Aviary project

I spoil my birds, even if the little devils probably don’t deserve it.  This is what they were living in before I moved.  Took about three weekends to make and looked gorgeous, but was a terrible pain in the ass to clean.  After moving to the new apartment, I decided it was time to scrap it and build something new.

Once I get my house, this is what they’re going to get.  Designed to scale using Google Sketchup, which is an awesome design tool.  It’s done in 3-d and you can pan and move around your entire project.

Final dimensions: 6ft wide by 2.85ft deep by 6.7ft tall.

My garden

It’s still a work in progress but it’ll be amazing when my roses, tomatoes, blueberries, and cucumbers start flowering and fruiting in June.  My cilantro went into overdrive and I have coriander seeds for cooking now.

Yes, that's my cockatiel hanging out on the table

Pretty bird!

Artsy kind of shot, I have a mirror mounted on the fence to reflect a bit more light

Yellow shrub daisy!

Ikea and bye birdy

I gave him away today.  Had him since November to keep Sam company, but over the past few weeks we reached a breaking point.  Budgies are extremely hyperactive and very social and his craziness was too much for the cockatiels to take.  They attempted to ignore him, but Nugget would get frustrated and start pulling feathers and biting their feet.  When he started drawing blood…I posted an ad on craigslist to find him a new home.  Found him one, with a nice hispanic couple who have over a dozen other birds.  I think he’ll be much happier as part of a flock.  Going to miss the little guy.

Since I was in Round Rock anyways to drop him off, I stopped at IKEA.  Bought some casserole dishes, shakers, grease splatter shield, lingonberry preserves, and a 2.5lb bag of frozen Swedish meatballs.

Yes, those meatballs are one of my guilty pleasures.  At first I thought having an restaurant in IKEA was insanity, but they have some pretty decent food for cheap.  This is how they serve the meatball platter, sometimes with a mini Swedish flag stuck in the potatoes:

I was tempted to buy a lot more crap I don’t need, but thought better of it this trip.  Maybe next time when I have a nice juicy paycheck in the bank.

Raiding World Market

I went to World Market to get some Tim Tams for an acquaintance and for myself to pig on.  Except I kind of went overboard and scoured every aisle in the store.  It’s one of my favorite places to shop because they have such a wonderful collection of unique imported items you can’t find elsewhere.

Picked up a black potted fake bamboo plant, a oil torch candle for the patio, a teapot shaped tea infuser, and a vanity shelf.  When I went to checkout, the cashier eyed my 6 boxes of Tim Tams (I had cleared the shelf) and went “Cookie binge?”.  Wallet is crying, I’ve blown my entire shopping budget  for the month only 11 days in which means no more spending.  I guess it’ll force me to stop eating out and clear out the food in the cabinets and freezer.

I found a cappuccino maker (Bialetti Mukka Express Cappuccino Maker) sitting on a bottom clearance shelf.  I picked it up, balked at the $44 price tag for what is essentially a glorified kettle, then remembered reading about it on an espresso blog which gave rave reviews for it.  Also remembered that it retails for $90 and used that fact to justify a purchase.  Decided to indulge myself and threw it in the basket, then picked up some amazing smelling espresso beans as well.  I have a french bodum press, espresso machine with a frother, a Senseo pod machine, and a Vietnamese coffee filter.  Of all those, only the latter makes a nice strong aromatic brew but is only suited for iced coffee.  Now that I have the Bialetti I can stop wasting more money on coffee paraphanelia and sell the other crap on Craigslist.

It took a few attempts to get right.  The manual that came with it was in Italian so I had to google instructions.  Apparently not following them down to a T involves messy explosions.  After I’d cleaned everything up from failed tries, I found the English instructional DVD at the bottom of the box -_-

Attempts

1. Used coffee only, apparently the pot should be seasoned a few times before getting exceptional.  Hot coffee started spewing everywhere out of the seal, I had to throw the pot in the sink and do a complete wipe up of the stove/burner.
2. Added milk per directions, a bit of steam sputtering out the sides.  Pressure valve went off and the milk threatened to froth over so I shut off the burner and took it off the stove prematurely.  Froth went away a few seconds later, ended up with a lukewarm cup down the sink.
3. Determined to avoid leaks, I oiled the threads, ground up some more beans for another try.   Except I forgot to add water to the bottom and stood there for 10 minutes smelling scalded milk before realizing it.
4. Triple checked everything I did this time, turned out perfect.  Added some cocoa on top of the thick froth, stirred in sugar…and had the best damn cappuccino I’ve had in awhile.  Screw you, Starbucks.

Veggies

Just some pics of the piggies eating.  Still no name for the new cockatiel yet.

Taking a walk

Taking my cockatiel outside with his harness.  Silly bird, whines and cries to go back home because the ants are scary and the grass feels weird.

Bird Butt

Crash Landing

Flying

My bird has a really bad habit of needing to be within a few feet of me 24/7.  If I leave his line of sight to brush my teeth, do the dishes, grab some laundry, play piano, etc. 90% of the time he will fly to me.  If he can’t find me, he will shoot like a rocket in circles around the apartment, screaming…until crash landing in my hair.  And begging for cuddles.

Silly sammich

Silly cockatiel did not like his shadow and kept attacking and hissing at it. Sunset light streaming through the windows apparently is more amusing than the $$$ bird toys hanging in his cage unused.

More birds

Turned in my final assignment for my photojournalism class. We had a guest speaker, named Steve Simon, who is part of the Apple campus lecture series hawking the Aperture 2.1 program. Thoroughly enjoyed his presentation showcasing all the work he did in Rwanda, AIDS in Africa, Sept 11, and subtle political jabs with his Republican series. A little heavy on the software plugs, but that was part of the package.

At the end of the lecture, his Apple dude entourage distributed a free copy of Aperture 2.1 ($200 software that was just release this past March) to every student. Pretty awesome, except I don’t own a Mac.

Went back to the bird place this afternoon, a few more shots…

Full album

J&M Aviaries and Austin Avian Rescue and Rehabilitation

My final project for my photojournalism class is to do a photostory. Rather than do what had been done hundreds of times before, like interview firefighters, following student life, or showcasing a band, I decided to drive to the only Central Texas rescue and rehab center for exotic birds. Situated on 3 acres of land it houses over 90 birds, of which 70% are rescue cases that come in from all over the country. They receive no help from the government and rely solely on private donations. Many of the birds are permanent residents, which is a huge commitment considering the lifespans of parrots can reach up to 100+ years. Therefore several birds end up at AARR because of a death in the family, not abuse or negligence.

This is Jerry Nolan, the co-founder of the organization with Michael Glend Haley who recently passed away in 2005. Very nice guy, extremely knowledgeable about birds as he has run the aviary for over two decades. He personally greeted me when I walked up to the door, showed me around, and explained pretty much everything about AustinAvianRR and J&M aviaries.

Very peaceful place. There are trees everywhere to provide shade for the various bird enclosures, a few ponds, benches, lots of flowers and plants. There’s a memorial garden for Michael Haley in the sanctuary.

The white cockatoo is an amazing speaker. I was walking around and here the clearest “Hello” imaginable from a bird. We chatted for awhile, then he said “Bye bye” at least ten times when I walked away.

So I need to organize everything from today and do some research on Homer the Homeless Goose who is apparently a major Austin icon. All in all, was great fun and will probably head back for followup.

[More pictures here]