365 of 2021, days 19-25

I'm breaking up my next photo dump.  We're actually on day 35 at the time of this post, but I'm not doing that many in one post - just too much. 

I've also found I've forgotten a day here and there, not even a photo with my phone. I filled them in with photos taken on other days. 

 (Cell phone shots are marked with an asterisk.)

1/19/2021

Sunrise out of my front window. 

1/20/2021*

Carus picked charcuterie boards for dinner this night as there were some meats and cheeses at work she's been wanting to try (she's been working in a local grocery's store deli). 

We have black forest ham, pastrami, black pepper turkey breast, salami and pepperoni for meats.  Cheeses are cheddar, fontina, smoke gouda, havarti and manchego.  Spicy mustard and laughing cow cheese for spreadables. Crackers are Ritz and Safeway brad garlic parmesan pita crackers. 

1/21/2021

One of my little shrimp - Blueberry. 

(And one of my ghost catfish.)

1/22/2021

I believe this was late afternoon - I love my front picture window.  The view is always great. Sunrises, sunsets, fog off in the hills or rolling in, snow...and the fall colors.  It's all lovely.

1/23/2021

One of the barn cats - Eddie. 

1/24/2021*

Miss Caly.

Chester's stall neighbor. Way back before Chester we leased Caly for a few months. She wasn't a perfect fit for Carus but we still love her and we've been lucky to still love on her. She's a sweetheart. 

We were taking care of her for 10 days while her family was quarantined after having to get tested for Covid.  They tested negative thankfully - they just had a cold. 

1/25/2021

Early sunset with lovely clouds - out my front window again. 

It will probably make several appearances throughout the year.

RIP Wilbur

We said good-bye to Wilbur today. We knew with Timmy going that Wilbur probably wouldn't be too far behind. What Timmy had was very contagious (so yeah, Simba has it too...sigh) and Wilbur was already slowing down on his eating and drinking so we knew. Doesn't make it easier... just makes it less surprising.

We tried to make the call at the right time, and I think we did.  We made *the* appointment the day after he stopped eating. I spent his last day force feeding soggy canned cat food down his throat. You know it's bad when you can force feed a cat and not get scratched.

The kids and I said our good-byes and Robert took him in by himself as I had to work.

Wilbur was a little slow and always skitsy.  The first 2 years we barely saw him as he hid in the closet all day and would only come out at night to play chase with Timmy. After a few months he would also borrow deep under the covers - but don't move your feet or he'd get them. Once he got out and it took us three days and a borrowed live animal trap to get him back, and Timmy's supervision of course.

We put a ledge on the window sill for him in our house in Aloha because he kept trying to sit on the sill and would fall off every time he started to doze.

He LOVED that ledge and we finally got to know our cat. He TALKED so much. We would all have conversations with him - meow? meow. ME-OW?! Mow.  And he would chirp to birdies outside.

After we moved out here, he hid under the bed for about a week and then he came out of his shell so to speak. He was often in the living room laying on the back of the couch or curled up in one of the kids beds - which was new. Visitors very rarely saw him as he'd stay hidden when they were around, but he really opened up and became less shy.

He loved fresh water and was really insistent when asking for the faucet in the bathroom to be turned on for him.

His only gross cat thing was he always had hairballs and would find the best place to leave it for you to step on. I think he bathed himself and Timmy and that's why he had so much hairballs. But his purrs were the loudest, his meows sounded like actual conversations, and his sweet slightly cross-eyed face was the best.  He came as a package deal when we adopted Timmy, probably cause they knew shy kitties have a hard time being placed.  I'm so glad he did.

Clever Title

Hmm, how to start this post?  I mean, I used all my creativity up on the title already, what is left for the rest of this? 

Things are going.... well, they're going somewhere. Half the time I feel like I'm doing okay and the other half of the time I feel like I'm struggling to breathe. I keep forgetting my doctor gave me a prescription for anxiety meds and I have a full blown anxiety attack before I remember.  

I joined a group on Facebook that is dedicated to cleaning tips and tricks on a recommendation from a friend after asking about front load washers and dryers.  It's a large group so you can get a lot of input on types and brands of W&D (as well as vacuums, detergents, soaps, etc). After a few weeks in that group though, a few things:

1) Some of those ladies are CRAAAAY-ZAYY about keeping their house clean; to the point where they have an actual breakdown because hubby didn't rinse his plate before putting it in the sink. 

2) For about a week I felt really guilty about my house, but then I realized: it's not that bad overall and it could be worse and I'd rather be doing all the other stuff I do do and things I never find time for than obsessing over it. 

