If it's not one thing, it's something else....

Day before yesterday Carl discovered one of the cats peed on the waterproof pads in the spare bedroom.  We've been closing the bedroom door before bedtime but he forgot.  We still can't figure out if it's Sadie being trapped in the spare bedroom by Sassy or Sassy just angry about something.  This morning I found pee in my bathroom, and we still don't know which cat it is.  Sassy is still following Sadie around everywhere she goes while the two of them are awake.  Sadie is still growling at Sassy most of the time but they have moments when they're together and tranquil.  I tried to move Sadie's food next to Sassy's but Sadie wouldn't touch it until I moved it back into the living room.  All is quiet now, I suspect the girls are napping.  They seem to be really active first thing in the morning after eating and then again after supper.  Sometimes during the night I hear them running through the house.  The two of them together sound like a herd of elephants, especially when they're upstairs and we're downstairs.  We haven't made up our minds yet about Labor Day - whether to leave them both here or take Sassy with us and leave Sadie.  Who knew that having two cats was going to be ten times more trouble than one?

Sadie is a tattletale....

This morning both cats were in the family room playing with the flannel strip on a stick.  Sassy was on one side of the scratching post playing with the end of the strip and Sadie was laying on the other side playing with the strip where it came out of the acrylic stick.  Sometimes I think Sadie screams just to hear herself scream, like a little kid yelling, "She's touching me".  She screams when she gets a claw stuck, she screams when you pick her up, she screams when the flannel strip stick hits her on the butt.  Perhaps we're just doomed to live with a screamer.

This morning I went to fill up the feeders in the front yard (Sadie's source of entertainment - Sassy's source is Sadie) and Sadie tried to get outside when I opened the front door.  She hasn't tried that before so we'll have to keep an eye on her.  She's much more comfortable roaming the house every day.  She had a bitch-slapping session with Sassy yesterday through the railing.  Sadie was in the family room on the back of the couch trying to jump up through the railing into the dining room and Sassy was in the dining room with her head stuck through the railing and they slapped at each other a bit with Sadie hissing.  No blood or injuries and it was over in a heartbeat, too quickly for us to grab the water bottle.  It's funny when Sadie finds a place to hide for a nap and Sassy can't find her; Sassy is all over the house looking like she can't bear to have Sadie out of her sight even for a moment.  I can't think what Sassy thinks Sadie is going to do.

I'm in the process of cleaning out my craft room and getting ready for the furniture we plan to move in as soon as it's primed and painted.  By organizing, throwing away junk and adding to my donate/garage sale pile, it will be so much easier when we actually get ready to move the furniture in.  Sadie has been up to visit many times getting into the boxes I'm trying to empty.  They were napping until I opened the door to the patio and the front door.  Sadie cannot resist an open door and it woke her up from a dead sleep - which woke Sassy up.  It's nice to have the house opened, the weather for the last few days has been wonderful.  The air smells like northern Wisconsin in the early fall and it's been chilly at night and the breeze pushes out the lace curtains in the bedrooms.  It's a great time to be doing major cleaning so I'd best get back to it.

It's raining, it's pouring

the old man is snoring.  I think I'm dating myself here.  We used to jump rope or hand slap to this tune when I was a kid.  Seriously, it started raining here early this morning and it's that nice gentle steady rain that looks like it might be around for a while, the kind of rain the farmers love and so do we.  The trees have been a bit droopy and the plants we've transplanted have been a little stressed even though we water them daily; sometimes twice a day.  I did manage to get out this morning and weed the new raised bed.  I found some chocolate mint in the new bed (that bed is now doomed) but I think I got most of it out.  The bees love chocolate mint, me....not so much.  Anything in the mint family will take over your garden as soon as you plant it and turn your back.  You might as well just call a bulldozer to dig up the whole bed and haul it away.  I've been fighting the mint since it came in attached to a plant someone gave me (he doesn't get Christmas cards from me anymore, you betcha); despite my best efforts, it has taken over the back flower bed.  It's one of the reasons we created the new raised bed and started moving plants into it.  I'm keeping an eagle's eye out for the mint and will jump on it like a duck on a june bug as soon as I see it.  Hopefully, it won't get away from me again.

