Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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Force of Nature

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As I said on Instagram, it’s interesting when the title of the book you are reading mirrors what’s going on outside.

The nor’easter was relentless and scary and insane. But our little pocket of the Hudson Valley was somehow spared the snow and, at least in this neighborhood, downed trees and power outages. For that I am truly grateful.

That being said, I was up here sitting at my desk when I realized that I could hear the sump pump, and it wasn’t going off. This has happened in the past, so I pulled on some jeans, donned my muck boots and a slicker and made my way outside. Our basement is the kind that you enter from the outside and it’s old (house was built in 1891) and full of cobwebs and not my favorite place to be, which is ironic since I ended up spending much of the day there yesterday.

Upon examination, it looked like the float had become loose. For those of you who might not know: a sump pump has a float, like a toilet tank has a float, and it rises according to the level of the water that is draining into the pit around the sump pump. When it reaches a certain height, the float rises, the sump pump kicks on, and it flushes the water out through a pipe and up to the ground outside.

I tried putting it back in place and it would work for a while, but then, back upstairs, I would realize I hadn’t heard it, and I’d have to go back outside and downstairs. Keep in mind that we had gale force winds all day long yesterday. I won’t make this story any longer than it needs to be, just fast forward through about 6 or 7 trips downstairs, at least three changes of clothes and a second shower, to the point where I realized I was going to have to come up with something to keep the float in place or the basement would flood. The rod that goes through the float and threads through a hole on the sump pump needed something to secure it in place and keep it from ‘floating’ away. I finally came up with the idea of using a cork coaster. I brought the float upstairs, poked the end of the rod through the coaster, and then trimmed the cork. Back downstairs, kneeling on the very wet floor (another change of clothes), I threaded the rod through the opening, gently pushed the cork down – it didn’t tear, thank goodness – and waited.

It worked.

But I spent the rest of the day listening for the sump pump to go on and off, in case I had to try something else. But it kept on working.

I guess I MacGyvered it, right?

Someone is going to come and fix it on Wednesday. I was darned if I was going to pay for an emergency call if I didn’t have to.

Tuckered out after all of this, I treated myself to a hot chocolate and watched It Happened One Night, one of my favorite movies. Then I took a hot bath and went to bed. All the while, the winds kept blowing and, as you know, that is very nervous-making for me.

I finally fell asleep, only to wake up at 4:30 in the morning to the relentless chirp of a smoke detector.

I am not kidding.

After a couple of hours of searching for the guilty party to no avail, then trying to go back to sleep only to have it happen again, I finally figured out which one it was. Triumph!

And I ended up going to back to sleep for an hour or two.

Can you see why I’m just plain tuckered out?

I know so many of you had it much worse and I’m thinking of you. This was a deadly storm and thousands upon thousands of people do not have power. Many, many trees have fallen. It’s terrible. And those of you on the West Coast are facing storms as well.

Today, I’m going to try to get out for a while. I feel extremely housebound, while appreciating that I have a roof over my head and am snug and warm.

Speaking of movies, did I ever show you the mug that Don had made for me for Christmas?

It’s from one of my favorite movies. I watch it often. And I mean, often.

Here’s the other side, the storefront of The Shop Around the Corner:

He’s a sweetie, that guy.

Okay. Have to get a move on. There’s debris to pick up in the yard.

Link to performance on the Today show. If you stay there, the second number will pop up, too.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Whoa, Nellie

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Except for snow, we had a bit of everything around here yesterday. The day started out with rain. Thunderstorms were predicted, but the sun came out for several hours and the weather forecast changed to no storms. Then in the late afternoon, the sky darkened and I checked the weather app. Oh. Severe thunderstorm watch. And we got a doozy. Thunder, lightning, torrential rain, and hail. Then the sun came out. And then, at about 10 pm, another thunderstorm.

Whoa, Nellie.

From the day:

I recycled. I weed whacked. I pulled weeds. I ended up mowing the entire front lawn on a very humid day. We don’t live in an area where there are orderly plots of land with orderly grass that grows in an even, orderly way. Nope. We have different kinds of grass, weeds within the grass, buttercups in the grass, etc. So when it starts to get out of hand, it looks uneven and messy. So after all the rain, I was itching to mow the lawn. And I did.

After I took a break and showered, I went outside to take some pictures. I love a freshly mown lawn!

The dead nettle is blooming

As I was taking these pictures, the sky started darkening and that’s when I realized we were under a severe thunderstorm watch – which became a warning.

Back in the house.

After the rain, birds were everywhere, looking for worms.

This female northern flicker was in the corral.

My lonesome dove had clearly been caught in the rain.

And spotted way, way off in the woods:

A baltimore oriole.

This morning, as I was waiting for my coffee, I saw a hummingbird and a bunny rabbit within inches of each other. Alas, no camera.

I’ve seen two young mourning doves resting on the porch railing on two different occasions. Newly fledged, I imagine. And after the storm yesterday, I saw four mourning doves together, looking for food. So I’m surmising that the two young doves are the progeny of the pair of doves that live on the property.

Now, if only my lonesome dove could find a mate. The pair chases him/her away. Breaks my heart.

Happy Thursday.

Storms (of Different Varieties)

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This is a Martha Washington geranium that I purchased the other day. I repotted it and placed it on the bench on the Funky Patio.

Last night, we had a rip-roaring thunder storm with high winds. I was reading in bed and the wind kept hitting the windows in the bedroom, so I got up to see what was going on. Opening the window nearly knocked me over! So, I guess it wasn’t much of a surprise when I went outside this morning and saw the geranium and another plant on the ground. The wind was too much. So there I was, in my pajamas, no garden gloves on, shoveling potting soil from the ground back into the pot. I’ll have to add some more later. Then I checked out the porch and the calibrachoa had tipped over as well, but it had remained on the table, so that wasn’t so bad.

Yikes. I’m just glad there wasn’t more damage. No tree branches down, thank goodness.

The grass is very wet, so I may have to table mowing until tomorrow.

The fight against the ‘glamping’ developer continues. My neighbor went to a Planning Board meeting the other day and she was alarmed by how gung-ho they seemed to be about the project. Last night I went to the zoning board meeting (we’re appealing a decision to classify it as a lodge and trying to get it classified as a camp – because that’s what it really is. As one guy said, no one  is going to stay there in the winter.) We were instructed at the last meeting to send any letters in support of our plea to the zoning board, with a deadline of May 12th. So, when the head of the board read just three letters last night, our hands shot up. It turns out many, many of us sent letters that they never saw because of a glitch in the email address. The town’s website has an email address listed that the zoning board is apparently not using anymore.

Don’t get me started.

So, we’re resending our letters/emails, which have a time stamp, of course, proving that we sent them by the deadline, and the meeting adjourned early and the next time we meet will be next month. As it was extremely hot in the room (no a/c) I was quite happy to leave.

I figure the more delays, the better.

Then there’s the story about a possible coaching job that I was in negotiations for. My day rate was okayed, I asked to see the script before I made the final decision, and then I found out (the next day) that while the person I was in contact with was sending me the email saying they’d agreed to the rate, they hired someone else because of a ‘time crunch’ they had never once mentioned to me.

I was not happy and I let them know that. Completely unprofessional. It wasn’t a big job, in fact, it was only a couple of days, so it’s okay in the long run, but it certainly has given me pause. I don’t think I’d welcome any future offers from this company. And I’ve worked with them before. (And no, it wasn’t Hartford Stage. Never!)

Happy Friday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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