April 09, 2007
If a Cat House or Kennel is a Cattery, Then Why Isn't a Bat House a Battery?
Together, a mere eight of Friday’s commenters have made 245 items, or the equivalent of 49 people knitting five items each.
If I include Janet Elliott’s 65 items, then nine people have knit 310 items, or the equivalent of 62 people knitting five items each.
I think I can officially stop worritin' about whether or not my ”Dulaan 10,000 or Bust” public-relations effort is going to backfire.
Kristin, Norma, Lisa A, Patti, Irina, Tasha, Sylvia, Petrified—and, of course, anyone who is making even one item for Dulaan, let alone 4, 5, 6!—I send you a thank you This Big (imagine me stretching my arms out as far as I can, and then trying to stretch them just that little bit further but then stopping because both shoulders just made a gross cracking noise). Wow. (And, Norma, I had no idea the Red Scarf project generated that kind of a response. No idea. That is really sumpin’.)
As I mentioned a couple of entries ago, one of my employees has started a project for herself, just herself, to knit hats to sell during an upcoming walkathon to raise money for a local cancer-society chapter. Within days, word had gotten out, and other knitters in the office were dropping hats off at her office and she, a new knitter who learned to knit just to make the hats, and who knows bupkus about the knitting mindset, was starting to get that “What’ve I gotten myself into, and just who are these people?” look on her face. Eventually, I had to have a little tête-à-tête with her to explain just how dangerously generous knitters can be (and I know whereof I speak). Her loins are well girded now; she is ready to juggle a blizzard of hats, should such a thing come about.
As promised, pictures from TMK of the assembling of the bat house. (Who knew, by the way, that an entry about bats would generate so many enthusiastic responses and interesting stories? I figured the women would run squealing away and the men would tell me all about how, when they were acne-riddled, snot-nosed kids, they tortured bats with magnifying glasses and sunshine. I sorely underestimate my readers sometimes. Thank you, everyone, for the information. TMK and I read every word and clicked on every link!)
Here is the untreated cedar used for the project. TMK says the “untreated” part is molto importante. She also says that her plan for the bat box was a mish-mash of patterns she found online and ideas she got from bat boxes she saw at a local watershed preserve (Meadowbrook, for you North Seattleites) and at local stores.
Beginning assembly, and a close-up of the tongue and groove which is, apparently, equally molto importante because it helps make the bat house more weather-proof. TMK says she bought the cedar panels already "tongued and grooved" but only because they made a pricing boo-boo in her favor at ManLand. Normally, to save money, she would have bought plain panels and routed the tongue and groove herself. (I have no bloody idea what I just said there but I sounded very butch for a moment, didn't I? HOO-AH!)
Almost finished. The depth is 3” but the entrance will be reduced to about 1” since that is what other patterns recommend. The box is 23” wide (surprisingly big) and will hold lots o’ bats. The only thing TMK is missing is some mesh to put inside for the bats to cling to. Once the mesh is in, then shel'll caulk the crap out of everything, join all the pieces together, paint the box black to absorb heat, install it, and become an instant bat-guano entrepreneur.
AnnMarie asked if TMK knew where she was going to put the bat box. We’ve read that it needs to go 15’? 18’? (TMK?) high and face the sun for the most warmth, so she thinks she’s found a good spot in the northeast corner of her yard. I’m still skeptical about how she’s going to get it up that high since this thing is wide and he-e-aveee but, as she always likes to say, she “Has a Plan.”
Question of the Day: When TMK works out at the gym, she amuses herself by reading the typos in the captions on the TV. Today, when she was watching the View, she saw this beaut: "snooflements." Anyone have any clue what a "snooflement" could possibly be?
Snooflements is a French word - it's the noun form of the English word "to snorgle", which means "to snuggle with much smooching".
Yup.
And a cat house is a BROTHEL. ;-)
I agree with Carrie. A snooflement is a moment in time where you snorgle your favorite pet (or person).
I'm still stuffing box #9 for FIRE (I have 6 more sweaters and a big batch of hats ready to go), but I definitely will beat this years many times revised goal of 120--I'm at 106 items already sent to FIRE.
