magnusfide
On the Road Again and Again and Again...
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Joined: 10/30/2009
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Ah yes. HCS, aka Homicidal Cat Syndrome. We've had several who would stalk and successfully attack interlopers from Dobies, Rotties, GS, and bobcats. ![[emoticon]](http://www.coastresorts.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/cool.gif "cool")
"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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One more day and we'll be home. Then we can deal with a green pool and a rubble pile that used to be the mailbox. Nothing like homeownership...
My back decided it was tired of driving/riding down the road. WLToo put his TENS unit on me, and 30 minutes later I was limp as a wet rag and in no pain at all. I very much like the TENS brand he bought over the one I use on my leg. But they both get the job done. Ahhhhh.
Alex scared me today. We'd been driving for several hours and he lay stretched out full length in his cage. Didn't move, even when we stopped and walked past him several times. Only the occasional ear twitch convinced me that he was simply deeply asleep. He woke up as soon as he heard the gooshy food dishes come out. Then after lunch, he slept like a rock all the way to where we are now. He's asleep again, up against WLToo's side.
Spotacus refused to come out from behind the sofa for a good long while after we stopped for the day. WLToo had to shine a flashlight on him while I clinked the food dishes. He joined me on the bed while the TENS unit relaxed my back muscles, then shared more quality kitty time until just a bit ago. He's looking out the front windows at the interstate traffic.
I think we are all tired and ready to be back in the S&B. Great trip, but we are tired.
In fact, I'm falling asleep just sitting here.
Later, y'all.
"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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magnusfide
On the Road Again and Again and Again...
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Joined: 10/30/2009
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We sympathize: It's fun going and it's great getting home. Funny how that works.![[emoticon]](http://www.coastresorts.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/awink.gif "awink")
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Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
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Joined: 10/29/2004
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Made it home. Trip was mostly uneventful, except that L'Andante's engine would lurch on uphill runs occasionally. WLToo thinks it's bad gas. Her repair list is not too extensive, but it does require a visit to the Workhorse repair facility in San Antonio.
After WLToo parked L'Andante, he let Spotacus out and we didn't see him again for about an hour. He went on patrol. Alex refused to get out of L'Andante; he thought that since we'd stopped for the night, it was dinnertime. We finally carried him out and then he realized where he was.
Leoghaire, Gimpy, and two other does came running when they saw us, so I added more corn than usual to the dog dish. Eventually, all four got some corn and may have figured out that we won't harm them at all.
Now that fox -- well, Spotacus ran him off. I'm sure WLToo still intends to shoot it, as it left piles all around the house while we were gone. But not tonight; tonight was the Spotacus show. He's still on watch by the pool right now.
All the humans are too pooped to do much but go to bed early. Unloading L'Andante can wait until tomorrow.
Later, y'all.
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CA POPPY
Santa Clarita, CA, USA
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Joined: 07/07/2003
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Funny Spot! It must be a mind game with Mr Fox as you'd think that fox could take him, if he wanted to.
Isn't home and your own comfy beddy-bye the best thing after a trip?
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Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
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CA POPPY wrote:Funny Spot! It must be a mind game with Mr Fox as you'd think that fox could take him, if he wanted to.
Isn't home and your own comfy beddy-bye the best thing after a trip?
Actually, Spotacus is considerably larger than the fox. But I'd rather they not tangle at all.
It was lovely sleeping in a nice king bed, where I wasn't crowded or slept upon. Slept great until 0330, when Spot started clawing at the bedroom sliding door. He'd seen something outside and wanted to go after it. I convinced him he wanted to go back to bed instead. Got a full 8 hours, but we're all still a bit ragged, so the unloading is going slowly.
Meanwhile, WLToo is working on how he'll express his complete disgust with the pool guy. He was supposed to come once a week. We have receipts for only twice. The algae is everywhere. So much for their motto of keeping the pool clean and ready to use at any time...
Monday I'll call the stonemason to rebuild the mailbox, leaving the negotiations between the pool guy and WLToo as to how much of that the pool guy will pay for.
Started researching seriously for a travel trailer my F-150 can pull. Went into information overload almost immediately. I guess I'll set up a spreadsheet to record the ones that have potential. We will need to have it and gotten most of the bugs out by the time we leave for Alaska, so I do need to move out smartly. What we decide on just may not be close by, requiring a trip to get it -- not looking forward to that. But I refuse to compromise. Got everything we wanted in L'Andante; same will apply in a trailer.
Time to unload some more.
Later, y'all.
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Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
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So WLToo finally got the pool whipped back into shape. Had the chlorinator and pool lights replaced, too, so all's fine on the pool front.
The pool guy paid for a new stone mailbox. Bigger than the old one and about three feet away from the old site, so it shouldn't be where anyone would back into it.
More than six coyotes started their vocalizations on both sides of our place the other night. We immediately got Spotacus inside, and haven't let him stay outside after dark since. Not taking any chances, even though the critter cam hasn't shown them coming into our property. Yet.
The blackheaded vultures were circling over us for some time the other day, looking for whatever was dead. We smelled nothing, and they moved on after circling the property thoroughly. I'm betting they smelled whatever the coyotes left.
Last week, the fox pooped inside Leoghaire's corn dish, which was on the edge of the north porch. That's way too close, so WLToo is watching for it. However, we've not seen fresh fox sign since the coyotes moved into the area, so they may be dispatching the fox population. Either way, WLToo intends to shoot any predator coming onto the property.
