Among Friends

[Bird mama]

It's not so much hotter today (85 right now) however the humidity has rolled in.  Yucky!  I cleaned the first floor gutters in anticipation of the coming rain.  Boy do I have lots of maple tree whirly birds in the second story gutters so I hope it rains like hel* so that I don't have to get on that extension ladder.

[Winifred]

Haven't been to the boards in quite a spell. Am still alive but am wondering just how well that is. Do need to stop by a couple other places and let everyone know am still kicking - a bit. 

Hope all are well.

[viva923]

hey all

not much here

showery day,cool and cloudy,house opened up and fans in windows. got to save on electric

did chores,did walk, not much else later guys

[Bird mama]

It's a pleasure to see you posting Freddie @Winifred 

[Bird mama]

I cleaned the second story gutter on the front of the house today.  I really wanted to avoid getting on a ladder and if I had to get on a ladder I didn't want to go more than a few steps.

I bought something called a gutter scooper from the home depot this morning.  I attached the gutter scooper to the short shepherd's hook (duct tape) and then taped the shepherd's hook to the telescoping pool cleaning rod (came with a net) that I bought a few years ago.  Aint's got a pool, it's for fishing ducklings out should they fall through a sewer grate into the sewer. It hasn't happened to me since 2018 so just having the net must be working, lol.

That worked for the gutter around the front porch - not so good up high when I couldn't see where I was aiming.  So I taped a scraper to the shepherd's hook - again flying blind.  Finally found a metal paint roller cleaner thing and used it like a bracket and bolted the bracket to the pole and the scraper to the bracket.

The net part has buttons that you press as you slip the end of the net thing into the pole part, which is how I had an available hole on either side of the pole.

This is what the paint roller cleaning tool looks like

I slid this ^^ thing into the pole and lined up the bottom hole and used a bolt and screw to attach this thing.

The plastic scraper had a hole at the top where they hang it on displays

I used that hole to bolt this thing to the open hole that was left on the metal paint scraping thing.  I aimed the scraper down at an angle.

I bent the curvy part of the metal paint roller thing down to help keep the scraper locked in place (even though it was bolted)

I stood 2 stairs up on the little giant ladder and I had to really work my shoulders and look straight up for what felt like hours but I worked the dirt and whirly gigs outta the second story gutter.  I'm filthy and am getting ready to jump into the tub.  I'm probably going to have bruises above each knee from pressing against that little giant ladder.  It's one steady ladder but is hard on legs and feet, lol.

Once I finished that nasty task I noticed some kind of inspector really looking at properties with a focus on the city sidewalks.  I didn't know what kind of inspector he was at the time so I decided to cut my grass in the front yard even though it was a little damp.

As I was emptying the grass catching bag of the mower into a lawn waste bag I saw what ended up being a dog.  From a distance it looked like a tomcat and I said aww sh*t, another idiot in the neighborhood with an outside cat.  Turns out it was a rough looking smaller dog, very frail and undernourished.  Of course I stopped what I was doing and tried to get the dogs attention because he was heading up the street towards a parkway where folks drive 60 mph.

Dog didn't respond when I spoke to it.  This isn't arrogance, I have a way with animals so I found the non-response strange.  Maybe she's deaf I thought?  I got her to go deeper in the sub division and asked a couple of neighbors for some help stopping her movement.  She wasn't running lightening fast, just kinda loping along.  I should have saved my breath to cool my coffee :-(

I ran into the house and grabbed a paper plate and can of dog food.  Yes I live with birds but I have cat food and dog food in the house in case I see a stray.

I decide to pursue the dog in my car.  Left the lawnmower out in the front grass.  Closed the garage door and forgot to put mower inside.  God protected it and it wasn't stolen.  Wish I would have remembered to take my phone off of the trunk lid of the car (yea sometimes I have no sense when I see an animal that looks like it needs help).

Managed to get the dog fed a couple of times and she led me to where she lives.  Apparently she has some stomach tumor - I had a conversation with the lady who owns her.  Jury still out with me on that one.

Phone case has rubber on the back and would you believe I made it there and back before the phone fell off the trunk lid of my car in the middle of street just past the end of my driveway.  Didn't notice phone wasn't in my purse until 2 cars ran over it.  Contact consumer cellular - they say contact square trade.  I contact square trade am told to file claim online.  I start to file claim, not many options to describe damage but I do tell them phone crushed my motor vehicles.  They recommend fixing options or reconditioned phone.  Phone is a year old.  To say I was ticked off would be putting it mildly.  I just ordered a new Moto G Power from consumer cellular.  Sister decides she also wants one that matches even those hers is not broken.  Okay fine, I order them both.

My phone is doing some strange things and I'm not even touching it.

[viva923]

hey all

birdmama i was finally able to fix my window in junk room. it came out of the glide for moving it up and down, for 2 days i had been spraying glide with wd40 to unfreeze the glide, this morn the glide unfroze was able to tilt window pop it back into glide to get the window back to normal.

did chores,did 3 huge loads of wash sheet day today

all folded and put away actually a great day for drying  outside.

ok guys later

[Epicurean]

Birdmama,was reading about you cleaning your gutters. I know your still young,but it's just not safe getting on a ladder to clean gutters. A few years back D H finally decided that he should not be cleaning gutters so we hired someone to do it. After paying I don't know how mint times we had the leaf guard installed on our gutters. Best thing we ever did. No cleaning on a ladder, no new gutters needed and they look nice,and less expensive than new gutters. Just thought you might want to consider this at some time.

Hello Winifred,glad you checked in!

[Bird mama]

@Epicurean   Oh, I didn't go up a ladder high at all.  I used a 16 foot extention pole with a crazy looking bolted on scraper at the end.  I should have been clearer when I talked about the little giant.  The thing was folded in half and on the lowest setting.  I went up 2 steps which was maybe a foot or 18 inches off the ground.  My shoulders and muscles I didn't know I had along my ribcage (back and front) are sore from waving around that 16 foot pole.

[Epicurean]

Oh, that explains it Birdmama. Our house is over 3 floors high on one side. No way I'm allowing my hubby up there. 
Even if you have one level,or two those dam whirlybird's from hose trees can clog your gutter and dranpipe in no time.

[Bird mama]

Yea I got up on the extension ladder to right below the upstairs gutter in either 2018 or 2019.  I got a thing about heights or just it's common sense and I recognize my own mortality @Epicurean   I'm okay on the first level of the house.  Go any higher and I start getting a little anxious, lol.