Bogieblog

November Pictures

On 11/20/2022, the Thanksgiving cactus was blooming. I found it strange, but pretty, that it decided to throw some white flowers instead of the usual salmon color I am used to

On the 29th of November, I had my bi-annual eye tests. I'm not sure how to read the pictures, but the doctor could see floaters, cataracts, keratoconus, "wrinkle" (in right eye from retinal tears), and blood vessel health (which we are watching for glaucoma). I didn't see the results from the visual field test, but she said they were holding steady compared to 6 months ago. Which for me means there is no evidence of macular degeneration or additional impairment from the 4 cataracts.

From the solar array monitoring app, this is the performance for the month of November.  It is plain to see which days were very cloudy (the blue lines show production). Two things to keep in mind: the energy independence is only for the time that it was producing (roughly half the month) and that I was away for 5 of those days so my energy use itself was lower than normal.

And some pictures that the pet-sitter sent after each visit

No pics of Rainey. Not surprised, and I had told the pet sitter she would not see Rainey at all - I would have been shocked if she had.

Pictures from 11/05/2022

Last Saturday was nice and I did some outside work. One of those jobs was to touch up caulk on the back side of the house. I bought the brown caulk several months ago, and just got around to doing the job. I didn't necessarily think the brown would be the "right" brown to match the siding, but I was not expecting this.

So now there is a bunch of plum colored stripes in various places back there [shaking head]

I went out to water the pot of mums in the roadside garden and noticed a couple of things: 1st, that the Japanese maple had dumped all its leaves overnight (literally). Second, the Coppertina Ninebark, although mostly leafless, had a bit of color hanging on.

 

The colder mornings have the squirrels building winter nests. The first is in the northeast corner and the second is on the east side. I'm surprised there aren't more as there are 4, sometimes 5, squirrels that are regularly in my yard.

Spot and Rainey (L to R) were exhausted from watching birds, squirrels and bugs

And, if you look really close, you can see a faint reflection of Rita sitting in the window - an ear is to either side of the post of the cat tree and her back is behind the dangly ball.

Kitties on Cat Trees

The cats have enjoyed the cat towers immensely, including the refurbished one that I finished the last Friday of November. First the finished product of the refurbish project. The cats love the sisal that I installed. It is of a thicker cord than that on the new cat tree, and they prefer the thicker type. Well, except Rita, she uses the wood chair that I have kept over the years just because that is what she uses.

So, now on to the cuteness:

 

New Cat Tree

The old cat tree was looking really sad and beat up. Understandable since I got it from the side of the road (obviously well used) back in 2014. I replaced the sisal but otherwise the rest was original. It has seen use from 5 cats (Tory and Fuzzy and now Rita, Spot and Rainey). I've been looking for a new cat tree for the last couple of months. I wanted a larger one, but didn't like the prices for those that seemed solid and not cheaply made. A couple of weeks ago Am*zon had some cat trees on sale, plus I had a lot of cash back from my cc to use, and finally decided to buy.

It arrived on Monday and after I logged off of work for the day I tackled the job. The box of parts was packed to the max. It was hard to believe that a cat tree that reaches my eye level was all in there.

This was both funny and frustrating. Every single part was labeled very well and basically in the order of use. The bag of hardware, on the other hand, was just a jumble of parts that I had to separate out and keep track of which screw was which.

Spt (in the cube) and Rainey checking it out right after the above picture was taken.

Rita being casual about checking it out a bit later. If you look really close, on the left, you can see Spot is still in the cube and eyeballing Rita.

Rita in the lower cave a couple of days later.

I will be stripping down the old cat tree and recovering it. I've already started but will put that in another post when I get it done.

One Smart Kitty

Spot is way too smart for my good. All summer she has been stymied from laying in the garden window in the bathroom by the double-cellular shade I installed. The shade is pretty stiff, so can't just be pushed aside and is the cordless lift type. I pull the shade in the morning to reduce solar heat gain but she really liked that window to lay in the sun.

On cooler / cloudy days I indulge her by lifting the shade about 1/3 of the way up to allow access. That leaves plenty of room for her to jump/walk in. The last several time I noticed her watching me intensely as I did so. Tuesday I saw her in the window and didn't remember pulling up the shade. But I figured I must have. Wednesday, I found her in there and KNEW I hadn't indulged her since there was just enough room for her to crawl under the shade.

Yesterday afternoon I was was changing out the trashcan liner in the bathroom, and Spot was sitting on the toilet (I leave the lid down), and she was looking intently at the shade. So I stood and watched. She pushed with a paw several times until the shade swung enough toward her to clear the window ledge (this is not easy, not like a regular shade, this one wants to stay in place). Then she stuck her nose under it and lifted gently and she kept nudging it until she had just enough room to get her body thru. The whole episode took a minute or maybe a minute and a half. Then she gave me a proud-as-punch look before crawling onto the ledge.

The little chit - so smart. But, she was so gentle with the shade, not using her claws or batting at it hard, so can't be mad. Plus, she left a minimal slot (not nearly as much room as I would have given her). Hopefully her sister doesn't catch her performing this trick. Rainey isn't one to think up antics, bu she sure as heck is happy to learn how after seeing Spot do it a few times.