It's raining, it's pouring

the old man is snoring.  I think I'm dating myself here.  We used to jump rope or hand slap to this tune when I was a kid.  Seriously, it started raining here early this morning and it's that nice gentle steady rain that looks like it might be around for a while, the kind of rain the farmers love and so do we.  The trees have been a bit droopy and the plants we've transplanted have been a little stressed even though we water them daily; sometimes twice a day.  I did manage to get out this morning and weed the new raised bed.  I found some chocolate mint in the new bed (that bed is now doomed) but I think I got most of it out.  The bees love chocolate mint, me....not so much.  Anything in the mint family will take over your garden as soon as you plant it and turn your back.  You might as well just call a bulldozer to dig up the whole bed and haul it away.  I've been fighting the mint since it came in attached to a plant someone gave me (he doesn't get Christmas cards from me anymore, you betcha); despite my best efforts, it has taken over the back flower bed.  It's one of the reasons we created the new raised bed and started moving plants into it.  I'm keeping an eagle's eye out for the mint and will jump on it like a duck on a june bug as soon as I see it.  Hopefully, it won't get away from me again.

I am a huge fan of Heather Telford. She's on the Penny Black Design Team and has probably inspired me to buy more stamps than any other person.  She reminds me why I started stamping in the first place - that pure joy of creating something with just ink and stamps - no layers, wire, flowers, tags or other embellishments.  I love the clean and simple look of her cards and totally steal most of her designs and use her tutorials to create cards (and buy Penny Stamps because she uses them).  This card doesn't have the same stamps but the design is completely lifted from her.

I never use my Tim Holtz stapler but pulled it out for this card.  The fern stamp is from Hero Arts, the butterflies are Martha Stewart, and the sentiment is from PTI.  It's simple, elegant, quick and gorgeous if I say so myself.

Trouble in paradise

A couple of days ago I discovered some liquid on the floor in the kitchen.  At the time, I had no idea what it was, I just cleaned it up (I have a really messy husband.)  Yesterday there was another puddle in the hallway by the deacon's bench and this time I identified it as cat pee.  This morning there was poop on the spare bed (covered with 3 pee pads, thank you very much).  An assumption on my part is Sassy not allowing Sadie into the cat box again, trapping her in the bedroom.  Too much poop for Sassy, she poops and pees small - Sadie makes much bigger messes.  We washed the pads and closed the spare bedroom door closing off Sadie's favorite window.  Carl is off buying more Ace Hardware plastic spray bottles, the last two he purchased require several pumps to get water to spray, Sassy hears the pumps and runs before the water ever comes out of the bottle.  The Ace bottle however, has instant water which gets her every time she runs at Sadie and we're watching.  So, we're going to place them all over the house, close off the bedrooms and keep at Sassy until she stops tormenting Sadie.  She's turning Sadie into a neurotic cat and we just don't know what to do about it anymore.  I hate the idea of locking one of them up.  If they don't interact, they will never learn to get along.  I don't care if they never become friends as long as they quit using the house as a big litter box.  Sassy now uses the litter box in the living room the most so we can't lock Sadie up there and deny the box to Sassy.  We tried that on vacation and Sassy pooped everywhere.  Sadie never uses the bathroom litter box so I'm afraid to lock Sassy up in the living room and let Sadie poop where she wants to.  Other than spending every second with them, I've run out of ideas.  The experts say to distract the cats when it looks like there might be a problem, but I truly believe you could blow an air horn in Sassy's ear and she won't even hear it - when she's fixated on Sadie, she cannot be distracted in any way except for the water spray.  So, from now on, she's going to be one wet cat.

How I roll....again....

There are lots of things I do to keep myself organized.  I have a Mead 9.5" x 6" notebook that I list every card I make and the recipe along with a unique number (I'm now at 2417 - two thousand, four hundred and seventeen cards I've made).  When I take a picture of this card, I name it 2417.  When I add this photo to my blog, the name changes to 2417-blog.  At a glance of this directory I know which cards have made an appearance on my blog and which haven't.  I can also do a search of all cards that have made it to my blog and, of course, I can see the picture of each card.  I am religious about my notebook, it stays on my desk all the time and each supply that makes it to a finished card goes into the notebook, along with its number.  I use it as a reference almost everyday.  When I package the card, I use a circle sticker on the back of the cellophane for the price and also include the number of the card.  I write that number down when I sell a card and update my notebook with a small stamp next to the recipe for that card.  Some cards I've recreated many times because they are big sellers and each time I sell another one, I re-stamp the notebook.  It's easy to tell which cards are my best sellers.  Sometimes I take multiple photos of one card, perhaps to show a detail.  In that case, those picture's names have a letter behind them, starting with a, 2417a.   

According to my notebook, these are Peachy Keen stamps from the  April 2013 release, the foliage is Spellbinders Foliage 2, the frame is Spellbinders Opulent Ovals (gorgeous, right?), the bee's face is PK-1200 Moodies, the sentiment is PTI Honey Bee Sentiments and the copics I used are Y38, Y35, B0000 and C9.  This card was totally stolen from somewhere.  I made a sketch of it when I saw it but neglectfully didn't get the maker's name.  If it's yours, give a shout-out so I can credit you.

