Hermiting and projects!
I have time off! A few days this week, and almost all of next week, although I'm working Sundays and some Sat/Fri programs (Perseid Meteor Shower this Saturday, forecast was looking pretty rainy/cloudy but it keeps getting better every time I checked, so fingers crossed).
This is the point in the year where I am Very Done With People - other than grocery and shopping errands and texting mom, haven't talked to a single soul since Tuesday, ah, bliss! XD The plan is to catch up on as much of the backlog of life maintenance as possible and complete my raccoon enclosure/catio. The catio is something I've been researching and saving up for for several years, finally found what I wanted and got a small windfall in the form of an escrow refund check due to overpayment, w00t! With small raccoon becoming more raccoonlike every day, the need is suddenly more urgent, lol, although she's really doing very well. Being a tiny girl and slightly mobility limited keeps her out of some, but not all, trouble (the similarities between a 4-month raccoon and an almost!three-year-old niecelet are really quite striking!) This lull is pretty much my only chance in the year to have time to assemble and get it all set up before things rev up again for fall. So, the plan:
Mow Lawn - done!
Grocery - done!
Critter laundry backlog - in progress
Human laundry - in progress
Oil and Transmission fluid change for Glyph-mobile - scheduled
Dentist - scheduled
Kitties in for yearly vaccines - scheduled
Wedding outfit for co-worker's wedding in Sept - wat do people even wear, urg? One failed attempt, will try again next week.
Release litter of 14 opossum orphans - will probably do on Saturday before the Perseid program, if the weather holds.
Organize and reorganize entire house where everything's been let slide since spring, keeping small raccoon in mind - in progress. Grungy-and-slightly-broken but unclimbable bookshelf/cabinet thing from Goodwill will replace raccoon-climbable shelving next to bathroom sink. Spray-painted it turquoise with lime green doors, took a few fern leaves from the garden and spray painted over them on the doors, think it turned out pretty cute! Stacks of books everywhere, a decade of debris being sorted (road atlases! Remember when we used to use paper road atlases? XD These are from the late 90's lol), chaos and mayhem, but it'll be awesome when it's all done.
Catio - delivered, and in beginning stage of assembly. Here's the one I ordered Animal House Heavy Duty Modular Pet Kennel along with this window cat door Ideal Pet Products Aluminum Sash Window Cat Door It's a kind of scary amount of money, but I had about $600 saved up and got the unexpected $600 refund, so good timing! Dipping into some other savings to do this, so I'll have to watch the budget carefully for awhile, but I think it'll be well worth it, and hopefully I'll be able to get some wildlife donations to cover some of my other expenses this year too. Have been very pleased with both products - the cat door just popped right in the window, took about ten minutes to set up and most of that was taking it out of the packaging. The catio is looking like it'll be pretty easy to get together too, after some trial and error (no instructions, but seems pretty straightforward after I got the connectors figured out.) There were cheaper options out there, but I really like the design and flexibility and portability of this one - since it breaks down into lightweight individual 2.5'X 5' panels I can move it and rearrange it all by myself - and it comes with a very secure roof, which most dog pens don't have, or if they do it's just for shade and not cat or raccoon-proof at all. The main thing I haven't quite determined is how to connect the window cat door to the catio - may involve a lot of hardware cloth and zip ties, lol, so probably not pretty, and then it'll need ramps and perches and fun spots to hang out, and the ground slopes a little so may need to fiddle with that as well to get it all level.
So many things to work on! I should do more stuff-sorting tonight, but my feet are very tired and couch is feeling very nice. Also small raccoon is awake and I don't entirely trust her unsupervised with Gandalf - they're working things out, but there's occasionally some hostility, and Gan doesn't have the sense to back down. He's starting to realize that when he stalks raccoon he ends up banished to another room for awhile, and he's been making some better decisions lately (and also as raccoon gets a bit bigger I think he's giving more credibility to her very clear "you're too close and it's freaking me out" signals). Toast and Bones are both fine: raccoon makes huffy-growly sounds, kitties go elsewhere, all is well. Toast and raccoonlet have even made a few overtures of play-cautious-curiosity so I am hopeful they might become buddies eventually. One thing for sure, it is never, ever boring around here! :D
This entry was originally posted at http://playswithworms.dreamwidth.org/188202.html. Please comment wherever you wish.