3) The insistence that husbands are unable to clean up after themselves and are therefore referred to as another child is epidemic and sad. Expect them to be an adult and help out and they will. Also, stop referring to grown ass men as children. Yes, they can be as much of a pain in the ass as kids; however, they are still not kids and are capable of a lot more than they are sometimes given credit for. It also seems that a lot of them know the trick of doing a half-assed job the first time asked so they won't ever be asked to do it again.  Also, if they do something differently than you, but the end result is the same - suck it up buttercup, it's not how it gets done just that it gets done.

4) I still don't know what washer and dryer I want. Front load or top load? If I go with top load - with or without an agitator? What brand is good? WHY IN THE HELL DO THE COOL ONES HAVE TO COST SO MUCH?!

Adam will be turning 18 this year. (I know, right?!!?!?) Every now and then Robert and I remember this, or realize that he will (theoretically) graduate next year (he's on track to graduate but shit happens and I'm not trying to jinx anything) and we will be floored for a few seconds while contemplating the HOLY SHIT-ness of it all. 

Like now. I just realized what I typed out and had to focus on breathing for a second. 

My boss was even floored the other day when I said something about his 18th birthday this year. I've been working at Providence for 10 years this August so yeah - time flies when you're not looking. 

Anyways - he turns 18 and I realized that he can 1-can vote for the first time this year, 2-vote in the primaries which for Oregon take place in April, and 3-will get to vote for president for the first time. I made him register to vote but won't force him to vote. He doesn't know who he'd like to vote for beyond, "NOT Trump!" I'm right there with him. 

Carus has started working - sort of.  She is working off some of Scout's boarding fees by working at the barn 3 days a week.  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday she is to feed dinner to all horses (11 horses and 1 mini horse), check and fill waters in all pastures and stalls, and clean 5 stalls in addition to Scout's. I'm helping too because I can't just sit around waiting for her to be done while twiddling my thumbs.  She is very excited about it.

Adam tagged along for Donkey lessons this week too.  He became friends with Tess, which wasn't too hard as he had a scratcher and some grain. Carus is still making friends with Bailey who is making Carus work for her friendship, though they did graduate to donkey driving which was semi-successful.  Adam might have some interest in driving donkeys too. He's being a bit shy about whether or not he wants to learn how. 

(There is no sound to the above video - the rain hitting the barn roof was too loud so I muted it.) (Stupid Oregon is still raining. LOTS)

Chewie is still a puppy and all the puppy work that comes with it, but he is starting to understand potty training and he can sit on command.  Most of the time he will also stop chewing on something he isn't supposed to be chewing on when I say leave it. Most of the time. He doesn't like me reprimanding him either. He got his first shots today - 13 lbs 8 oz. He is growing quickly.

In this video he was trying to convince Wilbur to come down and play. Wilbur has no interest. He doesn't poof up or hiss or swipe at Chewie, but he will walk away when he's done with the puppy barking and bouncing and trying to bite his tail. Simba, on the other hand, flat out Cats at Chewie, though he Cats at Leia too. He might consider Yoda a cat as he just ignores him. 

Timmy

We lost Timmy today.



He became really lethargic yesterday and we took him to the vet.  He was dehydrated and had a very high fever. They gave him some antibiotics and some fluids and then we brought him home and I nursed him through the night. Though I got his fever to break, he was still very weak this morning and his blood work showed he wouldn't get better...no matter how much I nursed him.

Even though he was so sick, he still tried to cuddle us in his usual manner - rubbing his face against ours and pressing his head into our shoulders while we gave him all our loves one more time.

We got Timmy, with Wilbur, from the Oregon Humane Society about 12 years ago. They were just under a year old so we estimate them to be around 13 years give or take a few months.  (Same age/close in age though different litters.)




(Slideshow of Timmy photos)

We miss sweet baby Tim Tim kitty meow meow. We keep looking for him and wanting to see him. I opened the door for the dogs earlier to let them out and when I went to close it I looked to see if Timmy had sneaked out. And then I remembered.

When I went to feed the animals dinner I expected Timmy to come running to make sure he got to eat first. He always insisted that if he could see the bottom of the bowl, even just a little bit, it was completely empty and he was moments from starving. If you put food in the dog's bowls first, he would take a bite of the dog food while giving you a look that said, "look what you have reduced me to."

