him live food. He promptly flew the coop and showed us he'd happily come when called. Or when he was bored, or the tee-ninciest bit hungry. Corwin started spending longer and longer periods of time on his own outside, but we brought him in to a perch on the porch at night. Technically, he was still captive.
Last week, we started leaving him outside 24/7.
He is no longer confined in any way and as it is perfectly legal to feed wild birds, we've decided to come clean. Corwin flies in every couple of hours and we feed him live crickets, waxworms, super mealy-worms (very nasty) and dry dogfood. He has a drink and takes off to catch up with his relatives.
While here, he teases the cats, taps on the windows with his beak, perches on the flag, craps on the front porch and flies huge circles around the house and ranch. His fireant bites appear to be slowly healing. I do not know how much his beak will recover. It will probably always be warped. At the very least, it's functional, sharp and pretty strong. He's getting very good at catching crickets with it.
He's absolutly lovely and I'm figuring that at this rate, he'll be pretty much on his own by the end of next month.
Pretty much. :)
So, if you come out to the rancho, don't be at all surprised if Corwin drops in on you and demands food. Or your earring. Or your glasses. Or your hair. Or to either crap or wipe his beak on your shirt.
And if he says anything you understand, keep it to yourself. :)
I can breathe, the dizzy spells are getting further and further apart and I'm finally starting to get some sleep.
I had a very good weekend. mongo42, spinsono, dragonherder1 and I all worked on the TARDIS. We got the base cut, two of the uprights fitted with their inital mouldings and the first side totally roughed out, glued and screwed.
Spinsono and I slathered all the screw holes with wood putty and side one's ready for finish sanding. I can't wait until we have all the sides done. I'm ordering fittings, looking at paint and primer choices and trying to figure out all the fiddly bits (mongo42's got the structural duties, I'm in charge of the finish work). I'm all but wriggling with delight as the parts come in.
But the really happy news is in my title.
I'm finally getting back to my reading and writing and I've got another flying project.
The 'raven' portion of the above is actually a crow and I can finally tell you all about him now that he's technically 'legal'.
About three months ago, Dragonherder found this on the driveway:
It was so ugly, he thought it was a baby vulture.
It was a baby crow that had fallen thirty feet from a nest in the top of one of our oak trees. It was mostly nekkid, sunburned and covered in fire ant bites.
I brought it in, cooled it off and started feeding it. Dragonherder made the command decision not to turn it over to Wildlife Rescue. We really didn't think it'd survive the week.
It could barely stand, it definatly couldn't grip and it was slowly being covered with yellow lumps of diseased tissue. Its beak was the worst. It had several bites across the top of its bill and one just inside the edge on the lower jaw. These graduly twisted its beak out of true and it has a bit of underbite as a result.
But it ate and ate and ate. And 'talked' and 'talked' and 'talked'. We decided it was a a he and named him Corwin.
We found out that by keeping him 'captive' we were certainly guilty of a misdemeanor and (most) possibly a felony, so we tried to keep him as quiet as possible. With all his loud jabbering, this was surprisingly difficult, even out in the country.
After two months, his feathers had come in and he'd started to learn to fly. He'd learned how to grip and was starting to learn how to pick things up with his beak. We moved him from our screened in porch to our empty chicken coop and started feeding him live food. He promptly flew the coop and showed us he'd happily come when called. Or when he was bored, or the tee-ninciest bit hungry. Corwin started spending longer and longer periods of time on his own outside, but we brought him in to a perch on the porch at night. Technically, he was still captive.
Last week, we started leaving him outside 24/7.
He is no longer confined in any way and as it is perfectly legal to feed wild birds, we've decided to come clean. Corwin flies in every couple of hours and we feed him live crickets, waxworms, super mealy-worms (very nasty) and dry dogfood. He has a drink and takes off to catch up with his relatives.
While here, he teases the cats, taps on the windows with his beak, perches on the flag, craps on the front porch and flies huge circles around the house and ranch. His fireant bites appear to be slowly healing. I do not know how much his beak will recover. It will probably always be warped. At the very least, it's functional, sharp and pretty strong. He's getting very good at catching crickets with it.
He's absolutly lovely and I'm figuring that at this rate, he'll be pretty much on his own by the end of next month.
Pretty much. :)
So, if you come out to the rancho, don't be at all surprised if Corwin drops in on you and demands food. Or your earring. Or your glasses. Or your hair. Or to either crap or wipe his beak on your shirt.
And if he says anything you understand, keep it to yourself. :)