That’s Baffling

Today was an absolutely dreary, cloudy, damp day.  It never did really feel warm, even though the temps got up into the mid 70s.  The cloud cover and dampness kept it pretty chilly all day.  I even had to go put my house shoes on because my feet were so cold.  Just perfect for sitting inside watching Christmas movies and drinking hot chocolate.  Which I did not do.  Much of...

OK, I watched one Christmas movie while knitting a bit, but I kept myself pretty busy otherwise.  

The first project on today's list was to get the squirrel baffle installed on my shepherd's hook.  And since I'd bought the set of two, I took one of the sections of the second pole and added it to the first, so it's a little bit taller. 
 

Right now I have the suet cake feeder on the smaller one, but during the spring and summer months, I'll put a hummingbird feeder on it -- in addition to the one in the front yard.   

Of course, after I took the above photo, I moved the shorter hook a bit further so the squirrels couldn't climb up that pole then reach across to the feeder.  That would defeat the whole purpose of putting a baffle on it in the first place. 

A few minutes of fiddling and the baffle was pretty easy to install.  

Since I'm not completely heartless, I filled and hung the old feeder back up, at least until I can get a new squirrel feeder and put it somewhere. 

They and the birds have been feasting on it all day.   I put a little bit of feed in the new feeder, and now we wait for the birds to find it. 

By the way, I do have this supposedly squirrel proof feeder, but I don't really like it because the birdseed tends to fall down into that bottom compartment and sprout and grow, then rot.  

The only way to clean it out is to take the feeder completely apart, and that's a pain in the patooty, so I don't use it any more, even though it was expensive. I might just find a new home for it, so if anyone locally wants it, just let me know. 

My other project for the day was to clean off another shelf in the junk room. 

As with the first shelf, most of what was on there was garbage and could be tossed.  All that was left -- that I actually wanted to keep -- fit into one single storage bin -- the top middle one on the shelf above.  As soon as I get the other shelf I bought put together out in the shed, I'll move those boxes out there, and use this shelf to store yarn and other craft supplies for the time being. 

Now, I just have one more shelf to clean off, 

then I can start working on this pile in the middle of the floor. 

And finally, today was the day I had to put my car into the Ford place to get the transmission checked.  Turns out there is a recall on my clutch or something that I didn't not even know about.  They're going to have to order the parts, then call me back to set up an appointment to get it back into the shop.  They said there should be no charge for the clutch, but there might be for one of the additional parts they need to replace.  She said they normally cover all parts when there is a recall, but they have to get pre-approval for the additional ...whatever it is. 

Funny, I hadn't planned on going anywhere today anyway, but with my car gone all day, I still felt trapped.  Cars are freedom, which why we love them. Now it's safely back home for the time being, and I feel so much more relaxed. 

After all that, I'm going to watch another Christmas movie and knit a bit more on the hat.  

Laters.