We expected Timmy to outlast Wilbur and Simba and Yoda, not be the first one we lost.  He was the leader. He watched out for them, even Simba, who he didn't really seem to like.  He would come and get us when Simba or the dogs wanted in and once he even alerted us that Wilbur had got out. Wilbur was very skittish at that time and it took us three days and a borrowed animal trap to get him back - Timmy let us know each time Wilbur came near the door and when the trap succeeded in catching him.

Timmy greeted everyone new that came to the house demanding their attention and made many visitors want to take him home.

You could call Timmy and he would come running, especially if you called, "Timmy buggies" and showed him a mosquito eater. He loved to catch and eat those buggies.

Timmy curled up with the kids when they were sick, purring their germs away. He curled up with us too. He insisted on sleeping between Robert and I every night. If we were cuddling watching a movie, he pushed himself between us. Robert was his special person and that was where he belonged.

If you got a bowl out of the cupboard, Timmy thought you were getting cereal and needed to share your milk with him. He would meow his mostly silent meow and bat at you until you gave in and gave him some "Timmy milks" (which we did occasionally) or finished your cereal and put up the bowl.

Timmy also liked to try to take Cheetos or cheese flavored popcorn out of our hands. Once he was very persistent in trying to get some cheesy popcorn that he was trying to bat at our mouths.

Timmy would bat at us demanding attention.  We would pick him up and he would rub his head into our shoulder and his face against our ear, often scratching us just a little bit with that one tooth that stuck out.

We love you Timmy. You were the best Ittie Bittie Timmy Kitty and we will miss you lots.

Project 52 - Week 10 - Look up

This theme worked well with spring and all the trees blooming.  

Looking up from ground level or...

...from standing.

A blooming tree at the barn.  All the trees around here are blooming.  It's officially spring.  

After I finished photographing the blossoms I switched to the barn cats.

Kitty photo bomb.

Muffin

Rascal

Rascal and Buddy.

And then it was time to photograph Carus and Scout.  She's working on a few things in preparation of their first show at the end of this month.  

Looking up at Carus while trying to keep Scout from licking my camera.

It makes him look really tall, huh?

Muffin again.

Week 11's theme is Letters

Project 52 - week 5 - Hidden

Things have gotten a bit crazy lately - as they are wont to do from time to time - and I'm behind! Let's see, week 5 was January 30th through February 5th and the theme was hidden.

I had grand plans for all sorts of inspired photography with this theme and then it came to the end of the week and I hadn't been able to find inspiration anywhere so I grabbed a few shots and moved on. I can always revisit it later. 

Carus likes to hide Scout's cookies in his grain bowl under hay so he has to search for it.  

At the end of the evening at the barn, the kitties are usually hidden in cozy places for naps and Carus likes to climb to the top of the hay bales to search them out.  Rascal is usually the one she finds and he'll play for a bit before crawling in her lap for purrs and cuddles.  When it's time to go I have to convince her to come down. Threats to leave her behind are met with an enthusiastic OK. 

Trees hidden in shadow with light pollution illuminating them from behind. 

All posts for the project so far:  Project 52 in 2015

Next theme:  Tiny

Project 52 - Week 3 - Macro

I ended up getting a bunch of eye photos for my macro week.  I didn't branch out much. Because I still want to mess with macro photos and because I don't want to do self portraits this week - I'm doing another week of macro photos.  This time with an emphasis on anything BUT eyes.

My eye. 

Adam's eye.

Carus's eye. Do you see those little crater looking things in her eye.  I don't have them, nor does Adam, but Robert does.  And yeah, I got a photo of Robert's eye but it was a smidge blurry and he didn't want to keep holding still for me. 

One of my succulents.  Very glad to see it's making it through the weekend okay. 

Moss on the paver wall in the backyard. 

Dead leaf lying on the ground.

Leia's eye. (Yoda's wasn't that great. See, told you I went eye crazy with this.)

Timmy's eye.  And again - Simba and Wilbur wouldn't hold still long enough for me to get a photo.  

This next week's theme is Macros part 2.

Project 52 - Week 1 - Shadows

The week project started out slowly.  

I wasn't able to get any inspiration for a few days and I worried I would never find inspiration and I would fail my new little project in the first week.  I daydreamed of amazing shadows of summer when it isn't cloudy and dreary outside.  

I had a TTFP shoot last Sunday and quiet hospital corridors always stop me in my tracks. I find them so peaceful - especially a maternity ward.  The shadows in the peaceful hallways broke through my uninspiring fog and I started seeing the shadows everywhere.

I see these shadows from the tree on the back fence from the window by my desk and they lured me outside where it was cold, but sunny.  