I can sympathize with your employee. Last week, a coworker came in to my office with a big plastic box and wanted to know if I wanted the contents.....skeins upon skeins of grey and plum wool yarns!!! Can we say woo-hoo? She heard about me knitting for Dulaan and wanted to share part of her mother's estate, which left behind a ton of yarn. Me thinks I need to twist her arm...oops, I mean suggest, to her that she needs to crank her needles up too. :)
Posted by: Nancy O. on April 9, 2007 03:08 PMI think the bat box needs to be about 100 million feet in the air because otherwise the bats will dive bomb your hair and get tangled in it. Don't laugh! It could so HAPPEN!
*Girl running away in terror of flying things!
Posted by: Rebecca on April 9, 2007 03:13 PMThat is the best typo ever. I am (at least when I'm at the gym) much more sophomoric in my humor and got way too much mileage out of the mistyped interview with Will Ferrell in Babes of Glory.
Posted by: Seanna Lea on April 9, 2007 03:27 PMI doubt you wanted a REAL answer to the typo question. You were looking for funny, I expect. But you just happen to have a REAL EXPERT in your comments. You remember that I used to be a captioner for the BBC, correct? And I now (for the immediate future, sadly about to end, because the little fucker has been skipping too many classes and they are about to terminate my services. Bastards.) write realtime for a deaf student at the university, correct? Same diff, really. :D
All that is is a misstroke of the entire bar of cracks on the steno machine. The person meant to change the speaker by hitting all those cracks. Instead, she or he mistakenly hit MOST of the cracks, and the software translated it phonetically to snooflements. That is the left-hand keys, and the right-hand keys, and the first two middle bottom keys, which are the vowels AO.
Sorry to disappoint.
OR you could say it's the product of a case of the snoofles. Hee.
Posted by: Norma on April 9, 2007 03:42 PMPlease add me to the list of the girl crush fans of TMK. She does her own tongue and groove?!
Ryan, you're a very lucky girl.
Posted by: Cookie on April 9, 2007 03:42 PMWait. I need to steady myself here. Norma, you KNEW the answer? No one was supposed to KNOW the answer! I mean, for God's sake, the word was "snooflements!" Snoofle. Ments. Snoo. Full. Ments.
On days like today, I remember why I love the Internet.
Thank you, Norma; you made my day.
Posted by: Ryan on April 9, 2007 03:50 PMYup. I've had that exact same misstroke (not exactly a "typo," but misstroked steno on the steno machine) more than once in my career, I'm sure.
Isn't the Internet sumpin'?
Posted by: Norma on April 9, 2007 03:55 PMI knew Norma would know the answer, but I couldn't help enjoy trying to come up with a definition. I say snooflements are what you buy at the health food store when you've got a really bad head cold.
Posted by: Kristen on April 9, 2007 03:57 PMA snooflement is when you accidentally snort a mint up your nose.
Oh, & Carrie owes me a new keyboard. The cathouse comment left mine soaked in diet coke.
Posted by: Samina on April 9, 2007 04:04 PMSnooflements. Almost as good as ploppage.
Sheesh, if I'd known I could be emboldened, I'd have emailed last month. Nine items in the box for Dulaan. (Although to be truthful, I don't know if I even signed up for the Five contest.)
Posted by: daisy in the Shenandoah Valley on April 9, 2007 04:35 PMJust an FYI. The 65 hats are in the F.I.R.E. office in Flagstaff. We drove up from Prescott-ish on Saturday. I am so glad to have them THERE instead of HERE. And I appreciate the congratulations in the comments in the previous post. And I was so surprised to see my photos...
And someone else has done 106? Woo Hoo!
Janet E.
Posted by: jee on April 9, 2007 05:09 PMHey Ryan, I think a cathouse is something different...
