It has been a couple of weeks since I last posted, so here are a few of the things that have happened in the interim.
My mother is in a nursing care home at the moment; it remains to be seen if this is a temporary or permanent situation. Mom appears to be OK with this; the food is good, they make her exercise, and she can talk to the other residents for some social interaction. We are playing this on an almost day-by-day basis to see what happens next.
We let Rambler, the feral mom cat, go today. She had her spay operation this last week and it was time to return her to the outside world. I’m sure that, just like other cats in the same situation, Rambler will stay around the house where there is food, water, and shelter (the garage) available.
Rambler’s kittens had their first set of shots and will soon get a larger run in the cat room. They are socializing well and are very cute at this age. Kitten spay/neuter operations are scheduled for mid-August; after a few post-op days at home recuperating, they will be off to the shelter for adoption.
In my last post I mentioned another feral kitten, Devon, that we had captured due to injury and taken to the vet. Although hoping for the best, considering her injuries (leg lacerations), Devon began to fail and had to be euthanized. Can’t win them all, but I felt bad for this particular kitten. At least her last days were spent in clean and caring surroundings.
I did get to The Lot last weekend and managed to get in more clean-up work. I am starting to work in the higher areas of The Lot which has caused me to change tactics a bit. For example, there is less room for the trailer so I have started using the 2-wheel cart to haul logs. A set of side stakes makes this possible:
Hauling logs on the 2-wheel cart
The second load of wood has been cut and is waiting for our friend Kathy to swing by with her truck and take the wood home. This was a good-size load, about 2/3 of a cord by my measurements.
Second batch of firewood for 2017
Another three loads like this and Kathy will have all the wood she needs to get through the winter. Most likely we will bring home the bulk of the wood in September when the temps drop a little.
Walking around The Lot, I came on this stump. Patterns in wood always attract me so I took a photo of it.
Pine stump #1
We have had a spell of rainy weather; the moisture is greatly appreciated and the lawns have “greened up” again. Temperatures have dropped into the upper 80’s and lower 90’s, better than the 100+ days we had been experiencing. It is a welcome change. (Except for the humidity.)
This weekend is a stay-at-home as thunderstorms are forecast for The Lot and there are other chores and projects to work on around the house. I need one of these weekends from time to time; driving 400 miles every weekend to get to The Lot and back plus the normal work schedule requires a weekend of down time now and then.
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Penny’s Worth:
I hate the high desert in July/August.
Happy Trails.
Did you ever make sides for your chipper cart yet?
Craig:
No, Pam thought just shoveling chips into the cart would be OK. We have down some additional chipping on Homestead Acre and those chips are in a pile on the ground. Next time we go up we will load them and spread on footpaths just as we did when you were out here. The cart with stake sides also works to haul brush to the chipper to we are getting more service out of it this way.