That great pond in the sky...

We spent the morning working on the pond.  A low side in the top pond has allowed lots of water to escape forcing us to add water daily.  Carl got into the upper pond and pulled all the rocks off of the liner, added soil under the liner, remortared the rocks and put them all back.  Now we just have to wait for the mortor to dry and we can turn on the waterfall again.  Hard telling how many tadpoles have gone to that great pond in the sky because they got stepped on.

Back in the saddle again....

We spent the morning working on the pond.  A low side in the top pond has allowed lots of water to escape forcing us to add water daily.  Carl got into the upper pond and pulled all the rocks off of the liner, added soil under the liner, remortored the rocks and put them all back.  Now we just have to wait for the mortor to dry and we can turn on the waterfall again.  Hard telling how many tadpoles have gone to that great pond in the sky because they got stepped on.

Since it's been so hot, I've been staying in the air conditioning, watching Netflix and making cards for a craft sale in August.  Here are some I've finished:

This is a CAS card - stamped with Saturated Canary's Genie and Kraftin' Kimmie's sentiment.  The image was done in chalk - I'm doing this card again with Copics.

This is Saturated Canary's Tilly with again, a Kraftin' Kimmie sentiment.  Also done in chalks, Pebbles Inc., and pastel pencils.  Lots of Spica and Sakura pens.  Again, I want to do this with Copics.

This is a Penny Black stamp with a My Favorite Things sentiment, also done in chalk.  The dots in the flower have been dotted with a Spica clear pen so there's some sparkle.

And, finally, this is the card I made for my husband for our 9th anniversary Sunday.  Memory Box Deer Trio and Tall Birch.  It was an easy card but so right for my hubby.  And there you  have my last couple of days.  I'm on a roll now so will have lots of new stuff in the next week.

Sadie explores...

We adopted Sadie on April 30th.  In all that time she's only been in the Family room a couple of times and I carried her there twice.  She hated it and couldn't wait to run back to the safety of her window in the living room.  We figured she'd live her entire life in the top two floors of our home.  Yesterday I had to do laundry while Carl went to help the kids build a pergola on their new patio.  I usually watch TV in the family room because the laundry room is right behind the big screen TV so it's easy to hear the washer and dryer.  I was washing my second load with Sassy on my footstool and when she perked up, I looked to see what caught her attention.  Son of a gun - Sadie was coming down the stairs into the family room.  I actually picked Sassy up and held her while Sadie explored the laundry room, hallway and spare bedroom.  She discovered the perch on the sewing machine case that allows her to get to the spare bedroom window and the double bed.  When I finally let Sassy down, she ran into the spare bedroom and eventually Sadie headed back to her window.  But an hour later, she was back down in the family room.  And later that evening when Carl and I were watching TV, she hung out in the dining room looking through the spindles into the family room.  The one time Sassy charged her while Sadie was on the steps, Sadie batted her in the head and Sassy turned and ran.

There was another chasing this morning with a little noise from Sadie.  Sadie jumped up on the cat tree and Sassy stood up on her hind legs and batted at Sadie - hmmmm, new game?  Sometimes we can't tell if Sassy is playing or aggressive.  This morning looked like playing to me, but what do I know?   We should receive the new cat bed for the bay window this morning.  It will be interesting to see if they ever share it.

On another note, day before yesterday Sadie was sleeping in the window in my craft room when I took the nail clippers up and managed to actually cut some of her nails.  I still have at least half to finish but there's hope that someday I'll be able to do that without her ripping me up.

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Feral cats

We have been dealing with a grey and white stray that's been hanging around our house.  Every time it makes an appearance, our cats go crazy.  As a result, the window screens on each side of the bay window have been shredded, there are large holes in both of them.  Since it's air conditioner weather, we haven't bothered to replace them but they're on my husband's list.  We have been operating on the assumption that the stray cat jumped on the screen and tore it up - my husband actually saw it hanging from the screen once.  So, we have some new evidence today.

Sadie was in the window intent on watching something outside this morning.  Squirrel, chipmunk, bird?  Nope, it was a buff and tan scraggly cat with two grey and white kittens.  The kittens looked over two months old and were playing in the flower bed along our sidewalk while she took a nap under the maple tree.  Our cats watched but were quiet.  I felt sorry for her, she's very thin while the kittens look really healthy so I'm guessing her health has suffered for them.  I opened a large can of Sadie's stinky food and took it outside.  She ran to the edge of the yard but watched me put down the food.  I can't see the food from inside the house so I don't know if she ate or not.

