The Steamboat Pilot & Today Has Struck Again

April 13, 2007 · Posted in Small Town Life · Comment 

The folks at the newspaper have shown their brilliance once again:
Flippin’ the Bird Of all of the construction workers in town, the photographer decided to take a picture of this guy.The sticker on his hard hat is quite appropriate considering that the article it came from was discussing the chaos that will be ensuing this spring and summer. If you really care, click here for the story.There are 5 major construction projects slated to begin simultaneously in downtown Steamboat Springs. Basicaly the town doesn’t have a workforce to support all of the new building, so workers will have to be brought in. This will result in a housing shortage, increased traffic, blah, blah, blah. Quite frankly, I think most of the locals would love to share this guy’s sentiment with the Planning Department.

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Going to the Birds

April 11, 2007 · Posted in Birds · Comment 

I live in a pretty nifty location; almost 2 acres with a creek flowing through the property and a lot of willows. It’s a perfect little patch of birdie heaven. I also have feeders around the house filled with enticing sunflower and thistle seed. So far I have been able to identify approximately 20 different species of birds that have come to the yard. Some of them stay around for a season and some just stay a few days. Suffice it to say that I like watching the birds and a new sighting is cause for celebration. The Sibley Guide to North American Birds and the binoculars are always within reach. The best part is when someone asks, “What kind of bird is that”?, I can usually tell them.

Black-Capped Chickadee My favorite “Bird of the Yard” is the Black-Capped Chickadee. These little guys use the willows as their winter shelter and will congregate in a flock of 20-30 birds. All winter long they will stay and endure the wicked cold temperatures, gail force winds and blinding snow.They spend their days flying from willow to feeder back to willow, cracking open one seed at a time. They blend in with their surroundings quite well, however, the distinctive chickadee-dee-dee song is unmistakeable.

Once spring arrives and food becomes more available the flock will thin out and only a few birds will remain throughout the summer. What I love most about these little birds is that they don’t get freaked out if you are close to the feeder. If you stand still they will continue with their feeding and actually check you out.

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Some WordPress Tips

April 5, 2007 · Posted in Nerdy Stuff · Comment 

I am in no way a WordPress expert, however, there are a few things I have learned that may be helpful.

Choosing a Theme:
The Theme Viewer has hundreds of ready-to-use themes for download. Before you start searching be sure to check the box for “Widget Ready” under the Sorting Options on the left side. You will save yourself much trouble and heartache by choosing a theme that is already configured for plugins and widgets.

In order to install a new theme you will need to download it to your wordpress themes folder. After the file has been unzipped you can then log in to your site and go to the Presentation tab. If everything was successful you will see your new theme. Simply click on the picture of the theme to activate it.

Plugins:
The first plugin that you need to download is the widgets manager. It can be downloaded here.
Plugins installation is very similar to themes, except that you want to install the files in your plugins directory. Note: Some plugins require additional steps in order to work. Read the readme files that come with the download or the installation directions on the plugins main website for further information. Once installation is complete the plugin will need to be activated. Login to your site and click on the Plugins tab. There you will see a list of available plugins. On the right side choose “Activate”. If all went well, you will see “Plugin successfully updated” towards the top of the page.
By installing the widget manager you will also get another tab under “Presentation” called “Sidebar Manager”. This manager will allow you to control the placement of your widgets.
Before downloading a plugin make sure that it is compatible with your version of WordPress. A list of plugins can be found here.

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