This is the point in the year where I am Very Done With People - other than grocery and shopping errands and texting mom, haven't talked to a single soul since Tuesday, ah, bliss! XD The plan is to catch up on as much of the backlog of life maintenance as possible and complete my raccoon enclosure/catio. The catio is something I've been researching and saving up for for several years, finally found what I wanted and got a small windfall in the form of an escrow refund check due to overpayment, w00t! With small raccoon becoming more raccoonlike every day, the need is suddenly more urgent, lol, although she's really doing very well. Being a tiny girl and slightly mobility limited keeps her out of some, but not all, trouble (the similarities between a 4-month raccoon and an almost!three-year-old niecelet are really quite striking!) This lull is pretty much my only chance in the year to have time to assemble and get it all set up before things rev up again for fall. So, the plan:
Mow Lawn - done!
Grocery - done!
Critter laundry backlog - in progress
Human laundry - in progress
Oil and Transmission fluid change for Glyph-mobile - scheduled
Dentist - scheduled
Kitties in for yearly vaccines - scheduled
Wedding outfit for co-worker's wedding in Sept - wat do people even wear, urg? One failed attempt, will try again next week.
Release litter of 14 opossum orphans - will probably do on Saturday before the Perseid program, if the weather holds.
Organize and reorganize entire house where everything's been let slide since spring, keeping small raccoon in mind - in progress. Grungy-and-slightly-broken but unclimbable bookshelf/cabinet thing from Goodwill will replace raccoon-climbable shelving next to bathroom sink. Spray-painted it turquoise with lime green doors, took a few fern leaves from the garden and spray painted over them on the doors, think it turned out pretty cute! Stacks of books everywhere, a decade of debris being sorted (road atlases! Remember when we used to use paper road atlases? XD These are from the late 90's lol), chaos and mayhem, but it'll be awesome when it's all done.
Catio - delivered, and in beginning stage of assembly. Here's the one I ordered Animal House Heavy Duty Modular Pet Kennel along with this window cat door Ideal Pet Products Aluminum Sash Window Cat Door It's a kind of scary amount of money, but I had about $600 saved up and got the unexpected $600 refund, so good timing! Dipping into some other savings to do this, so I'll have to watch the budget carefully for awhile, but I think it'll be well worth it, and hopefully I'll be able to get some wildlife donations to cover some of my other expenses this year too. Have been very pleased with both products - the cat door just popped right in the window, took about ten minutes to set up and most of that was taking it out of the packaging. The catio is looking like it'll be pretty easy to get together too, after some trial and error (no instructions, but seems pretty straightforward after I got the connectors figured out.) There were cheaper options out there, but I really like the design and flexibility and portability of this one - since it breaks down into lightweight individual 2.5'X 5' panels I can move it and rearrange it all by myself - and it comes with a very secure roof, which most dog pens don't have, or if they do it's just for shade and not cat or raccoon-proof at all. The main thing I haven't quite determined is how to connect the window cat door to the catio - may involve a lot of hardware cloth and zip ties, lol, so probably not pretty, and then it'll need ramps and perches and fun spots to hang out, and the ground slopes a little so may need to fiddle with that as well to get it all level.
So many things to work on! I should do more stuff-sorting tonight, but my feet are very tired and couch is feeling very nice. Also small raccoon is awake and I don't entirely trust her unsupervised with Gandalf - they're working things out, but there's occasionally some hostility, and Gan doesn't have the sense to back down. He's starting to realize that when he stalks raccoon he ends up banished to another room for awhile, and he's been making some better decisions lately (and also as raccoon gets a bit bigger I think he's giving more credibility to her very clear "you're too close and it's freaking me out" signals). Toast and Bones are both fine: raccoon makes huffy-growly sounds, kitties go elsewhere, all is well. Toast and raccoonlet have even made a few overtures of play-cautious-curiosity so I am hopeful they might become buddies eventually. One thing for sure, it is never, ever boring around here! :D
This entry was originally posted at http://playswithworms.dreamwidth.org/188202.html. Please comment wherever you wish.