About an hour later the grey and white cat (we know now is a male - I've seen his off spring) showed up in the yard and Sadie went absolutely hysterical.  If she could have gone through the window after this cat, she would have.  She was screeching and clawing the window - scared me.  It's more than possible that Sadie ruined the screen and makes me determined to try to trap the cats.  We'll never have any peace until we do.  One the up side, Sadie and Sassy sat side by side, almost touching, to watch the female and two kittens in the front yard.  No aggression at all.  After the male left the yard, though, I could not calm Sadie down.  You take your life in your hands trying to touch Sadie when she's in that state, she could rip your arm off.  I still have scabs from the last time I tried.  Sassy meanwhile, just watched.

I've had an old afghan in the bay window for Sadie to lay on but today ordered a real, fluffy bed for her.  She actually likes our feather filled duvet in the bedroom, she sleeps on it as often as we let her in the bedroom.  Sassy hates our bed, so I'm sure she won't be interested in using it but I bought the big one in the hopes that someday they will be friendly enough to sleep together.  And if they don't, Sadie has a king-sized bed all for herself.

Sadie does tricks

I caught both the girls in the bay window today.  Sadie was swishing her tail which is a sign of agitation for her but Sassy was cool and calm.  The stray cat was seen in the front yard this morning and Sadie practically pointed she was so excited.  I spent an hour playing with them in the living room and I swear Sadie thinks she's a dog.  We have a tunnel we purchased for our last cat.  Sassy hated it so we put it away.  While scrounging for garage sale stuff we found it and set it up for Sadie.  Sadie adores it.  She will run to the end by the ring and wait, tail swishing.  If I dangle the green fuzzy thing at the other end, Sadie will run through the tunnel and pounce on it.  And then go around to start all over again.  We must have done that twenty times before she got bored this morning.  To see if it was a fluke, I tried it again after lunch today and the same thing happened.  Bring on the fire rings, I may take this act on the road.

Sassy's latest trick is to run up Carl's recliner to the top of the back and make it rock wildly.  She rides it until it stops and then she does it again.  They continue to make us laugh which is really why we adopt them, right?

Ads on Facebook -- not acceptable...

Do the new ads in your news feed on Facebook drive you nuts?  I don't mind the ads on the right side, they're easy to ignore, but the ones in between Aunt Bessie's new recipe and Cora's digital coloring, for items I don't care about and will never buy, is unacceptable.  So, I've started a campaign.  This morning this ad popped up:

If you want to show your displeasure at having to look at something like this, place your cursor on the name (in this case contractors.com), do not click, just hover.  The window above will open, click on 'message' and tell them how you feel.  I usually say something like this:
 

STOP YOUR "SUGGESTED POSTS" ON OUR NEWSFEEDS!
YOU ARE POLLUTING THE FACEBOOK EXPERIENCE!
I MAKE IT A RULE TO NEVER BUY ANYTHING FROM SPAMMERS.

Advertisers are catching on and some have disabled the message button.  In those cases, I actually go to their Facebook page and post.  If everyone who uses Facebook does this, advertisers and maybe even Facebook would get this message.  Facebook is allowing this so perhaps we can get them to discontinue it.  As long as we stay complacent, they'll keep doing it, and the ads will increase and I will cancel my Facebook account.

A Sadie breakthrough

Sadie is notorious for hating to be picked up.  She growls low in her throat and starts to struggle almost immediately.  I have slowly been trying to show her that being picked up isn't always a bad thing so when she comes to my craft room and winds around my ankles, I pick her up for a few minutes and place her on my lap.  I rub her ears and under her throat and when she growls, I put her down.  This morning she not only laid on my lap for a full ten minutes, she purred while she did.  It's only the fourth time I've felt her purring but the last two times have been yesterday and today.  She's also more comfortable running around the house without worrying about Sassy (who still chases her once in a while).  Carl got up first this morning, fed the girls and started coffee.  Sadie came up to bed to wake me up.  Ten and a half pounds doesn't sound like much until it's walking on you.  Needless to say, I got up.  When Sadie went back to her food dish, Sassy jumped up in the bay window and laid down right above Sadie's head so she could stare at her.  Sadie looked up, hissed once, and went back to eating.  A month ago that would have sent Sadie running upstairs, now she's standing her ground which is a breakthrough I've been waiting for.

We have heavy equipment scheduled today for the bushes.  Since Carl hurt his back we have not been working in the garden.  We still have as much left to do as we've done already but it may have to wait until early fall.  It's getting too hot now to transplant without affecting the health of the plants and having to water every five minutes.

