6FPS V8#6: Welcome to Middle Age

6FPS
Written By Chuq Von Rospach

Welcome to Middle Age

6FPS V8#6: June 8, 2026

E-mail: chuqvr@gmail.com • Site: https://chuq.me

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Welcome to the new issue of 6FPS.

It’s June. The place is incredibly bird this year — I’ve gone and one some extended birding around the place and one day I rang up 31 species, and a week later, 25. Those are incredible numbers. We’ve had the first baby birds arrive — the Juncos, followed by the Purple Finches, Spotted Towhee and American Goldfinches, and Laurie saw an Anna’s Hummingbird being followed around the flowers by a tiny new hummingbird. I also got a note from my neighbor saying they had a baby Pileated Woodpecker in their yard pounding on a tree. So six species confirmed to have successfully bred here and it’s the first week of June. 

it’s been incredibly busy at the feeders, the tube feeder empties in three days, and even crazier, we’re going through 2 suet cakes a week. The suet is a favorite of many birds, but notable, this year we again have those Pileated visiting a couple of times a day, confirming they’re nesting close this year, plus at least two Flickers, and the female Hairy Woodpecker we see every year. The Grosbeaks (at least two pairs), Purple Finches (at least three pairs), Western Tanagers are all paired up and working on it. We assume we also have, or will have, babies from a dozen other species, but it unclear if we’ll see them. 

So yeah, it’s a great year so far. 

Kitsap Audubon

Since it’s June, I’m now officially Vice President and a board member for Kitsap Audubon Society. I attended my first board meeting as an observer, and I’m starting to get integrated into the organization. I am hoping to get added to the Conservation committee, but I still don’t have details on what my responsibilities will be. 

I also helped out on my first group outing, which was at Point No Point, and we had 40-50 folks show up for a two hour walk around. A good time was had by all (and a fairly rare Rock Wren was found; I missed it but I plan to go back and chase it soon). I used the time to see how a sit would work there, and I hope to set that up so I lead on three times a year, in Fall, Winter and Spring — a sit is where you choose a place and see how many species can be found from that specific location, and it’s a great way to engage people who are walking limited (like me) and can be a more casual, conversation friendly outing, I’ll be trying to figure out the logistics of setting this up soon for probably late September (with the others being probably February and May), to hit peak bird seasons there. 

Cats and Birds

It’s been a month for the cats and birds. Tatiana went off to spend a few days with her new boarding place, and it went extremely well; they have been showing her off on their social media walking on their counter, sitting on their shoulders and generally being just and princess-y. I think we’ll send her off to camp a couple of times a year, so she becomes used to it, and that’d also give us a chance to deep clean her cage more easily.

The one issue I had was that the latch on her travel cage broke in transit, and when I took it apart I realized it was very poorly made, and a piece of metal cracked from the bouncing in transit. I was able to MacGyver a fix and that worked fine while boarding, but when I got the cage back home I had to make a more permanent fix — that was both secure and sneaky cockatoo proof. Fortunately, that wasn’t too hard, so the cage is ready for the next summer camp. 

The cats also went for their annual exam, and for the first time — my god, they’re nine! == need dental work. That, fortunately, went off without a hitch, although both cats blame me (I did the transport to the vet) and have made it clear I’m no friend of theirs for now. But in a week or so, they’ll feel a lot better. 

Summer Vacation

With the boarding situation sorted out, Laurie and I have started talking about a summer/fall vacation (probably right after Labor Day). Various ideas are on the table, but right now, leading candidate is a drive down to Morro Bay for a few days, a stop back in Silicon Valley to see folks we haven’t since we moved, and then up the coast with stops in (probably) Bandon and Astoria on the way home. 

Still very preliminary, but as we make decisions I’ll share them and if you want to try to schedule coffee with us, drop me a line. 

The first project

My first workshop project is done and mounted on the wall. 


I’m happy with how it turned out; not perfect but it looks and works the way I wanted. The metal work is something I found from a shop on Etsy, and it’s heavy and very well built. Getting it attached to the wall worked just as I wanted it to, which was nice — one screw into a stud and four 75 pound anchors, and it’s not going anywhere. All of that is covered by the metal hooks, so it’s a very nice and clean look. 

I’ve got two other projects ready to get started, but it’s been busy enough I haven’t kicked them off yet. 

