Pain in the neck.

I'm not sure exactly when it started feeling better, but sometime toward the end of last week, my stiff neck seemed to be better.  I'm grateful.  However, the anecdotal "pain in the neck" of getting the woodpecker damage repaired continued.  And has been added to by a pain in the neck whose name is "Carpenter Bees".

I am once again all messed up on my days of the week.  Last Saturday felt like a Sunday.  So I had two Sundays this weekend.  "The kids" took their two mothers out for Mother's Day the day before.  This was so foster grandchild could come along, since he was supposed to be visiting his birth-dad on Mother's Day itself.

This of course meant that Miss Ember had to be crated for about 3 hours while I went off for human partying.  Sunday morning, she was in a destructive mood, as three photographs will illustrate.  

1.  She surfed a piece of junk mail off the counter and tore it to shreds. 

 

2.  She started to de-stuff her comfort carrot, which had been pretty resilient up until now.  

3. She stole an empty poop bag while I was policing the yard.  She shredded it.

I opted out of both a last-minute miniature golf invitation for Sunday morning and the Sunday afternoon soccer match.  I missed foster grandchild scoring 6 of his teams 7 goals at that event!  DIL caught one of them on video and sent that around to the family.  There's a part of me that really wishes I had more social energy, but I was worn out. I put my feet up and napped on the couch.  Ember was happy to let me do so as the temperature headed up to 90F.

We did go on a nice long walk Sunday morning.  Ember got attention from a couple of young men.  She adores young men.  One of them has a couple dogs of his own.  The other is more of a cat person.  But he seems to tolerate my Ember.

On Monday morning, yikes, the fifth reschedule of the woodpecker work landed as a text message.  I had already booked Ember for Monday daycare to allow for this.  Ember discovered the woodpecker, finally, at 6:20 Saturday morning.  Sorry, neighbors.  She saw it, dropped the ball mid-fetch, and barked at the woodpecker hole.

They sent "the new guy" to have a look at it.  He didn't get here until 2 p.m.  He asked what kind of woodpecker and mentioned it's illegal to move or disturb the nests of some species!  Yikes.  I don't know what kind of woodpecker, I said, but I didn't think we were dealing with an endangered species!

Well!  That led to Google searching and trying to capture a photo (very hard, these birdies don't seem to want to have their photo taken).

I am guessing these are Northern Flickers, based on online photos.  None of my photos of them came out clear enough to identify, but I have had closer looks as they flew over.  They are clearly a mated pair, and clearly, the handyman service rescheduled me beyond the point where they have built a nest in my siding!

So, that means I can't get this fixed until nesting season is over, which isn't until July or August!  Sigh.  Meantime, I hear them fluttering in my walls.  

I called them back Tuesday morning and they will call me after the 4th of July.

Meanwhile, The Prisoner was quite happy to have the dog gone two days in a row.  He even hopped up on my lap to purr for a while, before fleeing to his happy hunting grounds outside.

Wednesday I broke down and called the pest control service about the Carpenter Bees.  These bees do not sting, but they hover and look you in the eye.  They also drill holes in your siding!

On Thursday, the Carpenter Bee specialist came and took a look at the "stack" of sandbox, playhouse, balcony and found where the bees have been drilling.  It's going to cost $$$ to get the specialized treatment for these pests.

The gent did a "four points" inspection of the house and also discovered evidence of mice and silverfish in the attic level, but the carpenter bees are the current priority.  We can talk about attic solutions after that gets taken care of.  He got me on their calendar for next Monday!

That fix will be more in the $$,$$$ range, but will involve both pest control AND insulation.  He gave me his card to call once the carpenter bee situation is under control and I'm budgetarily ready to deal with the attic issues.  July?  August?

Such fun, living in the natural world!

Life is good.  Keep on sparking!