Am I smarter than a fifth grader?! Wow you are out of line there. Must need a little self esteem to dig at people you don't know on-line? Feel better now? "Quillfred" was a dog's name before the slang word came out. Aloha? Maybe you need to learn more about that phrase before you use it so freely. Yes, of course I thought of coving it with a bag. but it would hardly deter a thief.

I see covers off and boxes just run over and laying flat on the ground everyday. Nobody seems to care, especially the phone co. If anybody said anything to me I would tell them to take care of it in the first place.

Ok then, so what I saw on that specific joist has a 3rd "top plate" which was cut around it. If they cut it close, then that means the rafter tie may have moved out leaving the open notch. Or they gave themself a lot of play in the cut. If your rafter ties are just in tension, it is not ultimately critical that you are shy of 1 1/2" bearing, but it would be better and code, and it looks like the ones pictured all fall short. Especially if you are storing things or crouching up there on them, you should meet the 1 1/2" bearing. As far as stabilizing them from moving more, you could sister them with full length joists if you choose, but at that point you might as well remove what's there and size new ones for storage. Alternatively, all you really need to do is resist the thrust of a butt end. So you could place a 2x4 flat across 2 house ceiling joists spaces, then another turned on it's side fastened to this, then extended say 32" sistered next to the rafter tie. It all depends on how messy the house ceiling framing is and what is in the same plane as each other. What might instead determine how you fix the framing is how you are going to fire separate the garage for life safety. You need to do it. You either need to put 1/2" drywall and make a garage ceiling, or you need 1/2" drywall on a partition wall in line with the house wall extended above the attic all the way to the undersisde of roof (local AHJ may have stricter Type 'X' addendum). I am guessing that the size of rafter ties (2x6?) are to try and span the garage width, I do not know how they frame into the rafters on the short hip side though. I'd bet that there are no kickers on either long side hip down to these rafter ties either, if so, since these are perpendicular to the house ceiling joists, the long side hip ridge has probably sunk, the side wall has pushed out slightly (3/4" may be imperceptable to your eye), the 2x6's have sagged slightly, and all that together has pulled these rafter ties away from the house wall since they only had 2 toenails in them.

There is one way to secure the birdbath to the circular base, The first part would cut a circle from a piece of metal or similar ridge high strength material The circle should stick out from the bottom of the bird bath at least and inch maybe and inch and a half. Drill holes in the circle great than the diameter of the bird bath bottom Center the circle on the base and using a cement drill drill holes in the base corresponding to the holes in the circle. Place bolts in the holes long enough to go deep into the hole and stick above the circle. Glue the bolts in place, and glue the circle to the bottom of the bird bath. Once every thing has set, set the birth bath on the base with the bolts going through the holes in the circle. Using nuts, bolt the bird bath to the base. It should withstand the wind AND the accidental bump. Yet could be removed from the base in needed. There are ways to remove the adhesive that you used to attach the circle to the bottom of the bird bath. Similar to the system used to attach a utliity light pole to the concrete base.