magnusfide
On the Road Again and Again and Again...
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Joined: 10/30/2009
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Is frost weed also called milkweed?
"The only time you should fear cast iron is if your wife is fixin' to hit you with it."-Kent Rollins
First law of science: don't spit into the wind.
Magnus
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Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
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Joined: 10/29/2004
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Frost weed (Verbesina virginica) is in the aster family.
Frost Weed
We didn't "choose" it; it just showed up, so we're happy to host it.
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." -- Mahatma Gandhi
Czarny, black cat
Rainbow Bridge: Spotacus, Alexander the Grrreat, and so very many more
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Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
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So the Christmas cat has decided he needs to park his fuzzy keister on one of his humans all day every day. We don't know what's going on in that little kitty head, but he's pretty close to clingy right now.
With the air conditioner off and the house opened up, Spotacus can open the screen door and go in/out at will. Instead, he sees a human sit down and makes a beeline for that lap. 17 pounds of cat on lap makes for some steamy humans. Sigh.
Poor guy's skin crawling is back, even though the humidity is right at 50%. He has never liked being combed, even though it helps, so I sneak up on him when he's asleep and comb out as much with the Furminator as possible before he gets seriously upset. It's the only way to keep him from pulling out the growing fur at present.
I can only surmise he's either getting bit by teeny little insects, or he has some kind of allergy.
I have my doubts on the insect bites, because with the Advantage Multi, nothing survives biting him, so it might not have time to inject whatever toxin it may have. Now if he's being stung, that's a different story, but we don't really have much in the way of stinging insects around the house and garden. Yellow jackets have tried to build nests over the years, but they die immediately upon discovery (best friend is highly allergic). Our bees are pretty placid and tend to ignore him, just as he ignores them.
We feed him a grain free cat food. The only grains he gets are in his treats, which we don't overfeed. Otherwise, he's a pretty healthy cat.
He has a new habit. Instead of using his litter box, he poops outside. On the deteriorating asphalt driveway. Yep, anywhere we see a little pile of gravel, there's likely to be some Spotacus marking there. On the upside, since he started doing it, we don't see fox scat on the driveway anymore.
Just on the pool deck...
Ah, well, break's over. Back to the domestic stuff.
Later, y'all.
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magnusfide
On the Road Again and Again and Again...
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Joined: 10/30/2009
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Glad to know that Spotacus has found a way to defend the home from foxes.
He might be missing Alexander. We've had both cats and dogs who mourned their buddies for years even.
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Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
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Woke up at 0530 and it was 32 degrees. That was not forecast. Thanks to standard 2x6 wall studs and boatloads of insulation, we still don't need to turn on the heater. Yesterday morning was 40, and WLToo built a fire. It's colder this morning, but neither of us are motivated to go get more wood. Besides, the high today will be warmer than yesterday, so by the time one of us does get motivated, it will probably be warm enough to not need a fire. Gonna warm back up to normal temps the next week or so.
But Spotacus hasn't been real happy. He went in and out numerous times yesterday morning before deciding it was much too cold. Today he only went out twice and is firmly planted on WLToo's lap.
I finally figured out something. Spotacus only sleeps in the bed with us when the air conditioner is on, or when it gets pretty nippy because we haven't turned on the heater. Otherwise, he sleeps in my chair or on one of the island stools. I guess, now that he's over 8 years old and officially a geriatric cat, that he feels the cool more than he did previously.
This weather will probably affect the garden, not that there's much going on. The garlic is going gangbusters, but the rest didn't look so good before the chill.
We heard what WLToo thought was fireworks a couple nights ago. The sound was more rifle shots then fireworks to my ears. I do hope that lovely buck survives to sire some equally lovely fawns.
I bought some woodworking plans so we can build a Murphy bed in the piano room (actually our third bedroom). I measured the area, and a queen-size bed will fit there nicely, yet be out of the way until we need it. So that's an early winter project, before the Christmas crowd arrives.
Still no word on L'Andante's general maintenance. I know they had to order the Bilstein shocks, but they were supposed to have contacted us before ordering. I'll remind WLToo to call tomorrow. Would like to get her back in time to attend the Texas Renaissance Fair.
Well, WLToo started a fire, so I'll go make breakfast. Later, y'all.
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Dashonthedash
PA
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Joined: 06/03/2003
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Wanderlost wrote:The garlic is going gangbusters, but the rest didn't look so good before the chill.
With Halloween around the corner, at least you won't be bothered by vampires. ![[emoticon]](http://www.coastresorts.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/biggrin.gif "biggrin")
Gary Shapiro
Shadow - 7-year-old Greyhound (aka Shadow Ninja)
Hannah - 4-year-old GSD rescue (aka the Canine Tornado)
Max, Dash (GSDs), Willow, Dot, Allan, Lily (Greyhounds), and Molly(GSD Mix), at the Bridge and in my heart forever
2011 G'town 280DS Class A
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Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
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Lovely day, back to normal temps. Back to the garden.
Tall Friend is still here, so we'll finally get to take him to the Wurstfest. It begins this weekend and runs for 10 days. He leaves on Wednesday, so we'll take him Monday. WLToo and I have our Trachten, but I don't know if TF has his here or up in Maine. Whatever one wears, the food and drink are good, and the music is outstanding.
Time to get WLToo onto L'Andante's maintenance tech. Later, y'all.
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magnusfide
On the Road Again and Again and Again...
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SPRECHEN SIE FUN! Does Spotacus have his own pair of lederhosen?
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Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
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magnusfide wrote:SPRECHEN SIE FUN! Does Spotacus have his own pair of lederhosen?
That would be funny, but no. He's not at all interested in being dressed.
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Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
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Spotacus got me up at 0600. Did he want outside? No, he wanted to play. He charged in and out of his tunnel, making it very clear he wanted me to get out the wand and dangle it in one end of the tunnel. Now he's asleep in my lap and I'm dragging...
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