Pictures of a chickadee that I thought was a woodpecker because it was pecking at the wood siding on the house

This small woodpecker has been pecking directly on our house.  Initially I thought it was the same as this other one that we see near the house, but after looking at the pictures they are quite different.

Pictures of a nuthatch?

This small bird has been hanging out near our house.

Might be a nuthatch, or a northern downy woodpecker.

Thinking about carbon detonation in white dwarf stars (Type IA supernova)

I was reading about white dwarf stars because I've been very interested in neutron stars and I was wondering about something slightly less dense but really still incredibly dense.  While I was reading about that I learned about "Carbon Detonation" in which enough matter falls into a white dwarf star that it causes a runaway fusion reaction and explosion, which we've observed / classified astronomically as type IA supernova.  Here's some thoughts I've had about carbon detonation.

homebrewing hard cider

I'm attempting to home brew a hard cider, starting with the simplest possible recipe. 
Ingredients:

Installing a sparkling* drain near our house

I installed a sparkling drain* near our house, here is a time-lapse video, description below the fold:

* you may be more familiar with the name French drain, however, that is only correct if it is made in France

Installing pavers at the end of the driveway

I always wanted to do a project with paving stones - I've always been inspired by ancient stonework, especially reading about ancient roman roads - so I decided to put a band of pavers down along the end of our driveway.

Cutting down a dead pine tree

I cut down a dead pine tree, took some live and time-lapse videos of it.