visiting with CWU faculty and students.<\/p>\n
Last October I built a bird feeding station shown in my post #13872. Using two posts from an early fence and two new ones. The station got mounted about chin high. There was a cross-piece, a 2×4, about halfway up.
\nRecently, one or more of my resident Yellow-bellied marmot clan developed the habit of climbing up to the seed-placement level, moving the wire mesh aside, and having a breakfast of sunflower seeds.
\nThe smart thing I should have done prior to placement of the feeder would have been to cut 4 pieces of rigid tube PVC {plastic} pipe and slid those over the posts. I didn’t. I might de-construct the set-up and do that. A few years ago, I saw such a thing on a web video regarding keeping racoons out of feeders.
\nFor now, I have placed pieces of metal ridge cap, it takes two per post, around each. And I removed the 2×4 cross-piece. I watched one of the marmots approach and seemingly dismayed at the change. I did not see it trying to climb one of the covered poles, so I think it was using the 2×4.
\nI made the change Thursday morning and will confirm success after another few days. I hope.<\/p>\n
Wednesday, the Joyals (from Marquette, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula) came to EBRG. The have relatives in Spokane. We meet at EBRG’s Red Horse Diner. Last year, my post #13741 of May 4th has a photo with Ann and me. This year, we had one of the servers take a photo of the three of us with a few of the diner’s signs as background. I expect Fred will send a copy when they return home. They have an intention to move to Tucson that will shorten the drive by 400 or 500 miles. <\/p>\n
I returned to town for an early evening end-of-year and awards party with the Geography Department. Years ago the meal was sort of a pot-luck affair. At some point they switched to prepared sandwiches, chips, fruit, and canned drinks. There are a half-dozen sources of funds, some from now deceased or out-of-area donors. One donor has aged out and no longer comes. The daughter of a donor came this year for the first time. Nancy and I were regulars since, I think, 2011.
\nThe dollar amounts vary from a few hundred to one of $2,500 with most $1,000. The total is $26,500. The relatively few students and the number of awards have the effect of some students getting 3 or 4 awards. After Nancy died, I have been giving the department money for 4 $1,000 awards, so I get my picture taken with four students. The University calls these “current use” funds in contrast to “endowment” funds. I’ve been working to fulfill that commitment made 4 years ago. A payment next January from a Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) of retirement held mutual funds will complete that. Thus, in 2027 the “Hultquist Awards” might come from the endowment rather than current-use money. Sometime soon I’ll be meeting with faculty and CWU Foundation folks to discuss such things. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the weather has been cool and gusty. Winds into the high 30’s mph. I haven’t seen the resident skunk for about three days. There are a couple of young male deer about with spike antlers. I’ve only seen one older with a large set. I saw 6 elk on my trip to the p\u00e9tanque gathering on Thursday — on the slope going into the Columbia Gorge, 10 miles east of me. <\/p>\n
Keeping Track
\non the Naneum Fan
\nJohn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
visiting with CWU faculty and students. Last October I built a bird feeding station shown in my post #13872. Using two posts from an early fence and two new ones. The station got mounted about chin high. There was a cross-piece, a 2×4, about halfway up. Recently, one or more of my resident Yellow-bellied marmot … Continue reading “Visitors from Michigan and …”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p72iNf-3Ey","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14046"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14047,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14046\/revisions\/14047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}