Happy Easter

What is this bird? It's not the best shot - but our batteries died while running around attempting a better pic. The bird appeared in the backyard on Saturday around 5:00 - 5:30 pm just before our first Easter dinner - with my Mom. It appears to be some sort of grouse - but it doesn't look like a native species. It was mostly brown, with a whitish breast, blue on the forehead, and white around the eyes. Perhaps a Chukar? Check out the "head gear". It had a little flap of something (skin?) on top its head. My guess is some sort of exotic species, non-native to MN, escaped from captivity.



Saturday night the sink backed up. We identified the problem as the garbage disposal. For some reason that didn't stop me from running the dishwasher. BIG MISTAKE. We had water backing up on the floor around the dishwasher and raining down on the dryer in the basement.

Finally got a chance to mess around under the sink Sunday afternoon. The non-disposal side of the sink was draining normally. The disposal mechanism was running freely - no weird sounds, so we deduced the problem in the pipes draining the disposal. I took apart the trap and used a clothes hanger to explore the pipe leading from the disposal and -- ta-dahh -- found the problem. One of those small plastic bag closing thingies. It had gone through the disposal without a scratch only to get stuck on some gunk in the pipe - thus backing up the entire operation. It was my fastest plumbing operation ever - and I didn't have to make even one trip to Home Depot. The icing on the cake? I didn't even need to take it apart and put it together a second time. Usually something leaks when I fix plumbing and I need to attach - and re-attach - and re-re-attach all the piping before it fits cleanly without a leak. Amen!



After the two church services this morning - choir sang at both, we headed over to our Betsy and Susanna's house for Easter brunch/lunch. We had a wonderful time - with Bundt Cake for dessert of course. The kids had a wonderful time.