Do you know about the bat tower in the Florida Keys? In the 1920 's, a Dr. Charles Campbell put forth the idea that money was to be made from cultivating bats. They would eat mosquitoes, thus allowing previously uninhabitable areas to be built upon, as well as producing lots of excrement, which makes wonderful fertilizer. So he devised a "secret formula" (really stinky) bat bait, and offered it and plans for a bat tower for the sum of $175. The towers of cypress lath were condos for thousands of bats, and the chute in the center of each collected guano, making each bat house "a little gold mine." One tower was built in Texas, and six more in Italy. Then, Mr. Perkey, a developer in the Keys who wasn't selling any land because of all the mosquitoes, built one of these bat towers in 1929. It stands about 35 feet tall - and even though the bait was tried, has never, ever attracted a single bat. It's still standing, waiting for its first bat. I hope you have much better luck with yours!
Posted by: Jane on April 9, 2007 09:37 PMHi Ryan! I think I'm the latest reader (though couple-year lurker) to go back and read all your archives. I was wondering, did you ever use beets in your natural dye garden? I'm all about hot pink, but I have my suspicions it might not be as high on your list ;)
Two more things: I loved your recent post about the differences between you and TMK, so I borrowed it and posted it on my blog, with the differences between me and my fiance. The other thing is a bat story.
When we would jump on the trampoline at dusk in the summer, the squeaking springs would attract bats which liked to dive around our heads. I thought it was awesome! I also got to pet a wild Little Brown Bat (that's it's real name) when I was training to be a park interpreter for Ontario Parks. We set out a bat trap (large soft net) across a hiking trail, and caught one! They're about the size of my palm, about 10cm in the body maybe? Very cute.
Posted by: Karlie on April 9, 2007 10:11 PMI have actually knit over the 5 items for Dulaan knit or bust, but I'm hoping to get 3 more done before the deadline so that I can send in a nice, even 10 items.
Posted by: Lyme on April 10, 2007 04:07 AMI don't think I commented yesterday. (Methinks I was interupted and didn't hit the post button, because I write too much in comments.)
And I didn't read all the comments (cuz I'm afraid of that interrupting thing again) so sorry if I repeat something from someone else.
O.K. so I'm and East Coast girl (D.C. Where it is warmer than in Seattle.) I had to place my bat boxes (note the plural, it will be relevant soon) on the North side, 20 - 25 feet up, in the open. i.e. the bats need to be able to find it, so it can't be buried in a tree. I used the back of my garage. (I did not paint my houses black because they needed coolness, not warmth.)
Here's where I get verbose is ... I started putting up bat boxes because I had a problem with the flying mosquito catchers resting during the day under the soffit of the house - just above the back door. So I made them a house of their own and evicted them with a super-soaker (oh that was so gratifying!).
My variety of (female) bats over-winters pregnant. After returning in the spring, the babies were born and the bachelor males were kicked out of the condo. They had no place to go but the soffit of my house. Every spring, when the bats came back to the house, I put up another bat house (uhm 9 total, I think) behind the garage. I've since moved. And it was quite a site to sit in the back yard with a beer and watch the dusk exiting.
I didn't have a mosquito problem.
I've heard that unless your bats are looking for a place (i.e. after the babies are born and the bachelors are evicted) it may take a few years for the bats to routinely roost. Our bats showed up a few weeks ago. I assume your bats will be a few weeks later.
My local Ag Extension office (U of MD and USDA/Beltsville) were invaluable in figuring this all out.
Snooflements are those streaks left on the sleeve when you can't find a hankie.
Posted by: mary lou on April 10, 2007 06:00 AMWhen I was a home health nurse working night shifts (ugh!) I had the same little hobby as TMK. Reading the odd things that come across the closed caption ticker can be quite entertaining. Although I've seen some oddities, I have no idea what a snooflement is.
Posted by: Kris on April 10, 2007 04:56 PMAll you ever needed to know about Bats:
http://www.batcon.org/home/default.asp Click on the link for Bathouses for tips. Everyone should see the bats come out from under the Congress Bridge in Austin Texas once in their lives (Even the Harlot did it while she was here!) They have lots of info about bat houses and attracting bats. Watching them come out every night is an amazing sight.
cancer tongue survivor
Posted by: support tongue cancer on April 13, 2007 03:08 PMcancer pancreatic rates
Posted by: cancer preventing pancreatic on April 13, 2007 10:31 PM