It seemed like a busy week. There were some up events and a few downs as well. The bathroom floor went in (mostly), one of our outside cats crossed the Rainbow Bridge, and I attended a major swap meet. Photos and dialog are below.
Our last outside cat, Cloudy Day, was not doing well so Pam took her to the vet on Friday. After tests indicated Cloudy’s heart was strong and there were no kidney problems, Pam decided to go ahead with surgery to remove a growth on Cloudy’s mammary gland. We brought Cloudy home and thought she was doing OK post operatively. However, the morning after surgery, Pam went to the catio to check on Cloudy, and she had passed. Cloudy was not one of Pam’s favorite cats, growing progressively grumpier as she aged. She was one of the garage cats transported from Colorado when we moved.
There now remain two “Colorado” cats, KitKat and Melody (Melly.) KitKat is part of the current indoor cat group. Melly was intended to be a house cat, but escaped into the neighborhood soon after we moved to Iowa. Melly comes daily to eat at the outside feeding station, but otherwise does not hang around.
It is a sad occasion to lose an animal; this is cat #11 buried since our arrival in Iowa. Cloudy has been ‘planted’ in the garden next to her buddy, Ink, who passed last fall. We suspect the loss of Ink’s companionship may have been a contributing factor in Cloudy’s general decline.
Moving indoors, not as much work has been done in the upstairs bathroom as I had hoped. I’m still waiting on a return visit from the plumbers to install water and drain lines. While waiting, floor tiles were installed. A small gap exists around the shower frame as I don’t know how much room the plumbers will need to do their work, but the major floor is in. Wall painting is also underway; it’s easier to tile and paint while the tub/sink/stool are not in the room.
The flooring took some time and effort, as the tiles around the edges of the floor needed to be individually cut to fit as — surprise — the room is not square. This meant a lot of trips up and down the stairs, as I was using the table saw in the garage to cut the tiles.
The next step will be repainting the baseboards and installing them around the perimeter of the room and finishing the wall painting. It would be really nice if this project would wrap up in the next week or two! All three contactors still have to make appearances for plumbing, electrical, and sheetrock work, but at this point I would be happy just to have a working sink and toilet before all the finish work is done.
The highlight of the week, for me, was a trip to a large swap meet in Le Sueur, Minnesota. I had heard of this event before as it has been going on for decades but I had never attended. This year that changed. Le Sueur is about a 3 hour drive from Elma. The weather was a little iffy and it was not very warm, but I did not get rained on, plus the cooler temps made walking throughout the venue more comfortable.
I will mention, at the outset, that this meet is mostly mechanical. There are not a lot of home goods on the vendor’s tables and trailers but there are some. Among the farm equipment offerings you can find a smattering of power tools, chain saws, hit-and-miss engines (A lot!) old snowmobile parts, old outboard motors, and other collectibles.
I walked for nearly 3 hours up and down the rows of vendors and did not get to them all. I did not take a lot of photos, but here are a few that I found most interesting.
I must say the event was really well organized. Porta-potties were numerous, food vendors served the crowds, and equipment was available to move large items from vendor stalls to your truck or trailer. People who attend this regularly have it down pat; they bring their golf carts to the grounds to get around or, as I found out later, you can rent one in advance. Hundreds of people were in attendance with cars filling the parking lots and lining up on the roads around the venue.
I enjoyed the visit and looking over the vendor trailers and tables. The range of stuff for sale was amazing. Some of it was, in my opinion, junk, but maybe to someone else it was a treasure. I took only pictures and did not bring anything else home.
That was the week: Some ups, some downs. At least (it appears) the Elma area is done with below-freezing nights and spring will finally make an appearance. (For those watching the news, there is no spring flooding in NE Iowa near Elma this year.)
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Penny
No good [rescue] deed goes unpunished. I tried to give Cloudy Day more months/years by going forward with an operation rather than euthanizing her; I only succeeded in putting that poor cat through pain/discomfort and ultimate death anyway. Years of rescue experience does not, unfortunately, improve my odds of success in making these life-or-death decisions. Depressing, that.
Happy Trails.
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