Monday, June 11, 2007

Something cool and something not so cool

There were two events that highlighted this weekend at the house. One was incredible: a very large Peregrine Falcon flew and landed on a wire above our yard on Saturday. It sat for a few minutes and finally a flock of local birds had enough, flew wildly around him and chased him off.

For those of you that live in rural areas this might be pretty common but to us, living within one of our nation's largest metropolitan areas, it was quite a shock. Unfortunately, we didn't grab the camera in time to get any photos. I may need to keep the camera handy from now on.

The other thing that happened this weekend was not so great. I made an incredibly grim discovery in the garage this weekend. I spent a good part of the day throwing away old moving boxes. I assumed they were all empty so I quickly picked them up and broke them down. I went to lift one box and it had some weight to it. The box had some pretty bad brown stains on it and also underneath it - as if something had leaked out of it.

I carefully looked inside and found a half-case of unconsumed homebrew. I was devastated. It was the last of a stout that I made last year and it had been left in the garage an entire summer, fall, winter, and spring. Several of the bottles had burst. I poured most of it out into the compost bin but saved a bottle. I just have to know what it tastes like when you leave a stout to freeze, thaw, and rise to a temp of over 100 degrees in a hot garage. I'll let you know in a few days.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Condolences on your lose.

Fargo said...

Sorry to hear about the beer.

A few months ago, I was in the kitchen and heard a thump at our bungalow window (in Beverly - near 95th & Western). I looked out and saw a red shouldered hawk struggling with a smaller bird on our patio. It flew off after a few seconds, landing briefly in a tall maple across the street, then flying further away to enjoy its breakfast.

I've seen hawks out in the country. I've occasionally seen peregrine falcons (or their aftermath) in the Loop or in downtown areas of other cities. I wasn't expecting to see a hawk catch its breakfast right under my window. Mother Nature is alive and well in Chicago.

If only the hawk would come back more often and take some of the rabbits....