Designed in California

Jason Snell and Myke Hurley are the co-hosts of the Upgrade podcast, a weekly look at technology and society with a special focus on Apple products and ecosystem. A couple of years ago, Jason did a wonderful podcast series on the 20 most notable Macintoshes. 

The 50th anniversary of Apple’s founding got Jason thinking, and out of that is a new Kickstarter: Designed in California. This will be for a new podcast series that dives into and explores the history of Apple computer: think of it as a blendering of David Pogue’s Apple at 50book (plus many many other Apple Books as well) and the history podcast The Rest is History. 

As a bit of disclosure, I’ve known Jason casually for a long time — I think we first met at a Macintosh Web Development conference in Austin back in the 1990’s, and today, he and the Upgrade podcast are the things I follow to understand what’s going on with Apple (so that I don’t have to go diving into all of the other Apple new/opinion people out there myself; I trust Jason to surface what matters into my sight). 

So for me, this podcast was an insta-back, and as I write this, it’s not only fully funded but is past the 3X funding mark — but I want to encourage everyone who’s interested in this kind to thing to consider backing it as well, and look forward to when the series starts later this year. 

And if you can’t wait, Jason is posting a few sample episodes onto the Upgrade feed and making them available now, so you can hear exactly what this podcast is going to be and how they’re going to present it. I haven’t been this interested in a new podcast in a good long while, and I know Jason and Myke will do a great job with this. 

Raccoon Update

Likely the final update on the Raccoon problem I’ve been fighting for the last few months. Shifting to the pepper infused seed did solve the problem — we’ve gone from seven raccoons begging to one or two raccoons being seen around the property once or twice a week, and they have more or less given up on the ground feeder. 

That said, I’ve decided I’ll need to continue using the pepper infused seed for the ground feeder indefinitely or the problem will just start up again down the road. I’ve been buying the pepper seed off Amazon (it’s by Coles) but I’d really rather buy it locally if I can. the local bird shops carry a version, but it’s twice as expensive as the same speed un-peppered. What I ended up doing was picking up pepper oil (also from Coles, the same that they use to pepper their seeds) and seeing how easy/hard it is to pepper my one. 

Short answer: pretty easy but you have to be careful. The oil is a mixture of Habanero juice and sunflower oil, so you need to do the mixing with care, and with utensils (I use a wooden spoon) you don’t later use in some other way. If you get sloppy or get it on your hands, even if you wash your hands it’s likely some residue will stay and when you tough your face or eyes, it can get pretty interesting (ask me how I know). 

But with a bit of care, it’s not hard, it doesn’t take a lot of time, and I can make up 5-10 pounds in 15 minutes once or twice a month for a lot less money than buying either the local or the Amazon version of the pre-peppered stuff, and it works. So that’s my long term plan now. 

Although while it’s stopped the Raccoons, it hasn’t completely stopped the squirrels — we have a couple that have decided, by god, they’re eating the stuff anyway. But they take little enough I’m not really going to sweat that. It is amusing in a way because it’s clear they do react to the peppering, but they’re just going to power through and eat anyway. 

And if they want it that badly, well, more power to you, guys. 

My Favorite Thing (this month)

I’m starting a new recurring thing here, borrowed heavily from the Shoptalk Live Broadcast where every episode everyone talks about their favorite tool of all time (right now). 

This month is a fun and weird one: it’s a heated eye mask. When I got the new prescription for my glasses, I talked to the optometrist about how I was having dry eye issues when I spent extended times at the y: especially the iPad tends to make them gritty and gunky and eye drops only help so much. 

This was her recommendation and she said up front she knew it sounded weird, but as she explained to me, it’s the oils coating the eye that dry out because you aren’t blinking as often while staring at the screens. What this does is add heat which loosens up the oils and helps them re-hydrate. 

And you know what? It works. Even using it as little as 2-3 minutes makes a big improvement. I keep it near my chair here, and will pre-warm it and then pop it on for a few minutes here and there, and it’s really made things better. 

Seems weird; definitely looks weird, but it works.

See you next issue!

What’s New From Chuq

  • Nothing this month


Welcome to Middle Age

With the irrigation stuff figured out, I got in touch with the owner of the landscaping firm to schedule the planting I wanted to get done. It turned out he was way behind on his schedule, because what he thought was a tweaked hamstring turned into a slipped disk, and it laid him up for a bit while he got it under control. 

