Jessie and Hope

Each year almost without fail the weather here does a 180 and gets "springy". The high today was 63 degrees. It was of course tempered by the wind at about 12 MPH, but still nice enough to do some things that needed my attention. Of course something to occupy my mind is not a bad thing either.

The well water here is high in calcium, and it does not take long to collect on anything that it touches. My hot tub is equipped with a small circulating pump, and when the calcium builds up to the point of unbalancing the impeller it shuts off the entire hot tub. I had cleaned it in early Nov. and it began to malfunction probably on the same day that Karen passed away.

I also wanted to move the raptors around and come up with a better system for their own piece of mind. I don't like to force them to sit on one boring perch all the time. It seems unfair to me. My thought was to put Jessie out in the mews, with a enclosed area that she could sit out in the sun and see a lot more than her normal perch in the weathering area. The weather had warmed to the point that I am not concerned about what the weather will do from here on out. I also intended to turn the weathering area into an out side flight pen for the Harris.

My only concern with Jessie was if she was smart enough to not bash herself on the chain link that forms her outside perch. I did not need to worry. She is quite sensible. She sat in the window to the outside for a full day, and of course went back in at night. Then today she was sitting on the outside perch. I went to see her, and at first she postered as if she was agressive. Then she began to ry to seduce me. She was bowing and postering like crazy so we chupped back anf forth for a bit. She is happy and comfortable. The last time I molted her out there she laid 25 eggs before I could get her to quit. She should be running out sometime soon.

Since this is the desert, tree limbs for perches are a bit scarce. The was a big pile of tree limbs over at the ranch, so the dogs and I went scrounging. I put three high perches in the weathering area and turned Hope loose.

The first thing she did was to hit the bath pan, and take a leisurely bath. Then she sat on Jess's tire, on the ground? Go figure. On well, she's happy. I was a bit surprised that she chose flat perches to sit on, such as Jessie's wall perch in the background. I just checked her and she is now up against the wall on the partition perch.

After many malfunctions concerning water hoses to power the pressure washer, that I use to blow calcium deposits off the impeller, I was able to simultaneously take a bath and clean the parts to the hot tub.