Thankful Thursday - So Glad it Turned Out the Way it Did

An Unexpected Visitor

 You know those days that start out so well, anything could go wrong? You know those days that start out well, and then go wrong, but then right themselves so you can go on and have a great day anyway? Yesterday was one of those days. It all started out so innocently. It was humid, hot, the kind of day that quickly becomes incredibly hot and melty, but in the beginning of summer is still very welcome. I got out of bed with only a little help from the alarm and managed to get the dog fed and watered, Brennan's lunch, breakfast and tea made, got myself fed and watered, and all in good time. I was laughing that the dog had gone back to (my) bed, and I was about to sit down to write yesterday's blog post when I heard it...
Ting, ting-ting-ting. scratch.
It came from the top of the chimney. I wasn't worried, but Brennan immediately thought that a squirrel had climbed onto our house and was in our chimney.
"Don't be ridiculous! The squirrel would have to climb twenty feet of siding, and then another 2 feet of smooth metal to get into the chimney. It is just another bird catching bugs on the top of the chimney, I've heard it before." I grab my tea and a glass of water and put them beside my laptop, which is in the living room, right in front of the fireplace.
"Babe, I'm telling you, it is in the chimney!"
"Brennan, it is not in the chimney, it is at the top of the chimney. If it was IN the chimney, you'd hear a Whump and a clatter" My last words are, of course, interrupted by a "whump and a clatter" and then a little screech and flapping sounds.
Crap. There's a bird in my chimney, right above the flue if I am hearing things correctly.
Brennan says, "QUICK! Grab a box to grab it!" and gets a shoe box (which I'll have more details on later, LOL) for me to put in the bottom of the chimney to "catch" the bird. How I'm going to close the lid on it, I have no idea. But, I put the box in the bottom of the fireplace and then close up the doors.

The Unexpected Visitor Tries to Get Out

 I pray a little bit, something along the lines of, "Please God don't let this actually be happening," and then, "Please God don't let me kill the poor little bird," and then, "Please God, don't let me get my eyes pecked out or get rabies from this damned, poor little bird."
I open the flue.
A rather sooty little black bird comes clattering into the fireplace and starts to panic as it finds its way blocked by the doors and screen of the fireplace.
Okay, next plan.
"QUICK!" I say to Brennan, "Grab a big recycle box, close all the curtains, get the dog into a bedroom, close all interior doors, and open all the exterior doors!" I'm telling him this, of course, as I'm doing it, and he is staring at me like I'm crazy.
"If we close the curtains, and the interior doors, it won't have anywhere to fly but out the doors!"
Comprehension dawns on his face.
I grab the giant recycle bin and my gardening gloves, just in case. I curse myself for not being fast enough to grab my sunglasses so that I don't get my eyes pecked out, or rabies, from the poor, damned bird.
I pray.
"Please God, don't let this poor little bird die from stress in my house." and
"Please God, don't let this bird crap all over my house."
I open the doors to the fireplace...

The Unexpected Visitor, Gone

And he flew right out the door, no scrabbling or freaking out at all. Just flew out like it was the way it was supposed to be all along.
Which it was.
And it allowed us to have a really good day after that.
Especially because I didn't get my eyes pecked out or get rabies from that poor, damned bird ;-)
Have a great day,

Sweet Saturday: In My Yard

~Bouquet of Red Tulips~

Here are some photos from my gardens! I really needed to get out of the house and take some pictures, it's been a stressful few days: in the middle of the spring thaw, with a stream and pond in our backyard and goodness only knows how many gallons per hour of water floating under our house, our sump pump quit. Thankfully I noticed it just before it started to leak into our basement - the water was at the rim of the sump hole!
Hubby went outside and fixed a weird blockage in the discharge pipe, which seemed to be the problem initially (later on, I went outside in the pitch black, now mosquito infested rain to re-dig the hole that the water drains into, after the pump seemed to be struggling to empty the water). Then, after taking the pump out and putting it back in the sump hole, the pump turned on and stayed on, pumping water out of the sump hole (and from underneath our house) for 20 minutes STRAIGHT. After that it was switching on about every 30 seconds to deal with the water rushing in....Problem was, it wasn't switching on by itself....apparently our sump pump is a little temperamental and needs to be in 'just the right spot' for the float to activate the switch to turn the pump on and off. I, being the only member of our house who is able to stay awake (read: not able to sleep anyway), I was the one who went down into the chilly (but thankfully still dry) basement and pulled the stupid thing, every 30 seconds for about an hour. Then, it slowed down to about once every 6 minutes and remained that way for another 6 hours (I made myself a nest from a bean bag chair, quilt and yoga mat on the chilly basement floor and watched almost the entire extended trilogy of the Lord of the Rings to stay awake and switch on the sump pump every 6 minutes for 6 whole hours). Yes, you heard me, 6 hours, until at about 4AM, after pulling the pump on, jiggling it into another spot, and waiting for the next time it had to go on, praying it would switch on all by itself....it finally did! WA-Hoo!

~Little Sparrow (I think it's a sparrow anyway)~

Hubby then went into town the next day and got a new sump pump to replace the now (mostly) working old one. We took out the old pump, took off the discharge pipe (which created a wonderful puddle on the concrete floor, despite the towels thoughtfully laid down prior), and set to work replacing the sump pump....only to find out that the adaptor we had was the wrong size to fit into the new sump pump! Great. So we then had to reattach the old sump pump and place it back into the sump hole, where it (again) had to be placed into it's 'just right spot' - though this time it only took about 2 hours before I had it right.

~Closeup of Red Tulip~

Thus, today we will be getting (hopefully) the correct adaptor for the new sump pump so that I can sleep again, and not worry that our basement will flood.
I hope you like my stress-relieving photos!
I am also working on designing a new jewellry collection, so stay tuned!
Have a great day!