Give that I spent much of May arguing with various body parts, when he did come by to get the details, we chatted about what he was going through — he’s doing a lot better, and now had stretches he’s doing at least daily but it’s the kind of thing that’s going to need ongoing management. He said it’s the first time in a long time he’s been laid up by anything other than a virus, so it’s kind of new to him.

He’s the single owner of a small shop, so when he can’t work, things don’t happen. His small team could continue the simple maintenance, but the projects requiring an excavator or a bobcat are things he has to do personally, and he ended up a few weeks behind, and when I saw him, he was on what he called is apology tour. 

My comment to him was “welcome to middle age” because all of us hit that point in life where the body isn’t quite as sturdy or low maintenance as it used to be. He’s not (like I have been) neglectful of his body; he’s not overweight and is in good shape (if you build gardens for a living, you kind of need to be) but still, time catches up. 

My advice to him was to do what he could to keep ahead of the back, since if he lets it go, it’ll likely come back and worse next time. 

And for all of you, my thought this month is that you really need to be aware that time will catch up for you. I didn’t do a good job of maintaining my body for many years — and now I’m paying for it. In a way, the body is like a credit card; if you only pay minimums and ring up higher balances, at some point that’s all going to catch up with you and you’re going to regret the interest rates you’ll pay trying to pay it off. 

You need to invest in your body the way you should invest in your future retirement: it may seem a long way off, but if you don’t, your older version of you is going to wish for a Time Machine to use to come back in time and bitch slap some common sense into you. 

Oh, and he and his team came out on Memorial Day Saturday and spent six and a half hours doing the spring cleanup and the planting we wanted done (including replacing two trees that died in the orchard due to poor watering, the dead rhodies from a different irrigation failure, and a few other plants). I’m really happy with the results, and with that, I’m almost done with the planned improvements to the property. Other than ongoing maintenance, I think I’m mostly done (for now) — the last project on the plate will happen this fall, when we plan to plant another 400-500 daffodils and tulips in a few places here. 

And with sneaking my job in before Memorial Day, he pretty much caught up on his project backlog and is back on schedule.

Recent Photography

As I create new images and re-process older ones, I post them on my site in the Recent Work area. 

I got out to the Gray’s Harbor area for two days to bird and maybe photography. There weren’t a lot of great photo opportunities, but I did find a lifer bird for me, a Glaucous Gull, in Ocean Shores. Seen here in a gull mosh pit because the people in the truck behind it were feeding them,


For Your Consideration

Birds and Birding

Photography

Science and Technology

Interesting Stuff

Free Wallpapers just for Subscribers

New Wallpapers (January, 2026). A new set of 12 wallpapers are now available. 

You can download this new set from the 6FPS Secret Wallpaper. The previous set of wallpapers are now with the full public set at Public Wallpaper page.

These are available only to you, my favorite people who happen to be subscribers to 6FPS. The previous set of images I released here are now available to the general public.

Download an E-book

I have eight e-books available. All are free for you to download and read with no obligation. You can download them from my e-book page on the web site. 

These are the books that are available:

  • Birding 101: Hints and Tips for the New Birder

  • Merced National Wildlife Refuge

  • And the Geese Exploded: A Life With Birds

  • Birds of Santa Clara County

  • 2021.1: A Year of Transitions

  • 2020.1: Images from the year when Covid changed everything

  • 2019 (1)

  • 2019 (2)

About 6FPS

6FPS (Six Frames Per Second) is a newsletter of interesting things and commentary from Chuq Von Rospach (chuqvr@gmail.com). 6FPS is Copyright © 2025 by Chuq Von Rospach. All Rights Reserved.

Coming out monthly on the 2nd Monday of the month, I will place in your inbox a few things I hope will inform and delight you. There is too much mediocre, forgettable stuff attacking your eyeballs every day you're online; this is my little way to help you cut through the noise to some interesting things you might otherwise not find. 

And with that, I'll see you in the next issue. I'd love feedback on this, what you like, what you want more of, what you want less of. And if you have something interesting you think I might want to talk about, please pass it along. Until then, take care, and have fun. 

Where to Find Chuq

Chuq Von Rospach

Birder, Nature and Wildlife Photography in Silicon Valley

http://www.chuq.me
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Ocean Shores/Hoquiam, Washington