Mary, Mary quite contrary....

Another day of gardening yesterday.  We're down to renovating two beds now.  Saturday we're having a bunch of bushes removed, the area amended and planting the rest of the plants we wish to keep.  The rest will be opened up to friends and relatives.  We have more plants than we know what to do with so some will just have to find new homes.

This is the area we refer to laughingly as "The Courtyard" now surrounded with a fence to keep the deer out.  I have three types of tomatoes, cucumbers, and green peppers as well as some plants the hummingbirds like.

The is the fence around The Courtyard and a view of the pond garden which is going to be completely redone this month.

This is the same fence around the old raised bed - we're transferring all the plants the deer love into this bed so I don't have to spray anymore.   The beauty of this fence is each section can be removed by pulling out the stake which holds it to its neighbor.  The stake fits into a drilled hole to hold it into place.  It's the loveliest and most practical fence I've ever had and I dearly love my husband for this solution.

The old deck canopy frame - we've planted a honeysuckle on the back left leg.

The new raised bed.  We're transferring all the plants from the bed behind this one into this one.  We're also planting some of the pond bed plants in this one.  It's high enough that I can sit on the edge to weed, a great idea for these tired old bones.

The deck on the shed.  It's covered with mulch bags now but will soon be cleaned off and a great place to sit late in the day - the sun sets behind the shed.  The trumpet vine on the right has been trained as a tree.

 The bee balm patch.

 Butterfly weed.

 Powwow white coneflowers

Tomatoes are getting big - hope they ripen soon, I do love me a good vine-ripened tomato.

Purr, purr, purr

Things are still quiet here.  Sassy is not quite as vocal as she was on Sunday and Monday.  Sadie was in my craft room window when I came to check e-mail this morning and when I scratched her head she started purring.  Only about the third time since we've had her.  I finally left the gate to our bedroom down last night and no disturbances.  There is still a big division of the house.  Sadie reigns in the top floor, and the main floor.  Sassy owns the bottom two floors.  We're hoping that Sadie will soon venture to other parts of the house.  Sassy no longer spends most of her day watching Sadie and she's back to playing with her 'ghosts'.  One thing puzzles me.  While we were gone Sassy pooped on my chair and the bedspread but since we've been back there have been no messes and she's been using Sadie's box almost all the time.  I wonder if locking up Sadie so Sassy couldn't get to her litter box caused the problem and not separation anxiety.  I guess we'll never know.  Sadie let me pick her up for about five minutes when we first got home but is back to hating to be picked up.  I'm working on that slowly - I pick her up until she demonstrates that she really wants down and then I put her down.  I'm working on showing her that nothing happens when I pick her up except her ears get rubbed and I want her to be confident she can get down anytime she says.

On another note:  our bluebirds fledged four chicks on Sunday.  One egg refused to hatch.  I cleaned out the box, scrubbed it down, and opened it up to dry.  The bluebirds are back today to check out the box so I guess the fledglings are on their own and mom and dad are ready for the second clutch.  I will be home to see the whole process as their next brood will be gone before we leave in September.

Gardening work continues.  We have some more plants to transplant today and the guys come tomorrow to yank out the bushes in the front of the house so we can create our last flower bed and move plants into it.  Work in the gardens should be finished by the end of July (crossed fingers) and I can get back to other pursuits such as spending more time with the girls.

Home sweet home....

We arrived home on Saturday evening in time to feed the girls dinner.  After cleaning out the car, we released Sassy.  To date there have been no messes from Sassy, but no fool me, I have covered my chair and after extensive cleaning, covered the expensive spread in the spare room.  We have been working in the garden, we're renovating flower beds and transplanting a gazillion plants while the weather holds.  Sassy is at the family room window crying some of the time.  I've even stopped work to come in and convince her we are home and not intending to leave again (until September).  There have been the occasional chases, some hissing (on Sadie's part) but things have been relatively calm.  We did block off our bedroom.  Our white duvet was completely covered in Sadie's black fur, I guess our bed was her bed of choice while we were gone.  The first night we were back, Sassy chased Sadie into our bedroom, up on our bed, over both of us with claws in hubby's neck and back down into the living room.  Not a good way to wake up, I thought Carl was going to have a heart attack.  So, no cats in the bedroom.  Sadie is now next to my computer on the perch in the window grooming after having finished her breakfast.  I'm not sure where Sassy is but I have to get back to the gardening.  I took a picture of both of them in the bay window this morning and I was thinking, why can't we all just get along?  After this picture, Sassy walked to the right and laid down.  Let's hope the quiet continues.

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