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A new year of birding begins

 The life-list is slow to grow.  We still keep the life list, but every January we start a new year-list.  It’s a lot easier to get year-birds than it is life-birds.  Every bird we see today is a new bird! We expect to see about 400 species each year.  The count often falls a little below that, as it did again this year.  We finished with 380.  Our North American life list is at 587. Our friend Jon did a Big Texas year.  He got all the birds he could without leaving the state.  His goal was 500 species, and he finished at 500 exactly!  That’s quite an accomplishment.  With all the traveling we do, we get 400 or so each year.  He got 500 in one state! So here we go again.  It was a cold drizzly day today.  Judy and I birded mostly from the car.  We got 57 birds, including a vermilion flycatcher looking like a Christmas ornament, a perfectly camouflaged common pauraque, a pack of preening plain chachalacas, a ring-necked duck, wilson’s snipe, anhinga the snake-bird, and sandhill cranes in a cow pasture.        Only 343 birds to go! 
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The end of an era

 I always wanted a Jeep.  I finally got one in 2004, when I was almost 60.  We bought one to tow behind the motorhome.  We liked that one so much, we bought a brand new one in 2006. This Jeep has been very good to us.  It’s been great fun, giving us the freedom to pretty much go wherever any vehicle could go; from rough roads in the high country of Colorado to drives way up and down the beach in South Texas.  Deep sand was never an obstacle; it was more like an opportunity. The Jeep is still in great shape even though it has 150,000 driving miles and another 100,000 tow miles, but we’re moving on.  It’s time for a different kind of car.  We’ve gotten a nice smooth cushy Chrysler Town & Country minivan.  It will make a great tow-car as our adventures continue, and will be better suited for extended day-trips (on paved roads). The interior is pretty cool. All the seats fold up or down independently. There is a compartment in the floor for each seat to fold into.  With a push of a few buttons, we can turn it into an instant cargo van if we want (those middle seats fold down and disappear into the floor too). The rear seats even flip around as stadium seats for birdwatching or oceanwatching.   We’ll probably like this for as many years as we’ve liked the Jeep! The Minivan era begins for us today as we welcome in a New Year.  Happy New Year everyone! 
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Mystery Solved!

 The air conditioning is fully functioning again.  Of all the possible causes of icing-up: thermostat, compressor, obstructed airflow, low coolant, it took me all this time to discover the most obvious one.  We were gone for months.  Somehow, I just forgot to change the filter when we got back.  The filter was dirty and restricting airflow.  I put a new filter in.  Proper airflow restored.  We can sleep at any temperature we choose again.  We didn’t have to change our ways after-all. I feel like a bit of a bonehead though.  Should I take any solace in the fact that it didn’t occur to any of the trained professionals to check the filter?  I don’t think so.  They probably thought it was too obvious to even ask the question. 
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Brisket

 A good brisket doesn’t just happen.  This piece of meat is known for being hard to get just right.  I’ve been grilling and smoking other meat: steak, chicken, ribs, and chops, just working my way up to a brisket.  For my first effort a couple weeks ago, I only got a portion; about a 3 pound flat.  I cooked it low and slow with smoke.  I did some things well, but didn’t get it completely right.  The flavor was good, but the meat was almost dry and tough. Today was a good day for another shot at it since we were going to be here all day.  I took a more ambitions step and bought a whole brisket.  This one includes both the flat and the point and weighs 7 ½ pounds altogether.  I trimmed it, got it on by 8am, smoked it, wrapped it, and finished it.  We ate at 5:30. It came out like it should, looking more like a meteorite than a meal, but not burnt. Slow-cooking, it never gets hot enough to burn.  That dark outer layer is the “bark”, a combination of smoke and rub. This one was pretty good, but we’re still not quite there.  Got to be lower and slower so it will be even more tender.  I might have to wait for warmer weather, set the alarm, and start it cooking in the dark.