This, that and and what the heck?

A few days ago my younger brother stopped by to take down an old dead tree in my yard.  This was an old evergreen that died the year we moved in, so nearly 9 years ago.  I left it for the birds as it attracted bugs.  The neighbour across the back complained about it a few times (they just moved in a couple of years ago) though none of the other neighbours had a problem with it.  But I didn't know if buyers would be put off so it was time to remove it.

R started off by removing most of the limbs until it got rather rocky on the extension ladder.  He then sawed it into about 4-5 foot pieces, ensuring they fell into my yard, rather than on the fence or into the neighbour's yard.  But he left a stump about 4 feet high.

We picked up all larger pieces and limbs and put them in the back of his truck.  He took them back to the farm and will use these in his firepit.  

He brought with him, a bird feeder he had built out of old wood from the farm, a container of birdseed, a suet feeder and the holder.  What a nice guy!

R screwed the bird feeder to the top of the post.  Then we filled it with seed and cleaned up a bit more before heading in for tea in the sun room.

The birds have been making good use of it.  Sparrows, robins, and grackles have been seen picking at the seeds and this morning I refilled (though it was not empty).  The cats now have more television to watch.  Saku has been quite interested in the goings on out there.  No squirrels yet, though I saw one being chased by some black birds across the street earlier today.

 I bought myself a new toy this week, a Fitbit.  My friend C has one and was showing me the sleep tracking it does. I'll been curious about my sleep patterns because I can wake up in the morning exhausted though with no recall of having been awake.  Other mornings I feel like I've hardly slept at all though don't feel tired.  I must say, though, since retiring I've slept better than I did when I was working.  

Anyway today is day 3 and the darn thing reminds me if I haven't moved for a period of time.  Yesterday I didn't make 10,000 steps, but Saturday and today I was well over.  If it means I'll get and go for a walk everyday it's a good thing.  I've learned that I'm a predominately light sleeper and I'm awake more often in the night that I recall.  It's early days to I'll keep track for a few months to see whether that continues to hold true.

The app also has the ability to track food input, weight, and activities (I input the data).  I'm not sure how useful these nor keeping up with the input...sometimes I just don't want to know.

Now on to the open house update and the WTH moment.  You may want to make sure you're not eating for the latter.  Just sayin'.

We had nine groups through which the real estate agent says is good.  There were two younger couples, a woman "looking for her adult children", a woman on her own, two retired couples, and a weird couple.  I know that's not nine but these are the ones Curtis mentioned to me.  The one young couple have a house to sell so were just out looking, the other young couple thought the house was nice but the yard too small.  He says the woman house hunting for her kids was typical...nothing better to do and nothing nice to say because nothing is good enough for her kids.  The other woman on her own wandered through while he was talking to another couple so no feedback.  The retired couples are both looking to downsize - all I could think was how big are your homes now.  They were both most vocal about the things that need to be done (all the flooring needs to be replaced - yeah, I'm not doing that), one mentioned price and it is just around my bottom line.  This tells me that I'm not that far off.  Everyone liked the sun room and double tier deck and the kitchen, but noticed little things like a missing light fixture in the basement (I hadn't even notice it), and the missing drywall to access the furnace ducting.  I'll take care of both of those in the next week or so.

AND then there were the weird couple.  Curtis said they showed up minutes before the showing ended and stood outside looking up under the eaves for the house for a bit before coming in.  He said they walked through the upstairs trying every light switch before heading down to the basement.  He stood at the top of the stairs to see if he could hear what they were saying.  They were in the laundry room and were quite confused that the water softener was in that room rather than next to the furnace.  Really?  Anyway, this is when the really weird stuff happened.  He said it got quiet, so he walked down the stairs to find that she was using the bathroom.  

I arrived home shortly after they left, and hearing this story I went down to check the bathroom.  OMfreakingG....she had flushed but had left a bit of a mess.....I'll leave it to your imagination.  It took me awhile to get things cleaned and sanitized.  told my son about it, and for the rest of that day he used the bathroom upstairs.  

Let's go back to the birds, okay?  

I get a chuckle out of these photos.  My neighbour has this decorative owl on the top of her tree stumps.  Apparently, it doesn't frighten any of the other birds.  

Have a great week everyone!