Couldn't be more exhausted

Last night a bear pulled down a hummingbird feeder and bent the seed feeder pole. I worked for hours on the pole trying to drive a sleeve over the bent pipe to straighten it. I lacked a couple of feet of getting it where it needed to be. Just couldn't swing the sledge hammer one more time. I managed to get the pole hoisted into place temporarily, but it needs to be 2' lower. I'll work on it some more when I get back down there. When I get the pole lower I can raise the bucket closer to the top of the pole. The bucket is where it needs to be but there's no need for the pole to be so tall. The bucket can still be at this same height if the pole is 2' shorter. It wasn't out of bear's reach before, but it is now. Hadn't had bear trouble this time of year before, but some neighbors had a recent visit, so I'm not surprised.

Before and After

When I got to town I had to wait on an extremely long train going through Alpine. It was all loaded with army vehicles. Never saw that before.

Hugh had called me and told me he found a hummingbird nest while pruning. For years I've begged him to let me do all the pruning. He doesn't do it right, and I have to redo it anyway. But I was at CMO and he decided to prune an Arizona Cypress tree. He lopped a bunch of small branches off a limb, exposing the nest. So I'm worried about the nest now. I'm not going to fix the mess he made until fledging or failure. It won't do any good to say anything to Hugh. He does what he wants to. I saw the hummer on the nest awhile ago, so maybe it'll be OK. Our only Alpine nesting species is Black-chinned.