Leoghaire startled WLToo about 0300 this morning. He was up with some knee pain, and while waiting for the meds to kick in, he saw movement outside. Being the cautious type, he eased over and looked out the window. There was Leoghaire, calmly eating the leftover corn in her now thoroughly sanitized dish. With the huge full moon, it was close to daylight out there, so the does were moving about smartly.
Unfortunately, we've not seen a single buck since we got back home. I was afraid of that. The three really good-looking bucks (MDL's Han and Spooky and one other) were obviously too tempting for the local poachers. So unless some really good looking bucks survive the poachers and hunting season and move into this area, the local whitetail herd will be severely degraded in both quality and quantity. If WLToo doesn't notify TWC about the poachers, I will.
I really, really despise trophy hunters. They are so selfish that they don't care in the slightest about herd sustainment, which means each year the herd gets weaker and the fewer "trophy" bucks exist, which destroys the whole trophy hunting bidnez in the long run. If you don't need the meat, don't kill them, dirtbags! And those who need meat should be harvesting does, who are the majority population. Sheesh.
Ok, rant over, sort of. I'll probably get all het up when hunting season officially starts, because there are only about 4 properties right around us with 10 acres or more, which is the only size on which hunting is allowed. Everyone hunting on less than that are putting rounds/arrows onto someone else's property. The does spend a lot of that time inside our fence, away from the road, which makes going outside interesting, as we are familiar with the seven does who more or less live here, and not familiar with the others who shelter here for that time.
Rutting season should have begun already. Will keep a close eye for any bucks and try to photograph them. Am not at all optimistic, though.
We've begun the minor fixes to get L'Andante ready for sale/trade in. Actually found the same model of over the range microwave convection oven to replace the dead one. Considering none of the other models would fit in that spot, I was vastly relieved to find that model still available. We have a call into the local RV repair guy, who specialized in the cabin part, not chassis, for the other little glitches and maybe to rebuild the TV locations for the flat screens.
The master bath toilet clapper didn't go down and water ran until it filled the sewer line (there was also a clog down the line), then backed up and ran over the bathroom floor and into the bedroom. WLToo had left the house right after flushing, and I was on the other side of the house, so didn't know anything about it until the kitchen sink started glugging. We turned off the toilet, used the steam carpet cleaner to suck up the water, used Solu-Guard to disinfect the floors, then used the steam mop to finally clean up. Took most of an afternoon that we could have spent in the swimming pool... Now we have a call into the plumber to replace that part of the sewer line. WLToo adjusted the toilet clapper chain again, but I'll keep reminding him to do what I've always done - stand there until it's done flushing, then poke the handle to be sure the clapper closed before leaving the room. Me, I stay until the water stops running - the massive damage to our previous house from a running toilet is ever in my mind.
The garden shed has the roof underlayment on. He's now figuring out how to finish it without falling off...needs to saw some excess plywood at the peak, requiring a chalk line, and how does one do that with just him and one very tall ladder? My knee won't take the strain of ladders right now, and Tall Friend's balance is a little off since his stroke a few years back. It's slowing down finishing the shed, which is delaying working on the garden. We may not have a fall/winter garden after all. Sigh.
Pella rep is due anytime now. Getting the last doors ordered, then the house will be done with all windows and doors. Finally.
Spotacus has taken over my chair for his morning nap, while Alex is on my pillow. What is it about me and my scent that attracts cats? WLToo says I'm an animal magnet, especially cats and horses, and apparently whitetail deer, too. But I would like to sit on a chair or sleep on a pillow without cat hair just once in a while...
Best get stirring. Need to load up the next pile of donations and be ready for the door guy.
Later, y'all.
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CA POPPY
Santa Clarita, CA, USA
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Joined: 07/07/2003
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Great update! How about asking Pool Guy if he might help WLtoo with the shed roof measuring? Bet he would.
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Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
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CA Poppy, we're done with the pool guy. He was only engaged for the period we were in Wyoming, and we don't plan on using him when we make the Alaska trip. Instead, we'll have a housesitter that also knows how to maintain the pool.
Much to our shock, Leoghaire's daddy, Goggles, is very much alive. He jumped into our driveway during dinner. We'd not seen hide nor hair since autumn 2013 and so believed he was dead. But here he was, sniffing after does and staring into our windows. Beautiful 8-point buck with lovely conformation. I hope he's successful multiple times...
Several other nice looking bucks were moving about today. We did not recognize any of them, though.
Visited five RV dealers today, and found only a couple trailers that might do. Most we rejected outright because either the bedroom was claustrophobic or the toilet was so badly placed that only a very small child would fit. I'm still inclined toward a Kodiak, while WLToo is attracted to the Palomino Texas Hill Country line. But our search has only just begun...
Well, it was a long, hot day and I'm dozing in my chair, so I'll just give it up and go to sleep.
Later, y'all.
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Wanderlost
Texas Hill Country
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A coyote started howling somewhere way too close this afternoon. Don't know if it was actually within the fence line or not, but we immediately got Spotacus back inside. Later I heard a close by neighbor fire a .22 several times. Keeping Spotacus inside just to be safe.
WLToo has the critter cam pointed at a key location. So far, we've seen that danged fox come in and out, but not a coyote. Yet. However, the critter cam is not pointed the direction the howling came from.
The does didn't come up today. I guess they're all running from Goggles, who is most definitely the alpha buck around here. Leoghaire and two other does in our little meadow herd are too young; Gimpy and the others are probably not yet in estrus.
Was a lovely day, perfect for sitting on the porch and reading - so I did.
The cats are trying to sit on my hands, so I'll close and play with them.
Later, y'all.
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