 

Investigating the "box"

So the two youngsters are easy to get into a carrier to go to the vet. After all it's a box. Funny because they were both in that box a couple of weeks ago to go get their shots so you would think they would avoid it. Unfortunately Rita is not the same and she's the one I needed Friday. The two had fun exchanging places for a couple of hours until it was time to evict and grab the one I wanted.

Rainey

Spot waiting for her turn

Spot seeing if her sister is coming back for a sneak attack

Spot

Rita has a few issues; abscessed teeth (they have never been good and she only has a few teeth on one side), and she has been urinating outside the box (which was why I took her to the vet). The vet felt a mass in her abdomen and confirmed with an ultrasound.  She has been put on an antibiotic for the teeth and prednisone to help her gain weight. "Masses", according to the vet, are rarely benign in cats (unlike dogs who get fatty / benign tumors all the time). She may be with me for quite some time, or just a few months. We'll take it as it comes. Right now her quality of life is good, so that is what I will go by.

Kitties on a Hot Summer's Day

A few pics from a couple of days ago.

Rainey baked her brains in the window for a while, then came out to cool off in the air stream of the AC

Not too much later, Rainey vacated that place and Spot decided to sleep on the hammock in the cat pen

Meanwhile Rita was in one of here favorite places, a low table next to the couch. BTW - yesterday was her 6th Gottcha Day. I rescued her in 2016 when she was approximately 7 years old

Warm Spot

I've been running the mini splits for main floor heat when the outside temps are conducive (which can mean anything including how windy it is or how cold I "feel"). Friday was one of those days. The basement pellet stove must not have run for a while so Spot found a new warm place to hang out for a while.

 

Household Critters

Random pics of the critters I've taken over the last week

I scrubbed Birdie and Ziva's cages last weekend. Unfortunately I only remembered to take a picture of Birdie. They love to take a shower while I'm cleaning the wire part of the cages

Rainey checking out the garden gnome eating cat that I brought in from the garden this week. It was sitting on top of the cat pen drying out from the frost

Spot in the basement ceiling. She can get to the wood in the overhead bin by jumping on the clothes washer first. Sorry the pics are fuzzy, it is fairly dark and she kept moving.

Oh, and this egg was overly eager to become scrambled for my breakfast. The cats are not interested in eggs, so it was a total waste and pain to clean up.

Won't Take Long to Pay for Itself

I've complained about needing to replace at least one fence panel for years. It has been beset from several directions:

• First, a good sized section of a huze-azz willow dropped on it in 2017.
• Then a bear took it down to get to the bird feeder last fall
• I assume the same bear took it down this spring (I didn't even bother posting about it - heck I don't even see that I took any pictures)

Each time it was taken down I straightened it the best I could. I started looking for fence panels from local stores last September (the first bear transgression). Single panels were not to be found and I was unwilling to buy an entire kennel plus delivery charges. I did find a company to build me a center support pipe - and that was j-u-s-t enough to keep it from collapsing over the winter (that and the dearth of snow storms so the roof didn't dump much). But with the last attack, there was no way that panel was going to stay up, and it would probably take down the gate with it.

So, now that I have a trailer, I have been looking hard to replace the fence panel. Of course I needed a 10' long x 6' tall panel to fit in the existing spot. Agway no longer even had kennels, nor could they get any. A guy in Concord wants $200/panel. Considering I could get a 10x10x6 kennel (4 panels) for $425 at the local Tractor Supply (they had two in stock), I declined.  I wanted to get an extra panel for back up, but if I was going to spend that much, I might as well go for the whole enchilada.

I never realized how many different sizes of fencing there are until I searched CL and FBM - rarely were they the size I was looking for. I found several 8'x6' and 12'x6' panels along with a whole bunch that were shorter than 6' tall. Then there was a guy selling 2 panels of the right size at $123/each. I contacted him but he was unwilling to wait until the weekend for me to pick them up (I don't blame him, he had willing buyers. I was an hour away and unwilling to drive in the dark trying to find a place I've never been to, towing a trailer that I suck at backing up). I was seriously going to just get a kennel from TSC. Then on Wednesday, I saw an almost brand new 10x10x6 kennel on FBM for $300. I contacted the seller and said I could pick it up any time this weekend. And joy - the seller agreed to hold it!

After looking at the weather forecast, I arranged to pick it up today. The rain stopped just before I left this morning, the guy helped me load it up (thank goodness for the stake sides since the trailer is only 8' long). When I got home I unloaded the panels and used the 4-wheel wagon to haul the single panel to where it was needed. I asked the neighbor lady to help me by stabilizing the old panel while I removed the bolts/brackets. Then put the new panel up.

Here is the sad sack panel I replaced

And the new panel in its place

The reason I decided to pick up the fence today instead of yesterday.

And yay for having not only extra panels if needed, the gate panel next to the replaced panel has been tweaked/twisted each time the other panel was take out. Although it seems to be okay for now, you never know.

So having the trailer not only saved me $125 off the list price of the kennel, it saved whatever the delivery cost (which I'm not even sure that the local TSC delivers). And hey, now I can let Rita out if we have any nice days - poor kitty has been cooped in the house for over a year.