Not just any old shadows, shadows that evoke something in me.  Feelings of peace, excitement, and amusement.  

My garden fence casting shadows.  I walked the garden.  I was so frustrated with it at the end of season last year because of the insane, cannot get under control, weeds.  I was worried I wouldn't want to touch it this year, but now that all the weeds are dead I want to go spruce it up and have already started planning my plant layout. I should get out there and clean it up and maybe try to add some yard fabric in the aisle-ways so the grass and weeds don't take over again.

Of course the dogs followed me outside.  

If someone is outside then there is someone to throw a ball for Leia! 

Another sunny day and it was cold outside so I didn't last long before taking my break in front of our large living room window.  The cats always join me here for sun bathing.

Timmy was trying to see what Carus was tapping on the table with, and when reviewing the photos on my camera's LCD I just knew I had to make a peek-a-boo gif.

Peek-a-boo

Next week's theme is Mirror.

The Great Mouse Saga, Part 3 -- The End of the Story (Hopefully)

Read Part 1 and Part 2.

We ended last time with The Great Mouse chase through the house and thought we might be lucky enough to have only been dealing with the one mouse.  We still couldn't figure out how he got in the house, but we had some ideas.  Maybe Simba brought him in and he got away and went into the heater vent to escape.  That would explain the scratching and the poo in one of those vents.  And he came up from the vent under my desk because the heater was on that morning and it got too hot for him.

Yeah.  That's it.  It's a theory and if you have one better, let's hear it.

There were no more mice as there were no more evidence of mice.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

A few days later there was scratching and squeaking coming from the corner of the office/craft room and Leia was loosing her shit over it.  I thought another mouse got into the house and this time got himself behind all the totes full of fabric I have in the corner.  So I moved them all out. All 6 of them - most of which are a bit heavy.  I grabbed a flashlight to look behind the craft shelves and was able to finally determine that the squeaking and scratching was coming from inside the wall.  

Inside.The.Fucking.Wall.

HOW DID IT GET IN THE WALL?!?!

Have you met my dog chicken, Leia?  That dog freaks out over crumbled paper and electrical cords - can you imagine her reaction to the scratching and squeaking in the wall?! Great. Now, take what you are imagining and multiple it by at least two more levels of her freaking the frick out. 

She would slowly stalk up to the wall, low growling with her hackles raised and tensed for immediate flight if The Noise fought back when an extra loud scratch or squeak would come and she'd bark like mad while running to hide behind me with her tail between her legs.

The poor, poor silly thing. 

Those squeaks were LOUD! Like maybe the mouse was stuck or hurt, or drunk and calling all his friends over for a party. I don't know.  All I know is I couldn't get the dog to stop barking at the wall and the Goddamn cats were nowhere to be found.  Lazy Bastards.

I eventually found Timmy and woke his majesty from his slumber to put him on guard patrol just in case I was wrong and the mouse was in the house.  He sniffed at the wall and batted at it a few times so I took that as confirmation of the mouse in the wall.

On the other side of the "mouse wall" is the kitchen and the dishwasher.  Robert pulled the dishwasher out in case the mouse was behind that instead of in the wall.  It wasn't. Good news, aside from a rather small amount of dust and dog hair considering what I was expecting to be behind the dishwasher, it was relatively clean back there and I vacuumed what was there out so...positive.

Deciding there was no more procrastination to be had, Robert finally went under the house. He didn't want to (and I don't blame him) and was avoiding it.  He didn't see the mouse, nor mouse poos under the house and the squeaking soon stopped.  Maybe the mouse got unstuck or moved on or died in the wall.  We don't have a stink coming in so I'm going with the belief it went away.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Leia likes to follow us into the garage.  In the spring and summer we go out that way to get tools for working in the yard and working in the yard leads to playing with Leia.  In the winter, she runs around the garage while we get what we need from the freezer or pantry shelves and then bounces back up the stairs into the house all happy she got to do something and was helpful to us.

She followed me out to the garage one day and instead of bouncing around she went straight for the pantry shelves and started sniffing around.  I moved a pet food bag on the bottom shelf (which is about 3/4-inch from the floor) and swore I heard a squeak.  I took her inside, grabbed Robert, a flashlight and Simba (for mouse retrieval) and went after the mouse I thought was there.

We found mouse poos and found a hole in the bottom of the cat food bag - but no mouse.  Simba didn't spend much time sniffing around so we figured the mouse got away or was long gone.  We opened the food bag, determined it wasn't contaminated and sealed it up - the pet food now goes on the top pantry shelf.  We did find an area behind the furnace that is a small hole that could lead to the crawl space under the house and that could be an entry point for a mouse, so we went and got a few mouse traps and set them around the garage.

