Daffy and Friends...
With the infusion of cash and time, the gray lagoon is now
spic and span, being freshly drained of the winter's green slime, powerwashed, and scrubbed
so that it is back to its variegated interior which, depending on the gullibility
of the audience, is either intended.... or the result of a poor choice of
contractors. But, it is what we
have. On a good day, it is kind of
interesting as it bears some resemblance of clouds. Oh, yes, we pondered for a long time on how to get
the right cloud effect. At least it is
not that glaring sapphire blue seen all over. And
to go on (as he often does) we tend to use the pool as a water feature rather
than the normal purpose of a swimming pool.
Anyway, after the pool is spiffed up to the extent possible, the next
chore is finding about twenty thousand gallons of water. Last year since we “opened” so late due to
relocating the filter and necessary PVC jungle of piping out of the view, we opted to purchase
same. Kind of expensive, but rapid
rewards. This year we’re using the “METCOM”
method of plopping the garden hose in the pool and turning on the spigot.
I have been told that in the long run, this is less expensive and we’re not in a
rush. The only drawback is that if you
opt to not turn it off, showers are not satisfying, and it takes forever to
fill the toilet after a flush. These
things are important.
And you’ll notice that I have been yakking about the pool
without so much as a mention of the evil ducks.
You’ll remember that we have a pair that likes Chez Moody as their summer
vacation spot. They are thrilled that
the lagoon is filling with water and we often find them happily paddling
around. If you go back to the previous
photo, you might notice those little black “spots” in the lower right. Those, my friends are the leavings of
contented and well fed ducks. One might
point out to potential swimmers that while perhaps repulsed at the thought of
swimming in it, chemicals eliminate any possibility of contamination, and all
the water passes through the filter daily.
Got it?
Anyway we awoke a couple of days ago, and I normally peer
out first thing to see what the poultry situation is, and I was greeted by
these happy fellows.
They were hastily excused.
I am hoping they are itinerants and not looking for a resort.
So I followed up on a little lead I garnered from FaceBook,
and Googled “how to keep ducks out of your pool”. Sure enough, several thousand sites popped
up, and one even was how to keep mallards out of your pool. Strangely enough more than one site said the
solution was to buy a blow up pool toy (whale, alligator, swan, etc.) and put
it in the pool. “I did that and haven’t
seen a duck in the pool in years”; “works
every time”; “strange but true”. Other
methods suggest putting those fake owls or snakes around, but one person
reported that the ducks were sitting on them within days.
Hence the blow up (and low cost) solution is our next step. That is, after the pool is full. Progress reports to come.
Some things never cease to amaze me department...Shrimp
To keep a bit things foodie in here, a little note from a
reception we went to over the weekend to raise funds for the local Soup
Kitchen. It was billed as an appetizer
extravaganza and featured a couple of tables of various restaurant supplied appetizers. The program listed the participating
restaurants, but nobody was proud enough of their offering to put their name by
it. Tsk tsk. There was nothing very high
end, or exciting. Chicken Satay’s,
ubiquitous plates of squares of cheese, some kind of interesting dips, a bowl
of pasta salad, that kind of thing. There
were also some sweets.
I suppose there
is that famous snowball’s chance that the place responsible for the “Bacon Wrapped
Shrimp en Skewer” (my term, it was anonymous) will read this, but I would pass
on a little culinary hint for them. Next time you want
to serve that, take the little extra effort to remove the damn tail shell from the shrimp first, okay? There you are with a skewer with the shrimp on
the end, encased in bacon, and you notice the tail. Now we’ve
all had scallops in similar preparation, and they’re very good (anything with
bacon…..), normally, you put the whole combination in your mouth and strip it from
the wooden thing and consume it. Easy. So what are you supposed to do with the bacon wrapped shrimp
(and tail shell)? Set it down somewhere, unwrap the bacon, take
off the shell, put the bacon back? Take
a chance on choking to death and pop it in your mouth and hope to remove the
shell with your fingers? In my case the
solution was to put the skewer back on the tray and move on. How hard is it to think of these
things?? These are supposed to be
professionals! Arrgh…
Enough for today..
and I know today is D Day, but in my case it was Duck Day. And while we’re throwing around the “D’s” don’t
forget to
DFD
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