An Owl in the Chicken Coop

Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo. The husband went to close up the chicken coop Saturday night and discovered a little owl sitting on top of the dispenser that holds the oyster shells. It had a mouse in its talons. He thinks it must have found its way in through an opening at the top of the wire that covers the chicken yard. Dave was not happy. Dave runs a tight ship out there and owls are not chickens. The husband opened the door to the coop and coaxed the owl to fly out.

We thought perhaps it might return to the mouse smorgasbord yesterday—in which case I would try to get a picture so I could determine out what kind of owl it was—but its presence in the coop likely was a one-time event.

He assumed it was a baby owl because of its size, but I am wondering if it was a Northern Pygmy Owl.

When I was growing up in Ohio, baby screech owls used to fall out of trees in our yard. The Metroparks people told us to put the baby owl in a box on top of a car in the driveway. Eventually, the mama would come and retrieve it. They also told us to feed the baby owl some chopped up bologna.

‘Tis the season for the wild animals to invade the yard. I saw a report this morning that someone spotted a bear a few miles south of us, too.

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I decided to take the Kenneth D. King trouser drafting class in October. The timing works and I don’t want to miss this opportunity. The owner of the Sewing and Design School in Tacoma—from whom I took a class last Thanksgiving—sent me an e-mail right away and said she was excited to see that I was signed up.

I gave Susan the little boys’ shirts after church yesterday. They and their parents weren’t in church yesterday because they were traveling. Sundays are the furthest thing from a day of rest for me, so I’ve been trying to make a habit of coming home after church and doing nothing for at least a couple of hours. Yesterday, I read a book.

I’ve been perusing the Joann Fabrics subreddit—Reddit is a discussion board—and found some interesting comments. I didn’t have to dig deep—these are all from the first page:

—Joanns seemed to have staked a claim on fleece and I think that really is very limited in appeal that it may once have had. There are only so many fleece things that anyone wants and all of those huge fleece blankets I think have had their day and are in decline, for good reason, in my personal opinion.
A good serious fabric is harder to source and they have been out of the business of good fabric for most of this century. The cheap craft market likely has a higher profit margin. Even a Linder chocolate ball may have a fifty percent profit on it. That was true years ago when I worked for Borders. That is why you see them at checkouts, even at a bookstore.
I dont hold out hope for a better selection of serious quality garment fabrics if they do survive. There is more profit in cheap.

—They put most of the independent fabric stores out of business. Then they refocused on crafts and crap, and cut back on the fabric choices. Now they can't make it based on selling crafts and crap. No one at the top understands we would actually spend more if they had good fabric choices.

This commenter, below, is a financial analyst and also sews:

—I read more & feel more confident that the chain has a fighting chance, even if store closures are imminent. The fact that existing creditors were willing to accept equity (that means ownership of Joann’s) in exchange for discharging half a billion dollars of debt AND chipping in 100M+ cash is a strong signal that the creditors believe that Joann’s debt burden was the biggest obstacle to it’s solvency. In layman’s terms, it means the creditors (who we know have complete knowledge of the state of the business) feel confident enough that the company is going to get WAY more valuable now that the debt will be halved, that they are collectively betting hundreds of millions of dollars on that outcome.
I’m speculating here - but reading between the lines of their statement I would guess the plan is to dramatically improve the in-store experience in the stores they choose to keep open, win back marketshare by getting back customers lost to HL and Michael’s. They plan to have higher prices than the competition, but justified by having higher-end, higher-quality selection.

—Maybe if my local Joann’s didn’t invest in almost entirely polar fleece they would be doing better.

—Last time I was in there, all they had for fabric was cheap costuming, fleece, and quilting cotton. There was almost not a single bolt of anything I would make decent clothing with. I say almost, because there were a couple bolts of linen. They’ve always been low-end, but they’ve lost their way, completely. If I want clothing made of crap fabric, I can go to a discount store and buy it pre-made.

One can only hope that Joann’s management is listening to what its customers want, which seems to be “less fleece and plastic crap from China and more options for high-quality garment fabric.” Maybe more people would sew their own clothes if they had access to excellent materials. And classes.