The mouse traps are still out there, unused and untriggered in the slightest - just waiting for any mice to return.

It's been a bit over a month now since our last mouse-related incident, and so hopefully it truly is the end of the story. . .

The Great Mouse Saga, Part 2

Read Part 1.

We left off with Robert deciding to take a look under the house for mouse entry points into the house and/or heater vent system.

But before he could get around to it, Simba had a little adventure.

I was working away one morning, tapping along on the keyboard. Simba kept annoying me by trying to get behind my desk and sort of in a corner next to the desk.  I thought he brought a snake in the house again (though it was late in the year for snakes) so I went to do a catch and release.

It was a mouse.

I squeaked as it ran at me.  I was not afraid of the mouse; it startled me. And the kids came running to see what the commotion was about.  My squeaking over a mouse amused them.

Simba grabbed it and started to wander off down the hall.  Adam and I tried to get Simba outside with his prize because I didn't want a half-eaten mouse hidden somewhere in the house for me to play "find the stink" with.  He then dropped the mouse on his way outside and Leia dove after it as it ran under the bench in the entry way.  The mouse ran away from her and was quickly caught by Simba and almost as quickly dropped again.  Mousie then ran under the couch.  I lifted the couch and the cat caught it again and ran to the kitchen and dropped it by the pet food dishes.  The mouse stopped moving so the cat lost the last bit of interest he had and was starting to walk away. I thought the mouse was dead and I grabbed a paper towel (to minimize germs) and I went to pick the mouse up to toss.

It was not dead and moved when I touched it.  I squeaked again.  Again, from surprise.  But again, this amused my children to no end.

Mouse jumped into Yoda's food bowl and held still.  I took bowl, mouse, and cat outside and released the mouse on the porch for Simba to finally finish his meal game in peace.

Simba wandered off . . .

I thought - whatever, the damn thing is outside and I have to go back to work and left it at that.  

Robert then finally emerges from his room.  After I explained what the kids were trying to tell him all at once - with the main point of their story being "and mom squeaked!" - he checked the porch and found Simba with his paw in one of my outside shoes (that were left on the porch covered in mud from the barn) and in the toe of that shoe - the mouse.  

He humanely took care of that mouse who probably would have passed anyways being he had ran all over and been in a cat's mouth at least 4 times that morning.

To be continued . . . . 

The Great Mouse Saga, Part 1

A few months ago, Robert watched Simba lazily follow a mouse across the driveway; batting at it a few times when it stopped moving, but still allowing it to just meander away from him.  And then it went under the garage door (there is a teensy gap on one side because of the slope allowing for drainage).  Robert opened the garage door and Simba sniffed around for the mouse a little bit, but that was it.  The mouse was in the house/garage.  We figured since there wasn’t a way for it to get inside or have access to food to welcome it to the garage, it would probably leave on its own in search for food.

A few weeks go by and we heard some scratching in the heater vents and concluded the mouse found a way under the house and/or into the vents and possibly invited a friend or two (but not sure how they got there).  

After getting Leia to stop barking at the vent (which was only because the mouse stopped scratching) we ignored it.  A few days or a week pass and Simba becomes REALLY interested in the vent in the laundry room.  He kept sneaking into the room and I'd have to shoo him out to close the door - rinse and repeat the entire day (I was doing laundry). We didn't hear or see anything and thought nothing of it.... until Leia started barking at the vent.  I opened the vent up and found some fluff and debris (nest-like material possibly) and a couple mouse poos. We cleaned that vent out, checked a few more (and found dirt and dust but no mouse evidence) and then gave up for the night.  (And dude do we have to remember to open up the intake vent more often - there was so much dust and pet hair in there!)

Still – how in the world did they get into the heater system? 

Robert declared he would go under the house to make sure there was no access for them there because we couldn't figure out how else they were getting in there.  

To be continued. . . .

Hello October, hello fall

274/365 - Timmy curled up on the dog cat bed.



275/365 - Rain and clouds on one side (left) and sunny clear skies on the other (right).



276/365 - Hydrangea in it's fall colors.


277/365 - Fall wreath is up. Makes me smile.


278/365 - Final green bean harvest, blanched and ready for the freezer.  I went out to harvest them since there was a warning of possible frost and ended up clearing out the garden.  I'll get my garlic planted soon and then plan for the spring.