Welcome to Cocky village

Today was the day. We were going to move the birds into their bigger, better, friendlier, nicer, prettier cages. As much as I hate animals in cages, if they have to be in a cage anyway, then let it be a good cage. So there we go, trying to get the little Galah (aka "Cocky boy") in to his new home. It worked like shit. He stayed in his cage, trying his very best to bite a hole in the blanket. I like animals with character :-)

After an hour or so we tried the push and shove approach. 2 little sticks and a bit of guidance did the trick and there he is in his new house. It is a HUGE improvement. He seems to like it and moves around a fair bit which is very good for him.

Cocky boy. He's between 35-40 years old but he's still got a lot of life in him but his condition could be better. He's a real funny bird though. He talks (a lot!) and he loves to be petted.

Having learned from the previous approach we used the same tactics with the sulphur crested cockatoo (we call her "cocky girl"). It worked well and we had her in her new cage within 15 minutes. It was a relief to see everything go so smooth. Especially the cocky girl is always very scared.

Cocky girl. Estimated at 17 years of age and she accepts petting ONLY from Tony, Nicole's father. But it could be that other people are too scared to try petting her. I can get close to her face while holding a almond. She'll take it out of my hand and drop it.

We now have 2 cocky-houses in "Cocky village".

The two neighbours. I hit my head three times, hit my thumb twice until it bled and dug a hole in the same thumb with a wood saw. It was not a good DIY day but the result is fantastic. They eat and drink and walk around. They seem quite happy with their new place.

Mission accomplished. If you want to see how I made the roofs, click here.

After all this we went shopping. First to the Italian deli...

... and then to Woolworths.

And now I'm tired.

Running in to B.A. Baracus

I played World of Warcraft again this weekend. I don't play that often anymore. The evenings are short because we go to bed earlier and I'm doing my blog every day. So it's a bit of a luxury now. At least it doesn't get boring.

Then in the afternoon we worked on the cages again. I put more branches in so the bird can walk all the way from the bottom to the top.

In the afternoon we went shopping at Woolies.
B.A. was threatening me to buy the new Snickers, which we did promptly.

Peanut butter here stinks. They have three kinds basically: Smooth, chunky and super chunky. But really 'chunky' is smooth with a few pieces of nuts in it. And 'Super chunky' is smooth with more pieces of nuts in it. And it looks like diarrhoea and it needs more salt and less sugar. I WANT CALVÉ PINDAKAAS!

Nicole modelling the bird seed.

The flower man

Remember the blog entry of a few days ago where we had that fog in the morning?

This photo was taken from the hills (source unknown). It's so cool I didn't want to waste it.

From 9AM till 2PM I worked on the roofs for the bird cages. Pretty boy Mason was keeping me company.

I made two of these frames to put on top of each cage. Hopefully tomorrow I can dedicated an entire entry to this on my Creative blog. They still have to be painted.

In the evening we went out with a bunch of friends. We went to another Indian restaurant. In North Adelaide this time. I started off with Samosas!

The place was very full, very (over) crowded and very (too) noisy which was a pity because I was not able to understand certain people.

And guess what the cat dragged in? A FLOWER SALES MAN! Before this guy there was actually ALSO a guy who offered to take a photo. We thought we had left those behind in A'dam...

The new cage design

Driving home after work.

Just taking some shots out of the bus.

My bus ticket.

At the time I didn't know we'd end up here for dinner. Cafe Peasano is really nice. Their menu is a little different from other places in a very positive way. And their pizza have a THIN bottom. Contrary to places where they smear tomato paste on a loaf of bread and call it "pizza".

I have to make two roofs for the new bird cages. It has to look nice, be heavy enough not to be blown off but not too heavy and it needs to give the birds good cover without blocking their view too much. The birds also wanted a heater and TV.

The other half of my brain is occupied with researching ways to get into digital railroading. Instead of buying stuff I may choose the adventurous path, add 5 years to my project that already seems like a 10 year plan, and build shit my self. Or not. I'm sure someone I live with doesn't mind postponing building the train-table ;-P

In the meantime we listen to Boot Liquor on SomaFM, one of my favourite internet radio stations. You should give it a shot if you like jazzy, bluesy, country-y and funny drinking music. (You don't have to drink to listen btw. Don't worry ma ;-)

The new bird cages, phase one.

Today for lunch: Nicole's pea soup and a small piece of bread. It was prrrrretty good :-)

In the afternoon we made mandarin juice. have to do something with the mandarins before they dry up... Also prrrrrretty damn good.

In the afternoon I put two new bird cages together. These will replace their current homes that are too small and too inconvenient to maintain properly. We're going to give these birds some quality housing now :-)

Here is Nicole showing the cages. Oh, the cage is actually taller than Nicole *grin*